Graham Laborde

Try Catahoula's in Grand Coteau, LA. It's a great little place. They just opened a restaurant in Lafayette but it isn't all that great. Another more traditionally cajun place would be Prejean's in Carencro. You can find it on I 49. In Lafayette there are a few places that are good to try. Blue dog cafe, Don's Seafood, (old school cajun), Tsunami, decent sushi, However, if you don't mind a 45 minute drive, head to Richard's in Abbeville and grab yourself 10lbs of crawfish while they are still in season. Dwight's is another good place but as with all crawfish joints you have to show up early before they run out. Some even take reservations due to the seasonal nature of mudbugs. Just ask someone where they are big. (they'll know what you mean) Also try the Best Stop in Cankton, LA for the best boudin and cracklins in the state. Enjoy your trip, Graham

Sounds great. As for okra, you just have to be careful with it. Combination wise you would only want to avoid meats such as wild ducks which tend to not go with okra traditionally. However assuming you are making your own roux( in the future obvioulsy) you would use much less as the thickening power of the okra itself makes the roux merely a flavor addition. That said there is little else in this world that I would prefer to a warm baguette and a bowl of shrimp and okra gumbo with andouille and tasso.

John Folse lists it as 7 different greens but if by any chance you can get head on shrimp, boil the heads for 20-30 minutes for a great quick stock that will also give you some great color. The odd number is traditionally very important and I believe that it goes way back to when the catholics prohibited meat on every friday not just during lent. As it is now, lent just means that you are "forced" to eat crawfish on fridays. We sure got it bad in LA.