Battle Houses and Bulls
May I recommend something? If you’re doing a road trip, you should really check if you’re going to cross any time zones. We may have neglected that little detail when planning our trip and as a result, ended up driving for an hour longer than planned. The very clever sat nav knew about the time change and so whilst we thought we’d be driving for 4 hours, it ended up being 5 as the clocks rolled themselves back just before we crossed the border into Alabama. After we all had a little chuckle about how generally useless we were, we pulled up outside our hotel for the night, The Battle House. It stands on the site of an old military headquarters set up by Andrew Jackson during the war of 1812, hence the name.
We were all pretty hungry after our long day in the car so wasted no time getting changed and heading out in search of sustenance, which we found at The Bull on Dauphin Street.
The lovely staff found us a table and it wasn’t long before we were relaxing with a cocktail and perusing the menu.
Whilst we were deciding, the waitress brought over some bread with a whipped jalapeño butter. As a lover of anything chilli, I was pretty happy about this. Just look at it hiding away under there, ready to reveal its deliciousness.
The chef is originally from New Orléans and his wife is from Mexico and the food is a reflection of that.
Starters ranged from brisket tacos to gumbo to a take on that American classic, the wedge salad
I may have taken my eye off the ball with the photos of our mains and Thierry was already diving in before I remembered so apologies they don’t look their best.
More brisket, some shrimpies and some black bean cakes
I (the orderer of the black bean cakes) wasn’t so convinced by the mains but was told I’d just ordered badly as mum and Thierry both thoroughly enjoyed theirs. Sadly we were all too full for pudding so took ourselves back to the hotel for an early night, partly because we’d had a long day and partly because mum and I wanted to get up early and sneak to the spa before Thierry woke up.
And sneak off we did, a manicure for mum and a blow dry for me (because I’m a real sucker for a good blow dry and I figured I’d be in good hands in the south where they seriously know how to do big hair).
With one last quick look at the hotel’s beautiful ceiling, we packed up the car and headed for our final destination, New Orléans, although we may have had a little pit stop along the way. But more on that tomorrow….
Tales of a London Girl 