[I won't eat... What are your food limits?]

so, just how does one survive in Louisiana sans black-eyed peas? isn't that a major food group there?

My mother sure must have thought butter beans were a major food group! We grew them in our garden and had them so often, I can't stand them anymore.

I also cannot appreciate beets.

[Gas Station Food]

On your way to "the islands" of south Vermilion parish, Louisiana (Cow Island, Forked Island, and Pecan Island), stop at Suire's Grocery to put a tiger in your tank then lunch on turtle sauce piquante or fried catfish.

[Badly-made food you love]

So, what kind of badly-made food do love even though you know full well that they're far from the proper renditions? I don't mean things we know are bad for us or are inherently junk food, such as Jell-o, but food items that are badly seasoned, or overcooked or otherwise "ruined" in the eyes of a proper chef that you like just as much--or more--in its ruined form?

Well, no chef would ever make this, but in Cajun land we had a breakfast/supper dish called cush cush that was better if you let the cornmeal burn just a little bit at the end.

I am pretty sure all those recipes in the Prudhomme Family Cookbook calling for you to scorch then scrape the pot's sediments came from "mistakes" made by the mom cooking up all that food and dealing with her large family at the same time. And that's ALL good stuff!

[Ms. Lucy's Classic Cajun Culture and Cooking]

Pretty much south of the Intercoastal Waterway/US highway 90 (more or less) or I-10 (further west near Lafayette)

To be south of the Intracoastal Canal in Vermilion parish you would need to be in Pecan Island! This misses Abbeville, Kaplan, Meaux, Nunez, Leroy, and Maurice! Erath and Henry! Cow Island and Forked Island.

I don't think that's correct. You can also go north of I-10 to places like Church Point, Eunice, Opelousas, Mamou, Basile, and Ville Platte. West to Kinder and Iowa. Oberlin too. Even Turkey Creek.

Mayhaw's map is less restrictive and more accurate, IMO.

[Cooking Turtle]

Did anybody mention Turtle Sauce Piquante? You might run this through the Louisiana thread for ideas.

I am just a home cook so I have no idea of measurements for the number you are thinking of, but this goes back in line with your time frame.

In Louisiana it's snapping turtles and loggerheads, I believe.

Now and then I get it when I am in Louisiana from a fish market in Delcambre, Vermilion parish, at a place called Seafood Express. Cut up in nice pieces for you. I have no idea when it is in season, but I learned that alliigator season is September, and this place rocks with its alligator meat!

Suire's Grocery on the highway south of Kaplan (believe me, the only highway south of Kaplan!) serves Turtle Sauce Piquante on Fridays. NY Times wrote them up in 2003. Ooey gooey meaux bundy!

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out!

[Osteria del Galileo]

Smooth Jazz is the dinner music of Hell.

[I-81]

Folks swear by the pork chops at the Southern Kitchen in New Market. Best ever, they say! Believe I will try that myself next chance I get!

[Lafayette Restaurants: Reviews & Recommendations]

To the already greatly comprehensive list that Fistful of roux provided, let me add Suire's Grocery south of Kaplan for their wonderful turtle sauce piquante! It's an old time grocery in the middle of nowhere (just like the places we dearly love!).

I second the recommendation for Soops in Maurice! But not for a low-carb diet. My wife's plate lunch last time was hamburger steak with bread, rice, potato salad, and navy beans. They asked if she wanted french fries with that!

Did we mention Dwight's in Lafayette for Sunday barbecue chicken or sausage?

Enjoy your food trip!

[Please support Adega]

Thanks for the directions, iamthestretch. For the geographically-challenged like me, it is a big help! I know right where it is now. Can't believe I have never tried it! Yes, we are having a season unknown around these parts, i.e. low humidity!

[typically southern beverages]

almost forgot! cream soda coke!

But we also used to say "pop." I have friends who still rib me for the way I can sometimes come out with something so Cajun sounding even though I have been living far away many years. Like the time dinner was ready and I said "Come fix your pop" (serve yourselves a soft drink)

[typically southern beverages]

They used to put salt on their can of Schlitz and take a bit before the beer. Like a margarita. Don't see that much anymore! Saw it at a Cajun dancehall in Lewisburg. Louisiana a few years ago. My wife asked "What's the salt shakers doing on the tables? They serve food here?" I demo'd, she couldn't believe it...

That reminds me. Peanuts in your coke (coca-cola, dr. pepper, orange coke, grape coke...)

[Food at the Folklife Festival on the National Mall]

It's time again for the Folklife Festival on the National Mall!

This year features Haiti, Latino music, and the traditions of the mid-Atlantic waterways.

What's in store from the food vendors? The cooking demonstrations?

Yeah, I know. Not always the best. Some years, though, it gets pretty interesting. When Mississippi was the featured state, they served catfish poboys and a barbecued baloney sandwich! I've always meant to try that barbecued baloney at home.

[Soft Shell Crabs]

Am I already too late for them? I am not seeing them in the restaurants as in past years?

Where have you had them and whose would you recommend?

In the Maryland suburbs of DC I have had them at a few places:

Calvert House Inn, Riverdale: These are by far the best I have had. Plump and juicy, lightly sauteed. Fresh. Seafood is a sure bet at Calvert House, and this is one of their best dishes.

Vicino's Sligo Avenue Silver Spring: These are done in franchese style. The crab is lightly battered and fried. They also serve shrimp franchese.

The old Crisfield's on Georgia Avenue Silver Spring: They're small but full, fried, and make a great sandwich for lunch.

Sergio's on Colesville Rd. in Silver Spring: These are lightly satueed as at Calvert House but for some reason the top shell is chewy. If you just leave it aside it's a much better experience. If you have never been there you should try it. The second time you go there, you are treated like a regular!

[Gumbo, Jambalaya, Etouffee, Creole...]

I use Sausages by Amy Andouille Chicken Sausage in a lot of dishes. I use it because it's relatively low in salt - fat and calories - and it tastes good too. Means I can eat sausage more than once a year . I buy it at Costco (you probably have a Costco up in your neck of the woods). Robyn

Thanks! I am just starting to see these sausages in our local grocery store. Think I will give them a try. How are they for grilling? I like grilled sausages as an appetizer when I barbecue.

[Gumbo, Jambalaya, Etouffee, Creole...]

I have made Etouffee in the past, but I used a roux.  From all of the recipes I found, that apparently is not the traditional approach for etouffee.  Does anyone know if there is a correct term for what is essentially a traditional etouffee recipe but is started with a roux?

Y'all may disagree with me but if it uses roux and is thick, I would call it a stew. Nothing wrong with that!

I've had good dinners both with roux and without. I probably like it better without so that nothing's covering over the great taste of the crawfish and the crawfish fat.

Here's a good recipe our family got from a Mrs. Melancon in Breaux Bridge (home of the Crawfish Festival) about 30 years ago:

Two pounds Louisiana crawfish tails with fat, seasoned and put on the side

one large onion

one medium bell pepper

celery in the same proportion as the bell pepper

onion tops

parsley

stick of butter

melt butter and saute your onion/bell pepper/celery until the onion is clear

add one to one and a half cup of cold water

add seasoned crawfish tails

bring to a boil

turn to low heat and simmer for 30 minutes covered, stirring occasionally

add onion tops and parsley

add a little bit of corn starch dissolved in water to thicken to desired consistency

simmer another ten minutes then serve over rice

A good side dish is cold deviled eggs.

This recipe won't cover up the crawfish flavor. You will get a terrific aroma when you do your occasional stirring!

[Gumbo, Jambalaya, Etouffee, Creole...]

I have a friend from the Houma area. He introduced me to the local tradition of bringing the gumbo to a fast simmer and poaching eggs in it. I think the way it is served is that a scoop of rice is put in the bowl, the poached egg put on top of that, then the gumbo is ladled around it.

I had not heard of the boiled eggs. How is that done?

I had not heard of using poached eggs but it sounds interesting!

We just boil them on the side, cut them in half, and put them in the gumbo for the last few minutes. Longer than that would make them rubbery or make the yolk separate from the white.

Folks in Acadia parish, I understand, make shrimp and egg stew instead. Same basic method but with less stock or water.

[Gumbo, Jambalaya, Etouffee, Creole...]

Hi. I am a Cajun living in Maryland.

My alma mater is University of Louisiana-Lafayette. It used to be University of Southwestern Louisiana (Give 'em hell, USL!). The alumni chapter in the Baltimore Washington area has an annual gumbo cooking contest. You see some really wild, inventive stuff at these affairs!

One year I worked up the courage to enter a specialty from my neck of the wood in Vermilion parish: shrimp and egg gumbo! It's a very dark gumbo with small shrimp (we've even used dried shrimp, which I can't seem to find in Maryland) and boiled eggs halved.

I got a lot of questions for my fellow ex-patriates and remarks that they had never seen or heard of it before. Til one friendly fellow approached me with "Where you from, cher?" "Leroy, et toi?" "Mais, Gueydan!" He knew the recipe very well, you see, being from a neighboring town in my parish.

I appreciated leleux's post recommending the okra gumbo at Don's in Lafayette. I will have to try it! In my neighborhood okra and shrimp gumbo was the ONLY gumbo we made that did not have roux. But we sure don't consider it soup. It's gumbo by definition since the word gumbo is synonymous with okra.

I started a thread on favorite seafood gumbos in the Lafayette area in the Louisiana forum. Check it out!

Since living in Maryland for the past years I have had to experiment with my ingredients without straying too too far from the tradition. My wife and I now love kielbasa sausage in our chicken and sausage gumbo, even better than with Louisiana smoked sausage! Careful, though, it is salty so you have to be careful how you season the gumbo itself.

[Best BBQ in the DC Metro Area]

Half Moon Barbecue in Silver Spring, Georgia Avenue. Memphis style ribs, North Carolina style pulled pork, and Texas style hot links. Live music with local bands.