Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Being a foodie in NOLA - by Lily

The real reason I am in favor of New Orleans as a destination for spring break is the food šŸ˜Š And I’m sure for once Nicholas is in full alignment with me.

We arrived at the big easy with perfect timing on Saturday. After checking in at the hotel we walked into the restaurant (Luke) across the street and were happily surprised that the happy hour was still on with oysters at 75 cents a piece and beer at half price. Nicholas and I savored on the fresh oysters while Allan enjoyed his Dixie, totally relaxed.





Due to the warm winter, crawfish is on the market early this season. So on Sunday evening, we were in hunt for a good restaurant with boiled crawfish. After 7pm, we walked toward Iberville St. The day was still light due to spring forward, the French quarter was crowded with people and noisy with music. On our way to Deanie’s we noticed a long line outside Felix’s restaurant, people were waiting to get in. Across the street, there was an even longer line outside Acme oyster house. When we got to Deanie’s we were told about 1.5 hour wait time as well. Hungry and not willing to wait that long, we went to Mr. Ed’s instead. We were a bit unsure about the quality since there’s no line there, but we were satisfied with the 2 lb boiled crawfish. The crawfish were not big, but the flavor was full of kicks. The crawfish spinach dip with chips was great as well.





On Monday, we decided to hit the “hot” restaurant early. We headed over Felix’s before 6pm and found no line there! The chargrilled oyster was absolutely a blast! The oysters were soaked in butter, tender and full of flavors. The alligator meat and turtle soup tasted wonderful as well.



Emboldened by that experience, we decided to try our luck at Acme on Tuesday night. It was drizzling when we left our hotel at 6:30pm. “There should be no lines today” I secretly hoped. But there was still a line of people waiting in the rain! We waited around 30 minutes before getting in. We ordered chargrilled oyster and boiled crawfish again along with soft shell crabs. The oysters had cheese on it, the flavor was bold but in my opinion not as savory as Felix’s, and Nicholas agreed. The soft shell crab was the best, tender inside crunchy outside and very tasty, most importantly it requires no work to eat it! 





For lunch, we wanted to try one of the best Po’boys in town at Killer PoBoys. But we missed one big thing in our planning, Killer doesn’t open on Tuesday. Unwilling to give up a chance to try the best, we decided to drive over to the #1 Po-Boy place in town, Domilise’s. We heard the line would typically be hour long and we were not sure if we could even find parking! But there we went. It was our luck, it was a Tuesday and we got there before 11:30 am. It turned out we were the first customers that morning. But shortly after we got in, the place started to fill up. It was a rather small place with 6 tables. The walls were decorated with pictures of stars who dined there and articles of the glory and history of the restaurant. Allan chatted with the lady cook about Miss Dot, who founded the store and died at age 91. We ordered three different flavors of po-boys and finished in no time! The best indeed!





During our short stay, we also sampled gumbo, jambalaya, muffaletta, dungeness crab, beignet, and breading pudding. One serving of beignet comes with a quarter pound powdered sugar.  





We had the best jambalaya on our Creole Queen cruise lunch tour. Bread pudding is bread soaked in syrup, but it can be surprisingly tasty and not overly sweet. After this trip, I surely would refuse to get on the scale for a month!



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