Louisiana Life July-August 2015

july/august 2015

Fried green tomato Caprese appetizer

by Chef Greg Doucet of Jolie’s Bistro in Lafayette

Louisiana summer salad

by Chef Troy Deano of Baton Rouge

Curried goat entrée

by Chef Ryan Hughes of Purloo in New Orleans

contents

in every issue 6

From the Editor

And Then Came Rita

A Natural Wonder The Shreveport home of Christian and Shelly Valiulis blends innovative architecture with the great outdoors.

Ice Cream Trucks and Tractors

A mom worries if she’s depriving her children of nostalgic experiences on the farm.

28 art

10 Rural Life

20

24 Home

From Dumpster to Dining Room

12 Reel News

The Art of WangLing Chou

Summer Blockbuster Bonanza for Hollywood South

32 Traveler

May the odds be ever in our favor as the game-changing rulings begin.

American Beauty

Exploring Caddo Parish’s American Rose Center

14 Biz Bits

68 Around Louisiana

In The Pipelines

Louisiana job growth fueled by industrial demand

76 Lifetimes

16 Health

Heat & Substance

Preventing heatstroke, medical marijuana and beer benefits

18 Roadside Dining

78 quirky places

Bonnie and Clyde

Attractions in Gibsland

80 A Louisiana Life

Bounty of the Backroads

Art as a Saving Grace

Barbecue and steaks in North Louisiana

Annette Aucoin of Broussard is inspired by Louisiana’s natural beauty.

Fresh From the Gulf

4 summer seafood dishes

78 features 35 Tailgating

Cheer on the Tigers like a Champion

by Matthew D. Sanders

39 top hospitals

101 Listings in 63 Cities

42 5 course feast

5 Creative Chefs Share Their Recipes

by Robert Peyton

2 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

Statewide Calendar

20 Kitchen Gourmet

42

Highlights and Events

July/August 2015 Volume 35 Number 6 Editor Errol Laborde MANAGING EDITOR Sarah Ravits Art Director Sarah George Associate Editor Melanie Warner Spencer web editor Kelly Massicot Contributing Editor Paul F. Stahls Jr. Food Editor Stanley Dry Home Editor Bonnie Warren sales manager Kathryn Beck Sanderson kathryn@louisianalife.com

traffic coordinator Jess DeBold Production/Web Manager Staci McCarty Production designerS Monique DiPietro, Ali Sullivan, Claire Geary Chief Executive Officer Todd Matherne President Alan Campell Executive Vice President/ Editor-in-chief Errol Laborde VIce President of sales Colleen Monaghan Director of marketing & Events Cheryl Lemoine administrative assistant Denise Dean distribution manager John Holzer subscriptions/receptionist Sara Kelemencky (504) 828-1380

Gold Award Winner for Companion Website 2012 Tiffani Reding Amedeo, Silver Award Winner for Overall Art Direction 2011

Renaissance Publishing 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005 (504) 828-1380 Louisiana Life (ISSN 1042-9980) is published bimonthly by Renaissance Publishing, LLC, 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005; (504) 828-1380. Subscription rate: One year $10; Mexico and Canada $48. Periodicals postage paid at Metairie, LA, and additional mailing entry offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Louisiana Life, 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005. Copyright 2015 Louisiana Life. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. The trademark Louisiana Life is registered. Louisiana Life is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos and artwork, even if accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope.

The opinions expressed in Louisiana Life are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the magazine or owner.

4 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

from the editor

And Then Came Rita

By Errol Laborde

Of the two monsters that slithered from the Gulf, through the swamps and into our lives during the summer of 2005, one was bigger, meaner, uglier and traveled farther than the other – but it was the other that the world would know better.

Though Hurricane Katrina, which would cause the levees that protected the global city of New Orleans, would rank as the sixth most intense Atlantic hurricane ever, a few weeks later, Hurricane Rita plowed across coastal Louisiana and then up the state’s west coast.

Rita rated even higher in the all-time intensity level as No. 4.

Rita stepped on already damaged land before delivering her own wrath. On Sept. 20, then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco declared the southwest part of Louisiana to be in a state of emergency. Low- lying Cameron Parish would be a bullseye, followed by Calcasieu and, one by one, the parishes that topped it. Born in the Bahamas, Rita packed 6 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

a punch so great that the mayor of Houston (to where many Louisianians had fled) urged residents to evacuate.

Already too fragile to hold together, New Orleans could not withstand the torrents of rain that predictions said Rita would dump on the city.

Mercifully the estimates were not reached; the tender levees held and the city survived the prospect of facing two disasters within a month.

Everyone who experienced Rita has a story, and each story is worth recalling. The major story, though, was that of recovery. Cameron Parish is not the beach community it once wanted to be, but still it has a rustic charm. The sea’s waves of green are most often friendly; the sunset presents a palette of reds and oranges. Many Louisianians discovered other parts of the state during the summer on 2005; some never returned.

In many ways Louisiana is a better state than it was before that tropical season. We are constructing our buildings with more thought, and if there is another major storm in our path we will know better how to handle it. It is to the state’s credit that despite the storm’s savagery there was only one known death. Rita gradually weakened into a lowpressure system somewhere over the Mississippi Valley.

Weather watchers list the date of demise as Sept. 26.

As fall approached, Louisianians could return to the more anticipated business of boucheries and watching football. The greatest satisfaction from disaster is not just in having survived it, but in being able to move ahead. n

Photo courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

LouisianaLife.com | 7

on the web

LouisianaLife.com Louisiana Life Photo entry Are you an amateur, professional or “just for fun” photographer with some Louisiana photos to share? We want to hear from you! We want to see some great Louisiana photos, whether they’re of people, landscapes, food, culture or even animals. Don’t miss your chance to have your photo featured in the pages of our magazine for all of our readers to see. Send in your photos by going to myneworleans.com/ Louisiana-Life/Louisiana-Life-Photo-Contest.

Please note that the URL is case-sensitive.

Our readers’ photographs

MaY Through the Spillway: Jasmine LeFlore captured this image on a hot Saturday evening in Norco around the Bonnet Carre Spillway.

June Crawfish: “Life in South Louisiana is always good,” says Shalayna Cormier, who snapped this image near Morse.

8 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

LouisianaLife.com | 9

rural life

Ice Cream Trucks and Tractors A mom worries if she’s depriving her children of nostalgic experiences on the farm.

by Melissa Bienvenu One day, in my grocer’s freezer section, a box of redwhite-and-blue popsicles reached out dragged me straight back to 1974.

Suddenly, I was 11 years old and strains of “The Entertainer” were drifting up the street as I begged my mother for 50 cents to buy a Bomb Pop from the ice cream truck. I could see myself so clearly, hopping barefoot on the hot asphalt as I waited to place my order, all skinny arms and bony knees in a baby-blue T-shirt that declared, 10 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

“Butterflies are Free.”

Riding this wave of nostalgia, I tossed a box into my grocery cart. I wasn’t thinking of the actual taste of Bomb Pops so much as the long-ago summertime bliss they represented. At any rate, I figured my sons would know what to do with them.

Our inquisitive 11-year-old quickly noticed the unfamiliar item in our freezer. When he asked, I gladly enlightened him about Bomb Pops and other sugars-on-a-stick that flowed forth from the magical

sanctum of the ice cream truck. He stared at me with an uncomprehending expression.

“What’s an ice cream truck?” said the son of a farmer who lives on a two-lane highway several miles from the nearest neighborhood. Facepalm! It never occurred to me he would not be familiar with ice cream trucks. The ice cream man doesn’t come this far out. The Bomb Pop customers are too few and far between to make the trip profitable. Ice cream trucks are just for city kids.

Not for the first time, I was reminded of how different my sons’ summers are from those of my childhood. Besides the time difference – the 1970s versus now – there’s a gaping cultural divide. I mostly spent my youth in a suburb of Birmingham. They live on a hay farm in rural Louisiana.

Looking back at the school breaks of yesteryear, we rode bicycles for hours and miles at a stretch. Sometimes, we’d go half a day without any parents knowing our exact whereabouts. We had no cell phones for checking in and probably not even a dime for a pay phone. We gave no thought to helmets, knee pads or sunscreen. It was just us, our Sears & Roebuck 10-speeds and the closest a kid could get to freedom.

Honestly, it amazes me to think of it, especially when comparing my childhood summers to my children’s.

Although they have ample freedom to roam about the farm – including a mile or more of their own private road – none of it is paved. The arduous labor of pedaling over gravel and dirt hardly encourages a love of cycling or all-day excursions. Riding on the highway is too dangerous

to even talk about. Short of packing up the bicycles and going somewhere with lots of pavement – which requires the involvement of a driving adult and goodbye independence and spontaneity – there are really no good places for our boys to ride. They will never know the carefree joy of hopping on a bike and going wherever the streets lead.

One place they often led was the town pool, conveniently located a few blocks from my house. A laminated season pass safety-pinned to a bathing suit bought long afternoons of swimming, sunbathing and boy-watching.

(I remember, in my junior high years, hot-rolling my hair and applying lavish makeup in preparation for an outing to the pool.)

Our sons will miss out on this chlorine-scented life experience. There is no public pool in our little town.

The local municipal pool was closed for years before being demolished. Unless you are lucky enough to own a backyard pool or have friends who do, the river is it. The farm does have two fishing ponds, but they are muddy and snaky and not very swimmerfriendly. Even the country club pool where the boys took swim lessons (which, for most of its history, was public only for those who were white enough and wealthy enough to be members) is now slimy and abandoned.

The list of summertime things country kids can’t do goes on and on. They can’t play kick-the-can in the street with the neighborhood kids until the street lights come. (There are no streets, no street lights, and most of the the “kids” are baby goats.) They can’t walk

jane sanders illustration

to the store to buy green apple bubblegum, because the store is 5 miles away. Teenagers can’t cruise around and around the mall to alleviate boredom on hot summer night because ... what mall? Here, teenagers hang out in the Winn Dixie parking lot. (And frankly, that’s a positive in my book. The chance that your grandma, English teacher or pastor might pull into the next parking space at any moment must surely limit one’s opportunities to get drunk or pregnant.)

It’s a fact. Every now and then, I wonder if my kids are being deprived of summertime’s great pleasures because they live on a farm in the sticks.

(What can I say? I’m a worrier.)

I worry, and then I stop and count all of the summertime

experiences they can only have because they live on a farm in the sticks. And I realize how utterly ridiculous I am to spend one nanosecond moping over bicycles and swimming pools.

For example, our boys can go fishing any time they want, at a moment’s notice, without ever leaving the property.

There is a pond teeming with bass and perch a mere couple hundred yards from the house. They can walk there. Alone. I can see them from my kitchen window.

They can cast their lines from the banks of this pond without adult supervision.

And they do, all the time.

Or they can try their luck at the old gravel pit in the woods. With some restrictions, they can even drive

themselves there. Yes! Both boys chauffeur themselves all over the farm and have for several years. Although, I’m not as loosey-goosey about the gravel pit, because a) it’s a long way from the house and surrounded by woods and b) there are boats, and boys with boats are rarely content to fish from the safety of the bank.

But about those boats: one is a “houseboat” (more like a floating platform) designed and built by our 14-year-old and his friends pretty much by themselves. Whatever our son is missing because he lives on a farm is nothing compared to building a real boat with your buddies.

I mustn’t forget to appreciate the rope swing, backyard baseball field, tree house or hay

barn (where they still get into building “forts” and “tunnels” out of square hay bales).

And although I hate them and they scare this city girl witless, I have to add 4th of July fireworks to the list of reasons farm kids have it good. Not only is it legal to shoot fireworks where we live, and not only do we have plenty of room to shoot them, there is also – get this – a fireworks stand right across the highway. And it belongs to the family of one of the boys’ lifelong friends.

If you a boy, this is nothing less than fireworks Nirvana.

Maybe my kids missed the ice cream truck, but summertime on a farm creates its own lasting memories, as brilliant as a firework and as sweet as any Bomb Pop. n

LouisianaLife.com | 11

reel news

Forever Waves stars Kristin Diable and David Jensen

Summer Blockbuster Bonanza for Hollywood South May the odds be ever in our favor as the gamechanging rulings begin.

By Lisa LeBlanc-Berry

It is the summer of Hollywood South, with no less than nine movies that were shot in Louisiana landing at multiplexes. This includes sequels with world-wide fan bases, kicked off by the dinodrama Jurassic World that hit theaters in June, followed 12 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

by July’s Terminator: Genisys highlighted by action-packed flashbacks, and the Fantastic Four reboot in August featuring Marvel’s longestrunning team of super heroes.

Ironically, during the same week that Louisiana legislators approved a highly

controversial measure that suggested limiting the very same film tax credits that lure productions to Louisiana each year, three Louisianashot movies hit the box office (Jack Black’s The D Train, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Maggie and Reese Witherspoon’s Hot Pursuit).

Less than a week later, Lionsgate released stills of an oil-drenched Mark Wahlberg portraying real-life hero Mike Williams as cameras started rolling on the set of Deepwater Horizon (aka The Long Night) in New Orleans. It’s the biggest employment buzz among local IATSE union members this summer. The film wraps in late August, boasting deep pockets that eclipse most Louisiana-shot blockbusters now hitting the big screen.

Slated to hit theaters in September, 2016, Deepwater Horizon is directed by Peter Berg (Lone Survivor, Battleship, Hancock) and co-stars Kurt Russell and his daughter Kate Hudson (appearing together for the first time on the big screen), plus John Malkovich, Dylan O’Brien and Gina Rodriguez.

It recounts the 48 hours leading up to the 2010 Macondo well blowout that killed 11 people and spilled 3.19 million barrels of oil off the coast of Louisiana.

According to crew members, the movie is being made here largely because of the unlimited tax incentives that have been successfully luring productions to Louisiana. The film’s production manager, Todd Lewis, photo by william greiner

saysm “Hollywood wants to go where the best deal is.”

In Baton Rouge, Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Matthew Boner (who stars in Magic Mike XXL debuting in July) have arrived for the remake of another big-budget film, Magnificent Seven, which depicts seven gutsy gunmen who come together to rescue a village from savage thieves. In production through August, the film is based on a script originally penned by True Detective creator and New Orleans native, Nic Pizzolatto.

Meanwhile, as this issue went to press, Andre Champagne, founder of Hollywood Trucks, voiced his concern about potential job loss due to the tax credit caps legislation that was

underway. “A reduction of this magnitude would immediately shrink current, actual jobs by 30-40 percent across the board,” he said. “If we approve these drastic cuts this session, they will not actually go into effect until approximately 18-24 months from this time period. In essence, we would cut real jobs and industry growth right now with no real benefits at this time of fiscal deficit.”

No doubt, the trickle-down economics naturally include short films. Baton Rouge filmmaker Jeff Roedel, formerly the editor of 225 Magazine, recently released his awardwinning Forever Waves, an inspiring short film starring New Orleans-based musician Kristin Diable, whose soul-searching character returns home to Breaux

Bridge after a brush with Hollywood fame. “I wanted to tell a story that sort of lived where the creation of someone’s art and the creation of their life intersect,” he says.

Roedel’s fabulous flick made its local debut to a soldout crowd during the recent Louisiana International Film Festival, and is under consideration for the New Orleans Film Festival in October (it will be available for viewing online later this year, after Roedel launches his new production company in July).

“I work on a very small independent scale right now, but I have friends who make their living going from one big studio project to another,” says Roedel. “These friends want to stay and work in Louisiana, but those bigger budget films and television shows have to

keep coming here in order for that life to be sustained.

Also, a lot of these people jump into small, independent projects in between the bigger, well-paying gigs. I’d hate to see legislation that affects them. If the major studios stop choosing Louisiana because the incentives aren’t there, then these people are very likely to move, and their families go with them, and the small independent filmmakers don’t have nearly as many resources because the crew base leaves and their creative friends move away.”

Now, films large and small will be competing for limited resources, and in time, Louisiana will be up against states with more generous tax incentive programs. As the hunger games begin, may the odds be ever in our favor. n

LouisianaLife.com | 13

biz bits

In The Pipelines Louisiana job growth fueled by industrial demand

By Kathy Finn

The Louisiana Economic Development department, whose function is to draw new business and jobs to the state, scored a “win” of a different type this past spring when Site Selection magazine rated Louisiana the second-most economically competitive state for 2014. The magazine took note of Louisiana’s record of new and expanded facilities, high capital investment and job creation. Here are a few highlights of economic growth during the past few months.

Pipe Fabrication LIVINGSTON A plant seen as the foundation for the fastest-growing industrial pipe fabrication operation in the world will employ more than 500 people in Livingston Parish when it opens in mid-2016, its owners said recently. Epic Piping President Kent Shepherd said the company will invest $45 million to build a 200,000-square-foot plant 14 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

equipped with advanced robotics that will speed pipe fabrication for a host of industries. The company will build on a 70-acre site southwest of the I-12 interchange at La. Highway 63. Shepherd said the high-tech plant will be the first of its kind

Building on plywood FLORIEN One of the largest producers of plywood and engineered wood products in North America is putting $43 million into an expansion that will solidify its impact on central and southwestern Louisiana. Boise Cascade’s wood products operations employs about 1,200 people in the state. The upgrade of its Florien plant will enlarge storage space and add new press equipment. The mill supplies veneer for another Boise Cascade facility that makes engineered wood products in nearby Alexandria.

The company also has a plywood mill in Oakdale.

Shintech, redux PLAQUEMINE A company that made Louisiana headlines a decade ago with a manufacturing commitment in Iberville Parish is back in the news with an expansion. Shintech, a North American subsidiary of Japanbased Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., announced that it will invest $1.4 billion to add the capability for ethylene production at its existing plants, where it primarily makes PVC and vinyl chloride monomer, a key ingredient for PVC plastics.

Shintech expects to complete the project in 2018, adding about 100 new jobs to the 335 positions at its plants in Plaquemine and Addis.

Tubing for profits HOUMA International energy services provider Hunting PLC, which recently completed a $62 million industrial expansion in Terrebonne Parish, said it will add a 300,000-squarefoot plant aimed at broadening its offshore services. About 100 local workers now employed with the company make wireline and coiled tubing, and completion accessories used in offshore well construction. A representative of Hunting, which is based in London and has a subsidiary in Houston, said that growing the company’s presence in south Louisiana will enable it to improve service to industry along the Louisiana and Texas coasts. The plant also will manufacture and ship products to global distributors.

Waste with a purpose PORT ALLEN As industry grows across South Louisiana, so does industrial waste, and a Georgia-based company plans to deal with that waste in a new way at a plant in Port

Allen. Thermaldyne is putting $19 million into a hazardous waste remediation facility that its owners say will offer “green” waste treatment. The plant will use heat to separate contaminants from solid waste streams, such as soil, sludge or filter cake found in the petrochemical and oil and gas industries. The process breaks down the materials rather than sending them through traditional disposal or storage methods such as landfills. The owners say the byproducts of the process can be repurposed, including use as asphalt. When completed in mid 2016 at the 200-acre USA Rail Terminal industrial park, the plant is slated to employ about 45 people.

Back to the future?

SHREVEPORT The north Louisiana region known as the Haynesville Shale, which generated considerable wealth around the oil and natural gas extraction process known as fracking, has languished lately thanks to a decline in oil prices. But now some in the industry are looking to an older, sands formation that might hold new opportunities.

The Shreveport Times reported recently that the Cotton Valley formation in Caddo, DeSoto and Lincoln parishes could spark a “mini boom” because it does not require fracking, which is an expensive process, and instead lends itself to traditional and directional drilling methods. The newspaper reported that Cotton Valley had earlier been seen as promising, but was largely forgotten when the Haynesville Shale became hot and erupted with fracking activity. n photograph courtesy vikingcruises.com

health

Heat & Substance Preventing heatstroke, medical marijuana and beer benefits

By Fritz Esker

Warm-Weather Workouts Louisiana summers are long and brutal. Temperatures soar into the 90s and the suffocating humidity can push the heat index over 110 degrees. For those who enjoy outdoor exercising, it can be a dangerous time.

Heat stroke can be fatal. If you feel weakness, lighthead-

edness, dizziness, headache, muscle cramps, nausea/ vomiting, or a rapid heartbeat, seek air-conditioned shelter and medical aid immediately.

In severe cases, a person may be confused and delirious or suffer from seizures. Heat stroke often causes hot, flushed dry skin (the less deadly, but still serious heat

exhaustion causes heavy sweating accompanied by clammy skin).

Aside from the common tips like drinking water before you feel thirsty and exercising in the early morning or late evening hours (and on shady park trails if possible), there are other factors to consider.

For people new to the state from cooler climes, acclimation is necessary. The Korey Stringer Institute (named after the Minnesota Vikings player who died of heat stroke during training camp) advises people to acclimate themselves to working out in hot conditions gradually over 10-14 days. Start at 15 minutes a day for a few days, then increase to 30, and so on.

An important consideration in sweaty workouts are electrolytes. They regulate fluid balance in the body, and they’re lost via sweat. Sodium and potassium are the primary components in electrolytes.

Post-workout, they can easily be replaced with a banana (422 milligrams of potassium) or a handful of salted nuts (87 milligrams of sodium per ounce). Sports drinks often replace electrolytes, but can come at a higher caloric cost. n

Medical Marijuana in Louisiana? Senate Bill 143 by state Sen. Fred Mills (R-New Iberia) could pave the way for medical marijuana use in Louisiana. The bill passed the Louisiana Senate on May 4 in a 22-13 vote.

On June 4, it passed the Louisiana House of Representatives by a 70-29 vote. At press time, the hurdles it has left to clear are Senate approval of amendements the House tacked onto the bill and Gov. Jindal’s signature. Jindal told reporters in May that he would sign the bill. Medical marijuana usage has been legalized in Louisiana since 1991. The new legislation will lay out a set of rules to allow for its use and dispensation. Under SB 143, only 10 pharmacies in Louisiana would be allowed to dispense it and only one location would be allowed to cultivate it. The bill would allow marijuana to be used for treatment of glaucoma, spastic quadriplegia, and for those undergoing the rigors of chemotherapy. It would not allow for recreational marijuana usage, like measures in Colorado; Washington State; Washington, D.C; Oregon; and Alaska have.

16 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

Thirst Quencher Athletes will be delighted to know that the University of Granada in Spain released a study indicating that a post-workout beer might provide more hydration than water. This is because the carbonation in beer quenches thirst faster and the carbohydrates replace lost calories from exercising. However, study subjects only drank 16 ounces of beer. So, the positive effects of the workout will be lost if you exceed that amount.

LouisianaLife.com | 17

roadside dining

LBK’s 303 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Farmerville, (318) 368-8844 Longwood General Store 3502 North Hwy. 169, Mooringsport, (318) 929-2231

Pitmaster Rodney Kesee cures his own saltpork in the smokehouse behind the restaurant.

Bounty of the Backroads Barbecue and steaks in North Louisiana

By Chris Jay

a hundred miles due east of Mooringsport, in Farmerville, LBK’s Barbecue and Soul Food has been serving up barbecue plate lunches and crowd-pleasing soul food since 1994.

Overseen by pitmaster

Rodney Kesee (the restaurant is named for Kesee’s mother, Latney Beatrice Kesee), LBK’s is an uncommon hybrid of wood-fired barbecue joint and soul food cafeteria. LBK’s serves lunch only, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Sunday through Friday.

Kesee cures his own saltpork in the smokehouse behind the restaurant, and that saltpork lends a country umami – a rich, savory depth – to the outstanding vegetable sides at LBK’s, from turnip greens to black-eyed peas.

On most days, there are 10 or more sides to choose from, along with a dozen meats.

The hickory-smoked pork ribs are exemplary, cooked to tenderness but requiring the slightest of tugs to pull free from the bone. Fried pork chops are enormous, with a satisfyingly crunchy exterior giving way to juicy

meat within. A plate lunch at LBK’s, which includes one meat, two sides and a massive cylinder of hot water cornbread, costs only $7.25.

If you’d like to see a breathtaking example of the power of food to unite a community, grab a table at LBK’s at around 12:15 p.m. on a Sunday and watch as the restaurant fills to capacity with well-dressed Farmerville residents from all walks of life. Kesee once told me, in complete seriousness, that several local pastors bring their sermons to a close each Sunday by saying: “Now, let’s go to LBK’s.”

If I’d grown up in one of those churches, I’d probably have become a man of the cloth, myself. n

Longwood General Store Greenwood Mooringsport Road, also known as LA 169, winds along the Louisiana-Texas border just west of Shreveport. Eight miles south of Mooringsport, near the remote gravesite of blues legend Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, stands Longwood General Store. A combination grocery store, restaurant and casino, Longwood General Store is so far off the beaten path that it seems somehow incorrect to call the place a “truck stop.” Truck stops are places where people stop out of convenience, on their way to other places. Patrons at Longwood General Store aren’t headed to other places – the uncommonly good roadside restaurant is their destination.

18 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

The dining room amounts to nine or 10 tables tucked among aisles of groceries and sundries. Order a beer and it’ll be pulled from the convenience store’s coolers. Order a cocktail (most of which cost about $3) and it’ll be delivered by the bartender from the casino next door. The menu calls to mind old-school seafood and steak places like Jack Dempsey’s in New Orleans. Heavy platters of golden fried shrimp and whole catfish are exceptional, but the restaurant is best known for perfectly prepared, wallet-friendly ribeye steaks.

Ribeyes are only served on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, when the dining room

fills with locals and in-the-know steak lovers from the small towns scattered along LA 169. There are two ways to order a ribeye at Longwood General Store: rubbed with Montreal Steak Seasoning or covered in a red wine and mushroom reduction. Ribeyes range in price from $20.95 (9 ounces) to $53.95 (48 ounces) and are accompanied by a twice-baked potato, a simple side salad and a platter of longhorn and cheddar cheese cubes. As odd as it may seem to make reservations for a table in a grocery store, Longwood manager Levurnia Williams recommends reservations on weekends.

steven myers photograph

LouisianaLife.com | 19

kitchen gourmet

Crab Salad

Fresh From the Gulf 4 summer seafood dishes

By Stanley Dry

If you like seafood as much as I do, you never tire of it. Graced as we are with an abundant supply fresh from the Gulf, we’re in an enviable position compared to landlocked areas where supplies are limited, at best. I can’t help remembering that when I went to graduate school in a small Midwestern town, the only seafood available was frozen ocean perch from the supermarket.

Talk about culture shock.

These days we have a lot of competition from other parts of the country where consumers also love our seafood and are willing to pay for it. Talk to anyone in the business and they will tell you that prices are driven-up by demand from the East Coast. The price for crabmeat has been sky-high this year, in part because of Maryland’s appetite for crabs, which used to be satisfied by the Chesapeake Bay, but overfishing and pollution have greatly reduced the catch.

Anecdotally, I know this from personal experience. While visiting Baltimore some years ago, we feasted on gorgeous freshwater crabs as big as a frisbee, the kind you rarely can find here in Louisiana. I complimented the restaurant owner on the crabs and asked where they came

eugenia uhl photograph

from. “Lake Pontchartrain,” was his reply. Oh well. There’s nothing like traveling a thousand miles to eat seafood from your own backyard.

With seafood as fresh as we can get it here, I favor very simple preparations – sautéing, broiling, grilling, frying, baking – with, at most, a simple seasoning or sauce.

Elaborate preparations are best left to restaurant chefs. I prefer whole fish to fillets, but unless you catch them yourself, whole fish are hard to come by in many places. I recently tried to find whole flounder, to no avail. As a result, the fish recipes this month are all for fillets.

Red snapper and redfish are probably our two best-known varieties, but there are many more Gulf fishes that are delicious. Black drum is one that often got overlooked or thrown back in the past when supplies of snapper and redfish were more abundant, but it is an excellent fish that now frequently shows-up on restaurant menus. Other varieties of snapper, speckled trout, grouper, mackerel, swordfish, and tuna are some of the other species that flourish in the Gulf. And, of course, shrimp, crabs, and oysters are among our most treasured types of seafood.

Talk about an abundance of riches. n

LouisianaLife.com | 21

recipes Crab Salad The mayonnaise you make in the first step may seem strong and too thick, but when combined with the crabmeat the flavor and consistency are just right.

2 egg yolks ¼ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon lemon juice ½ cup olive oil ¼ cup vegetable oil ½ teaspoon grated lemon zest 1 teaspoon snipped chives 1 teaspoon chopped parsley Cayenne pepper to taste 1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat Lettuce leaves Paprika for garnish In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolks, salt, and lemon juice with a wire whisk until pale yellow and creamy. Continue beating with whisk, while slowly adding oils, a drop at a time in the beginning. As the mixture emulsifies, increase slightly the amount of oil you are adding, while continuing to whisk, until all the oils have been added. Add lemon zest, chives, parsley and cayenne, and whisk to incorporate.

Add crabmeat and toss gently so as not to break-up lumps.

Cover and refrigerate until cold.

To serve, line plates with lettuce leaves, spoon over crab salad, and sprinkle with paprika.

Gulf Fish With Crabmeat There’s not much that can top this preparation. Jumbo lump crabmeat is preferred, but price may dictate white crabmeat.

3 tablespoons butter 4 Gulf fish fillets, such as redfish or black drum ¼ cup dry white wine Cajun/Creole seasoning 1 pound lump or white crabmeat 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 tablespoon chopped parsley Lemon wedges Preheat broiler. Butter a rimmed, heavy-duty baking sheet. Place fillets on baking sheet and pour over white wine. Season fillets with Cajun/Creole seasoning and divide butter among them. Broil until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Carefully tip baking sheet into a large, non-reactive skillet to drain liquid. Place skillet over high heat, and keep fish warm while preparing crabmeat and sauce.

Boil liquid in skillet until it becomes syrupy. Add crabmeat and lemon juice and cook only until crabmeat is heated through. Divide fish fillets among warm serving plates; spoon over crabmeat and sauce. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

Makes 4 servings.

Pecan Crusted Trout The rich nuttiness of butter and pecans offers a pleasing contrast to the trout.

4 speckled trout fillets Coarse salt to taste cup chopped pecans 2 tablespoons melted butter Lemon wedges Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Grease a rimmed, heavy-duty baking sheet with some of the butter. Place fillets on baking sheet, season with salt, and divide chopped pecans among them, pressing pecans into the fillets.

Drizzle melted butter over the fish and bake until they flake easily with a fork. Serve with lemon wedges.

Makes 4 servings.

Gulf Fish With Parsley Sauce Parsley is so often used only as a garnish that we take it for granted.

It deserves more respect as a principal ingredient. The shallots called for in this recipe are the little brown bulbs, not the green onions that are frequently called shallots in Louisiana.

2 tablespoons chopped parsley 1 tablespoon minced shallots ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice teaspoon coarse salt teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon capers, drained and rinsed 4 Gulf fish fillets, such as redfish or black drum Cajun/Creole seasoning Olive oil to grease pan and coat fish Lemon wedges Preheat broiler. In a blender, combine parsley, shallots, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper.

Process until thoroughly blended, then transfer to a bowl. Add capers.

Grease a rimmed, heavy-duty baking sheet and brush fillets with olive oil. Season fillets lightly with Cajun/Creole seasoning. Broil until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Transfer fillets to warm plates and spoon sauce over them. Serve with lemon wedges.

Makes 4 servings.

Makes 4 servings.

22 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

LouisianaLife.com | 23

home

A Natural Wonder The Shreveport home of Christian and Shelly Valiulis blends innovative architecture with the great outdoors.

By Bonnie Warren / Photographed by Craig Macaluso

24 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

Shelly and Christian Valiulis built their dream home overlooking a quiet oxbow lake that was once part of the Red River on a property that had originally been purchased by her grandparents in the 1930s.

“Marie and Charles Hamel, my grandparents, purchased the tract of land in an area of Shreveport known as Dixie Gardens where they started Hamel’s Dairy and later Hamel’s Zoo and Amusement Park,” explains Shelly. “I lived most of my life in the home my parents later built on the property.”

The Valiulises built their home to take advantage of the natural surroundings, using clean, simple design and natural materials. “We have beautiful sunsets on the lake, and we enjoy the various birds that migrate in the different seasons. Our new home fits our family with its overall effect of comfort and style,” says Christian.

The couple’s three children: Charles, 9; Griffen, 13; and Lily, 14, knew the property well from visiting the grandparents, Carolyn and Dean Griffen, who still live on the other side of the barn from their new home.

“Our children insisted we build next to the barn where

FACING PAGE: The view of the open floor plan toward the kitchen showcases the cathedral ceiling.

TOP: The great room features an open floor plan and provides a view of the lake. BOTTOM: The dining room table occupies the center of the great room.

four miniature donkeys and two bard cats make their home,” Shelly says. “It is where we have cookouts, pick fresh berries and fruit, play smash ball and take an occasional ride on our

zip line. There are chairs hanging from the trees near the barn where the children enjoy reading and a wonderful tree house.”

Christian adds, “We all enjoy the wildlife,

fishing, kayaking, paddle boarding and just relaxing in the peaceful setting.”

The couple selected Scott Payne, a young Shreveport architect who was just returning home after

working in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he had been designing mountain-styled contemporary architecture.

“It was an exciting project from the start because of the site,” says Payne, who began work on the project when he was part of the Shreveport architectural firm of Somdal Associates; he now has his own firm: Scott Payne Architect LLC. “The house has a contemporary design aesthetic with a layout oriented to capture the view of the lake from the high bank that leads to the water. It is fashioned

with a large great room that features a peaked ceiling that incorporates the living, dining and kitchen areas.”

Shelly and Christian also praise Wesley Thomas, their builder. “I was pleased to be a part of the strong collaborative effort between Scott, Shelly and Christian that produced a home that is nothing less than exceptional,” Thomas says.

“And be sure to mention how happy we were with landscape architect Lloyd Overdyke’s design,” Shelly adds.

The couple also worked with landscape architect Lloyd Overdyke, who maximized the natural beauty. “My goal was to complement the innovative architecture,” says Overdyke.

Both Shelly and Christian love the dry rock creeks that he designed to maintain the proper drainage of the yard. “It’s one of our favorite features of the landscape,” Christian says.

Patrick Marr of Lagniappe Lawnscapes was given the responsibility of the installation of Overdyke’s plan.

“I wanted to make sure everything was correct so that the homeowner would have high-quality plant health so that they would not have to spend family time nursing the landscape,” he says.

As we walk over to the nearby barn with Griffen carrying food for the donkeys – Jane, Jack, Jasmine, and Jessica, they immediately respond to his presence and hurry to greet him as he opens the gate to the wooden fence. “It’s great to have the donkeys for pets,” Griffen. “I 26 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

always enjoy feeding them is part of my daily routine.”

“There is much to enjoy about living here,” Shelly says. “I marvel each day that we were able to fulfill our dream of building on this historic land. This is our retreat from our busy lives.

Even our teenagers enjoy just hanging out at home – and that’s saying a lot.” n

THIS PAGE, TOP: A guest cottage is located at the end of the large swimming pool in the backyard.

Before its recent renovation, it was the children's "party house." BOTTOM: Shelly and Christian Valiulis are shown in front of their new home in the Dixie Gardens area of Shreveport that was designed by architect Scott Payne and built by Wesley Thomas. FACING PAGE, TOP: Large windows in the master bedroom provide an unobstructed view of the lake. The master bedroom is separated from the bathroom by barn doors. BOTTOM: A picture window over the tub in the master bathroom shows off the country setting on the three-acre site.

art

"Room for Everyone"

From Dumpster to Dining Room The Art of WangLing Chou

By John R. Kemp

Glorious sunsets, grand mountain landscapes or a simple bowl of fruit – one never knows what inspires another to create art. Some find art in decaying city streets or in dark, brooding bayous.

And then there is the angst of a fertile subconscious that has driven modern art since Sigmund Freud entered the world’s psyche. WangLing Chou of Pineville, however, finds her expression in the everyday trash and flotsam of today’s disposable society.

28 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

A discarded plastic Coke or energy drink bottle, a Styrofoam egg carton, or the plastic container from a roasted chicken purchased at a local supermarket all find new life as cleverly designed bowls, vases, cups and plates for the dinner table. Chou’s art and vision call to mind how the acerbic Oscar Wilde once described an artist’s view of the world: “No great artist ever sees things the way they are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.” Chou sees trash not as

it is but as it could be. Looking at the feminine curvatures of an empty coke bottle or the molded clear plastic cover of a roasted chicken carton, she sees only beauty and gracefulness in utilitarian objects that were never intended to be art. A Coke bottle becomes a ceramic teapot or an egg carton a table centerpiece for a Thanksgiving dinner.

In a sense, repurposing and transforming objects from one unrelated form to another is a metaphor for Chou’s own life.

Born in Taiwan and now an American citizen, the 40-yearold artist has been on a long transformational journey that started as an elementary school teacher in her native land. After five years teaching young children, and over her

mother’s strenuous objection, Chou moved to the United States in 2002 to pursue her passion in art at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. “I finished my teaching contract, quit my job and enrolled at the university,” she says, recalling her life-changing break with everything she knew. “My parents thought I was crazy.

They didn’t understand.

When I ran out of money, my parents wouldn’t send me any except for a ticket home.”

Unhappily, she returned to Taiwan but later set off for the United States again after her former professor in Philadelphia, the internationally celebrated potter James Makins, met with her parents while on a lecture trip to Taiwan and convinced them to

let WangLing follow her dream.

He also helped her obtain a graduate fellowship to study with acclaimed ceramic artists Kirk Mangus and Eva Kwong at Kent State University in Ohio.

After completing graduate school in 2006, Chou lived for a brief time in Santa Fe, New Mexico, before securing a job at Louisiana College in Pineville, where she now serves as the coordinator of the art department and teaches ceramics and three-dimensional design.

“Doors just keep opening,” she says. “I heard a voice tell me to be faithful and devoted to my talent.” Chou stepped through another door when she married Matthew Stokes of Alexandria, who had spent two years in China, teaching English as a second language.

Nothing illustrates Chou’s metaphysical journey more than her “Dumpster” series. “I

"Caretaker"

"Roast Chicken Sarcophagus"

am a material conservative,” she says. “I recycle and I hate to create trash. I repurpose materials. One day, I saw packing materials being thrown away as trash. I thought the form was too beautiful to throw

away. I save my trash to give it a second chance. Designers create the initial forms and many are beautiful like the beautiful design of a Coke bottle.” In today’s throwaway world, Chou has no trouble finding material. Landfills are full of it. “Lots of times, people and students who have heard about my work bring me their trash materials,”

she says. “When I go grocery shopping, I pay attention to plastic bottles and containers.

I often buy the products simply because I want the container. I transfer lowly items to higher forms. They become art. Transformation.”

That transformation begins with a seemingly innocuous object such as an egg carton or a roasted chicken container.

Unlike many artists who create a mold from the object to be copied, Chou uses the object itself as the mold. It is an interesting process.

First she washes the item in warm, soapy water, dries it, and sprays a thin coat of WD-40 to the object’s interior.

After wiping off the excess lubricant, she presses thin slabs of ceramic clay to the mold’s inner walls, making sure all indentations are filled with clay. Once the clay feels leathery hard, she cuts away the mold (which she may reuse again). She LouisianaLife.com | 29

"You're Too Young to Understand"

then paints on her designs, applies various glazes to give the finished object luster, and finally fires it in a kiln.

Actually, Chou’s handpainted ceramic ware is a continuation of an ancient Chinese tradition in which painted scenes on teapots and bowls told stories. In a contemporary way, her work does the same. Chou’s cartoonish designs often include rabbits and chickens that act out symbolic moments in her married life. According to the Chinese calendar, Chou was born in the Year of the Rabbit and her husband, Matthew, in the Year of the Chicken. We’ll leave it to Chou to interpret those moments.

Although Chou plans to continue her “Dumpster” series, she constantly thinks

30 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

about her work, its meaning and future directions. “I keep reaching for a clearer vision about the mission in my life,” she says, as she contemplates finished and unfinished work "Two Black Swans"

sitting on shelves and tables around her studio. “I know it’s art and teaching, but I wonder what I can do to make it better, more meaningful. I wonder what will be my next vision.

Where is my art going to take me? When I left Taiwan, I thought I had thrown away my teaching experience and life, but I’m still a teacher but in art.

I have turned back through the circle.” As to her parents, she says, they “feel proud but won’t say it. They don’t say anything negative any more now that I am a college professor.”

In recent years, Chou’s work has gained considerable recognition. She has received nine regional and national awards and has shown her artwork in almost 50 juried exhibitions across the country.

In Louisiana, Chou’s work can be seen at Louisiana Pottery in Sorrento and at the Alexandria Museum of Art Gallery. For additional information, visit wanglingchou.com n

LouisianaLife.com | 31

traveler

American Beauty Exploring Caddo Parish's American Rose Center Paul F. Stahls Jr.

Guess where the official registry of the world’s named roses is maintained for access by horticulturists, nurseries, landscapists and backyard gardeners around the globe.

Guess where you can preview roses right now that are coming soon to a nursery near you.

We all cherish Louisiana’s grand variety of public gardens, like the “salt dome” gardens of Iberia Parish and plantation gardens of the Felicianas, but you can’t 32 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

complete your checklist without an expedition to the incredible American Rose Center in the rural reaches of Caddo Parish.

Despite its easy access from Interstate 20 just west of Shreveport, the Rose Center – headquarters and national gardens of the great American Rose Society – is not a destination you’ll ever stumble on by luck. It’s not “on the way” to anywhere (got to be going there to get there), but once inside its rose-draped gates,

visitors instantly recognize the place as a treasure and scrap any notion of a quick look-see. Can’t rush it. Relax.

You’re here for the day.

This 60-acre maze of drives and footways is really a garden of gardens: Rose Society test gardens plus 70 separate sites sponsored by local chapters around the continent. The result is a guided tour and/ or solo exploration (with your trusty garden map), guaranteed to yield sights and insights on a staggering variety of roses, old and new (19th-century “Old Garden Roses” sharing hillsides with the latest winners of national hybridizing competitions); well-known and unknown (like the mystery rose from a New Orleans lawn damaged

by Hurricane Katrina and

regrown here from a single surviving sprig); with color variations beyond belief, from the New Dawn (which blooms pink and fades to white – first plant of any sort ever patented) to the tri-color Mutabilis and a historic green rose once planted to mark “safe houses” of the Underground Railroad.

Some of the stops along the trails are specialty plantings, like the “Noisette” Garden (the only “class” of roses to have originated in the U.S.) and a semicircular planting of “Shreveport” roses called the Harold and Ida Hayden Garden, honoring two locals instrumental in luring the Rose Society and acquiring the All America-ranked hybrid that became Shreveport’s namesake rose. Then, of course, there are the ever-popular test plots

like the Earth Kind Garden (experimental roses that can thrive with no chemicals, no pruning and a single annual watering), while other parcels are used for testing specialty hybrids like low-slung bushes for ground cover or identifying the most manageable varieties of beautiful but notoriously difficult Hybrid Tea Roses.

Interspaced among the gardens’ 20,000 rosebushes are features like trellises, pergolas, fountains and sculptures, not to mention a wishing well, butterfly garden and reflection pool, the Administration Building’s “Cascade Falls,” the Japanese Tea Garden’s pagoda, a playground erected by the Oklahoma Rose Society (in memory of children lost in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing), and guest plantings by the Ark-La-Tex Herb Society. The best known landmark is the Windsounds Carillon Tower set in a circle of All America Rose Selection winners, forming a hub for paths leading off to other gardens as the chimes ring out familiar tunes at 15-minute intervals.

Founded in 1892 in Washington, D.C., the American Rose Society soon established offices at Harrisburg, Penn., relocating in 1954 to Columbus, Ohio. In 1974 came the move to Shreveport, motivated by the region’s sandy and well-drained soil, longer blooming season, national accessibility enhanced

by Interstate 20 and the enthusiasm of Shreveporters who provided contributions, corporate grants and even the outright donation of today’s 118-acre property by the Thigpen and Herold families.

After 41 years here the Society is well dug in (literally

and figuratively), although public contributions as well as Society memberships remain important since the Rose Center is owned and supported solely by members of the Society’s local chapters.

Already the largest park dedicated to our national

flower, the Rose Center possesses ample space to double the garden area.

Improvements are already evident, thanks to individual and corporate assistance following a 2012 tornado and the devastating hailstorm of 2014. Walkway improve-

ments were completed last year (funded by virtue of the paths’ adoption into the Louisiana Recreational Trails Program administered by State Parks), 1,200 new rose varieties have been added this year, and a major feature to be called the “Rose History Lane” is on the drawing board.

New special events also continue to appear, many featuring games and musical groups, to the extent that the Rose Center can now boast an entire year of activities.

After the camellias of January and the “Pruning Party” in February (for members and volunteers) come the azaleas and Louisiana Irises of March, and the big Spring Bloom Ceremony in April welcomes the roses which peak through mid-May. The much-anticipated Easter Egg Hunt involves very special eggs (filled with prizes), plus games, miniature train rides and photos with Peter Cottontail, then check the garden’s website for the gala Star Gazing Party held one evening each summer.

Fall’s rose-blooming season is mid-September through October and Halloween brings a Ghouls in the Garden party, after which the now-famous “Christmas in Roseland” extravaganza occupies November and December with its thousands of lights, dozens of special LED-lighted displays, photos with Santa, rides on the “Roseland Express” and nightly musical entertainment.

FACING PAGE: All America-rated "Shreveport" roses THIS PAGE, TOP: Mystery rose, Katrina survivor BOTTOM: Winding path through the roses (photo by Jerome Lewis)

LouisianaLife.com | 33

All the while, in the Administration Building, the American Rose Society is amassing files on new rose varieties as it has since its selection as “International Cultivar Registration Authority for Roses” in 1955 by the International Society for Horticultural Science, based in Leuven, Belgium.

The registry, available at rose.org, now contains 34,000 varieties. The Rose Society also publishes the bimonthly American Rose magazine and literature distributed through its local chapters, operates a book/souvenir shop, maintains bountiful on-line assets for rose growers, coordinates seminars and speakers, arranges reciprocal visitor benefits with many other botanical organizations and manages a “Consulting Rosarians” program for 34 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

training and certifying rose experts (whose professional guidance then becomes available to chapters and individual members free of charge).

Of paramount interest to professional and amateur hybridizers, the Society assists its 400 chapters and 17 districts with rose shows and exhibitions (usually involving competitions) and itself hosts three national competitions per year (one strictly for miniature roses), where a winning trophy or certificate can launch a new hybrid to stardom in the world of floral marketing.

The Rose Center, 8877 Jefferson-Paige Road near Greenwood, is open daily April 1-Oct. 31 and weekdays during November through February.

Call (318) 938-5402 a week in advance for guided cart tours or group tours, including the 90-minute “all about the

roses” tour for 15 or more – an in-depth introduction to rose “classes” and varieties, fragrances, flavors (teas and jellies), planting and pruning.

Consider joining the Rose Society, enjoy shows and exhibitions at the Rose Center and at Louisiana’s 10 local chapters, “learn by doing” at Rose Center workdays, and explore the Society’s vast digital assets at

rose.org. Most important, visit the gardens often – a pleasure Louisiana is only too happy to share with travelers from other states and continents – and think of our advantage: we’re already here! n TOP: Windsounds Carillon (photo

by Jerry Jinks) BOTTOM: Horizon Garden's roses of tomorrow

by mathew d. sanders photos by teresa day

LSU tailgating

cheer on the tigers like a champion.

a guide to tigerland On seven Saturdays each fall, Ted Guillot rises before the sun – well, before he would awaken on a normal workday – and makes the 35-minute trek from his Gonzales home to his favorite tailgating spot on Louisiana State University’s campus. Located on the east side of the Parade Grounds, next to Coates Hall and the clock tower, he knows the spot as well as he knows his own address. And for those seven football Saturdays, it’s a second home.

“I like when the tailgate spot is set up early in the morning,” Guillot says.

“It’s a nice cool morning, and we’ll crack the first beer, get the black pot going with some oil and the trinity in there, smell the beginning of the day’s cooking. That part of the day, mid-morning, that’s my favorite.

After that, it can get a little crazy throughout the day.”

LouisianaLife.com | 35

the journey begins Guillot is one of a professional class of tailgaters – his group is called T.B.A. Tailgating – and along with many others of their kind, these weekend warriors are the current generation of LSU alumni advancing the school’s robust tradition as the best tailgating atmosphere in America.

“We originally couldn’t come up with a name, so we put in a placeholder,” Guillot says. “But we also like to call ourselves The Best Around, so it serves a dual purpose.”

Part food festival, part cocktail party and part family reunion, words belie LSU’s tailgating ambiance, but if you go – and you should – here are a few pro tips to file away before you plot your own trek on a college football Saturday.

36 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

Duck into the original Raising Cane's for pre-game fried chicken fingers and fries.

The franchise was famously concieved of in a class at LSU. Beyond the North Gates, Louie's Cafe is a favorite spot for breakfast and late-night noshing.

The popular "Mitchell," omelet is suffed with mushrooms, hashbrowns, sausage and colby cheese.

First, the bad news. Navigating traffic and finding a parking spot have induced rage in even the most docile and patient of drivers. So the best advice is to follow Guillot’s lead and go early. If you can, park at the Hart Lot, on Aster Street on the north side of campus, or one of the two Levee Lots along, you guessed it, the levee on River Road. Both are long walks from most on-campus tailgate destinations, but each offers easy access to I-10 and away from campus as more than 100,000 people attempt to leave after the game. Alternatively, if long walks are not for you, full season and individual game parking permits can be purchased through the university.

Once parked, you may want to charge your proverbial batteries before heading to campus. Beyond the North Gates, Louie’s Cafe (3322 Lake St.) is a preferred breakfast and late-night dining option. The “Mitchell,” an omelet stuffed with mushrooms, hashbrowns, sausage and colby cheese is an especially popular choice. Additionally, if a caffeinated jolt is what you need, Highland Coffees (3350 Highland Road) is another near-campus favorite.

Before leaving the North Gates area, there are two other spots worth ducking into. The original location of the now-widespread Raising Cane’s franchise (3313 Highland Road) serves up piping hot fried chicken fingers and fries to customers loyal to the business famously conceived in a class at LSU. Finally, The Chimes (3357 Highland Road) is perhaps the most well-known establishment just off campus, with students “warming the stools” having received a shout-out from former President George W. Bush in

a 2004 commencement address at the university. With more than 200 beers available on tap or in the bottle, it is a rite of passage for students to go “around the world.” Those that complete the journey are memorialized in bronze on the walls.

If you go, be sure to peruse a few of the names, and bonus points if you can find your author’s moniker.

If for parking or other reasons the North Gates area isn’t in the cards, Fred’s In Tigerland (1184 Bob Pettit Blvd.) is another pre-tailgate gem.

Known more for its late-night quintessential collegiate party atmosphere, on football Saturdays Fred’s offers $20 steak dinners. If you go, you’ll also find tailgate bean bag toss games underway on the outdoor patio. Fred’s is always a relaxing and fun way to start a tailgate party, but beware of their Vegas Bomb. More than one of these concoctions has led many a would-be tailgater astray before ever making it on to campus.

Go "around the world" at The Chimes by sampling all of their beers. Note: there are more than 200 kinds.

Upon completion, commemorate your trip with a bronze plaque.

YOU've made it to campus Now that you’ve made it through pre-tailgate festivities, it’s time to embrace LSU’s famous on-campus game day experience. The experience usually depends on the opponent and the time of year. Earlier in the year, when the weather is warmer and the opponent is from outside of the Southeastern Conference, the atmosphere is more relaxed.

“We might swell from 75 people to a couple of hundred for an Alabama game day,” Guillot says. “Some of the bigger SEC opponents cause us to step up our game, cook a bigger, better meal and welcome those opponents in the right way.”

Guillot says the Alabama game draws the biggest on-campus crowd, but his tailgate is prepared to receive scores of LSU fans and fans of the opposition alike.

Fred's In Tigerland is famous for its pre-tailgate and post-tailgate festivites and potent Vegas Bomb.

Get a $20 steak dinner on football Saturdays and enjoy bean bag toss games on the outdoor patio.

LouisianaLife.com | 37

The many food items at LSU tailgate parties often include meat-heavy dishes, including sausage, boudin, hot dogs or pulled pork. Other traditional Louisiana dishes such as jambalaya and cochon de lait are also abundant.

“We’ve developed an understanding,” Guillot says.

“Everyone is welcome. Those of us that pay dues handle the food and everything. We don’t ask anyone to put up anything. As long as everyone is behaving, we’re happy to have opponents’ fans over.”

Steve Duncan, who has been tailgating at LSU for 30 years, said the party – and the cooking – evolve with the season and the opponent.

“After the month of September, we really start cooking,” Duncan says. “We try to cook the mascot when we can. Whenever we play Florida we make alligator sauce piquant. When we we 38 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

play Mississippi State, we probably grill some hot dogs.”

Duncan added pulled pork or cochon de lait are favorites when the Arkansas Razorbacks travel to Tiger Stadium.

Wes Galjour, who has been tailgating with his father at their parking spot between Allen and Lockett halls since he was 3 years old, says tailgating at LSU isn’t just about food and football. Now that he has his own kids, it’s truly a family affair.

“My oldest son made his first tailgate when he was 2 years old,” Galjour says.

“He’s now 3 years old and I do plan to take him to at least one game this year.”

Still, Galjour says, his plans may be dictated by the opponent.

“I try to make sure it’s not a conference game because fans and typically the crowd in general is rowdier for a conference game. For non-conference games, everybody is a bit more relaxed.”

Food, football, family and fun – these are a few of the traditions setting LSU’s tailgate experience apart. But, there are a few others to keep in mind. Traditionally, LSU plays at night. It never rains in Tiger Stadium. But one of the best traditions is to venture over to “Victory Hill” two hours before

kickoff. There, in succession, the football team, followed by LSU’s mascot, Mike the Tiger, followed by the Golden Band from Tigerland make their way down the hill. It’s also a prime spot to encounter opposing team fans and lob a friendly “Tiger Bait” chant as they make their way to the stadium.

Even if you don’t have a ticket to the game, the tailgate party doesn’t end, and there’s inevitably a spot just for you.

“We’ll have the game on at the tailgate if people want to stay around,” Guillot says.

“You can hear the roar of the stadium in the background, so that’s always cool.”

photos courtesy lsu athletics

top hospitals 101 listings in 63 cities There is only one major source that provides credible ongoing analysis of hospitals. It is Medicare, which has to be interested, because it pays many of the big bills. As part of its informational services, medicare.gov reports on evaluations of hospitals based on queries of patients. For the last three years, we have gone through the data and created a one-of-a-kind list that shows the state’s hospitals according to locality. To qualify for this list, at least 60 percent of the patients queried had to give the hospital a top overall ranking of 9 or 10. These are the top general service hospitals as seen through the eyes of those who have experienced them firsthand – the patients. Additionally, a few hospitals in the state did not have any information available on Medicare’s website and therefore could not qualify to be on the list.

LouisianaLife.com | 39

Abbeville

Bossier City

Franklin

Kinder

Abbeville General Hospital 118 N Hospital Drive (337) 893-5466

Willis Knighton Bossier Health Center 2400 Hospital Drive (318) 212-7000

Franklin Foundation Hospital 1097 Northwest Blvd.

(337) 828-0760

Allen Parish Hospital 108 6Th Ave. (337) 738-9489

Gonzales

Lacombe

St. Elizabeth Hospital 1125 West Highway 30 (225) 647-5000

Louisiana Heart Hospital 64030 Hwy. 434 (985) 690-7500

Hammond

Lafayette

Cypress Pointe Surgical Hospital 42570 South Airport Road (985) 510-6200

Heart Hospital Of Lafayette 1105 Kaliste Saloom Road (337) 521-1000

North Oaks Medical Center, L L C 15790 Paul Vega Md Drive (985) 345-2700

Lafayette General Medical Center 1214 Coolidge Ave. (337) 289-7991

Alexandria Central Louisiana Surgical Hospital 651 North Bolton Ave. (318) 443-3511 Christus St. Frances Cabrini Hospital 3330 Masonic Drive (318) 487-1122 Rapides Regional Medical Center 211 4Th St. (318) 769-3000 Amite Hood Memorial Hospital 301 W. Walnut St. (985) 748-9485 Bastrop Morehouse General Hospital 323 W. Walnut (318) 283-3600 Baton Rouge Baton Rouge General Medical Center 3600 Florida St. Baton Rouge (225) 387-7000 Ochsner Medical Center - Baton Rouge 17000 Medical Center Drive Baton Rouge (225) 755-4876 Our Lady Of The Lake Regional Medical Center 5000 Hennessy Blvd.

Baton Rouge (225) 765-6565 Surgical Specialty Center Of Baton Rouge 8080 Bluebonnet Blvd.

(225) 408-5730

Breaux Bridge St. Martin Hospital 210 Champagne Blvd.

(337) 322-2178 Chalmette St. Bernard Parish Hospital 8000 W. Judge Perez Drive (504) 826-9500 Columbia Caldwell Memorial Hospital 411 Main St. (318) 649-6111 Citizens Medical Center 7939 Hwy. 165 South (318) 649-6106 Covington Fairway Medical Center 67252 Industry Lane (985) 801-3010 Lakeview Regional Medical Center 95 Judge Tanner Blvd.

(985) 867-4447 St. Tammany Parish Hospital 1202 S. Tyler St. Covington (985) 898-4000 Cut Off Lady Of The Sea General Hospital 200 West 134Th Place (985) 632-6401 Delhi Richland Parish Hospital-Delhi 407 Cincinnati St. (318) 878-5171 Deridder

The Neuromedical Center Hospital 10105 Park Row Circle (225) 763-9900

Beauregard Memorial Hospital 600 S. Pine St. (337) 462-7100

Woman’s Hospital 100 Woman’s Way (225) 927-1300

Farmerville

Bogalusa Washington St. Tammany Regional Medical Center 433 Plaza St. (985) 730-6700

40 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

Union General Hospital 901 James Ave. (318) 368-9751

Homer Homer Memorial Hospital 620 East College St. (318) 927-2024 Houma Leonard J Chabert Medical Center 1978 Industrial Blvd.

(985) 873-1285 Physicians Medical Center 218 Corporate Drive (985) 853-1390 Terrebonne General Medical Center 8166 Main St. (985) 873-4141 Independence

Lafayette General Surgical Hospital 1000 W. Pinhook Road, Suite 100 (337) 289-8095 Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital 1101 Kaliste Saloom Road (337) 769-4100 Our Lady Of Lourdes Regional Medical Center, Inc 4801 Ambassador Caffery Parkway (337) 470-2000 Park Place Surgical Hospital 901 Wilson St. (337) 237-8119 The Regional Medical Center Of Acadiana 2810 Ambassador Caffery Parkway (337) 981-2949

Lallie Kemp Medical Center 52579 Highway 21 South Independence (985) 878-9421

University Hospital & Clinics 2390 West Congress (337) 261-6000

Jena

Lake Charles

Lasalle General Hospital 187 Ninth St./ Hwy.84 W. (318) 992-9200

Christus St Patrick Hospital 524 Dr. Michael Debakey St. (337) 436-2511

Jennings

Lake Area Medical Center 4200 Nelson Road (337) 474-6370

Jennings American Legion Hospital 1634 Elton Road (337) 616-7000 Kenner Ochsner Medical Center - Kenner LLC 180 West Esplanade Ave. Kenner (504) 464-8065

Lake Charles Memorial Hospital 1701 Oak Park Blvd.

(337) 494-3200 Lake Providence East Carroll Parish Hospital 336 North Hood St. Lake Providence (318) 559-402

Leesville Byrd Regional Hospital 1020 Fertitta Blvd.

(337) 239-9041 Doctors Hospital at Deer Creek LLC 815 South 10th St. (337) 392-5088 Luling St. Charles Parish Hospital 1057 Paul Maillard Road (985) 785-6242 Lutcher

University Health Conway 4864 Jackson St. (318) 330-7000 Morgan City Teche Regional Medical Center 1125 Marguerite St. (985) 384-2200 Napoleonville Assumption Community Hospital 135 Hwy. 402 (985) 369-3600 Natchitoches

St. James Parish Hospital 1645 Lutcher Ave. (225) 869-5512

Natchitoches Regional Medical Center 501 Keyser Ave. (318) 214-4200

Mamou

New Iberia

Savoy Medical Center 801 Poinciana Ave. (337) 468-5261

Dauterive Hospital 600 N. Lewis St. (337) 365-7311

Mansfield Desoto Regional Health System 207 Jefferson St. (318) 872-4610 Many Sabine Medical Center 240 Highland Drive (318) 256-1232 Marrero West Jefferson Medical Center 1101 Medical Center Blvd.

(504) 347-5511 Metairie East Jefferson General Hospital 4200 Houma Blvd.

(504) 454-4000 Minden Minden Medical Center No 1 Medical Plaza (318) 377-2321 Monroe Monroe Surgical Hospital 2408 Broadmoor Blvd.

(318) 410-0002 P & S Surgical Hospital 312 Grammont St., Suite 101 (318) 388-4040 St. Francis Medical Center 309 Jackson St. (318) 966-4000

Iberia General Hospital And Medical Center 2315 E. Main St. (337) 364-0441

Raceland

Springhill

Ochsner St Anne General Hospital 4608 Hwy. 1 (985) 537-6841

Springhill Medical Center 2001 Doctors Drive (318) 539-1000

Rayville Richardson Medical Center 254 Hwy. 3048 (318) 728-4181

West Feliciana Parish Hospital 5266 Commerce St. St. Francisville (225) 635-3811

Ruston

Sulphur

Green Clinic Surgical Hospital 1118 Farmerville St. (318) 232-7700

West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital 701 East Cypress St. (337) 527-7034

Northern Louisiana Medical Center 401 East Vaughn Ave. (318) 254-2100 Shreveport Christus Health Shreveport Bossier 1453 E Bert Kouns Industrial Drive (318) 681-5000

New Roads

LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport 1541 Kings Hwy. (318) 675-5058

Pointe Coupee General Hospital 2202 False River Drive (225) 638-6331

Specialists Hospital Shreveport 1500 Line Ave. (318) 213-3800

New Orleans

University Health Shreveport 1541 Kings Hwy. (318) 675-5000

Ochsner Medical Center 1516 Jefferson Hwy. (504) 842-3000 Touro Infirmary 1401 Foucher St. (504) 897-7011

Willis Knighton Medical Center 2600 Greenwood Road (318) 212-4000 Slidell

Tulane Medical Center 1415 Tulane Ave. (504) 988-1900

Cypress Pointe Hospital East 989 Robert Blvd (504) 690-8200

Oak Grove

Ochsner Medical Center Northshore, Llc 100 Medical Center Drive (985) 649-7070

West Carroll Memorial Hospital 706 Ross St. (318) 428-3237 Oakdale Oakdale Community Hospital 130 N. Hospital Drive (318) 335-3700

St. Francisville

Slidell Memorial Hospital 1001 Gause Blvd.

(985) 643-2200

Thibodaux Thibodaux Regional Medical Center 602 N .Acadia Road (985) 447-5500 Ville Platte Mercy Regional Medical Center 800 E. Main (337) 363-5684 West Monroe Glenwood Regional Medical Center 503 Mcmillan Road (318) 329-4600 Ouachita Community Hospital 1275 Glennwood Drive (318) 322-1339 Winnfield Winn Parish Medical Center 301 W Boundary St. (318) 648-3000 Winnsboro Franklin Medical Center 2106 Loop Road (318) 435-9411 Zachary Lane Regional Medical Center 6300 Main St. (225) 658-4000

Southern Surgical Hospital 1700 W. Lindberg Drive (985) 641-0600

Opelousas Opelousas General Health System 539 East Prudhomme St. (337) 948-3011

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course feast 5 creative chefs share their recipes

42 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

by robert peyton photos by denny culbert

Louisiana has a deserved reputation for great food. Whether we’re dining at home or in a public venue, we eat well. Restaurant meals tend to be more formal, of course, with dishes served in courses, rather than all at once. ¶ In that spirit, we’ve asked chefs from all over the state to provide recipes for a five-course meal. You could take this menu and put together a fantastic dinner party or make them individually for a more casual weeknight indulgence. ¶ In Southeast Asia, where they know a thing or two about heat and humidity, folks often eat spicy dishes when the temperature rises, on the theory that spicy food will make you sweat and cool you off. That’s at least part of the reason we’ve included the Vietnamese inspired entrée. ¶ Another line of thinking is that hot weather demands cold food, and thus two of the recipes here – the pickled shrimp and watermelon salad and the chilled watermelon and dewberry cream soup – are served chilled. ¶ We’ve tried to keep the recipes approachable; even the dessert, which may look daunting at first glance, should work out fine for a home cook. ¶ We hope you enjoy cooking these dishes.

Whether you prepare one or all of them, we’d love to hear how they turned out.

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Course: Appetizer

Chef Greg Doucet Jolie's Bistro Lafayette

Chef Gregory Doucet has roots in southwest Louisiana. After graduating from Comeaux High School in Lafayette, he attended the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University, graduating in 2012. Doucet served an externship at Orienta Beach Club in Mamaroneck, New York, before returning home to work at Jolie's Louisiana Bistro, where he was named executive chef in 2013.

Jolie’s Bistro is elegant without being stuffy.

Paintings by George Rodrigue adorn the walls, and the menu is centered on Louisiana classics, but Doucet and his team branch out now and again with dishes like the roasted bone marrow with oxtail jam and smoked salt and the cioppino stew, featuring seafood sourced locally and further afield in a tomato-based broth with a red pepper aioli.

Fried Green Tomato Caprese sauce In a small saucepan, reduce ½ cup Balsamic vinegar to ¼ cup on low heat. Allow to cool and mix with 1 quart of Mayonnaise.

This appetizer combines Southern and Italian elements for a winning combination. The crispness of the tomato works nicely with the soft, fresh cheese, and the balsamic mayonnaise sauce provides richness and a sweettart accent. If, like me, you have too many tomatoes in your garden toward the end of the season, this recipe is perfect.

tomatoes In small bowl, mix 1 cup of flour with 1 – 2 tablespoons of salt or Cajun/Creole seasoning. In separate bowl, beat 1 egg with 1 – 2 tablespoons of lukewarm water to make egg wash.

Peel and slice 1 – 2 medium green tomatoes into ½-inch thick slices. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Dredge slices first in flour mixture, then egg wash and finally into 1 cup panko bread crumbs before frying in 350 degree peanut oil until crisp and browned. finish & plate Brush the plate with about 2 tablespoons of balsamic mayonnaise mixture. Place a slice of tomato over the sauce, a slice of mozzarella cheese over the tomato and finish with a basil leaf. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Greg Doucet Jolie's Bistro 507 W. Pinkhook Road, Lafayette (337) 706-8544 jolieslouisianabistro.com

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Course: Soup

Chef Paul Poe is from Oil City, a town of about 1,000 souls in Caddo Parish. He started his culinary career in casino kitchens before joining the team at Bella Fresca about three years ago, taking over the executive chef position earlier this year.

About his inspiration for this recipe, Poe says, “I picked the wild dewberries and grew the jalapeño in my backyard. While making it, I thought of being a kid and putting salt on your watermelon in the hot Louisiana summer, so you should get that up front. The dewberries reminded me of growing up picking them with my family to make cobbler and jelly.”

Dewberries, for those not familiar, are close cousins to blackberries and in this recipe they’ll give a slight tartness that balances the richness of the sour cream just as the sweetness of the watermelon offsets the roasted jalapeño.

Chef Paul Poe Bella Fresca Shreveport

46 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

Chilled Watermelon Soup with Dewberry Sour Cream and Roasted Jalapeño soup Dice the flesh of one 8 pound seedless watermelon. Blend watermelon, 1 tablespoon salt, ¾ cup of sugar, 1 cup Chardonnay and 2 tablespoon lemon juice in batches, then chill for at least 30 minutes.

Chilled soups are, of course, great in the summer, and the addition of sour cream to this one gives it something of a central European feel, where such soups are common.

Paul Poe Bella Fresca 6307 Line Ave. Shreveport (318) 865-6307 bellafresca.com

Sour cream Blend 3 dozen dewberries and strain through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the seeds.

Mix with one cup of sour cream and chill. jalapeÑos Roast 4 large jalapeños on a burner or grill until the skin chars and blackens. Remove the skin (made easier if you allow the chiles to steam in a paper or plastic bag for 10 minutes) then remove the interior veins and seeds. Cut the peppers into thin strips. finish & Plate Portion soup into 6 to 8 bowls, add a dollop of dewberry cream, and top with roasted jalapeños.

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Course: Salad

Chef Troy Deano Private Chef Baton Rouge

Chef Troy Deano is from the New Orleans area originally but has cooked for a number of years in Baton Rouge, and now calls it home. Deano is an alumnus of the Besh restaurant group, and told me “Rene Bajeux really taught me how to love food while he was at La Provence, and Steve McHugh [another Besh alum] from Cured in San Antonio really taught me how to live it.” More recently he worked at 18 Steak in L’Auberge Baton Rouge and was the chef at City Pork Brasserie and Bar. Though young, he’s clearly skilled in all aspects of the professional kitchen, as evidenced by his Louisiana Summer Salad. Currently, he’s working as a private chef with plans to open up his own restaurant.

Louisiana Summer Salad

A quick pickle leaves the shrimp tender and wellspiced; the heat is balanced by the sweetness of the watermelon, and there’s a depth of flavor added by the tomatoes and the Steen’s. The mint adds a refreshing herbal note to bring everything together.

Pickled Shrimp Place 1 pound 20 count shrimp (shell on, head off) in a heat-proof container.

Combine 2 cups rice wine vinegar, 2 cups water, ½ cup sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon whole peppercorns, 1 teaspoon mustard seed, 1 teaspoon chili flake, 3 tablespoon Sriracha sauce, 3 garlic cloves and 2 whole shallots in a small saucepan. Heat to a rolling boil, then pour hot pickling brine over shrimp. Let sit at room temperature for 3 hours, then chill overnight in fridge until shrimp are completely cooked.

Watermelon Toss 1 watermelon (diced to one inch squares, about 6 cups) in 1 cup mint syrup (½ cup each; water, sugar, mint leaves) and let set for 30 minutes. finish & plate Mix 4 sliced Creole tomatoes (per salad), 1 cup watermelon salad, 1 pound peeled pickled shrimp, 1 tablespoon Steen’s cane syrup, 10 medium mint leaves (per salad), 1 tablespoon kosher salt and serve. If you like, place slices of tomato first, as a base, then add shrimp and watermelon salad.

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Course: Entrée

Chef Ryan Hughes heads the kitchen at Purloo, the restaurant in the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans. Named for a low-country rice dish that’s similar to jambalaya, the food at Purloo is pan-Southern.

Though neither goat nor curry may spring to mind when you think “New Orleans food,” the dish is emblematic of one of the city’s more recent immigrant populations, Vietnamese. Vietnamese restaurants outnumber those of just about any other cuisine in the Crescent City, and the number seems to grow weekly. The reason is that the food is vibrant, light and despite its current popularity, still somewhat exotic. Depending on where you’re reading this article, goat may or may not be easy to obtain in your local supermarket, but the Louisiana Meat Goat Association (lameatgoat. net) lists producers all over the state. It’s a mild meat, but if you can’t find it or would prefer something else, you can substitute lamb.

Chef Ryan Hughes Purloo New Orleans

Curried Goat Meat Season 5 pounds goat stew meat, (or lamb) cut into pieces with 2-3 tablespoons Curry powder and Kosher salt to taste. Let rest for 30 minutes, then brown in oil, in batches, and remove from pan. Reserve.

Simmering Sauce Add 2-3 chopped onions, 2-3 chopped bell peppers, ½ head chopped celery, ¼ cup garlic (chopped), 3 medium chopped jalapeños, (seeds and all), 2 bunch chopped green onions and more curry powder, and stir until fragrant and vegetables have softened. Return seared goat or lamb to the pan, along with 2 cups crushed tomatoes, 8 cups chicken stock, 2-3 tablespoon fish sauce, ¼ cup sugar, ¼ cup chopped lemongrass, 1 cinnamon stick and ¼ cup chopped ginger.

Finish & Plate Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until meat is tender, about 1 hour. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then add 2 cups coconut milk and 2.5 pounds sweet potatoes (peeled and sliced ½-inch thick). Cook until tender, about 15 minutes.

Garnish with 1-2 bunches of coarsely chopped cilantro, and serve with bread, preferably Vietnamese banh mi.

You could also serve the dish over rice, but traditionally it’s eaten with the light baguettes called banh mi in Vietnam.

New Orleans-style French bread works, too.

Ryan Hughes Purloo 1504 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans (504) 324-6020 nolapurloo.com

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Course: Dessert

Arthur Durham La Truffe Sauvage 815 W. Bayou Pines Drive Lake Charles (337) 439-8364 thewildtruffle.com

Chef Arthur Durham La Truffe Sauvage Lake Charles

In the event the name doesn’t tip you off, chefs Arthur Durham, Mohamed Chettouh and sous chef Andrew Hartman serve unapologetically French cuisine at La Truffe Sauvage. The elegant Lake Charles restaurant has long been considered one of the best in the area and the state.

House-smoked salmon with potato galette and avocado crème fraiche; pan-seared foie gras over a dried fruit brioche with apple terrine and a blood orange reduction; tournedos Rossini and a nightly soufflé are just some of the dishes on the menu. These are classic dishes for a reason; when prepared with skill and attention, there’s nothing better.

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Assembly Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For a 100-millimeter or 3 7⁄8-inch tart ring, cut a 135-millimeter or 5 3⁄8-inch ring of pâte sucré.

Place ring on a greased or parchment lined baking pan, and press dough into ring. Repeat with remaining rings. Evenly divide the pear cream between the rings.

Keeping the dough chilled as much as possible will keep it intact, as when it is warm, it becomes soft enough to mangle easily. Slice the pear lengthwise leaving the top uncut to allow the base of the pear to be fanned in the tart shell. Place pears in tart shells, lightly pressing to flatten, fan the slices. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until the pastry shell and pear cream have a nice golden brown color.

La Truffe Sauvage Pear - Almond Tart Pâte Sucré Cream 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter and ¹⁄³ cup Granulated sugar in a mixer or food processor. Add 1 egg yolk, ¼ teaspoon vanilla, ½ teaspoon lemon zest, ½ teaspoon lime zest and a pinch salt; mix until well combined. Add ½ cup all-purpose flour and mix until just incorporated.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap, flatten and refrigerate until firm. When dough is firm, knead lightly until dough is putty-like. Roll on a floured work surface quickly and nimbly until dough is ¹⁄8 - inch thick. Transfer dough on to baking sheet and refrigerate until firm.

Pear Cream Combine 4 teaspoons unsalted butter, 4 ounces almond paste, 3 tablespoons almond flour, 3 tablespoons all purpose flour and 1 ½ tablespoons brandy in food processor and process until smooth, set aside.

The dessert chef Durham shared takes some time, but it’s not technically difficult and the result is delicious.

finish & PLATE Warm and thin the ½ cup apricot jelly and 2 - 4 tablespoon hot water in a small saucepan, then brush over the finished tart. Top with ¼ cup sliced toasted almonds and a dusting of about ¼ cup of powdered sugar.

Poached Pears Combine 1 cup granulated sugar, 2 cups water, ¼ cup white wine and 1 lemon (cut in half) in low-sided saucepan with a lid and bring to a gentle boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar.

Peel 2 ripe Bosc pears. Cut the pears in half, from top to bottom, and using the tip of a paring knife, carefully remove the stem and seeds.

Slit ½ vanilla bean down one side and scrape the seeds into the syrup. Place pears in syrup, along with vanilla bean. Gently simmer, covered, until pears are easily pierced with a paring knife. Remove pears and cool to room temperature. Syrup may be used again for poaching fruit.

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ADVERTISING SECTION

state of medicine Just as the body is a complex system, so is the industry of professionals that provide its care.

From large hospital systems to small private clinics, healthcare across Louisiana is a diverse landscape that continues to change and grow. Extending from North Louisiana down to South Louisiana, the “state of medicine” is promising as providers continue to expand services, add physicians and update technologies. Learn the latest news from the state’s numerous hospital systems, cardiovascular specialists, and orthopedists with the following updates from Shreveport-Bossier down to New Orleans and Cajun Country.

Hospital News Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge has served Louisiana and beyond with innovative and compassionate healthcare for over 90 years. As the largest hospital in the state, Our Lady of the Lake offers more than 60 medical specialties, advanced surgical services, comprehensive Cancer Center, Children’s

54 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

Hospital and a physician network with more than 300 providers.

The Heart & Vascular Institute and expanded Trauma Center are leaders in care and treatment for disease and injury using advanced technology. The hospital continues to grow as an academic medical center investing in the next generation of healthcare leaders.

The many recognitions and distinctions awarded demonstrate Our Lady of the Lake’s commitment to high quality. These include being among 40 hospitals across the country ranked high-performing

by U.S. News & World Report in all five common care areas, which include hip replacement, knee replacement, heart bypass surgery, congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Additional distinctions include Hospital of the Year, Magnet designation for excellence in nursing care and more.

To learn more about how they’re making your healthcare better, visit ololrmc.com.

ADVERTISING SECTION

CHRISTUS Health Louisiana recently announced an agreement with Ochsner Health System, bringing together two of Louisiana’s most prestigious organizations. Ideas for the partnership include building a comprehensive telemedicine program to make services like TeleStroke and TeleNICU available, launching patientfocused initiatives to improve the treatment of chronic diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes, providing options that empower employers to deliver onsite health and wellness programs, and partnering on clinical studies to ensure patient access to advanced options.

“The integrity of each system still remains intact. We are able to continue to be successful, just on a larger more collaborative scale with a great system like Ochsner,” says Stephen F. Wright, Senior VP, Group Operations, CHRISTUS Health.

“Now, both parties can take advantage of CHRISTUS’ highly integrated supply chain and work together on initiatives to lower costs. We aim to negotiate better pricing and share best practices for operational and clinical efficiencies. Initial projections indicate that through the first year of our joint efforts, we will save roughly $3 million in supply costs. Ultimately, that translates into savings for the patient.”

For more information on this exciting partnership, visit CHRISTUShealth.org.

Cancer Care Willis-Knighton Cancer Center’s Proton Therapy

in Shreveport provides leading edge therapy that marks a new era of cancer treatment for residents of the region.

ProteusONE™, the world’s first compact proton therapy system, uses pencil beam scanning technology to target a tumor with great precision, leaving healthy organs and tissue surrounding it unharmed. It also alleviates many of the side effects found with other cancer therapies. Proton therapy is highly effective treatment for tumors of the prostate, brain, central nervous system, head and neck, breast, lung and pancreas, among others.

Center

Willis-Knighton Cancer Center is the region’s premier cancer treatment facility and is part of Willis-Knighton Health System, a nonprofit community healthcare organization. The center has been a leader in innovative technologies and has gained national and international recognition in the treatment of cancer.

For more information on the Cancer Center’s Proton Therapy Center and Willis-Knighton Health System, visit wkhs.com/cancer.

Heart & Vascular Do you have varicose or spider veins? These could be signs of a serious condition called venous disease, which is caused by diseased or abnormal veins. When vein vessels become damaged or weak, blood flows backward causing the veins to stretch, swell and twist.

Other symptoms of venous disease may include swelling or heaviness in the legs, leg pain or cramping, discoloration, ulcers and eczema.

The Vein Center at Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) in Houma diagnoses and treats venous disease with minimally invasive procedures, resulting in less pain, cosmetic improvement and quicker recoveries for patients. Get rid of your unsightly varicose or spider veins with treatment from the cardiovascular vein specialists at CIS. CIS cardiologists are nationally recognized for the prevention, detection and treatment of cardiovascular disease. To schedule a vein consultation with one of their expert physicians, call 1-800-425-2565 or visit cardio.com to learn more.

“The LINQ heart monitor is an implantable device that’s inserted under the patient’s skin next to the sternum over the heart,” said Dr. Al Timothy, cardiologist at Thibodaux Regional. “It monitors the heart rhythms and detects otherwise undetectable rhythms.” The LINQ makes an arrhythmia easier to identify because it monitors the heart’s rhythms 24 hours a day for up to three years. The LINQ gathers data, sends it to a mobile device in the patient’s home, which then transmits the information back to the physician’s office.

For more information on the LINQ heart monitor, call the Heart and Vascular Center of Thibodaux Regional at (985) 493-4703.

Orthopedics Have you or someone you know had a recent tendon, ligament or cartilage injury, including rotator cuff and meniscal tears, and want to get back to participating in athletics or an active lifestyle? Do you feel like you’re missing out on life due to chronic joint pain from osteoarthritis in the knee, shoulder or hip? Dr. Kevin Darr of Covington Orthopedic is offering innovative surgical and non-surgical treatment options, including combined cellular therapy using your own stem cells and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to get you back to doing the things you love sooner.

Dr. Kevin Darr may have options to restore the lifestyle you may be missing out on due to pain or injury. Call Dr. Darr today at (985) 273-5888 and visit DrKevinDarr.com.

Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, located in Lafourche Parish, is the one of the first to offer an innovative new technology that can save the lives of those with hard-to-diagnose heart arrhythmias. One of the problems with an arrhythmia is that it tends to come and go, and while seeing a physician or undergoing tests, the arrhythmia may not be identified.

The slim LINQ heart monitor is the smallest device on the market and takes just minutes to place during an easy, outpatient procedure.

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around louisiana Events and Highlights / By Jeanne Frois

North

K9 Pool Party in Ruston

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER Summer in Ruston is not only a great place to enjoy a great juicy peach, but it’s also a perfect place for the hot and paw-worn to cool off when August weather is like a griddle is set on high.

The Ruston Parks and Recreation Department hosts dogs by sponsoring its annual K9 Pool Party. Each August, as the Municipal Pool on Georgia Street closes for the summer season, the pool is alive with canine belly flops, riotous splashing, yips of pleasure and furious dog paddling. Dog owners are optional, but nevertheless encouraged to join their beloved pets in the watery fun as the pool fills with pooches of every size and color once the hounds are released. All pooch personalities are welcome – save for the aggressive – and shots must be current.

68 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

The event is free for dogs, but owners are asked to donate either a can or bag of dog food, or a box of treats for Ruston animal shelter and other nonprofit shelters around the area. The event takes place August 1, from 9 a.m. – 1.p.m. and, August 2 from 1 p.m.-3p.m.

LINCOLN HISTORY IN RUSTON In the beneficent time of childhood when summer didn’t just mean sweltering and unfolded in a blissful sansschool-haze of barefoot days, swimming, baseball games, or idle time buried in a good book, there was one activity I always enjoyed the best, even if it was educational. I loved visiting museums, because they were deliciously cool and filled with items that told wonderful stories.

The Lincoln Parish Museum and Historical Society in Ruston has dedicated itself to “Educate, Inspire and Appreciate the Unique History of North Louisiana” and lives up to that credo in impressive celebration. Housed in the Kidd-Davis abode built in 1886, the museum is filled with colorful and interesting treasures that reflect past life in Lincoln Parish. One of the home’s past owners was Robert Wesley Davis whose wife was Charlotte Arabella Long, a sister to two Louisiana fellows named Earl and Huey.

This rambling old house is wedding cake-white with a deep, inviting front porch.

Step into the entry way and you’re met by the beautiful sight called “The Walls That Talk” murals. Painted by Louisiana Tech art students in 1978, the murals depict

vignettes from Lincoln Parish history. In 2009, local residents recorded the stories behind the pictures, thus providing an audio explanation of each mural as you pass.

The Caddo tribe is paid tribute by an exhibition of Native American pottery and arrowheads. As you wander over the glistening floors beneath a chandelier amid Victorian settees, the museum works its magic on you. Cases that glow with vintage antique gowns; a vintage dollhouse, half tester beds and art collections are interspersed throughout the gracious old place. Donated by Dr. James C. White are more than 70 of his original drawings of churches representing religious denominations found in Louisiana.

The DeCinter Carraway Farley collection shows charming memories of DeCinter Farley’s happy childhood in Lincoln Parish captured on canvas in a style somewhat reminiscent of Clementine Hunter’s.

Farley received international recognition for her artwork at the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans. For researchers, the museum offers numerous resources in the form of historical records, census data and maps. n Information, The Municipal Pool at Georgia Avenue, Ruston, (318) 255-5806, ruston.org/rpar. The Lincoln Parish Museum and Historical Society, 609 North Vienna St., Ruston, (318) 251-0018, lincolnparishmuseum.org.

photo courtesy City of ruston parks and recreation facebook page: facebook.com/RustonRPAR

around louisiana

Central

International Star winning last season’s Lecomte at New Orleans Fair Grounds

THE HORSE LECOMTE Sometimes there are stories that need to be told over a cup of coffee and a slice of pie at Lea’s Lunchroom.

It was in the town of Meeker (in the Lecompte area) that a family of gentry named Wells dwelled during in antebellum times. The scions of the Wells family were an interesting lot: The eldest son William Rudolph died with Jim Bowie at the Alamo and had been present at the Sandbar Fight in Concordia Parish with Bowie.

The youngest, James Madison, darkly handsome, was governor of Louisiana from 1865 to 1867; Montfort Wells was a state senator and brigadier General in the Louisiana Militia.

And then there was Thomas Jefferson Wells, who happened to own a horse named Lecomte.

Now Lecomte was no slacker. He was foaled out of the legendary 19th-century broodmare Reel and sired

by Boston who was elected photo by lou hodges, jr.

into the inaugural class of the Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame. Lecomte was a slight little equus, a beautiful chestnut with one white hind leg, excellent of temperament and kindly disposed to his riders by never throwing them or engaging in that pusillanimous pastime of being a runaway.

Nimble and graceful, he had the speed of a sprinter combined with power to go to distance in equal measure. He was praised by many to be the fastest horse in all of North America and remained unbeaten in horse races. His racing star rose high, but alas, Lecompte also had a half-brother named Lexington, who shared the same sire and mighty horse ability as his sibling. In what might be considered a precursor of the Civil War, brother would face brother in a racing war; North would be pitted against South.

Lexington was owned by a Yankee named Ten Broeck who was anxious to chal-

lenge Wells and Lecomte in the Great Post Stakes at the racecourse in Metairie (now Metairie Cemetery). The track was sloppy and Lecomte lost, mud not being his preference.

But the following Saturday, the half brothers met again for the Jockey Club Purse. In four-mile heats, the race was run. In an astonishing 7 minutes and 26 seconds, Lecomte won the first heat, establishing an American record for the distance by any horse.

The town of Lecompte is named for the mighty little horse. When the railroad painted a sign at the station a letter “P” was incorrectly added to the name, and thus the town of Lecompte is still known by its misspelled name.

Never forgetting the feisty little chestnut, each year the Fair Grounds in New Orleans holds the Grade III Lecomte Stakes as an initiation race for horses who have just turned 3.

CENLA RISING Central Louisiana with its rich history, measured pace and family oriented esprit de corps has been garnering national recognition when it comes to quality of life.

Forbes magazine selected Alexandria in Rapides Parish as one of the top three places in America to retire. The excellent air quality, warm climate, low tax burden and low cost of living helped the city win this honor. Added to the assets of life in Alexandria were the thriving arts culture that included River Oaks Arts Center; the Alexandria Museum of Art; local theater groups; the Rapides Parish Symphony Orchestra and the Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center. The state-of-art Alexandria Zoological Park and T.R.E.E. House Museum for children only increased to the city’s accolades.

In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek named the Central Louisiana town of Ball the best place to raise children, citing low crime rates, fine city services, a senior citizen center and a green waste program. Additionally, the natural beauty of nearby Kisatchie National Forest, 600,000 acres dedicated to biking, hiking, bird watching and camping, along with Central Louisiana’s succession of lakes, continue to contribute to this region’s exquisite treasure trove of natural resources. n LouisianaLife.com | 69

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Cajun Country ing with melted cheese and loaded with either grilled chicken; marinated steak; sautéed shrimp or veggies forms a beautiful half moon of flavor while the other half of the plate is dotted with pale green guacamole, sour cream and jalapeno relish.

The Mar y Terra is a surf and turf presentation of grilled rib eye served with three stuffed shrimp, chimichurri sauce and potato hash. This Mexican eatery offers such delicious and hearty fare, you can’t help but think that, if it was possible, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa might have eaten there.

Carne Asada at Blue Agave in Lafayette

BLUE AGAVE IN LAFAYETTE Aptly named for the plant that renders tequila, the Blue Agave Restaurant fittingly offers a gallery of delicious and refreshing (on-a hot-summer’sday) tequila libations. Using tequila with the labels Patron Silver; Cabo Blanco; Patron Anejo; Don Julio Reposado, among others, this eatery concocts elixirs like the Blue Agave, a sweet and sour mix of Cabo Wabo Blanco, Cointreau and Grand Marnier, or the Mojito Margarita – Don Julio tequila, Cointreau, sweet and sour lime sugar, mint. Sipping one of these sweet-tart drinks with an appetizer of spicy 70 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

Ceviche, made with shrimp, scallops and tilapia marinated in citrus juice, tossed with avocado and pico de gallo is an inspiration. The Shrimp Cocktail brimming with the marinated flavor of spicy tomato sauce, avocados and pico de gallo is another fine choice to begin your meal.

For your main course the Carne Asada arrives plated with an 8-ounce rib eye, replete with a cheese and chicken enchilada each, Mexican rice, charro beans, guacamole, pico de gallo and jalapeno relish.

The quesadillas resemble half of a pie on your plate. A grilled wheat tortilla seep-

PRAIRIE TRIBE FESTIVAL IN OPELOUSAS Thousands of years before the Europeans ever waded through a Louisiana swamp or dodged an alligator, a Native American tribe called the Attakapas (pronounced UH-TOCK-A-PAH) by the Choctaw lived in Southwest Louisiana. Their own name for their tribe was “Ishak,” meaning, “The People.”

The junction of U.S. Highway 190 and Louisiana 111 is a portion of an ancient Attakapas trail that joined the bands dwelling in Southeastern Texas called the “Sunset People,” with the Southwestern Louisiana bands, especially the Opelousas band, who were known as the “Sunrise People.” It has been said that the Appalousa (Opelousas) Attakapas were also called the Heron Band because their mourning ceremonies included painting their

lower legs and feet black like the long appendages of a heron.

Dwelling between the swift current of the Atchafalaya River and the murky, turgid Sabine, they populated the area that is now Opelousas.

As a relatively new homage to this ancient heritage, the Annual Southwest Louisiana Attakapas Opelousas Prairie Tribe Festival turns two years old this July. It was begun as a fundraiser for the tribe with the goal of making enough capital to buy land in the Opelousas area to bring its descendants home again.

The festival, held July 25, is filled with activities that are educational. Storytelling and special guest speakers inform attendees about the Attakapas history and culture as they feast on jambalaya and red beans and rice. Traditional dancers, drummers and flutists will provide enchanting, hypnotic rhythms. Children will enjoy face painting and a talking stick contest while demonstrations and lessons on basket weaving, traditional dance and jewelry making will invite all to participate and have fun as they step back in time. n

Information, 2nd Annual Southwest Louisiana Attakapas Opelousas Prairie Tribe Festival, Farmers Market Pavilion, 828 E. Landry St., Opelousas, (337) 246-0718. Blue Agave Restaurant, 3558 Pinhook Road, Lafayette, (337) 837-7720, blueagavela.com

photograph by denny culbert

around louisiana

Baton Rouge Grace Episcopal Church and adjoining graveyard

Houma House Plantation just upriver from the Houma House Inn

RIVER ROAD ODYSSEY: A NIGHT AT HOUMAS HOUSE INN I was fortunate enough to spend the night as a guest at the Inn at Houmas House Plantation and Gardens recently, amongst all the violet, fuchsia, red, white and yellow flowers that had come to life in this enchanting stretch of the River Road. The guest cottages are charming replicas of old structures once found on Uncle Sam Plantation downriver from Houmas House and lie beneath the shade and beauty of a venerable alley of old oak trees. Front porches with rocking chairs greet you as you enter. My cottage was close to a bend of the River Road, its interior hushed with ease, soft neutral colors, deep shadows, and a bed so comfortable to

my back it must have been a chiropractor in a previous life.

Personal, thoughtful touches abounded, including coffee and a white terry cloth robe.

Exploring the marble bathroom I discovered a sumptuous tub and separate shower with luxurious L’Occitane items of verbena soap, shampoo, conditioner and lotion. After unpacking, I wandered the world-famous grounds beneath the oak trees and flowers – passing a bride posing for a portrait – and meandered to the cool, shady Turtle Bar (a converted pigeonniere). I was suddenly happy to place myself in the hands of two excellent young men tending bar. As I chatted with a couple from New York who had relocated to Louisiana, I enjoyed a French

photograph courtesy houma house plantation

75 while listening to the cool sounds of New Orleans jazz.

As the evening progressed into night, I sat with my host Kevin Kelly and an entourage of his friends in the courtyard where a long, lowered arm of an oak tree stretched forth covered in tiny fern leaves looking like feathers. Kelly is an excellent host who kept everyone fortified with refills among much conversation, stories and laughter. I noticed the premises were filling with people enjoying the Turtle Bar, the incomparable ambience of the site and one of the several excellent restaurants offering delectable food. I dined at the Carriage House Restaurant on the delicious brown sugar brined pork tenderloin glazed with

scuppernong, accompanied by a pumpkin and Yukon gold mash. A return to the Turtle Bar, now atmospherically dark and wonderful, once again placed me in the hands of the excellent barkeepers who provided me with the beautiful sight of my requested snifter of cognac warming over a candle flame glowing in the dim light. After a night of sleep in my comfortable bed, I brewed a cup of coffee, took my mug and a book to the rocking chair on the porch as the dawn broke and a fuchsia mist rose over the River Road.

During my wanderings the evening before, I had noticed that items depicting dragonflies were interspersed throughout – a bed pillow, iron garden benches, to name a few. That morning over a breakfast of grillades and grits, Kelly told me that dragonflies had always been a kind of personal totem for him. When he was looking at Houmas House with intent to buy, knowing in his heart he would live there, his companion turned to him in sudden astonishment and pointed at his shoulder. A dragonfly had landed there.

As a guest, I had been treated so wonderfully amid such beauty that I reluctantly left there feeling utterly pampered for several days after. n Information, The Inn at Houmas House, Houmas House Plantation and Gardens, 40136 Highway 942, River Road, Darrow, (225) 473-9380

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New Orleans pages, it becomes apparent this landmark was influenced by divergent cultures even as it imparted its own cultural evolution on the banks of Bayou St. John. Beautiful to look at, it’s a perfect anthem for history lovers, preservationists and anyone else who loves a good story.

TREASURE ON BAYOU ST. JOHN Tucked away on Moss Street at Bayou St. John, the Pitot House, with its wide galleries and graceful columns entices you like a beautiful book cover holding a wonderful tale to tell.

Author James Wade chronicles the story of the grand old manse in his book, The Pitot House: A Landmark on Bayou St. John. Built near the portage the Native Americans used between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, this architectural gem is matched in worth by its history since first constructed in 1799.

Wade tells an interwoven tale that touhes the geology of the area and its colonization. Included are stories of past inhabitants of the Pitot House from the first owner Antoine Rivard de Lavigne 72 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

and the many merchants and politicians who lived within its walls as New Orleans and the surrounding area blossomed around it. In his chapter, The Cabrini Period, Wade writes: In 1904, the Steckler Family sold the house on Moss Street to “some lady from New York.” That lady was Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini…”

Named for its second owner, James Pitot, appointed mayor of New Orleans by Governor Claiborne after Etienne de Bore resigned, the house is now owned and maintained by the Louisiana Landmarks Society, which saved it from destruction in 1964.

Wade tells of a landmark’s survival as one of the few homes built in Louisiana’s Spanish colonial days to still exist. Through the book’s

BUCKTOWN BASH When my family moved from Uptown New Orleans to Metairie during my teen years, we lived not far from the 17th Street Canal levee that marked the line between Orleans and Jefferson parishes.

I spent much time at that levee.

We were a mile away from Lake Pontchartrain. In those days a walk or a bike ride on the levee path gave you an enchanting and unobstructed view of the water. The grassy banks were usually filled with buttercups, goldenrod, blue-eyed grass, or wild irises at different times of the year and you could see silver fish jumping straight out of the murky water. Orpheum Street ran alongside at the levee’s base looking like a hidden lane in a small rural town. The quiet levee path led straight to Old Hammond Highway, the blue waters of Lake Pontchartrain and the rustic fishing piers of Bucktown.

Bucktown was born in the waning years of the 19thcentury filled with wooden camps rising over the water on stilts with generous porches and tin roofs. The rustic fishing village boasted a school, jail, saloons, dancehalls and gaming

houses. Rising there on Lake Pontchartrain and surrounded by undeveloped swamps and marshes, excellent restaurants were established that served seafood, wildfowl and game.

It was a lively little place.

By the time Prohibition rolled around, Bucktown roiled with houses of prostitution, speakeasies, gambling (the latter being legal in what was called the “Free State of Jefferson”) and jazz music.

The settlement was allegedly named for the young bucks who partied there; others believe it was named after all the deer that wandered through the area.

At one point, Bucktown was home to more than 100 shrimp boats and somehow in the midst of all the raucous partying, the 4th of July sacred tradition of the Blessing of the Fleet was born.

The Bucktown Bash and Blessing of the Fleet, a “Shrimp and Jazz Extravaganza” carries on this tradition each July 4. The celebration starts with an outdoor Mass, followed by a noon blessing of the fleet.

Live music, delicious seafood and arts and crafts spill throughout the old village as sunlight dances off the water like fireworks. Bucktown is filled with liveliness on a different scale. This year it takes place from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. n Information, The Pitot House: A Landmark on Bayou St. John, Pelican Publishing Company. The Bucktown Bash, Bucktown Harbor, Hammond Highway, Metairie. photograph courtesy pelican publishing

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and an abundance of arts and entertainment. For more information and destinations, go online to VisitJackson.com.

Experience Texas

Regional Travel Summer is well underway and travel plans are in the making across the state. Take advantage of the warm weather and slow schedules of the season and book a trip to a nearby, welcoming Mississippi or Texas town. Whether you like to spend the days shopping in the comfort of air conditioning or touring historic sites and learning about the region’s famous residents, there are activities for everyone. Cultural festivals feature music, dancing and food, while wineries and markets offer tastings and tours and local artists craft the perfect vacation mementos. Explore Louisiana’s neighboring states and see what family fun is like in Mississippi and Texas. The following towns offer a variety of experiences that’ll get you out of your routine and into relaxed fun.

Explore Mississippi Welcome, intrepid shoppers, seekers of the stylish and explorers of great living.

You’ve arrived at the right place—Ridgeland, Mississippi—for an exciting retail getaway experience that delights and satisfies. The Ridgeland Retail Trail is paved with local treasures and more. It takes a delicate touch to create culinary masterpieces, patience to weave a perfect basket and vision to transform a lump of clay into a piece of graceful pottery. These traits and more have helped Ridgeland grow from a small artist colony to a premier shopping destination with over 150 restaurants and quality accommodations. Visit the Ridgeland Facebook page for a chance to win exciting Ridgeland getaways and prizes and VisitRidgeland.com/RRT for more information.

Ridgeland is also home to a variety of attractions including the Natchez Trace Parkway, a 444-mile All-American Road and National Scenic Byway, with 157 types of birds, state parks, riding trails, historic interpretations, American-Indian artifacts and cultural opportunities. Others include the Mississippi Craft Center, Mississippi’s attraction of the year, showcasing traditional and contemporary crafts

and the 33,000-acre Ross Barnett Reservoir for parks and outdoor activities. Explore VisitRidgeland.com for more information.

Jackson, Mississippi, the “City with Soul,” invites you to the centennial celebration of a literary great, Margaret Walker Alexander. On July 7, join the Jubilee Picnic at Jackson State University’s Ayer Hall. On July 10, a Gala Celebration entitled “For My People: A New Musical Work,” takes place at the JSU Student Center Ballroom.

On July 11, there’s no “horsing around” at the Mississippi Black Rodeo featuring The Bar-Kays, and stop by the Jackson Zoo to cool off at the Ice Cream Safari. Local celebs will scoop the top Blue Bunny flavors.

Music reigns Aug. 14-15 at the Jackson Rhythm and Blues Festival held at the Mississippi Ag Museum. The premier two-day music festival has five stages (four indoor/ air-conditioned) featuring a stellar line up of more than 30 artists such as The Isley Brothers featuring Ronald Isley and Ernest Isley, Chaka Khan, Raheem DeVaughn, Taylor Hicks, Bobby Rush, Macy Gray, Dorothy Moore, Tonya Boyd-Cannon and Mali Music.

Jackson is just a short drive away— enjoy 28 attractions, nearly 300 restaurants

Settled in 1848, McKinney features one of Texas’s largest and most vibrant historic districts. Locals lovingly embrace the history of a place that was still a small town until just a few years ago and it now has a population just over 150,000. The picturesque downtown square is the heart of this quaint city and features roughly 100 mom-and-pop businesses, including specialty shops, wineries, organic markets, a boutique hotel and eclectic eateries. The historic district’s centerpiece is the old county courthouse, now home to the McKinney Performing Arts Center.

While in McKinney, visitors can commune with nature at the Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary, visit a Croatian-style village (Adriatica) with restaurants, bell tower and Old World-style chapel, enjoy live music at multiple venues throughout town and experience many annual festivals including McKinney Oktoberfest held in late September.

Located just 30 miles north of Dallas, McKinney’s eclectic mix of sights and activities makes it the perfect weekend destination. For more information, go to VisitMcKinney.com.

One of the best ways to learn about Texas food and wine is to immerse oneself in it.

This year, the Fredericksburg Food and Wine Fest celebrates its 25th anniversary on Oct. 24, with the best of Texas wines, food and entertainment. Texas specialty booths and wineries vie for attention from discriminating gourmets and oenophiles, as well as pleasure-seeking foodies at Fredericksburg’s beautiful downtown MarktPlatz (Market Square). Twenty-five Texas wineries will pour over 100 types of wine while Texas beers from Spoetzl Brewery, Pedernales Brewing Company, St. Arnold’s Brewery and Real Ale Brewing will also be flowing. Special events and entertainment abound. Visit FBGFoodandWineFest.com for information and tickets.

October in Fredericksburg also features the German-oriented family event, Oktoberfest, Oct. 2-4. Fredericksburg is the Polka Capital of Texas! The three-day, 35th annual event features a Saturday morning chicken dance, German food and drink, an exciting kids area and, of course, polkas. The Pedernales Creative Arts Alliance (PCAA) presents Oktoberfest, and its proceeds fund youth arts and music scholarships, as well as community arts and music programs. For more information, visit OktoberfestinFBG.com.

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PROMOTIONAL SECTION

74 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

PROMOTIONAL SECTION

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lifetimes

July 29-30. Michael Jackson the Immortal World Tour by Cirque du Soleil. Cajundome, Lafayette. (337) 265-2100.

White Linen Night in New Orleans August 1

Aug. 15-16. SugaSheaux.

SugArena @ Acadiana Fairgrounds, New Iberia. (337) 365-7539.

Aug. 15 Arts & Crabs Festival, Lake Charles. (337) 439-2787

NEW ORLEANS July 3-5. Essence Music Festival.

Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans.

July 4. Go 4th on the River.

French Quarter, New Orleans.

Go4thontheriver.com July 4. St. Bernard Salutes America. Torres Park, Chalmette.

(504) 278-4236.

Statewide Calendar

July 4. Bogalusa’s Birthday & Old Fashioned Independence Day Festivities. Bogalusa High School Stadium, Bogalusa. (985) 732-3791.

July 18. Summer Fun Kid’s Day. Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center, Houma. (985) 850-4657.

July 4. Slidell Heritage Festival.

Heritage Park, Slidell. (985) 646-4375.

Compiled by Judi Russell

July 19. Angler’s Addiction Fishing Tournament. Quintana Canal, Cypremort Point. (337) 519-3131.

July 10-12. Ponchatoula’s Christmas in July Sale. Downtown Ponchatoula. (985) 542-7520.

CAJUN COUNTRY

July 19-20. Louisiana Hot Sauce Festival. LARC’s Acadian Village, Lafayette. (337) 981-2364.

July and August events, festivals and more.

July 3-4. Acadiana District 4-H/ FFA Horseshow. SugArena @ Acadiana Fairgrounds, New Iberia.

(337) 365-7539.

July 4. New Iberia 4th of July Parade. Downtown New Iberia.

(337) 365-1428.

July 4. 24th Annual Lebeau Zydeco Festival. Immaculate Conception Catholic Church Grounds, Lebeau. (337) 351-3902.

July 4. Red, White, Blue & You! Downtown Lake Charles and Lake Charles Civic Center. (337) 491-9147.

76 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

July 4. Avoyelles Arts & Music Festival. 109 Tunica Drive E., Marksville. (800) 833-4195.

July 5. Rock the Fifth. Lawrence Park and River Front, Morgan City.

(985) 385-1770, Ext. 112.

July 11. Acadiana Barrel Race Association. SugArena @ Acadiana Fairgrounds, New Iberia. (337) 365-7539.

July 12. 2nd Saturday ArtWalk.

Downtown Lafayette. (337) 291-5566.

July 17-19. 28th Cajun Music & Food Festival. Burton Complex, Lake Charles. (337) 217-2612.

July 15-19. Tales of the Cocktail.

Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans.

(504) 948-0511.

July 24-25. Marshland Festival.

Lake Charles Civic Center. (337) 540-3182.

July 16-17. Native American Exhibit. Tangipahoa Parish Convention & Visitors Bureau, Hammond. (985) 542-7520.

July 24-25. 4th Annual Bayou BBQ Bash Craft Show. Under the Hwy. 90 Bridge, Morgan City. (985) 384-3830.

July 30 to Aug. 2. Satchmo Summerfest. French Quarter, New Orleans.

July 25-27. Louisiana Outdoor Expo. Cajundome & Convention Center, Lafayette. (337) 265-2100.

July 26. Sugar Jam Concert Series: Nik-L-Beer. Sugar Pond Town Center, Youngsville. (337) 856-2323.

Aug. 1-31. COOLinary New Orleans. Various locations, New Orleans. (800) 672-6124.

Aug. 1. Whitney White Linen Night. Arts District, New Orleans.

Aug. 8. Dirty Linen Night. Royal Street, French Quarter, New Orleans.

photo by cheryl gerber

Aug. 8. Red Dress Run. French Quarter, 901 Rampart St., New Orleans. (504) 889-4274.

Aug. 8. Seafood & Farmers’ Market. Aycock Barn, Old Arabi.

(504) 278-4242.

Aug. 16-19. Annual Feast of St. Bernard. St. Bernard Church, .

(504) 494-1363.

CENTRAL July 4. Celebration on the Cane.

700 Second St., Natchitoches. (800) 259-1714.

July 11. Saline Watermelon Festival. Saline. (318) 245-8117.

July 16. Acoustic Concert Series.

Alexandria Museum of Art. (318) 443-3458.

July 17-18. Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival. Prather Coliseum, NSU, Natchitoches. (318) 357-4332.

July 25. The Muse DIY Jewelry Workshop & Idea Swap.

Alexandria Museum of Art. (318) 443-3458.

July 30 to Aug. 1. 64th Annual Springhill PRCA Rodeo. Springhill Rodeo Arena, Springhill. (318) 423-0928.

Aug. 20. Acoustic Concert Series.

Alexandria Museum of Art. (318) 443-3458.

July 5. First Free Sunday – We All Scream for Ice Cream. USS KIDD Veterans Memorial and Museum, Baton Rouge. 225-4561942.

July 20-25. Restaurant Week.

Various locations, Baton Rouge. eatbr.com Through Aug. 16. When The Cannons Fell Silent. West Baton Rouge Museum, Port Allen. (225) 336-2422, Ext. 16.

Aug. 22. Polos and Pearls.

Downtown St. Francisville. (225) 635-3873.

Aug. 28. Fete Rouge Wine & Food Festival. L’Auberge Casino, Baton Rouge. (225) 773-4889.

NORTH July 4. Blues, Brews & BBQ Day at the RiverMarket. RiverMarket, Monroe. (318) 453-8267.

Aug. 1. Landry Vineyards presents: Mason Grenade.

Landry’s Vineyards, West Monroe.

(318) 557-9051.

Aug. 6. Downtown Gallery Crawl. Downtown Monroe and West Monroe. (318) 503-5125.

Aug. 21-23. Shreveport Geek Fest. Shreveport Convention Center. (318) 453-0257.

BATON ROUGE July 4. New Roads 4th of July Boat Parade & Music Festival Morrison Pkwy., New Roads, (225) 638-5360 Through July 12. Neal Family Blues. West Baton Rouge Museum, Port Allen. (225) 336-2422, Ext. 16.

July 4. Cajun Country Jam. 30242 Bridges Road, Baton Rouge.

225-456-3082.

July 4. USS KIDD Freedom Festival. USS KIDD Veterans Memorial and Museum, Baton Rouge. 225-456-1942.

Help Us Promote Your Event!

Go online to provide information for our calendar section and webpage. Remember, the sooner we get the information, the better able we are to help you. To submit a festival, show or special event go to: MyNewOrleans.com/LouisianaLife/Submit-an-Event. To submit a parade for carnival season go to: MyNewOrleans.com/ Louisiana-Life/Submit-a-Paradeto-Louisiana-Life

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Today, a small roadside attraction marks the spot where the couple died, about eight miles south of Gibsland on Highway 154.

Bonnie and Clyde Attractions in Gibsland

By Megan Hill

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow died in 1934, but their exploits as outlaws and bank robbers continue to live on in infamy. The couple, along with sundry other murderous co-conspirators, roved the central U.S. during the Great Depression committing crimes that earned them fame and frustrated the authorities who chased them.

On May 23, 1934, Bonnie and Clyde drove through rural Bienville Parish between Shreveport and Ruston. A group of police officers from Louisiana and Texas joined forces and followed a tip that the pair would be in the area 78 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

visiting the family of a fellow gang member.

The officers hid in the bushes along highway 154 between the towns of Gibsland and Sailes, guns drawn. As Bonnie and Clyde drove past in a stolen Ford V8, the officers opened fire, shooting 130 rounds into the vehicle. The couple sustained scores of wounds and died, ending their crime spree and the associated manhunt, ensuring their story would be immortalized.

Today, a small roadside attraction marks the spot where the couple died, about eight miles south of Gibsland on Highway 154 toward

Sailes. Coming from Gibsland, you will pass it on the right.

An older stone monument – not unlike a large tombstone – sits on the spot, though it’s long been the victim of vandalism; ironically, much of it gunfire. In 2014, a newer podium-style monument was erected that places the emphasis more on the “good guys,” the police who conducted the ambush.

Gibsland’s fascination with Bonnie and Clyde doesn’t end with these small monuments.

Back in downtown, the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum has been open since 2005 in the former Ma Canfield’s Cafe. Here, Bonnie and Clyde stopped in the morning of their death and bought two sandwiches to go.

Legend has it that Bonnie died with her sandwich in hand, half-eaten.

Among the museum’s many treasures are graphic photos of Bonnie and

Clyde post-shooting, one of Clyde’s Remington shotguns, Bonnie’s hat, glass from the Ford V8’s windshield, and replicas of Bonnie and Clyde’s tombstones. There’s also a replica of the car the couple drove to their death, memorabilia like movie posters and a small gift shop.

Visitors can also watch a short documentary on the couple.

For years, the museum had been run by L.J. “Boots” Hinton, the son of one of the officers involved in the ambush, but he retired in February due to health reasons. New owner Perry Carver is at the helm, and planned improvements and upgrades are underway.

As if that wasn’t enough, Gibsland is also home to the so-called Authentic Bonnie & Clyde Festival, which takes place each year on the weekend closest to the couple’s May 23 demise. The festivities include food, music, guest speakers, historical meetings, street vendors, and a parade with antique cars, and a classic car display.

There is also a Bonnie and Clyde lookalike contest, from which professionals are strictly barred.

The festival culminates in a reenactment, which takes place on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. each year. Festival attendees head for Highway 154 and watch as actors drive a replica car down the road, to be met inevitably with a hail of gunfire and lots of fake blood. n

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Signature Dishes

Bring the mixture to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. Cook the etouffee, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes. Season the shrimp with the remaining tablespoon of blackening seasoning.

SHRIMP: In a non stick skillet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat cook the shrimp for 2 to 3 minutes, or until they are cooked to through.

Add the chopped parsley to the pot and stir to combine.

Delighting in the food is just one of the many ways people experience Louisiana. Seafood reigns across the state and especially in the Gulf Region, and summer is an ideal time to dive into the state’s bounty. Try a new recipe this month and impress your family and friends with a little creole spice and Cajun flavor.

Louisiana restaurants share their secrets every summer and offer ideas for our readers’ benefit, so it’s time to get out your measuring cups and mixing bowls. The following dishes will complement your kitchen’s summer menu, and the work comes with a rich-tasting reward.

Conveniently located inside the elegant Bourbon Orleans Hotel in the New Orleans French Quarter, Roux on Orleans provides a true taste of Creole country with its refined menu of South Louisiana classics finessed by Chef Joey Wells. With dishes such as Joey’s Mama’s Shrimp Grits & Catfish and a fresh take on Redfish Couvillion, Roux on Orleans delights guests with an array of regional flavors and a selection of classic favorites.

Joey’s Mama’s Shrimp Grits and Catfish

Ingredients for ettouffee 6 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 4 cups chopped onions 2 cups chopped green bell peppers 2 cups chopped celery 2 tablespoons minced garlic 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes 2 bay leaves 2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 2 tablespoons of blackening, recipe follows 1 quart seafood stock 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion tops, for garnish

Directions Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven set over medium heat. Add the flour and stir continuously to make a roux. Stir the roux over medium heat until it is a little darker than the color of peanut butter, about 8 minutes.

Add the onions, bell peppers, celery, and garlic to the roux, and cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes to the pot and season with the bay leaves, salt, cayenne, and 1 tablespoon of the blackening seasoning. Cook the tomatoes for 2 to 3 minutes and then whisk in the seafood stock.

CATFISH Take a 5 to 7 oz catfish filet and cut on an angle into 4 strip. Batter the fish in egg wash and then dredge in seasoned fish fry. Deep fry at 350 for about 5 mins or until the fish starts to float.

CORN GRITS: 1 teaspoon of salt 1/2 teaspoon of peper 1cup of chicken stock 1 cup of heavy cream 1cup of corn grits 1 cup of roasted corn, onions and peppers. In a 2 quart sauce pot add chicken stock and heavy cream, when it comes to a boil lower heat and add all other ingredients place a lids on and let cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Cut the fire off and let stand for another 5 mins.

Blackening seasoning 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika 2 tablespoons salt 2 tablespoons garlic powder 1 tablespoon black pepper 1 tablespoon onion powder 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper 1 tablespoon dried oregano 1 tablespoon dried thyme 1 tablespoon of brown sugar Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

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a louisiana life

Art as a Saving Grace Annette Aucoin of Broussard is inspired by Louisiana’s natural beauty.

By Megan Hill

Broussard artist Annette Aucoin remembers being scolded as a child for drawing on her school papers when she was bored.

“I got punished several times,” she says. “Art has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.”What started as a child’s doodles would become a saving grace decades later.

At 13, an aunt gave Aucoin a set of pastels. “I kept those for years without messing them up,” she says.

“I was just meticulous and I wouldn’t let my friends or my brother fool with them.”

Aucoin creates a range of artwork, including copper sculpture, metal enamellings, etched copper and bronze, and metalworked jewelry. She’s 80 | Louisiana Life July/August 2015

displaying work in galleries and museums around the region, including Ariodante in New Orleans, Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette, Lafayette Arts Association, Alexandria Museum of Art, Barnwell Museum in Shreveport, Craftsmen of Mississippi Center, and the Alexandria River Oaks Museum. She’s also one of four founding members of the Louisiana Crafts Guild, which connects member artists to galleries and provides other support and instruction.

Among her biggest accomplishments was traveling to the White House in 2002 to represent Louisiana with fellow artist Carrie Durand.

Aucoin and Durand had been invited to handcraft Louisiana-

focused ornaments to decorate the National Christmas Tree along with contributions from artists in the 49 other states. Aucoin’s contribution, a silver pelican, is a part of the White House’s permanent ornament collection.

Aucoin chalks up her success, in part, to her business background and knowledge of how to balance a budget, market one’s work, and price objects competitively.

Aucoin originally went to school for far more practical reasons than to study art; she pursued a business degree in college and has worked as a bookkeeper off and on for decades. Once her children had finished school, she returned to college to pursue her first love: art.

Aucoin started her art career as a painter and printmaker, which she concentrated on from 1989 to 1994. But her work soon evolved into metalwork.

“I used copper plates for my prints and I just couldn’t part with the copper,” Aucoin says. “The prints just weren’t as important as that piece of copper.” So she returned to school and trained to become a metalsmith. Now, her portfolio includes silver fabricated jewelry and twodimensional art pieces, many of which involve etched metal that is heat-treated with a torch to add color and then attached to cast glass or kiln-fired enamels.

Much of her work is inspired by nature, with her etchings often featuring images of oak trees and jewelry consisting mainly of leaves, butterflies, and flowers.

“My yard has oak trees that are probably in excess of a hundred years old, so I’m just surrounded by trees,” she says.

For Aucoin, art has become a sort of therapy. She suffered a small stroke in the spring but has recovered rapidly, thanks in part to art’s ability to help the brain heal after trauma.

Her art has been a helpful part of her rehabilitation process.

“I just think, ‘Boy, I’m a lucky so and so,’” she says.

And it’s made her thankful for the bigger picture. “Art is such a wonderful thing to have in your life. It’s something you can do until the day you die.

There are no limitations.” n photo by travis gauthier