My recent trip to New Orleans, Louisiana was truly a pleasant surprise. I would love to say that I am that woman who travels on a regular basis to highly sought after, touristy states, countries and islands. And instead of saying, “but I am not” like I was planning to say, I am going to say that I am becoming that, apparently.
This trip was not at all my idea. My job insisted that I go to an educators’ conference in New Orleans, since I am a math teacher and would benefit from it. I had one day to make a decision and since I didn’t have anything significant on my calendar besides work, I decided that writing 4 days worth of sub plans so that I could explore a new city for free was a no-brainer.
Eating at Newark Airport
I currently live in New Jersey and my coworker and I flew out of Newark airport on a Saturday morning. We arrived a few hours early, which was around 8am, and I wanted to eat breakfast while waiting to board my plane. So I found a restaurant inside, Victory Grill, and ordered an omelet with bell peppers, onions, and chicken sausage along with a turmeric-ginger tea with soy milk. It was all pretty yummy and I was glad to be able to build my own meal. That’s what I usually look for on the menu when eating out.
On the Plane Down
We flew United Airways and one of the perks was free snacks on the plane. I love this because it’s a great way for me to discover new snacks.
Now, knowing myself very well as a woman with a contemplative personality and a focused gut, I decided to get ahead of the game and look over the menu that was provided in the back pocket of the seat in front of me.
I found that there were three free snacks to choose from: cream wafers (wheat- and dairy-based), pretzels (wheat-based) and chocolate crisps (quinoa-based, mmm). I was delighted to see the chocolate quinoa crisps, by the brand Undercover, and asked for those. When I received them, I looked over the ingredients list and was satisfied with what I saw: no forms of wheat, dairy, corn or potato, and only 10 grams of carbohydrates per package. Jackpot!
Inside was one big crisp and it was oh-so-tasty! So much so that I asked for another one. The flight attendants didn’t have any more on their snack cart, but miraculously (which describes most of my experiences these days), about 10 minutes later, one of the flight attendants popped up with one and brought it right over to me. I felt like a happy little passenger, snuggled in my window seat enjoying my Type O snack.
It really does require faith in miracles to get the food you need, especially on the Blood Type O Diet. At least it has for me.
Day One in New Orleans
Once my coworker and I landed in New Orleans, and checked into the Crowne Plaza Astor hotel, we had dinner downstairs at Bourbon House.
Apparently this is a pretty famous NOLA restaurant. One of the chefs, Leo, told me that Food Network came to watch him professionally shuck (open) oyster shells in record time. And The Real Housewives of Orange County must have taken a girls trip to New Orleans and recorded a segment of them around the Bourbon House bar eating oysters.
Bourbon House
The menu here did not have many options with regards to gluten-intolerance, like there was no gluten-free bread available, nor were they using gluten-free flour to fry any of their many fried foods on the menu. However, when I ordered my crab fingers appetizer, the waitress did ask if I wanted the sauce to be gluten-free, so that was nice.
My Blood Type O Order at Bourbon House:
Appetizer: Crab Fingers
Entree: Hamburger (bun-less) on top of lettuce and tomatoes, with a side of sauteed onions and mushrooms
Dessert: Guava sorbet
It was all delicious!
Day Two in New Orleans
Breakfast at French Truck Cafe
Sunday was our trip to the Whitney Plantation. Before we left, I stopped by the French Truck Cafe and got a matcha tea latte. After so much practice with ordering these from Starbucks back home, I knew that I needed to be specific and ask if they added any sweetener. And they did. It was simple syrup, which I asked them to leave out.
At the end, all I had was matcha and almond milk and I added my own stevia. (They provided Stevia In The Raw packets, which include dextrose as a supplemental ingredient to the stevia. Dextrose is no good for Type Os since it is corn-based, a food that Type Os should avoid. Learn more tips like this in the Blood Type O Nourishment Calibration Codes course.) I also ate some Chomps beef sticks that I brought from home for protein.
Snack at Whitney Plantation
The bus ride to the plantation was long and heavy with anticipation. I had wondered what it would feel like to visit a formerly active plantation, knowing that such vile acts had perpetuated on that land for so long. We watched the miles of trees and water pass by as we drove down LA-3127 N. My coworker told me that he saw an alligator lurking in the water. Eeeek!
I learned sooo much on this tour… about food! The Whitney Plantation was a sugar cane garden, in which the enslaved chemists figured out a way to harvest and manufacture sugar, from plants to granules, by hand, and then package and ship it out. Read more about my experience here. I bought a small Tony’s Chocolonely dark chocolate bar with almonds, which is Type O approved. Check here for my list of Type O approved favorite snacks.
Lunch at Acme Oyster House
When we got back to the hotel, I felt filled with the spirit of the sun, having been outside for the whole tour, and didn’t want to be cooped up in my window-less hotel room. I also needed to eat lunch. So I went to a local restaurant called Acme Oyster House and ordered a similar meal as the night before.
My Blood Type O Order at Acme Oyster House:
Drink: Red Sangria
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Entree: Hamburger (bun-less) with lettuce, tomato slices, extra peppers and onions, and a side of sweet potato fries
**Note: the mayonnaise is neutral for Type Os and I did not eat the pickles, a Type O avoid food
After that meal, I walked to the Woldenberg Riverfront Park. Being near the water makes me feel grounded and calm. The stories I heard at the plantation may have been weighing on me creating some agitation. I sat and watched all types of boats and people pass by. One boat was a literal Carnival cruise ship! And they were having a party on the top of that boat!
Dinner - Hotel Catered
On our second night of the conference we had the pleasure of listening to our keynote speaker, Lisa Miller, PhD shed light on her statistical findings on the benefits of having a spiritual practice, no matter what religion, which she covers in her book Awakened Brain. I resonated with this message so much and even got her to sign my book she gave each of us for free.
A personal, non-religious spiritual practice, designed by me, is already what I am implementing in my life. And this spiritual practice influences the way in which I prepare and consume my food. If any Type O Mystical women are interested in this method of spiritual nourishment, join me in the Sacred Life of O Women Sisterhood.
Dinner was provided for us after Lisa's presentation. There was a wide variety of options, and I chose the tex-mex station, making myself a protein and rice plate, with a little rice and some shredded chicken, shrimp and steak strips on top.
Day 3 in New Orleans
On Monday, I got another matcha tea latte, and ate some beef sticks for breakfast.
Lunch at Napoleon House
For lunch I visited Napoleon House with some math and computer science teachers I met at the catered dinner the night before. The menu again was very Creole, with not much wiggle room for me to create my own meal. However, I was able to put together a salad with shrimp and a bowl of olive oil for my dressing. I gave the accompanying pieces of bread to my friends.
My Blood Type O Order at Napoleon House:
Drink: Water
Entree: Green Salad with Grilled Shrimp, asked for olive oil and used that and salt for dressing
By Monday, the menstrual phase of my cycle had already begun, but this was the day that the cramps were in full force. Through the blood type diet book, Eat Right 4 (for) Your Type, I learned about the herb Jamaican Dogwood being useful to ease the pain of menstrual cramps for all blood types.
I had been taking them for a few months worth of cycles, so I knew how my body would react. The herb doesn’t take away the pain completely, like acetaminophen or NSAIDS (ibuprophen, Advil, Midol, etc.), it just dulls the pain. I probably took 7-10 capsules total between Monday and Tuesday, the crampy days.
The cramps were bearable enough for me to sit through the sessions, as long as I was taking the Jamaican Dogwood herb capsules. But thankfully, the conference sessions ended around 4:30pm each day so that I could quickly find food and go back to my hotel and rest.
Dinner from Walgreens
Food for this evening was a pack of tuna fish from a nearby Walgreens and a side order of popcorn rice from Bourbon House downstairs (which was nothing special, just white rice with butter and pieces of onions). I was getting conscious of the money I was spending on food and also wanted to be in my hotel room away from people, so I avoided the restaurant that night. I also bought some sugary pecan snacks (pralines) for dessert, that I ate too quickly and I’m sure spiked my blood sugar.
Day 4 in New Orleans
Being in New Orleans and smelling all of the sweet and doughy treats, I really wanted to try some beignets, but no restaurants I visited locally were advertising anything gluten-free. So I researched and found Bon’s New Orleans Street Food, a restaurant tailored to people with gluten-intolerances like me (and probably you too).
Lunch at Bon’s
It was a 15 minute walk from my hotel (which is also where the conference was). I got a little lost because it’s at the end of a strip of stores and sits back behind its outdoor seating area. But I asked the nearby mailman and he steered me in the right direction.
Now, I didn’t order beignets because they also don’t make them gluten-free (sadness), but they do make callas which are donut-hole shaped baked treats that have always been made with rice flour. In addition, I ordered crispy chicken fingers with waffles and honey, all gluten-free! I was in heaven, finally eating foods I’d only dreamed of eating again for so many years.
Now let’s be clear, I’m a Type O, so all these grams of carbohydrates was going to surely mess my gut up without any armor. So I took two TypeZyme O capsules, which includes the digestive enzyme amylase used to help me metabolize the increased amount of carbohydrates so that it doesn’t feed Candida and cause gas.
However, it still may get stored as fat, because at the end of digestion, it becomes energy for the body to use/burn. But I may have burned it off on my 15 minute walk back to the hotel in the blazing sun of 90 degree weather. I also took two Deflect O capsules to deactivate the reaction that any hidden ingredients would have on my digestion.
The callas came in an order of 6, and I was surely not going to eat them all (I just wanted a taste). So I ate two and folded the rest up into a container and threw them in the trash for the homeless people I frequently saw digging through for food. On my walk back, I gave the rest of my waffles to another homeless woman asking for change.
My Blood Type O Order at Bon’s New Orleans Street Food:
Drink: Club Soda with Limes
Entree: Gluten-free Chicken and Waffles with Honey as syrup
Snack: Callas (rice-based donut hole, I only ate 2)
Dinner that night was tuna again.
Day 5 in New Orleans
On Wednesday morning, I wanted breakfast, and our session started at 9am, so I had time to eat out. I took a different route this time and unexpectedly found an IHOP, a restaurant I know very well from back home.
But the restaurant right before that was Zesty Creole. Their menu was taped to the window, so I was able to see ingredients and prices before entering, which was an amazing time-saver at this point of my vacation where my patience with finding suitable food for myself was growing thin.
What sold me was their listings of turkey sausage and “build-your-own omelet”! I ordered an omelet with turkey sausage, peppers and onions. But when my plate came out there was cheese on it… I forgot that the omelet automatically comes with cheese.
I wondered, Why would they do that when so many people out here are lactose-intolerant??? Maybe not enough people are asking to remove the cheese. Is that you? We gotta do better and stop eating cheese (Type Os).
As I pointed to the cheese, I couldn't help the face I made, which was a face of shame and rejection. The waiter made a remark about me not seeing cheese on the menu and picked up the plate to remake it without cheese. The corrected omelet was delicious! Savory and flavorful.
I had dinner back at Acme (I really wanted to go back to Bon’s but they are closed on Wednesdays). I ordered a bun-less roast beef po-boy and a side of sweet potatoe fries. When I got my plate, I was not satisfied with how it looked and later remembered that I had forgotten to ask for sauteed peppers, onions and mushrooms. Oh well.
My last meal in New Orleans was another omelet from Zesty Creole.
Conclusion
All in all, I really enjoyed the experience of visiting New Orleans for a few days. Seeing the architecture of the buildings, all the different shops (selling pretty much the same things), the palm trees, the Voodoo spirituality, the history and the culture combined felt like I was in another country.
Regarding the food, I made it work and I was so happy to find Bon's gluten-free restaurant so that I could give in to carb-pressure (just a little bit). It was probably divine timing for me to find it on the day before it closed, or else I would have had it every day, carbs and all. Now I have a place to visit when I return.
My Offerings
Thank you for reading about my experience in New Orleans. I placed a lot of orders while there, but I use a system I created which is outlined in my Restaurant Food Scripts. These scripts are great for Type O diners to know exactly what foods to look for on the menu as well as what to modifications to ask for when placing your order.
My Blood Type Food List Guides will provide you with the most important foods to eat for your well-being. There's one for each blood type.
If you'd like to jump right into your Blood Type O Diet healing journey, I suggest you start with my Blood Type O Nourishment Calibration Codes course for a step-by-step guideline on how to listen to your body, source the best Type O foods and begin healing your gut.