Before the new year starts, we wanted to share the stories that received the most visits on MyNewOrleans.com in 2013. As you may have guessed, food is always a big draw for New Orleans readers, so a lot of the articles you'll find here are focused on food and restaurants. The most popular article, however, was George Gurtner's profile of reality star Tia Torres.
We've got a snippet from each story, so click the associated link if you want to keep reading.
1. Tia Torres
By George Gurtner
When your left shoulder is highlighted by a tattoo depicting a Hollywood-perfect image of Lon Chaney Jr. in his most famous role as The Wolf Man, and the late Chaney happened to be your godfather, you get some idea of how the wearer of this body art ended up in her present vocation.
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2. New Orleans’ Best New Restaurants
By Tim McNally, Jay Forman & Robert Peyton
Usually over lunch, sandwiches brought to the office, our food writers and members of the editorial staff gather to determine the year’s group of best new restaurants in New Orleans.
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3. Is There a Best Place to Live in New Orleans?
By Haley Adams
The point of this blog is to talk about moving to New Orleans. However, there is one major theme of moving here that I still need to talk about: where to live.
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4. Sacred Archetypes of the Crawfish Boil
By Annie Drummond
Having been in New Orleans for a few years now and after having married a Louisiana native, I've had the privilege of being the guest at many an awesome crawfish boil, as well as having a couple of my own.
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5. What Makes the Bywater So Hipster?
By Annie Drummond
If you live in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans, you probably hear the word "hipster" thrown around at least five times a day. The same could probably be said for the Marigny, Treme, Bayou St John, Irish Channel and any other up-and-coming neighborhood that I'm not cool enough to have the skinny on.
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6. Our 2013 Class of People to Watch
By Haley Adams, Shannon Donaldson, Lauren LaBorde, Morgan Packard & Nina Takahashi
There is so much energy in New Orleans these days with new people doing new things that keeping up with them all could be a full time obsession. By comparison, our method is modest but sincere as we present a sample of the newly notables.
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7. What is a Creole?
By David Cheramie
This is a question that seems to have as many answers as people who answer it. A typical endless discussion around a table covered with old newspapers and bushels of crabs can get started with questions such as: “Who was the best quarterback at LSU?” or “Where is the best place to buy boudin?”
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8. Season of the Crawfish: 7 Different Recipes
By Stanley Dry
This is the season when crawfish fever grips Louisiana. In the evening, the spicy aromas emanating from big crawfish boiling pots float like clouds over backyard fences, mingling with sweet jasmine and the smell of freshly mown lawns.
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9. The Best Barbecue in New Orleans
By Sara Roahen
New Orleans has never had strong barbecue traditions in the way that, say, North Carolina or Tennessee do. Barbecue culture evolved in other areas out of slave culture, says local historian Rien Fertel – out of farms and plantations; small towns with tobacco and cotton markets.
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10. Top Female Achievers 2013
By Minh Dang, Judi Russell & Megan Snider
There is no novelty in there being worthy achievers who are female. There is, however, plenty of challenge in determining which ones to single out.
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11. Save Tujague's – Please
By Errol Laborde
Steven Latter lived for Tujague's. Tragically he died recently; so too might Tujague's. So far what we’ve heard is rumors but one source is a person who usually gets the “New Orleans going to hell” rumors right.
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12. What You Need to Know to Move to New Orleans
By Haley Adams
One of my friends from high school is moving to New Orleans and I’m excited. She’s in town this week and I’m planning on giving her a tour tonight so she can get a quick glimpse of the city.
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13. The Kennedy Assassination: 50 Years Later
By Michael L. Kurtz
In mid-April 1963, only seven months before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald arrived in New Orleans.
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