Louisiana food poll

[rogerashton]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x1491061

[Swamp Rat]

1. What happened to the "Louisiana food poll" thread?

I can't vote or reply?

[BayouBengal07]

2. Mmmmm...

chicken and sausage gumbo...

Man I could go for some boiled crawfish too. Every year during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival we have a big crawfish boil in my neigboorhood. My dad's friend makes the best boiled crawfish- garlc, crab boil, artichoke, sausage, potatoes, corn, lemons, and about half a dozen other things all go in the pot. Its cool, we live three blocks away from the Fest, so if the wind is right, I can save $20 on a ticket and listen from my room :).

[Swamp Rat]

3. Crawfish... my favorite edible critter

Too bad they're out of season already. As for the fest, I am not as lucky as you. I usually ride my bike from Treme where my mom lives. Did you hear Steve Miller play this year - it totally rocked!

[rogerashton]

4. I grew up outside Shreveport -- which, in them days,

was at least as Texan in attitudes as Louisianan. (There was no money in a Louisiana identity in them days!)

My dad taught me to catch crawfish, saying "if you are ever real hungry, they are sort of edible." Mud bugs, man -- I have had crawfish etouffee at the Cotton Club in Baton Rouge, and it was OK, but, man, wouldn't it have been better with shrimp?

[Swamp Rat]

5. I prefer crawfish etouffee but I'll eat the shrimp too.

If you want great etouffee, then you'll need to either come to New Orleans or go to Lafayette (or near by, like in Breaux Bridge). Do you ever come here for Jazz Fest?

[Phil214]

6. Favorite La. Foods

Crawfish right out of the pot and spiced up are the way I like them, followed by etoufee. Also, blackened redfish and boudin are dang good too!!!!

[Swamp Rat]

7. Welcome to DU!

Ever have softshell crab? Or aligator jambalaya? Or turtle soup?

What brings you to the Louisiana forum? Did you grow up here? I saw your profile; are you a sociologist? My dad is, but the PhD track I'm in is Urban Studies... in other words, my profs are both sociologists and anthropologists. I'm doing qualitative research, but I guess I'll dabble in quantitative methodology as well.

Back to hot and spicy boiled crawfish... that's my FAVORITE food on Earth!

:toast:

[rogerashton]

8. Somebody asked the difference

between file gumbo and okra gumbo, on the original poll, but it was closed and archived by then.

Check me on this, folks -- I AM from Caddo Parish, and that is just barely part of Louisiana -- but my impression is: both are used to thicken the gumbo, so if you use one, don't need the other.

Okra is a little plant 'bout halfway between an artichoke and an asparagus, but it is a cousin of cotton and grows wild in the cotton fields.

File powder is ground from the roots of the Sassafras tree.

File gumbo has a little darker color and a little more bitterness -- but I prefer file gumbo myself, as the texture of okra somehow manages to combine sliminess and spininess at the same time.

Damn -- I need to go get me some gumbo. File gumbo.