New Orleans, Day 2

The title may be a misnomer. Most of Day 2 we spent not in New Orleans, but a good deal west, in Iberia Parish. In Iberia Parish, on Avery Island, they have the Tabasco factory. We thought it would be fun to get out of the city and see where they make the famous hot sauce, but it was a bit of a bust. The 'tour' consists of  an 11-minute video, which is shamelessly commercial, even by the standards of this sort of thing. If we're at your factory, we're already fans of your product. You don't need to try and sell it to us! After the video, there was a short walk down a corridor where you could see the factory floor, and it was over. We grabbed some food from the food stand they had set up -- I had some red beans and rice -- splurted some tabasco on it, and enjoyed it a fair amount. The experience wasn't bad, but it wasn't worth the 2 and a half hour drive. If you happen to be driving through southern Louisiana, I'd do it, but I wouldn't go out of my way. (Shout out, though, to the really interesting Bayou Teche museum in New Iberia).

We went to Desire for dinner, a slightly-more-upscale-than-usual-for-New-Orleans restaurant inside the Sonesta. The oysters were not terribly memorable, though not the worst we've had in New Orleans. My wife had the Peacemaker po' boy, a po' boy with shrimp and oysters, and I had the Muffaleta. Both sandwiches were good, but neither was exceptional. At least the restaurant wasn't overpriced. Still aching from Halloween, we didn't go anywhere afterwards.