Good Eatin'

Eating is Louisiana is a culinary adventure. The food here is like none I've had before. Gumbo, etouffee, jambalaya, dirty rice (yeah, that sounds appetizing) muffaletta, po' boys. It's all wonderfully spicy. I've actually started putting Tabasco sauce on scrambled eggs. Rice abounds, as well as gravy. I've learned how to open and efficiently eat crawfish. (messy) What the heck are cracklins and boudin (boo-dan) anyway? (You don't want to know.) And more importantly, why would I want to eat them? How about a turducken for Thanksgiving? We had one for our first holiday last November. Once was enough. A King Cake for Mardi Gras? By February, you could care less who finds the baby. What's a satsuma? (a Louisiana tangerine) A mayhaw? Something they make jelly out of, that's all I know. How do they eat grits without milk and sugar? It looks like cream of wheat to me. Hunters around here will shoot, cook and eat anything and everything. And they waste nothing. Every part is used for something. It would seem there's a mom and pop donut shop on every corner. So what's a kolache? I've had to learn a whole new vocabulary of cuisine. It's been a lot of fun. It's all good. And I've enjoyed introducing these Louisianians to pierogies.