on location: south � randy mink

If you like it spicy and “ricey,” the Bayou State is foryou. A fan of fresh seafood? All the better. And ifthe very thought of Southern-fried home cooking

spells bliss, you’re in the right place. Trying regional foods is half the fun of travel, and

folks have always come to Louisiana to eat, long be-fore culinary travel became a buzz term and the statetourism office concocted a network of culinary trails.

A gumbo of exotic flavors spices the Cajun andCreole dishes developed by early settlers from Spain,

France, French Canada and other lands. You know themenu—jambalaya, étouffée, boiled shrimp and crawfish, red

beans and rice with spicy andouille sausage…the list goes on. Bea little daring—add a dash of hot sauce to your bowl or sink your teeth

into some alligator chunks. Top off the meal with a sugary praline, bread pud-ding or a slice of pecan pie.

Cajun food is the earthy, robust creation of fishermen and farmers in thebayou country of Southwest Louisiana. Creole refers to the cosmopolitanfare of New Orleans, a mix of Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. Bothcuisines are exotic to most American palates and use the “holy trinity” ofseasonings—chopped celery, onions and bell peppers—blended into a roux,or gravy base.

For a taste of Cajun culture, groups can’t do better than Lafayette, the un-official capital of French Louisiana. Lafayette claims more locally owned

restaurants than any other city in the state. Many Grammy Award-winningCajun and Zydeco artists live in Lafayette. Laissez les bons temps rouler (“let the

good times roll”) at Cajun/Creole eateries like Prejean’s, Randol’s and Mulate’s,which offer nightly music and dancing.

Taste Of

Southern hospitality and foods with funny-soundingnames whet the appetites of groups eager to savor

the state’s culinary cornucopia

LOUISIANALOUISIANA

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For a pot of

gumbo (top), a

chicken and sausage

barbecue platter

(right) or boiled

Gulf shrimp, it

doesn’t get any

better than in the Cajun

restaurants of Southwest

Louisiana.

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A favorite group destination inLafayette is Vermilionville, a livinghistory museum dedicated to Cajunand Creole folkways. In original and re-production buildings that portray lifebetween 1765 and 1890, visitors canmingle with artisans, musicians andother interpreters. In the schoolhouse,for example, you learn that speakingFrench was prohibited in Louisianaclassrooms from 1916-1968. Many arearesidents still converse in French athome and with friends.

La Cuisine de Maman, the restau-rant at Vermilionville, is modeled aftera Creole plantation overseer’s house, of-fering local dishes in the main roomand a glassed-in porch overlooking theVermilion Bayou. I enjoyed a bowl ofchicken and sausage gumbo, servedwith rice and French bread. Dessertsinclude bread pudding, fruit cobblerand gateau de sirop (syrup cake), simi-lar in texture to gingerbread.

Jean Lafitte Acadian CulturalCenter is conveniently located next toVermilionville. Exhibits and a movieexplain how the French-speaking Aca-dians were deported from Nova Scotiain 1755 and established a new life cen-tered on fishing and hunting in thebayous of Louisiana.

South of Lafayette, near New Iberia,

lies the Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factoryand Jungle Gardens at Avery Island.Tours start with a short video and con-tinue to a viewing gallery that overlooksthe bottling and packaging operations.Guests learn that red peppers arecrushed into a paste with salt from AveryIsland mines and ferment for three yearsin oak barrels. The aged mash is mixedwith vinegar, stirred for a month andpoured into little bottles with the famil-iar red octagonal cap, green foil neck-band and diamond-shaped label. TheTabasco Country Store sells logo items,from neckties to bloody Mary glasses,and offers samples of sauces and dips.

A drive through Jungle Gardens, a

200-acre wetland preserve, reveals gar-den-covered hills, alligators in bayousand gnarled oaks draped in Spanishmoss. Most memorable are the hun-dreds of snowy egrets that flock to plat-forms at a pond nicknamed Bird City.

Other intriguing pockets of CajunCountry are the Lake Charles area,near the Texas border, and Houma, notfar from New Orleans. Both areas—fresh new discoveries for me—aboundwith swamp-dwelling alligators andeateries specializing in fresh seafood.

Lake Charles itself is a busy petro-chemical port with oil and natural gaslines everywhere. At Steamboat Bill’son the Lake, I tried my first pistolette,a puffy white roll piled with hotshrimp or crawfish sauce and eatenwith a fork. Since the crawfish seasonwas about to end (late May), I wasmoved to order crawfish étouffée, abowl of rice covered in a tomato sauceloaded with morsels of these succulentlittle cousins to shrimp (also calledmudbugs or crawdads).

Lake Charles serves as a gateway tothe Creole Nature Trail, a 180-mile sce-nic byway through wetlands known asthe Louisiana Outback. Exploring thiswilderness stretching to the Gulf Coast,our tour group visited nature centers

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32 October 2009 LeisureGroupTravel.com

Tourists linger over beignets and coffee at Café du Monde in New Orleans.

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Oyster shuckers delight lunch-goers at New Orleans’ Acme Oyster House.

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with boardwalks built over the marshesand stopped at roadside bayous to watchlocals crabbing and casting for shrimp.

In Houma, the “Heart of America’sWetland,” you sense you’re in the “real”Louisiana. Gliding down a cypress-lined canal on a Munson’s SwampTours pontoon boat, we got our fill ofalligators as they slithered behind ourboat and snapped up the chicken ourguide dangled over the side. Enthralledby this wildlife adventure, I chose alli-gator in picante sauce for lunch that dayat Bayou Delight restaurant. The zestytomato sauce smothering my plate ofgator chunks and rice was so good thatit almost disguised the meat (slightlyfirmer than chicken).

For another typically Houma diningexperience, try 1921 Seafood. Deco-rated with fishnets, stuffed gators andaquariums, it’s a cement-floor jointwhere you need to roll up your sleevesand use paper towels as you dig intoplatters of boiled crawfish, clams andshrimp. (Groups can arrange a tour atan area shrimp or oyster processingplant.) Work off your meal across thestreet at the Jolly Inn, a dancehall whereCajun and Zydeco bands will get yourfeet tappin’.

At a downtown Houma festival on

the Terrebonne Parish Courthousesquare, we sampled another Louisianatreat—the sno-ball. Also spelled “snow-ball,” this refreshing cup of shaved ice(known to many of us as a snow-cone)is generously drenched in a flavoredsyrup and tastes better than any snow-cone you’ve ever had. Flavors rangefrom coconut cream and strawberry

daiquiri to bubble gum and sour apple.Add condensed milk, cream or icecream, if available. You’ll find sno-ballstands, some of them no more thanroadside shacks, all over the state.

In Shreveport-Bossier City, billed as“Louisiana’s Other Side,” the diningscene reflects influences from neigh-boring Texas and Arkansas—think bar-

Cajun dance spots preserve local

traditions in Lake Charles, La.

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Translation: Drop by for a visit. In Cajun

country, we’ll make you feel right at home

– whether you prefer to dance at a festival

or catch a sunset over the cypress trees.

With Zydeco rhythms, Cajun & Creole

flavors, Louisiana scenery and

Southern hospitality, you’ll agree –

there’s no place like Lafayette.

becue, fried catfish, country-fried steakand other hearty favorites associatedwith Southern-style cooking. Andthough Northwest Louisiana may behours away from Cajun Country, youwon’t have trouble finding good seafoodand gumbo either. It’s where steak saucemeets hot sauce.

I actually had my first Louisianacrawfish at downtown Shreveport’sMudbug Madness Festival on Memo-rial Day weekend. Members of our famgroup tackled crawfish dinners completewith red-skin potatoes and corn-on-the-cob, watching to see how the localsextracted the meat from the bony littlecrustaceans boiled in vats with spicy redseasoning. Vendors also offered crawfishpies (turnovers), crawfish pizza and crabpatties in crawfish cream sauce. At thefest I savored pecan pralines—the best

I’ve had—made by Panderina Soumas, aCreole cook, historian and storytellerwho runs Soumas Heritage Creole GiftShop in Bossier City.

on location: south �

Book now! $25 per person*Includes meal, a Mardi Gras T-Shirt, Custom Mardi Gras Bead, and live entertainment.

Your senior group tours will never forget this rockin’ tent party located in

Shreveport-Bossier: Louisiana’s Other Side. Choose from the Krewe of Centaur

Mardi Gras Bash or the Krewe of Gemini Mardi Gras Bash.

Savor authentic Louisiana cuisine, dance to Cajun tunes, see outrageous

Mardi Gras personalities, and don’t forget to catch some beads! No one will

leave empty-handed.

Contact Erica Howard at 1-800-551-8682 ext. 104 or ehoward@sbctb.org for group rate information and more details. To learn more about the Shreveport-Bossier area, visit www.shreveport-bossier.org

T he Party Starts Here

Krewe of Centaur Mardi Gras ParadeSaturday, February 6, 2010

Krewe of Gemini Mardi Gras ParadeSaturday, February 13, 2010

34 October 2009 LeisureGroupTravel.com

Save room for bananas Foster, a

signature dessert in New Orleans.

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The next morning we had breakfast atStrawn’s Eat Shop, “the finest greasyspoon you can find.” A Shreveport insti-tution since 1944, Strawn’s original loca-tion on Kings Highway served us fluffy,plate-size pancakes with big pats of but-ter. The biscuits, great with sausage gravy,are to die for. Because Strawn’s is famousfor pies, we had to have strawberry pie(with homemade whipped cream) fordessert. The Southern-accented lunchmenu includes fried chicken, meatloaf,chicken-fried steak, cornbread, black-eyed peas and mustard greens. Suitablefor groups, the high-ceilinged main roomis adorned with whimsical murals depict-ing the Three Stooges, John Wayne, Mar-ilyn Monroe, presidents and pies.

The most memorable overnights onmy recent trip were spent at two planta-tions along the Great River Road. I wasespecially excited because I had touredthe majestic homes on Delta QueenSteamboat shore excursions when thepaddlewheelers offered Mississippi Rivercruises from New Orleans.

Nottoway Plantation, a sugar estatedating back to 1859, has taken on aspiffy new look in the past year, the resultof an extensive facelift completed inJune. Chef David Reyes, recruited fromChicago, oversees Ramsay’s, an elegantbreakfast, lunch and dinner restaurantcarved from the rotunda of the white-pillared mansion, the South’s largest re-maining plantation home. Groups alsocan be accommodated in Randolph’s, arestaurant now used for special events.Nottoway, a half hour from BatonRouge, offers 18 guest rooms in themansion and outbuildings.

Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie isanother throwback to the Old South, aplace to unwind and go back in time.From my 19th century cottage on thisworking sugar estate, I had the luxury ofprowling the grounds by flashlight, walk-

ing under the canopy of massive 300-year-old live oaks that frame the “BigHouse,” an 1839 beauty that conjures upvisions of Gone With the Wind.

While waiting for our hoop-skirtedguide to begin the house tour, we boughtmint juleps from the refreshment standto slake our thirst and get in the mood. In

a covered area across from its gift shopand restaurant, Oak Alley can servegroups a lunch buffet that might includecrawfish étouffée, gumbo, jambalaya andbread pudding.

Before checking into Oak Alley, wehad lunch at Spuddy’s Cajun Foods, adown-home diner in the little town of

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36 October 2009 LeisureGroupTravel.com

Vacherie, right across the street from canefields. Large enough for groups, Spuddy’sserves everything from fried chicken andfried okra to gumbo, crawfish stew andpotatoes stuffed with shrimp and crab-meat. I had the daily special—a plateheaped with roast chicken, dirty rice,coleslaw and peas.

New Orleans is synonymous withgood food, and dining there cannot beoverrated. We were looking for turtle soupand someone recommended Muriel’sJackson Square, in a former private resi-dence near St. Louis Cathedral. Besidesthe soup and Bananas Foster Strudel atthis contemporary Creole establishment,we enjoyed the views of historic JacksonSquare and clip-clopping horse carriagesthat rolled past our window.

Other French Quarter standbys in-clude The Court of Two Sisters, wherea daily jazz brunch affords more than 80different items, from eggs Benedict andspicy oysters Bienville to roast beef andbread pudding. Classic Creole restaurantslike Antoine’s, Galatoire’s, Arnaud’s andTujague’s attract devoted followers yearafter year.

Don’t miss the Cafe du Monde,where patrons at all hours come to peo-ple-watch over café au lait and beignets,those square French donuts fried tocrusty perfection and generously sprin-kled with powdered sugar. At the nearbyFrench Market, tourist shops sell beignetmix, pralines, seafood seasonings, hotsauces and dozens of other Louisiana-made products—perfect souvenirs of aflavorful trip to this one-of-a-kind state.

From mom-and-pop diners and ele-gant eateries to festivals, food factoriesand gift shops, the culinary trails ofLouisiana lead to some of the best eatin’anywhere on the planet. LGT

PLAN IT!Louisiana Tourism: 800-994-8626; louisianatravel.com

on location: south �

on our radar: south �

ALABAMAA new museum devoted to baseball’s

Negro Leagues and Southern League isunder construction in Birmingham,across the street from Rickwood Field,the oldest baseball park in America. TheBlack Barons and later the city’s DoubleA farm team, the Barons, played atRickwood Field. A number of baseballgreats graced the field there during itsheyday, including such legends as BabeRuth, Willie Mays and Satchel Paige.The museum is expected to be completeby next summer, in time to help markRickwood’s centennial. (rickwood.com) 

FLORIDAUniversal Orlando Resort’s highly

anticipated Wizarding World of HarryPotter will open in spring 2010. In-spired by J.K. Rowling’s stories andfaithful to the visual landscapes of the films, the new land at Universal’s Islands of Adventure will provide visi-tors with multiple attractions, shopsand a signature eating establishment.Guests will be able to sip Butterbeer in Three Broomsticks, buy ExtendableEars at Zonko’s, see roosting owls inThe Owlery, and ride the DragonChallenge and Flight of the Hippogriffroller coasters. (universalorlando.com)

KENTUCKYKentucky Stage, a new summer

stock theater group, makes its debut inthe summer of 2010 in Danville. Classicand new works will be presented at theWeisiger Theatre in the Norton Centerfor the Arts on the Centre College cam-pus. (kentuckystage.org/plan.html)

Eddie Montgomery’s Steakhouseopens this fall at Skylar’s Landing, anew development in Harrodsburg thateventually will include a hotel, outdooramphitheater and family-focused attrac-

tions. The log-structured restaurant willfeature stone fireplaces, waterfalls and astage showcasing country music artists.(eddiemontgomerysteakhouse.com)

LOUISIANA Three new venues will open Nov. 6-8

during a star-studded weekend at theNational World War II Museum inNew Orleans, marking the first phase of a $300-million expansion to be com-pleted by 2015. The 250-seat VictoryTheater will be home to Beyond AllBoundaries, a multi-sensory cinematicexperience. Using an array of special effects, rare archival footage, voices ofHollywood stars and an advanced for-mat 4-D technology, it will provide animmersive journey that spans the globalscope of World War II, from the bomb-ing of Pearl Harbor to epic battles andfinal victory. Audiences will feel the tanktreads rumbling across North Africa’sdeserts, brush snow from their cheeksduring the Battle of the Bulge and flinchas anti-aircraft fire tries to bring downtheir B-17 on a bombing run over NaziGermany. Some of the life-sized propswill rise from the floor or descend fromthe ceiling.

The museum’s Stage Door Canteenwill be a sentimental tribute to 1940sentertainers who boosted the troops’morale on the home front and abroad.Its one-hour production will featureswing dancers and an Andrews Sisters-style girl group that dances and sings toBig Band tunes. Food and drinks will be served. Besides the signature show,some of New Orleans’ best musicianswill perform at the Canteen, which willsegue into The American Sector, a casualrestaurant featuring the creative Ameri-can cuisine of Louisiana celebrity chefJohn Besh, a veteran of the Gulf War.The restaurant is named for the historicarea of New Orleans where the museumis located. (504-527-6012, nation-alww2museum.org/victory).

NORTH CAROLINAThe NASCAR® Hall of Fame has an-

nounced May 11, 2010 as the officialgrand opening date for the state-of-the-art facility under construction in Char-lotte, N.C. The attraction will comprise150,000 square feet, including exhibitspace, a theater, a Hall of Honor thatwill house the commemorations of Hallof Fame inductees, numerous interactive

Nostalgia abounds at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

LeisureGroupTravel.com October 2009 37

entertainment experiences, a themed restaurant and retail outlet. The Hall will be owned by the City of Charlotte andoperated by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.

Artifacts on the origins of NASCAR and racing will includea reproduction of a Charlotte Speedway track poster from1924, which illustrates Charlotte’s deep roots in racing, and an original entry blank from the first-ever NASCAR StrictlyStock series event, held June 19, 1949, at Charlotte Speedway.Among the 1,000 other artifacts will be the PlymouthBelvedere that Richard Petty drove to 27 wins in 1967 andblazer that Ned Jarrett wore while he commentated the 1993Daytona 500 in which his son, Dale, staved off Dale Earn-hardt to claim his first Daytona 500 win. (nascarhall.com)

VIRGINIAVirginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center in Virginia

Beach on Nov. 21 opens its $25-million Restless Planet renova-tion, featuring 12,000 square feet of new habitats, exhibits andaquariums. Home to 6,000 new animals and 367 new species– including Komodo dragons, cobras and hedgehogs – RestlessPlanet will more than double the aquarium’s animal collection.(757-385-3474, virginiaaquarium.com)

38 October 2009 LeisureGroupTravel.com

on our radar: south �