The story goes that Mowata, Louisiana was supposed to be named "More Water." The original settlers apparently needed more water, and wanted to name the settlement that as a sort of ironic testament to their current condition. But, the accent was misunderstood, and the town went down in the books as Mowata instead. You can judge whether or not this is a likely story...
Anyway, our culinary tour in Cajun Country started with Bubba Frey at the Mowata Store. Bubba spoke about his livelihood making boudin: a German-inspired sausage traditionally encased in intestine and filled with pork, Louisiana rice, and a lot of spice. There are typically two kinds of boudin: white boudin or red boudin (or blood sausage). Last Friday we tried white Boudin--it was delicious! Bubba Frey said that we could eat the casings if we wanted to, but I opted to just eat the filling this time. In addition to boudin there were sweet pickles and fig jam (from "the biggest fig tree in the world.")
After we ate lunch, Marcelle Bienvenu gave a talk on Cajun and Creole Gumbo and the general distinctions between various gumbos. She was wonderfully entertaining. I could listen to her speak all day. A few years ago, I met her at a book signing and I got my mother a copy of her book on pecans...pecans can be temperamental if you do not watch them very carefully, but if you baby them a bit, they turn out wonderful!
No comments:
Post a Comment