I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t talk about the ultimate Cajun meal…gumbo! Now I’ve held off talking about gumbo for this long to avoid covering the most common Cajun topics, but enough is enough. There’s no denying gumbo’s place in a Cajun’s heart…or belly. The very word gumbo makes a Cajun [...]
Archive for March, 2008
#10 Gumbo
Posted in Culture, Food & Drink, Friends & Family, tagged Cajun Comfort Food, Cajun food, Chicken and Sausage, Creole, Gumbo, Louisiana, Okra Gumbo, Seafood Gumbo on March 31, 2008 | 48 Comments »
#9 ‘Dem White Alligators
Posted in Culture, Fun, Outdoors, tagged Albino Alligator, Aquarium of the Americas, Audubon Society, New Orleans, White Alligator on March 28, 2008 | 14 Comments »
Ever since my grade school field trip to the Aquarium of the Americas, I’ve been fascinated by the white alligators they have there. It’s a fascination I share with many of my Cajun brothers and sisters. Such was my own interest, that after the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina, about the fifth thing I thought [...]
#8 Making Fun of Themselves
Posted in Fun, Friends & Family, Culture, tagged Cajun jokes, stereotypes, Boudreaux and Thibodeaux, Texas Aggies, Coonass Jokes on March 26, 2008 | 10 Comments »
A favorite pastime of Cajuns, besides beer drinking, is telling jokes, and nothing gets a bigger belly laugh from a Cajun than a Boudreaux and Thibodeaux joke. You see, Coonasses like making fun of themselves, and Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes are universally loved across Cajun country (with the possible exception of people named Boudreaux or [...]
Cajuns in the News: Paul Prudhomme takes a bullet, keeps on cookin’
Posted in Cajuns in the News, Food & Drink, tagged Paul Prudhomme, stray bullet, Zurich Golf Tournament on March 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Now dis here is a story about how you can’t keep a Cajun down. While setting up a cooking tent at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans Golf Tournament, famed Louisiana chef Paul Prudhomme was hit by a falling .22 caliber bullet in the arm. Needless to say, Paul pulled through and finished his cookin’. [...]
#7 Popeyes Fried Chicken
Posted in Culture, Food & Drink, tagged Al Copeland, Cajun, Fried Chicken, Louisiana, New Orleans, Popeyes Fried Chicken on March 25, 2008 | 20 Comments »
Last Sunday, founder of Popeyes Fried Chicken Al Copeland died of cancer at the age of 64. Despite growing up poor in New Orleans, Al became a millionaire with his spicy fried chicken and buttery biscuits. Now I was gonna to get to Popeyes sooner or later, but it seems now that sooner is better. [...]
#6 Getting Tickets Fixed
Posted in Culture, tagged Corruption, Fixed Ticket, Good O'le Boy System, Louisiana, Speeding Ticket, State Trooper, Ticket on March 24, 2008 | 19 Comments »
You’re cruising along at around 85 mph, music cranked up, when you hear a siren…you’ve just been busted for speeding pad’na! This is an experience that would ruin the whole day for most people, but a true Cajun gives the officer his info and receives his ticket with a smile. Why isn’t that couyon steaming, [...]
#5 Easter Egg Pacques Contests
Posted in Culture, Friends & Family, Fun, tagged Cajun, Easter traditions, Egg Knocking, Pacques, Pockay on March 21, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Easter is almost here, and that can only mean one thing…it’s time to Pacques eggs! Pacques (pronounced \pä-kā\), or egg knocking, a game played by both the young and the young at heart, is a game of egg survival. The rules are simple: two face off with their strongest, hardest boiled Easter eggs. One person [...]
#4 LSU Football
Posted in Culture, Fun, tagged Cajun, Football, Louisiana, LSU on March 21, 2008 | 12 Comments »
Cajuns love them some LSU football, and for good reason. As the reigning 2007 NCAA Division 1-A champion and a share of the 2003 title, LSU is a national football powerhouse. This football team is a source of Cajun pride in a state where it’s usually bad news to get mentioned on CNN (worst education, [...]
#3 Rice
Posted in Culture, Food & Drink, tagged Cajun, Etoufee, Gumbo, jambalaya, Rice on March 21, 2008 | 5 Comments »
No ingredient is more essential to Cajun cooking than rice. Cheap and abundant, impoverished Cajun settlers were able to feed their large families with this staple. But don’t start thinking of buttered rice or rice Pilaf…to hell with dat. We’re talking about rice and gravy son. Give us our crawfish étouffée, red beans and rice, [...]
#2 Lent
Posted in Culture, Food & Drink, tagged Cajun, Catholic, Lent, Louisiana, Mardis Gras on March 21, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Cajun people love Lent, the 40 days of repentance and fasting that lead up to Easter. More specifically, Cajun Catholics love lent, but since the majority of Cajuns are Catholic, I’ll use the two interchangeably. Forty days may sound like a lot of sacrifice, but after the pure debauchery of Mardis Gras kicks off the [...]
