New Orleans Day 5

Since C still hadn't had a chance to try beignets, we started our fifth day at Cafe du Monde again. But we were starting to wise up to how many things we wanted to eat, and opted to share one portion (one beignet each) instead of going all out - which turned out to be very smart as we ended up at Mother's for lunch.

Due to an attempt to see the American Cocktail Museum, which sadly was in the midst of relocating, we ended up wandering around a food museum instead. Since there were histories of all of the classic New Orleans dishes up on the walls, red beans and rice ended up on our radar. And Mother's (401 Poydras St, New Orleans, LA 70130) was able to supply that dish, as well as crawfish etouffee, their Famous Ferdi special and a giant portion of fries. We rolled out of the restaurant, happily stuffed and ready to go on a river cruise.

And all I can say about the Creole Queen river cruise is that you should go look at the paddle boat as it's quite attractive, but I'd skip the ride, unless you really really love industrial sites. Or hearing about how "tedious" it is to dock at certain docking points along the Mississippi River. 

Onwards to Harrah's for a spot of poker. A had never played poker in a casino before, and clearly beginner's luck works well, as he came out $10 richer.

After that, we decided to go out like the high rollers we were, and ate our way through platters of oysters all evening:

Luke's for happy hour oysters. At 50 cents per oyster, you can really go a bit nuts. We also sampled their grilled oysters though I preferred the raw ones here. Several cocktails later, we moved on to the next spot:

Acme Oyster House for chargrilled oysters and oyster shots. My favorite grilled oysters of the night (though still not as good as the ones at Cochon). Oyster shots are gimmicky, but it was still something I'm happy I tried. 

And finally, Antoine's for Oysters Rockefeller. These win the award for most disappointing oysters of the night (and possibly most disappointing drinks as well). I love the inside of Antoine's, and I'm glad our cocktail tour included it as a stop so we could hear all the historical anecdotes about the place, but I wouldn't necessarily go back.

A friend of a friend recommended Mimi’s in the Marigny for their Monday night swing dance lesson and live music - it was a lot of fun to give it a try and we enjoyed watching the more experienced dancers once the band started playing. Since we were down the street from The Spotted Cat, we popped in there again on the way home and saw a great vocalist, Kristina Morales, singing with a band. It was the perfect way to end the evening.