Louisiana: Boudin

Boudin from Eunice Superette, Eunice, Louisiana.

Boudin. A traditional southern Louisiana food.

You pronounce it: boo' - dan.

Sometimes called cajun sausage.

Mixture of rice, seasonings, onion, pepper, and (traditionally) pork (including liver) - stuffed in a casing, which is a fancy way of saying "pig intestines."

Boudin from Eunice Superette, Eunice, Louisiana.

Ya gotcher tamale trail in Mississippi. There's the search for the perfect chiles rellenos in New Mexico.

I like the demonstration of boudin-making in the above video, but I respectfully disagree with the maker's disdain of organ meats in favor of "good cuts" of meat to make boudin. A better cut of meat changes the flavor of the boudin; it doesn't necessarily make it better. And as a prosaic food stuff, it seems more true to the boudin spirit to stick with the original meat sources. 

Louisiana has its boudin trail. In fact, it has at least three: the Cajun Boudin Trail (affiliated with Boudin Link below), the Southwest Louisiana Boudin Trail, and the Southern Boudin Trail. Most of the boudin purveyors on these trails are meat markets. However, there's also a wide fan base for "gas station boudin."

The Boudin Link has a long list of boudin rated by "Dr. Boudin."

I ate my first boudin at the Eunice Superette in March. Tasty.

The Boudin Festival is coming up soon in Scott, Louisiana, the alleged boudin capital of the world. Pretty good chance I'll be there.

Boudin Festival 2014, Scott, Louisiana. Source: Louisiana Boudin Festival. 

Louisiana: State Road 3083

Louisiana's pretty state road 3083:

Louisiana state road 3083. November 2013. 

Louisiana state road 3083. November 2013. 

Louisiana: Cypremort Point State Park

Cypremort Point State Park, Louisiana

In early spring, Cypremort Point State Park is a serene place to be.

There's virtually no one there.




It's on a spit between Vermilion Bay and Shark Bayou.

Cypremort Point State Park, Louisiana

You can see the aftermath of mortal combat.

Cypremort Point State Park, Louisiana

Lovely park rental cabins on tall posts, which have a view of the bay and the bayou, and their own boat slips.

Cypremort Point State Park, Louisiana

Federal wetlands abut the park.

Cypremort Point State Park, Louisiana

I thought this large specimen in the groundskeeper's cart was from a savage creature. In a sense, it was, but it wasn't fauna, it was flora. Some sort of palm.

Alas, no camping in this park. But it's an easy hour drive from Lafayette, so it makes for a good day trip if you're not going to rent a cabin.

Somewhere in Louisiana

What do you do when presented with something like this?

I think the only thing you can do is shake your head and leave it alone. Which I'm guessing is what hundreds of users before me must have also done. 

Abbeville, Louisiana: Saint Mary Magdalen Catholic Church

St. Mary Magdalen Church, Abbeville, Louisiana

The interior of Abbeville's Saint Mary Magdalen Church is a visual feast.

St. Mary Magdalen Church, Abbeville, Louisiana

Lush jewel tones. Pascal pastels. Gold leaf. Zodiacal-blues. Alabaster-like carvings.

St. Mary Magdalen Church, Abbeville, Louisiana

The leaded-glass and stained windows tell some stories I'm not familiar with.

St. Mary Magdalen Church, Abbeville, Louisiana

 I sure like that parquet floor in the window above.

St. Mary Magdalen Church, Abbeville, Louisiana

 
The relative grandeur of the church in this small town bespeaks a lot of money invested in it by the community.

St. Mary Magdalen Church, Abbeville, Louisiana

The pews are somber, quiet, amidst the surrounding color.  

St. Mary Magdalen Church, Abbeville, Louisiana

Louisiana: "Kaw, that's a big one!"

 

     "Kaw, that’s a big one!” said 59-year-old Danny “Eagle” Edgar.


    “That’s a man,” agreed 56-year-old Clay Switzer.


    “Boy, he really is big,” hissed Harry “Hop” Dugas, who at 47 is the baby of the group.


    “It’s got eyes like an alligator,” murmured Edgar in wonderment. 

Tense excitement bled through the three men’s Cajun accents. What could have had them, with nearly 150 combined years of life in the woods and on the water, so excited? Were they perched on a rickety bamboo machan, hunting a man-eating tiger? Were they perched in the flying bridge of an offshore boat, gawking at the massive bulk of a great white shark? 

Neither.

 Source: Louisiana Sportsman

 

Bullfrogs, Acadian Heritage Memorial, St. Martinville, Louisiana.

A friend and I went to the Acadian Memorial Heritage Festival in St. Martinville today.

Some kick-ass music, good food, gorgeous day along the river, and, and, and ..... holy swamp gas! Gigantic bullfrogs!

Bullfrogs, Acadian Heritage Memorial, St. Martinville, Louisiana.

Who knew frogs got so big?!

Bullfrogs, Acadian Heritage Memorial, St. Martinville, Louisiana.

 
I was so fascinated by these creatures, I had to go back a second time during the course of the festival, just to gawk some more.

Bullfrogs, Acadian Heritage Memorial, St. Martinville, Louisiana.

I understand about the frog legs for eating, but what happens to the rest of the bullfrog's body? Returned to the water for recycling? Used as bait for fishing? Given the popularity of frog legs in southern Louisiana, we're talking about a lot of skin and guts here.

Bullfrogs, Acadian Heritage Memorial, St. Martinville, Louisiana.

Interesting articles about bullfrogs and frog hunting: 

• Of Frogs and Men, Louisiana Sportsman (excerpted at the top of this post) 
• Real Cajun Cooking: Cajun-Fried Bullfrog Legs
• Cleaning a Bullfrog/Skinning a Bullfrog

Bullfrogs, Acadian Heritage Memorial, St. Martinville, Louisiana.

 My mother and a brother are coming to visit next week. Maybe we'll try some frog legs.

Bullfrogs, Acadian Heritage Memorial, St. Martinville, Louisiana.

Abbeville, Louisiana: Steen's Sugar

Steen's Sugar, Abbeville, Louisiana

You know how a shot of alcohol or caffeine can hit you right away? I didn't know that sugar - make that pure cane syrup - can pack a similar wallop.

Steen's Sugar, Abbeville, Louisiana

The Abbeville visitor center docent gave me a spoonful to try. Hoo-doggies.

Steen's Sugar, Abbeville, Louisiana

My friend and I would have enjoyed going on a tour of Steen's Sugar Mill in town, but it was closed.

Steen's Sugar, Abbeville, Louisiana

I like its commercial art.

Lafayette: 2nd Saturday Artwalk: February 2014: The Addendum

In Theater 810. I think. 2nd Saturday Artwalk, February 2014. Lafayette, Louisiana.

February 2014 was my third 2nd Saturday Art Walk. Each has had a different flavor.  In February Art Walk, there were many more participants than in December and January (here, here, and here), likely due to the milder temperature than had been the case in the earlier months. There was also greater diversity in age.

2nd Saturday Artwalk, February 2014. Lafayette, Louisiana.

 The studio above was closed during the Art Walk, but its untidy contents invited the eye. 

2nd Saturday Artwalk, February 2014. Lafayette, Louisiana.

I returned to Whoojoo's to see if my glasses - which I lost at the last Art Walk - had turned up here. No, they hadn't, but I liked the little arrangement of satsumis, candles, and (off-camera) toy ducks on a table.

2nd Saturday Artwalk, February 2014. Lafayette, Louisiana.

The Lafayette Science Museum exhibited the draft comprehensive plan for Lafayette within, and outside a kindly sponsor underwrote free jambalaya, which you can see in this enormous black cauldron. 'twas good, too.

Jennings, Louisiana: A Walk on Cary Avenue

North Cary Avenue, Jennings, Louisiana

After the Squeezebox Shootout, and after a scrumptious BBQ pork sandwich, there was time to kill before Jennings' pre-Mardi Gras Parade began.

North Cary Avenue, Jennings, Louisiana

I took a walk on North Cary Avenue, which runs parallel to North Main Street.

North Cary Avenue, Jennings, Louisiana

Magnolias bloomed.

North Cary Avenue, Jennings, Louisiana

The sky reminded me of New Mexico.

North Cary Avenue, Jennings, Louisiana

There was a pleasing mix of architecture. There was also evidence of some diversity in economic strata.

North Cary Avenue, Jennings, Louisiana

The public library anchored one corner.

North Cary Avenue, Jennings, Louisiana

I don't know which attracted me more to this view - the studly palm or the flamboyant clouds: 

North Cary Avenue, Jennings, Louisiana

 Most of the porches had rocking chairs or swings on them.

A pleasant walk. 

Here's a slide show:



#30

Jennings, Louisiana: Squeezebox Shootout

Squeezebox Shootout 2014, Jennings, Louisiana

The weekend preceding Mardi Gras is prime timeline real estate. So many things happening in Southern Louisiana, so difficult to choose.

For the Saturday before Mardi Gras, I had originally planned to go to Baton Rouge for the famous, satirical Spanish Town Parade.

But when I saw that the small town of Jennings was hosting a cajun accordion contest - the Squeezebox Shootout - along with a parade, and music, I changed my plans.

Strand Theater, Jennings, Louisiana

When I arrived at the Strand Theater for the accordion competition, the event had already started, and it was a packed house. But I saw empty space down by the stage where I could stand and hopefully take some good pics, so I walked on down there..... and damned if a woman in the second row didn't offer me an empty seat (a rarity!) right next to her! And damned if it didn't turn out that she had been the very individual who got the first Squeezebox Shooutout off the ground! Or as she put it - gave birth.

Junior division contestant. I loved how she moved her leg. Squeezebox Shootout, Jennings, Louisiana.

Sometimes I just wonder at the good luck I so often enjoy. I couldn't have had a better seat in the entire theater.

This is Bubba. He has a lot of natural presence. Junior division. Squeezebox Shootout, Jennings, Louisiana. If I'm not mistaken, he's the great-grandson of Iry LeJeune, Cajun songwriter and musician of great renown.

He didn't win, but I think for overall entertainment utils, my fave was professional musician, Wilson Savoy, of the Pine Leaf Boys. He put his whole body and expression into his playing. Below are his accordion and foot:

I tried to capture a still of him and his tapping foot, but I was only moderately successful:

There was a lot of talent at the competition. A slideshow below:

#30

Louisiana Lit: Dave Robicheaux and Some Fine Music

Who is Dave Robicheaux? 

He's the protagonist in 20 books written by James Lee Burke, a New Iberia, Louisiana, writer.

Dave is a homicide detective in New Iberia, Louisiana. Cajun. Recovering alcoholic. Viet Nam war veteran. A man who marries. A father.

You can read more about Dave here. And what he thinks about north Louisianans here. And alcohol here.

Dave on some fine music of his youth

From Jolie Blon's Bounce (2002):

"The lyrics and the bell-like reverberation of Guitar Slim's rolling chords haunted me. Without ever using words to describe either the locale or the era in which he had lived, his song re-created the Louisiana I had been raised in: the endless fields of sugarcane thrashing in the wind under a darkening sky, yellow dirt roads and the Hadacol and Jax beer signs nailed on the sides of general stores, horse-drawn buggies that people tethered in stands of gum trees during Sunday Mass, clapboard juke joints where Gatemouth Brown and Smiley Lewis and Lloyd Price played, and the brothel districts that flourished from sunset to dawn and somehow became invisible in the morning light."

Clarence Gatemouth Brown. Source: wikipedia

Here's the song Gatemouth Boogie, which Mr. Brown says he made up on the spot one night during a performance, when he stood in for an ailing T-Bone Walker:

Here's a song by Lloyd Price - Stagger Lee:

Travel Tip: A Simple Cure for a Headache

Oh no. I had staked out my spot for the big parade in Church Point, Louisiana. The same parade where people had been laying their claim since before 9:00 a.m. for the parade that would start at 1:00 p.m.

And it started coming. A headache. First a soft thumping and then more insistent. I felt frustrated because my little pill box with over-the-counter drugs was at home.

And then I remembered. .... Didn't I have this same situation months ago in New Mexico? Righhht. In fact it was more than a year ago, when I went to the Cowboy Symposium in Ruidoso. The headache just wouldn't quit.

What did I do then? Oh yeah, I took off my hat because it was too tight.

Here I was today wearing the same hat as then. 

I took it off. Immediate relief. I swear to God.

Louisiana: An Addition to the Crawfish Collection

Crawfish Hut, Rayne, Louisiana

There's something not right about this ol' crawfish heating up the very water that's going to be the agent of his demise.

At least in this mural outside Tlaxcala, Mexico, there was a pretense of fair play:

Tlaxcala, Mexico

Which brings me to the pig around the corner from Crawfish Hut.

This was a big pig. Maybe the biggest I'd ever seen. And - she? - was in a trailer. She was so big, I stopped my car and got out to go say, hey.

Pig, Rayne, Louisiana

She looked me right in the eye. Checked me out. As I made to leave, she proceeded to try and untie the twine holding the trailer gate closed. I'm hoping that if she was on her way to a boucherie, there was some dignity in her death.

Louisiana: Po' Boy. The Book

The po' boy sandwich. So famous in Louisiana, they even wrote a book about it.