And on to Texas

We've been having some internet problems at home so sorry for the absence of posts!...More from our Christmas roadtrip...

After our week in New Orleans we headed west through Cajun country - land filled with swamps, cypress trees and gators....and Cajuns - the descendants of the French Canadians who populated the inland southern Louisiana countryside.

An authentic Cajun meal is usually a three-pot affair, with one pot dedicated to the main dish, one dedicated to steamed rice, skillet cornbread, or some other grain dish, and the third containing whatever vegetable is plentiful or available - from my experience usually boiled or cooked until fairly tasteless!

Capsicums, onion and celery are the Holy Trinity of Cajun cuisine and the basis of almost every dish. Finely diced and combined in cooking, the method is similar to the use of mire poix in traditional French cooking which blends finely diced onion, celery, and carrot.

Cajun cuisine developed out of necessity. The Acadian refugees, farmers rendered destitute after being expelled from Canada by the British, had to learn to live off the land and adapted their French rustic cuisine to local (i.e. Louisiana) ingredients such as rice, crawfish and sugar cane. Many households were large, consisting of eight to twelve people; thus, regardless what other vocations may have been followed by the head of household, most families also farmed. Feeding a large family, all of whose members did hard physical work every day, required a lot of food. Cajun cuisine grew out of supplementing rice with white meat, game or other proteins were available such as crawfish or any other type of river creature....like this guy (the neutrea - a Cajun possum)...

Creole food is the food of the European settlers - a combination of Spanish, French and Italian influences. Broadly speaking, the French influence in Cajun cuisine is descended from various French Provincial cuisines of the peasantry, while Creole cuisine evolved in the homes of well-to-do aristocrats, or those who imitated their lifestyle. Much of the Creole cuisine evolved in the country plantation estates from the outlying areas surrounding New Orleans.And so we ended up in Lafayette - half way to Houtson - where we spent the day with Robbie's sister Cindy. We had stopped at Avery Island on the way into town - the home of Tabasco, where we tasted tabasco icecream (made with a new sweet tabasco sauce - a more vinegary sweet chili sauce) and the new chipotle smoked tabasco - of course, we bought some of each...

We were on the hunt for some local crawfish and smoked andouille sausage so Cindy pointed us in the direction of a butchery on the outskirts of town. - the Best Stop Supermarket.

It was a popular place...known for its boudin - a Cajun blood sausage.There were all sorts of treats on offer...the turducken (a boned chicken, inside a boned duck, inside a boned turkey....

But they were queuing up for the cracklin - pounds of it! And for $10 a pound it had better be good...and it was.

This, straight from their website:

Cracklins are made from pork skin that consists of skin, fat and meat. The pork skin is cut up into cube sized peices then dropped into hot hog lard (grease). Then cooked for about an hour. It is then cooled to room temperature and placed into a cooler. Once it is needed to sell, it is taken out of the cooler and placed back into the hog lard until ready to sell. When removed Best Stop Supermarket seasoning is sprinkled on top. We sell about 2500 pounds of cracklin a day... C'est Bon!!!

2500 pounds a day...that's some calories (imagine the waistlines)... It was damn fine though - and we even tried some at another place we passed for comparison...hot, spicy, crispy - pig heaven.

At the Texas border - our truck returns home...Big skies of Texas...Next stop - Houston...the oil refinery capital of Texas. Not exactly picturesque.

We had 4 nights with OJ, Robbie's Dad, and his wife Gena. The three generations of Youngs, with Reece being the last of the males...
We caught up with lots of friends who lived near Galveston Bay (including OJ) who had suffered damage to their houses during Hurricane Ike. Worst off were our friends Farley and Kit who had a tree through the side of the house, which had also moved on its foundation. They're currently living in a pop-out trailer on their property that they've bought to get them through the insurance wrangles and rebuilt time. While super-comfortable it would easily get cramped after a few weeks - and they're expecting to be there for at least a year...We're thinking of you guys!
We had to prize Alora away from Kit's puppies...not sure Miles would approve...

More from New Orleans

Music, music everywhere..this family of three were eking out a living busking

A garden oasis in the French Quarter

Across the street - Bradjelina's New Orleans abode...

Inside one of my favorite junk shops on Decatur

What more do you need....

...maybe oysters...standing in line outside Acme Oyster House - waiting for the grilled oyster experience.......oysters, garlic, butter, dash or worchestershire sauce - and of course cheese - then on the grill..
After dinner we took a Haunted Tour of the French Quarter. The statue at the back of the Cathedral set the tone...Later that night we took the kids to the legendary Preservation Hall for a jazz session, old school

Bourbon Street - last nightLast morning in New Orleans - and the beignets are all gone...'bye New Orleans - until next time...

New Orleans at Christmas

Christmas morning in Jackson Square, French Quarter, New Orleans

9am mass...

Christmas Day - for which I sadly don't have any pictures - was spent north of the lake at Robbie's sister Christine's house where we cooked lunch for their family - deep fried turkey of course!

The view from (our) room

Lunch on Boxing Day was the legendary (yes, another one!) Po-Boy (sandwich) shop called Domilises in Uptown NO...the kids were a bit late getting up so it was close to 12 by the time we got there - which meant, as usual, the lines had started to take form.

So you walk in, take a little numbered card and wait for them to call your number before you can order. I didn't know any of this til later, and stood at the counter like a stupid idiot for all of 2-3 minutes while the ancient black bakelite phone on the counter rang non-stop and went unanswered, and while the women serving totally ignored me, while I waited to be served.

There are a grand total of about 6 tables in the restaurant - that hasn't changed in the past 50 years - including the staff who now include one of the original sisters who set it up, and what looks like her husband working the bar, and daughter and grandson and daughter making sandwiches non stop.

There are no fries, no salads - not even any tomatoes (apparently because they were off the menu a few years back during a particularly pricey tomato season - and never got around to putting them back in the sandwiches!)...they're just sliced meats, cheese, and their speciality - the crispy, salty fried oysters or shrimp - or preferably half and half (like we had) onLeidenheimer french bread with hot sauce, mayo, and lettuce.

So you wait while your number gets closer to the top of the pile, and pray that a table comes free when your orders comes up - which is just about always on cue - except for this time when a woman baggsed a table before her number was up "because I have a nun coming to join me"...I thought "yeah right - Tui" - but in she walked!Ray the bartender...Barq's local New Orleans root beer or creaming soda is a must...Behind the bar...complete with Peyton and Eli Manning shots (local football heros who grew up nearby and who ate there all the time when growing up) - and Ray's till that he still presses the amount for every transaction, but I can't imagine any reconciliation gets done at the end of the day!The Leidenheimer bread truck even pulled up for a lunchtime delivery while we were there - the second delivery of the day...
Later that afternoon we took the kids on a Katrina tour to show them some of the devastation from the storm. Incredibly whole neighborhoods still only have a smattering of houses rebuilt - but incredibly one of the badly destroyed restaurants that stood at the West End Marina - Lawrys Seafood - is back up in and in business.

shots from 2005 - 2 months after Katrina (double click to enlarge them)

Friday night we had dinner with Robbie's uncle David and wife Kathleen at Arnaud's - one of a handful of longstanding family-run restaurants that form the backbone of much of the restaurant tradition in New Orleans (including the likes of Broussard's, and Galatoires).

The Christmas lights were very pretty in the formal dining room and while it was expensive and rather old school - complete with the table side theater of desserts and flaming coffees - it was rather special.

David and Kathleen had just been to the opening day of Brad Pitt's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which was mostly filmed in New Orleans and told us that a scene was filmed with Cate Blanchett in Arnaud's - and according to the Maitre d' who overhead him - we were sitting at the actual table...mmm, we'll see when we go to the movie...!