USA Road Trip » cajun cooking

Day 23 Denver Colorado

admin — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:58:07 +0000

We spent the day exploring Boulder, then drove back to Denver along the eastern edge of the Rockies. The mountains around Denver and Boulder are spectacular, and the higher peaks are still covered in snow. It’s a very impressive backdrop for residents when they walk out their front door.

Boulder is a lovely town. The main street shopping area is a mall, so it reminds us of home. We happened to find a Borders bookstore that is closing down ( I’ve said it before …. books just seem to find us, even when we’re not looking), so we went and had a look. I picked up 3 gems – my current favourite author Larry McMurtry’s latest book, Hollywood, which is the 3rd part of his memoir, Annie Proulx’s latest and Before the Fall by Kylie Ladd, an Australian author. Greg found a couple too.

I had done a bit of internet research and found out about food carts in and around Boulder. Here they call them ‘gastro truck’, but that has some negative connotations for us Aussies ( I wonder what the Americans call ‘gastro’?). Anyway, I found out about one that serves American/BBQ food – a lot of them serve Mexican food, and they’re great, but I wanted to try a BBQ one. Top of the Hill Grill West sounded good, and they had posted their Friday location on their Facebook page – here. However, before we went to find them a couple of kms from the CBD, we had a pre-lunch hotdog from a little hotdog cart in the mall. Stood eating it and chatted to the seller and his customers & found out a bit more about Boulder.

And then on to our ‘real’ lunch destination. The guys run their food cart out of a very impressive van-turned-into-kitchen. They are in a different location each day, and many evenings, and post their location on their Facebook page. They offered 6 or 8 choices, plus side dishes. The food is all cooked as it’s ordered. I had a Pulled Pork and Coleslaw sandwich, Greg had a Steak & Cheese sandwich, and we shared side orders of cornbread and hand-cut fries. I almost can’t think of enough words to describe how delicious and tasty it all was. Definitely one of the best meals we’ve eaten in the US on this trip.

menu on the Gastro Truck

lunch from the Gastro Truck

Flowers in Boulder Colorado

the Rocky Mountains from Denver

Day 11 New Orleans Louisiana

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 02:54:38 +0000

Lots of walking today. We walked tthrough the French market, along the banks of the mississippi, and through the arts district. Then back to the French Quarter, and then north to Treme. We then visited the State museum to see an excellent exhibition on Hurricane Katrina and how it all happened.

Treme New Orleans

Buskers in the french quarter New Orleans

parade New Orleans

Day 10 Lafayette Louisiana to New Orleans Louisiana

Judy — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 15:21:29 +0000

In which:

Greg celebrates his birthday, we visit the Tabasco Sauce factory, we drive to New Orleans and spend the evening wandering around the French Quarter and Bourbon Street

Tabasco Country Store

the bridge over the mississippi river that we drove over on the I-10 into New Orleans

Day 9 Martin Creek State Park to Lafayette Louisiana

Judy — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 14:57:55 +0000

We crossed the border into Louisiana. A couple of miles over the border we stopped at the Tourist Information Centre and picked up brochures and maps, and had a long and very helpful chat with a guide on what to see and do in Louisiana. She told us about Natchitoches, a little historic town south of Shreveport. The movie ‘Steel Magnolias’ was set and filmed there. We changed our plans and headed straight there, rather than going into Shreveport. Natchitoches has a street full of shops and eating places along the Cane River Lake. We had lunch at Papa’s Bar and Grill (which is right next door to Mama’s Oyster House) – Greg had a grilled chicken sandwich, I had a shrimp po’boy, which is the Louisiana version of a subway sandwich. It’s my mission to eat as much local food while we’re here.

We drove a couple of hundred kms south to Lafayette, population 200,000. We’re in Cajun country now, and Lafayette is right in the middle, and the largest town in the region. We are now seeing much more of a French influence, rather than the Spanish that we’ve noticed since we landed in California. Streets are called ‘Rue’, heading east is ‘est’, just little subtle things like that.

We ate at the Blue Dog Cafe in Lafayette. Cafe doesn’t really seem the right word for it – it’s actually a huge restaurant with at least 3 very large rooms full of tables, plus outdoor tables as well. And it’s all tables and chairs, no booths with bench seats like we’ve seen in other ‘restaurants’, which we think of as ‘diners’. Anyway … the reason it’s called the Blue Dog Cafe is that the walls are full of paintings of dogs that look very much like my brother Phil’s blue heeler, Brewster. The waiters wear t-shirts with the slogan ‘Sit. Stay. Eat’. And they serve fantastic Cajun food.

Greg had Blackened Catfish with Angel Hair Pasta and Spring Vegetables, I had Crawfish Etouffee* with Corn Macque Choux and both dishes were delicious. Here’s their menu, so you can see what else they offer, including photos of some of the dishes – click here.

The restaurant was busy, and our meals were a bit slow, which was fine with us – it gave us a chance to people-watch and draw crayon pictures on our ‘tablecloth’, but the waiter gave us a complimentary dessert – Bread Pudding with Pecan Praline Sauce. I had seen recipes for this dish and thought it might be like our Bread & Butter Pudding, but it’s much denser and tastes fantastic! We shared one between us, and we just managed to finish it. The total bill, including 2 local draught beers, was $40.

* Crawfish are freshwater crustaceans which taste like prawns. The guide at the Tourist Information Centre had mentioned that it’s crawfish season, so of course I had to try them. Delicious!

Blue Dog Cafe Layfayette Louisiana