My husband and I were perusing the little kitchen shop in front of Cookin' Cajun, when we just happened to run across this little cooking school. To our good fortune we discovered that after the morning classes conclude, they transform themselves into a cafe which serves a limited menu of Cajun fare.

I'm here to tell you, although this food was served at a long, folding cafeteria table on styro plates with plastic utensils, it was the absolute best I had during my whole trip to NOLA, which is so well known for its cuisine.

I'm not joking...we dined at some of the old standbys, all of which were a great deal fancier, but if you take away the trappings, and all you have left is the food, this place beat them all hands down. They served the best Cajun food I have ever tasted, not at all reminiscent of "Zatarains" as I found to be the case elsewhere!

We had the "Slap Yo' Mama" Chicken and vegetarian red beans and rice, and it was fabulous! We liked the chicken so well we couldn't leave LA without a container of the "Slap Yo' Mama" seasoning. I even brought some home to my mother-in-law (there is a joke in there somewhere!)

We didn't get an opportunity to take the class due to time constraints, but we promised to do so next time. If we can learn to reproduce what came from Cookin' Cajun's kitchen, it would be a morning well spent.