Dear foodies,
After my last post about New Orleans, one Facebook fan (or liker, or whatever you want to call them) pronounced – concisely but astutely – that you win some, you lose some. Well, in Baton Rouge, I won some. Quite a lot, actually. I can’t necessarily claim it was Baton Rouge itself that made for such a great couple of days, because I didn’t really see much of it. But what I did see happened mainly at a ‘tailgate’, which I’d never heard of either until a few weeks beforehand. I thought it had something to do with alligator tails (they have a lot of ‘gators’ around here) but apparently it refers to the back of the trucks that people put down when they park up. The purpose being to eat, drink, make merry… oh, and catch a bit of football.
Here’s what I ate while I was there…
Shrimp etouffee, from the very nice man who was neighbours with my group. Definitely better than the two versions I’d tasted in New Orleans – and free to boot!
The aforementioned ‘gator, coated in something that looked like karnemelk and then fried in spices and cornmeal. Like chicken nuggets only chewier and tastier.
Ribs, ribs, fall-off-the-bone ribs… this time made by my peeps and some of the best I’ve ever tasted. I cannot thank them enough for making one very happy porkoholic.
This last one came not from the tailgate, but from an out-of-town restaurant called Jasmines on the Bayou. We had boudin balls (right – something like black pudding, rice and bitterballen rolled into one), shrimp salad (centre) and savoury beignets filled with cheese and crawfish (left). Delish, and a big thanks to Herb the chef.
Rather depressingly, I’m almost at the end of my journey… but there’s still Texas to go. BBQ, Tex-Mex and cowboys all the way!
