We just arrived in NOLA today and found this lovely article waiting on the front page of the Living Section.

Many thanks to Judy Walker for taking the time to get to know us during the March trip. We intend to live up to every word this second time around!

And we’re off for our second CulinaryCorps trip!

While we’re gone, why not treat yourself to…

An historic drink…

A slightly odd take on the classic po’boy…

And a traditional New Orleans icy treat.

We’ll be back on June 8th…until then, keep cool and stay hungry!

Can you guess the voice behind this quote?

“The whole point of going to New Orleans is to realize that you sleep when you’re dead. Eat as much as you possibly can, and then go out and eat some more. If you’re going to visit for a week, or a weekend, forget your diets, forget getting your beauty sleep, because it’s not going to happen.”

Click to find out who the NOLA sage is…

Continue…

Kiva, an on-line microfinance site, allows individuals to contribute small sums of money to entrepenuers in the developing world.  An easy-to-use search function allows you to view food-related businesses, and for as little as $25, you can support a rice farmer in Cambodia, a butcher in Ghana or a “ice cake” maker in Samoa.

To date, Kiva has collected over $6 million from 60,000 individuals, impacting the lives of entrepeneurs in dozens of developing countries.

A vital piece of the CulinaryCorps mission is to help preserve the culinary heritage of a community through equal parts service and education.  We believe food plays an instrumental role in keeping a community thriving. Kiva helps to safeguard culinary traditions directly by financially supporting the families running the food stands, market stalls and small farms that make their communities so vibrantly unique.

To watch a New York Time video on the organization, click here.  And for all those summer weddings on the horizon, sometimes it’s nice to know you have a gift option that pairs well with anything on a Crate and Barrel registry.

A huge thank-you to everyone who made it out to last night’s “Red Beans and Rice” Fundraiser at DBA. Together with our on-line fundraising drive, we have raised quite a tidy sum which will be turned into project partner donations while we’re down in New Orleans from June 1-8.

The competition was fierce but friendly and in the end, the most traditional of all the entries pulled ahead.

Congratulations LR for winning the hearts and stomachs of our discerning judges. And even more thanks for sharing your secrets with us…ham hocks, starting the day before, Esposito’s handmade sausage and of course, love. Spoken like a true New Orleanian.

Enjoy your spoils…a class at ICE, a gift set from OXO and one of the best t-shirts we’ve ever seen. And for all of you who couldn’t join us but would like to contribute, visit our on-line fundraising page by clicking the icon below.

Thanks and see you at the Second Annual Red Beans and Rice Competition next year!

A few links that are getting us pretty keyed up about our upcoming service trip in June…

New Orleans Eats collated by our friends at the Southern Foodways Alliance…

Iced Chicory Coffee in The New York Times (it tastes like chocolate, we swear)…

Chef Donald Link with his smashing new neckware. Congratulations Donald and the entire Herbsaint team!

To help launch the inaugural trip, CulinaryCorps received funding from Cyworld (an on-line social networking platform) through their Community Grant Challenge initiative.

Along with the grant, they also sent a video team to film our first day of service at the bountiful Crescent City Farmers Market. Thanks Cyworld!

To view, click HERE.