Really, really, ridiculously good food.

Over break, I got to get off campus and actually enjoyed some home cooking, and it was awesome. But it was long that I realized I'd pretty much eaten every typical Louisiana dish possible.

When I went to Mississippi, my dad made me red beans and rice (and it was on a Monday. Haha). His are pretty much the only red beans I'll eat. I'm really picky about my red beans.

And then before I made way back to Lafayette, I went to this restaurant in Slidell called Crawfish Paradise (It actually is now closed temporarily, it closed the day after we went, because the owners are at ends with each other and is soon to only be under one owner who has to change the name. So complicated.) located on Gauze Blvd. with my family where we enjoyed boiled crawfish. For a restaurant, I was pretty impressed. It had a good flavor, although not spicy enough for my taste, but the thing that really got me is they made it with garlic cloves (my favorite) and lemon, which I've never had a restaurant do before. P.S. Has cute waiters...just sayin. (The woman in the picture is my grandmother a.k.a. Pat)

If for whatever reason you're heading over to Lafayette, the first exit right after getting off Atchafalaya (Woo! Spelled that right on my first try!) bridge is called the Cecilia-Henderson Exit.

I would highly recommend getting off at this exit and going to the Boudain Shop and Country Store, also known as Chicken on the Bayou (Because apparently they have awesome chicken. I haven't tried it yet since it's a rarity that I stop here). Honestly, I can't think of a really good boudain place that's actually in Lafayette. The best one's are always outside the city. My other favorite place to go is in Carencro (affectionately known as "Da Cro") and I couldn't even tell you how to get there.

Here, you can get crawfish and pork boudin links and balls, pistolettes, and other things which can either be cooked up for you or you can buy frozen and take home to cook yourself. And of course, they have cracklin, which I had been craving since talking about it class, made fresh when you order it. If you ever decided to get it, ALWAYS make sure it's fresh; If it sits out for too long, it can get hard and difficult to chew and has even been known to crack some teeth (hence the name, maybe?).

Boudin Ball

Cracklin

And on top of that, my mom made seafood gumbo and shrimp and crawfish ettoufee.

After eating all this delicious food and gaining, like 50 million pounds, I realized something... I CAN'T COOK ANY OF IT! Like seriously, I can't even make rice in a pot right. I always burn the bottom and it's never the right consistency.

So it is going to be my own personal mission to learn to cook all these wonderful dishes made by, in my opinion, the best people possible, family. And I'm going to make my own cookbook from it, because no one can tell you how they make things, they just do it. That's the bad thing about Louisiana cooks trying to tell you their recipes. Should be fun :)

P.S. I took my friend over to Plum St., and got him his first New Orleans sno-ball; he's pretty much addicted.