South: Taste of Louisiana

on location: south ❖

randy mink

Taste Of

LOUISIANA Southern hospitality and foods with funny-sounding names whet the appetites of groups eager to savor the state’s culinary cornucopia f you like it spicy and “ricey,” the Bayou State is for you. A fan of fresh seafood? All the better. And if the very thought of Southern-fried home cooking spells bliss, you’re in the right place.

Trying regional foods is half the fun of travel, and folks have always come to Louisiana to eat, long before culinary travel became a buzz term and the state tourism office concocted a network of culinary trails.

A gumbo of exotic flavors spices the Cajun and Creole dishes developed by early settlers from Spain, France, French Canada and other lands. You know the menu—jambalaya, étouffée, boiled shrimp and crawfish, red beans and rice with spicy andouille sausage…the list goes on. Be a little daring—add a dash of hot sauce to your bowl or sink your teeth into some alligator chunks. Top off the meal with a sugary praline, bread pudding or a slice of pecan pie.

Cajun food is the earthy, robust creation of fishermen and farmers in the bayou country of Southwest Louisiana. Creole refers to the cosmopolitan fare of New Orleans, a mix of Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. Both cuisines are exotic to most American palates and use the “holy trinity” of seasonings—chopped celery, onions and bell peppers—blended into a roux, or gravy base.

For a taste of Cajun culture, groups can’t do better than Lafayette, the unofficial capital of French Louisiana. Lafayette claims more locally owned restaurants than any other city in the state. Many Grammy Award-winning Cajun and Zydeco artists live in Lafayette. Laissez les bons temps rouler (“let the good times roll”) at Cajun/Creole eateries like Prejean’s, Randol’s and Mulate’s, which offer nightly music and dancing.

For a pot of gumbo (top), a chicken and sausage barbecue platter (right) or boiled Gulf shrimp, it doesn’t get any better than in the Cajun restaurants of Southwest Louisiana.

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New Orleans Metropolitan CVB/Carl Purcell

on location: south ❖

Tourists linger over beignets and coffee at Café du Monde in New Orleans.

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lies the Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factory and Jungle Gardens at Avery Island.

Tours start with a short video and continue to a viewing gallery that overlooks the bottling and packaging operations.

Guests learn that red peppers are crushed into a paste with salt from Avery Island mines and ferment for three years in oak barrels. The aged mash is mixed with vinegar, stirred for a month and poured into little bottles with the familiar red octagonal cap, green foil neckband and diamond-shaped label. The Tabasco Country Store sells logo items, from neckties to bloody Mary glasses, and offers samples of sauces and dips.

A drive through Jungle Gardens, a

New Orleans Metropolitan CVB/Richard Nowitz

A favorite group destination in Lafayette is Vermilionville, a living history museum dedicated to Cajun and Creole folkways. In original and reproduction buildings that portray life between 1765 and 1890, visitors can mingle with artisans, musicians and other interpreters. In the schoolhouse, for example, you learn that speaking French was prohibited in Louisiana classrooms from 1916-1968. Many area residents still converse in French at home and with friends.

La Cuisine de Maman, the restaurant at Vermilionville, is modeled after a Creole plantation overseer’s house, offering local dishes in the main room and a glassed-in porch overlooking the Vermilion Bayou. I enjoyed a bowl of chicken and sausage gumbo, served with rice and French bread. Desserts include bread pudding, fruit cobbler and gateau de sirop (syrup cake), similar in texture to gingerbread.

Jean Lafitte Acadian Cultural Center is conveniently located next to Vermilionville. Exhibits and a movie explain how the French-speaking Acadians were deported from Nova Scotia in 1755 and established a new life centered on fishing and hunting in the bayous of Louisiana.

South of Lafayette, near New Iberia,

200-acre wetland preserve, reveals garden-covered hills, alligators in bayous and gnarled oaks draped in Spanish moss. Most memorable are the hundreds of snowy egrets that flock to platforms at a pond nicknamed Bird City.

Other intriguing pockets of Cajun Country are the Lake Charles area, near the Texas border, and Houma, not far from New Orleans. Both areas— fresh new discoveries for me—abound with swamp-dwelling alligators and eateries specializing in fresh seafood.

Lake Charles itself is a busy petrochemical port with oil and natural gas lines everywhere. At Steamboat Bill’s on the Lake, I tried my first pistolette, a puffy white roll piled with hot shrimp or crawfish sauce and eaten with a fork. Since the crawfish season was about to end (late May), I was moved to order crawfish étouffée, a bowl of rice covered in a tomato sauce loaded with morsels of these succulent little cousins to shrimp (also called mudbugs or crawdads).

Lake Charles serves as a gateway to the Creole Nature Trail, a 180-mile scenic byway through wetlands known as the Louisiana Outback. Exploring this wilderness stretching to the Gulf Coast, our tour group visited nature centers

Oyster shuckers delight lunch-goers at New Orleans’ Acme Oyster House.

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the Terrebonne Parish Courthouse square, we sampled another Louisiana treat—the sno-ball. Also spelled “snowball,” this refreshing cup of shaved ice (known to many of us as a snow-cone) is generously drenched in a flavored syrup and tastes better than any snowcone you’ve ever had. Flavors range from coconut cream and strawberry

daiquiri to bubble gum and sour apple.

Add condensed milk, cream or ice cream, if available. You’ll find sno-ball stands, some of them no more than roadside shacks, all over the state.

In Shreveport-Bossier City, billed as “Louisiana’s Other Side,” the dining scene reflects influences from neighboring Texas and Arkansas—think bar-

Cajun dance spots preserve local traditions in Lake Charles, La.

with boardwalks built over the marshes and stopped at roadside bayous to watch locals crabbing and casting for shrimp.

In Houma, the “Heart of America’s Wetland,” you sense you’re in the “real” Louisiana. Gliding down a cypresslined canal on a Munson’s Swamp Tours pontoon boat, we got our fill of alligators as they slithered behind our boat and snapped up the chicken our guide dangled over the side. Enthralled by this wildlife adventure, I chose alligator in picante sauce for lunch that day at Bayou Delight restaurant. The zesty tomato sauce smothering my plate of gator chunks and rice was so good that it almost disguised the meat (slightly firmer than chicken).

For another typically Houma dining experience, try 1921 Seafood. Decorated with fishnets, stuffed gators and aquariums, it’s a cement-floor joint where you need to roll up your sleeves and use paper towels as you dig into platters of boiled crawfish, clams and shrimp. (Groups can arrange a tour at an area shrimp or oyster processing plant.) Work off your meal across the street at the Jolly Inn, a dancehall where Cajun and Zydeco bands will get your feet tappin’.

At a downtown Houma festival on LeisureGroupTravel.com

Translation: Drop by for a visit. In Cajun country, we’ll make you feel right at home – whether you prefer to dance at a festival or catch a sunset over the cypress trees.

With Zydeco rhythms, Cajun & Creole flavors, Louisiana scenery and Southern hospitality, you’ll agree – there’s no place like

Lafayette.

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becue, fried catfish, country-fried steak and other hearty favorites associated with Southern-style cooking. And though Northwest Louisiana may be hours away from Cajun Country, you won’t have trouble finding good seafood and gumbo either. It’s where steak sauce meets hot sauce.

I actually had my first Louisiana crawfish at downtown Shreveport’s Mudbug Madness Festival on Memorial Day weekend. Members of our fam group tackled crawfish dinners complete with red-skin potatoes and corn-onthe-cob, watching to see how the locals extracted the meat from the bony little crustaceans boiled in vats with spicy red seasoning. Vendors also offered crawfish pies (turnovers), crawfish pizza and crab patties in crawfish cream sauce. At the fest I savored pecan pralines—the best

New Orleans Metropolitan CVB/Sarah Essex

on location: south ❖

Save room for bananas Foster, a signature dessert in New Orleans.

I’ve had—made by Panderina Soumas, a Creole cook, historian and storyteller who runs Soumas Heritage Creole Gift Shop in Bossier City.

e r e H ts r ta S ty r a P T he in kin’ tent party located will never forget this roc rs ur tou nta up Ce gro of ior we sen Kre r You e from the isiana’s Other Side. Choos Shreveport-Bossier: Lou s Bash.

Gra rdi Ma i min Ge we of Mardi Gras Bash or the Kre tunes, see outrageous cuisine, dance to Cajun na l isia Lou tic hen aut Savor some beads! No one wil , and don’t forget to catch Mardi Gras personalities leave empty-handed.

* per perss on w! $25irt, Cus Book no d, and live entertainment.

Bea Gra di Mar tom l, a Mardi Gras T-Sh Includes mea

Krewe of Centaur Mardi Gras Parade Saturday, February 6, 2010

Krewe of Gemini Mardi Gras Parade Saturday, February 13, 2010

Contact Erica Howard at 1-800-551-8682 ext. 104 or ehoward@sbctb.org for group rate information and more details. To learn more about the ShreveportBossier area, visit www.shreveport-bossier.org

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The next morning we had breakfast at Strawn’s Eat Shop, “the finest greasy spoon you can find.” A Shreveport institution since 1944, Strawn’s original location on Kings Highway served us fluffy, plate-size pancakes with big pats of butter. The biscuits, great with sausage gravy, are to die for. Because Strawn’s is famous for pies, we had to have strawberry pie (with homemade whipped cream) for dessert. The Southern-accented lunch menu includes fried chicken, meatloaf, chicken-fried steak, cornbread, blackeyed peas and mustard greens. Suitable for groups, the high-ceilinged main room is adorned with whimsical murals depicting the Three Stooges, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, presidents and pies.

The most memorable overnights on my recent trip were spent at two plantations along the Great River Road. I was especially excited because I had toured the majestic homes on Delta Queen Steamboat shore excursions when the paddlewheelers offered Mississippi River cruises from New Orleans.

Nottoway Plantation, a sugar estate dating back to 1859, has taken on a spiffy new look in the past year, the result of an extensive facelift completed in June. Chef David Reyes, recruited from Chicago, oversees Ramsay’s, an elegant breakfast, lunch and dinner restaurant carved from the rotunda of the whitepillared mansion, the South’s largest remaining plantation home. Groups also can be accommodated in Randolph’s, a restaurant now used for special events.

Nottoway, a half hour from Baton Rouge, offers 18 guest rooms in the mansion and outbuildings.

Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie is another throwback to the Old South, a place to unwind and go back in time.

From my 19th century cottage on this working sugar estate, I had the luxury of prowling the grounds by flashlight, walkLeisureGroupTravel.com

ing under the canopy of massive 300year-old live oaks that frame the “Big House,” an 1839 beauty that conjures up visions of Gone With the Wind.

While waiting for our hoop-skirted guide to begin the house tour, we bought mint juleps from the refreshment stand to slake our thirst and get in the mood. In

a covered area across from its gift shop and restaurant, Oak Alley can serve groups a lunch buffet that might include crawfish étouffée, gumbo, jambalaya and bread pudding.

Before checking into Oak Alley, we had lunch at Spuddy’s Cajun Foods, a down-home diner in the little town of

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on location: south ❖ Vacherie, right across the street from cane fields. Large enough for groups, Spuddy’s serves everything from fried chicken and fried okra to gumbo, crawfish stew and potatoes stuffed with shrimp and crabmeat. I had the daily special—a plate heaped with roast chicken, dirty rice, coleslaw and peas.

New Orleans is synonymous with good food, and dining there cannot be overrated. We were looking for turtle soup and someone recommended Muriel’s Jackson Square, in a former private residence near St. Louis Cathedral. Besides the soup and Bananas Foster Strudel at this contemporary Creole establishment, we enjoyed the views of historic Jackson Square and clip-clopping horse carriages that rolled past our window.

Other French Quarter standbys include The Court of Two Sisters, where a daily jazz brunch affords more than 80 different items, from eggs Benedict and spicy oysters Bienville to roast beef and bread pudding. Classic Creole restaurants like Antoine’s, Galatoire’s, Arnaud’s and Tujague’s attract devoted followers year after year.

Don’t miss the Cafe du Monde, where patrons at all hours come to people-watch over café au lait and beignets, those square French donuts fried to crusty perfection and generously sprinkled with powdered sugar. At the nearby French Market, tourist shops sell beignet mix, pralines, seafood seasonings, hot sauces and dozens of other Louisianamade products—perfect souvenirs of a flavorful trip to this one-of-a-kind state.

From mom-and-pop diners and elegant eateries to festivals, food factories and gift shops, the culinary trails of Louisiana lead to some of the best eatin’ anywhere on the planet. LGT

PLAN IT! Louisiana Tourism: 800-9948626; louisianatravel.com 36 October 2009

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on our radar: south ❖

ALABAMA A new museum devoted to baseball’s Negro Leagues and Southern League is under construction in Birmingham, across the street from Rickwood Field, the oldest baseball park in America. The Black Barons and later the city’s Double A farm team, the Barons, played at Rickwood Field. A number of baseball greats graced the field there during its heyday, including such legends as Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Satchel Paige.

The museum is expected to be complete by next summer, in time to help mark Rickwood’s centennial. (rickwood.com) FLORIDA Universal Orlando Resort’s highly anticipated Wizarding World of Harry Potter will open in spring 2010. Inspired by J.K. Rowling’s stories and faithful to the visual landscapes of the films, the new land at Universal’s Islands of Adventure will provide visitors with multiple attractions, shops and a signature eating establishment.

Guests will be able to sip Butterbeer in Three Broomsticks, buy Extendable Ears at Zonko’s, see roosting owls in The Owlery, and ride the Dragon Challenge and Flight of the Hippogriff roller coasters. (universalorlando.com) KENTUCKY Kentucky Stage, a new summer stock theater group, makes its debut in the summer of 2010 in Danville. Classic and new works will be presented at the Weisiger Theatre in the Norton Center for the Arts on the Centre College campus. (kentuckystage.org/plan.html) Eddie Montgomery’s Steakhouse opens this fall at Skylar’s Landing, a new development in Harrodsburg that eventually will include a hotel, outdoor amphitheater and family-focused attracLeisureGroupTravel.com

Nostalgia abounds at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

tions. The log-structured restaurant will feature stone fireplaces, waterfalls and a stage showcasing country music artists. (eddiemontgomerysteakhouse.com) LOUISIANA Three new venues will open Nov. 6-8 during a star-studded weekend at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, marking the first phase of a $300-million expansion to be completed by 2015. The 250-seat Victory Theater will be home to Beyond All Boundaries, a multi-sensory cinematic experience. Using an array of special effects, rare archival footage, voices of Hollywood stars and an advanced format 4-D technology, it will provide an immersive journey that spans the global scope of World War II, from the bombing of Pearl Harbor to epic battles and final victory. Audiences will feel the tank treads rumbling across North Africa’s deserts, brush snow from their cheeks during the Battle of the Bulge and flinch as anti-aircraft fire tries to bring down their B-17 on a bombing run over Nazi Germany. Some of the life-sized props will rise from the floor or descend from the ceiling.

The museum’s Stage Door Canteen will be a sentimental tribute to 1940s entertainers who boosted the troops’ morale on the home front and abroad.

Its one-hour production will feature swing dancers and an Andrews Sistersstyle girl group that dances and sings to Big Band tunes. Food and drinks will be served. Besides the signature show, some of New Orleans’ best musicians will perform at the Canteen, which will segue into The American Sector, a casual restaurant featuring the creative American cuisine of Louisiana celebrity chef John Besh, a veteran of the Gulf War. The restaurant is named for the historic area of New Orleans where the museum is located. (504-527-6012, nationalww2museum.org/victory).

NORTH CAROLINA The NASCAR® Hall of Fame has announced May 11, 2010 as the official grand opening date for the state-of-theart facility under construction in Charlotte, N.C. The attraction will comprise 150,000 square feet, including exhibit space, a theater, a Hall of Honor that will house the commemorations of Hall of Fame inductees, numerous interactive October 2009 37

on our radar: south ❖ entertainment experiences, a themed restaurant and retail outlet. The Hall will be owned by the City of Charlotte and operated by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.

Artifacts on the origins of NASCAR and racing will include a reproduction of a Charlotte Speedway track poster from 1924, which illustrates Charlotte’s deep roots in racing, and an original entry blank from the first-ever NASCAR Strictly Stock series event, held June 19, 1949, at Charlotte Speedway.

Among the 1,000 other artifacts will be the Plymouth Belvedere that Richard Petty drove to 27 wins in 1967 and blazer that Ned Jarrett wore while he commentated the 1993 Daytona 500 in which his son, Dale, staved off Dale Earnhardt to claim his first Daytona 500 win. (nascarhall.com) VIRGINIA Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach on Nov. 21 opens its $25-million Restless Planet renovation, featuring 12,000 square feet of new habitats, exhibits and aquariums. Home to 6,000 new animals and 367 new species – including Komodo dragons, cobras and hedgehogs – Restless Planet will more than double the aquarium’s animal collection.

(757-385-3474, virginiaaquarium.com)

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