Eating Our Way Across the Gulf of Mexico

First – a quick rant. To the software developers creating all the wonderful apps we use every day (including this one): your work is mediocre at best. Does anything get tested? I guess that depends on how you define testing because across the board, your software sucks. If anything actually worked as intended I’d be surprised. Or … maybe you do intend to drive us mad. If so – good job, and thanks for listening.

OK – I’ve had my Xanax now, so I’ll proceed.

Some type of internal timer went off in the last few days and told me it’s time to write something.  At each iteration, it seems the timer is taking longer and longer to go off though.  Maybe this is due to the fact that we haven’t done much lately other than stuff ourselves silly with all the wonderful southern fried cooking, or maybe it’s because our lifestyle on the road is becoming the routine for us and I don’t feel it’s something notable.  I’ve also had a lot going at work lately.  But as I look through my phone pics and recall some of the spectacular plate-fulls of mouth watering deliciousness, I know I can fill a lengthy post just talking about food we’ve never tried until now, or at least the way it’s cooked here.  So if you feel like some virtual indulgence, I’ll start with a couple of places we stayed, and end with the goodies!

The weather throughout the gulf coast has been ‘unseasonably cold’.  In fact, so unseasonably cold that school days have been canceled.  I guess they do that in the south when temps dare dip a hair below the freezing point.  🤷 In addition to that, we spent a day under tornado watch; pretty scary for us former ‘Washintonians’ that only have to worry about The Big One or a tsunami (or likely both). The tornado warning started out at level 1 of 5, and progressed to level 4 of 5.  Then a twister did touch down a couple hundred miles north along the same weather front that was hitting us.  But my day of worrying was mostly spent playing FarCry 6 so the time went by quickly and outside of a blustery day, there was no need to worry.  I digress, but this paragraph was included as a disclaimer for the lacking number of outdoor activities we’ve completed lately, and that the weather is our excuse for not doing much other than eating.  After all, I feel we have a duty to our readers to explore and report!

Lafayette, Louisiana 

First, “Laughy-yet” is what we heard the city news-casters say. Locals tend to have maybe a bit of a French nasal way of pronouncing things which makes sense with the Cajun population.  Not right on the gulf, there is still enough water here to make it seem like it is.  In fact, one observation of this whole region of America is a big question.  Why did cities even begin where we had to construct miles and miles of bridges over rivers, lakes, bogs, bayous, inlets, bays, puddles and any other type of water feature you can think of?  The gulf coast is mostly water!  Just east of Lafayette on the major highway is the Atchafalaya Basin (a massive swamp, and don’t ask me how to pronounce that one)!  The freeway itself is 18 miles of elevated bridge to get vehicles through the swamp.  It’s beautiful in it’s own way, but seems like such a massive project where we would have said – “Eh – let’s just put the road further north”.  Or “We’ve got to move Baton Rouge!”

Orange Beach, Alabama

Drive east from Lafayette, cross the M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i river, and in a few hours you’ll have four states under your belt. Or under your wheels at least. Leave Louisiana, traverse the little slivers of Mississippi, and Alabama, and you’ll be on the Florida Alabama line in no time.  We stopped just short of there in Orange Beach, Alabama.  

I’ll be the first to admit that we had no idea what to expect in Alabama, but it certainly was not the white sand, luxury resort beach community that we found there.  High rise condos line the beaches like we’re used to seeing in Hawaii, but here the snow-white sand turns the gulf water that Caribbean teal-blue that provides eye candy we can’t get enough of.  Unfortunately the water is barely above 50 degrees right now so we weren’t too worried about no life guards on duty.  

Seafood restaurants are numerous and whether you’re after a shrimp basket for a few bucks, or a several course meal from chefs displaying their culinary expertise, you’ll only have to decide which one you’re jonesing for that day.  If you’re lucky and get a window seat you’ll watch the boats going by and the dolphins playing in their wakes.  Then drive out to the ‘burbs’ and you’ll see rows of pastel homes on stilts, intermixed with the obvious movie star’s or super-successful business person’s gated estate, all blending perfectly with the cyan sky and white sand.

Beyond our beach-walks, visiting the shops and restaurants at ‘The Wharf’, and exquisite emerald coast meals, we had alligators in our back yard.  Going for a ‘walk in the park’ and spying gators sunning themselves at the pond is beyond what we hoped to see at any point on this adventure. Visiting Orange Beach was truly an unexpected delight, and outside of Fountain Hills, our unanimous favorite stop to date.

Flora-Bama (pronounce each state and cut off the excess – short for Florida and Alabama)

I had to mention this as it’s a bit of a famous hang-out, especially for Spring Break.  And apparently it’s a place for the ladies to lose their undergarments based on the hundreds of bras hanging across the main stage.  This live music Mecca is home to 3 separate bars with live music every day of the year, and when the spring crowds arrive they move outside as well.  Lots of great acts have played here over the years – making for some crazy beach parties.  Check out the Kenny Chesney video if you haven’t seen it!  

The Food!

There are so many delicious appetizers, entrees, and desserts to try in the south that we haven’t had them all yet, but we’ve done our best to empty our wallets and try a lot of them.  Here are some of the highlights, in no particular order:

Boudin

Boudin is a tasty 2 inch meat-ball made of sausage, spices, and some other stuff.  We’re not sure if it’s a meal or a snack.  We bought a few thinking it was a snack and couldn’t even finish two at the same time!  We tried several versions including the crawfish balls I posted on Facebook, and some regular as well as the super Cajun spiced balls.  They’re not Shweddy balls, but you might be perspiring after eating them – whether from the spice or the rush of fat entering your system.  Either way, you’ll need a nap afterward.

Hush Puppies

Most people have probably had these.  Even us!  But as they are a staple food here they needed to be included in this list.  Where we’re used to getting some sourdough or garlic bread before a nice meal, here you’ll get a basket of the little round puppies.  They come in lots of flavors as well … from spice to sweet corn bread.  O.M.G.  Now I’m too full for dinner …

Alligator

Tastes like chicken.  Seriously!  Which begs the question – why not just order chicken and save those awesome dinosaurs?

Redfish

I talked about this a bit last time as it’s where Tami’s eyes linger if it’s on the menu.  To describe the fish though – it’s a gulf specialty that is a very mild white fish normally smothered in some type of sauce that gives it the real flavor.  Here are some toppings from one of the menus:

• Crescent City:  blackened shrimp, crab, crawfish, lemon butter
• Melissa: sautéed shrimp. scallops, crab, mushrooms
• Pontchartrian: crab, mushrooms, white wine cream sauce
• Crawfish Étouffée:  (This one is the most common and you’ll find it at most restaurants)

One of the nice things about redfish is it’s generally less expensive than some of the other offerings, so easy on the wallet and the pallet! 

Cracklin

Cracklin takes pork rinds to a new level and tries to encompass the ‘crispy on the outside, soft in the middle’ aspect of delectables.  It’s made from the pig skin, but also includes a bit of the underlying fat.  Apparently it’s the bits of left-overs that float to the surface when rendering lard.  And of course at some point someone thought – “I should eat those floating pieces”!  I will say that it took a couple tries, but I’m in.  Tami not so much.  I think if you put enough spices on anything it probably tastes good.  And as I’m snacking on my tooth-breaking cracklin – it’s also easy to hear how it got it’s name!

Grits

I’m sure I don’t have to explain grits either, but just in case you haven’t tasted them, I will!  We had them back in WA state, but not the same, and honestly we didn’t really know what they were! Grits are ground corn (or hominy which comes from maize) that’s boiled and then things are added to make it a tasty side dish.  My brother described it as something like cream-of-wheat, and the texture is very similar to that so I’m giving him the credit here.  But then add garlic, butter, cream, and or cheese for a side dish, or place the meat on top, as in Tami’s duck cutlets on grits that I showed last time.  I love them – and once again Tami’s on the fence.  She’s mostly not a fan of the texture, but I also love cream-of-wheat (as long as there is plenty of brown sugar)!

Grouper

Grouper is another gulf classic with a mild flavor, but firm, steak-like consistency.  Like redfish, it’s also best served with some sort of gulf seafood topping like shrimp or crab.  Add a wine sauce too – everything is good with that!  It’s on the top of the list price-wise so maybe it’s harder to catch.  Or it just sounds appetizing when the waiter says “Tonight’s special is the grouper topped with a Cajun beurre blanc.  It’s a lot of money but trust me, you’re gonna love it”!  

Catfish

Always shaken, never stirred.  And by shaken I mean fried of course.  I think gulf catfish is basically flavorless, and probably mostly farm-raised.  It’s a great addition to a seafood platter and always at the bottom.  By the time you get down to that layer you are so full you don’t really know what you’re eating anymore.  You’ve definitely finished your cocktail and are into the wine by then anyway so everything is starting to taste just fabulous.

Bushwhacker

I chose one entry from the bar menu since I had never heard of it before.  Hard to believe, I know.  I guess this was invented in the Caribbean and brought back to the gulf and it’s the signature drink at some of the local joints, including Flora-Bama where I had one.  It’s an adult milk-shake imbued with several spirits, and Flora-Bama doesn’t give out their recipe.  What I will say is you probably don’t need dinner afterwards.  Just a piece of bread pudding.  And a pillow.

Étouffée

I think étouffée is a southern term for gravy.  But southern gravy will normally have crawfish in it so it’s not the stuff you make a mashed potato boat with.  Or maybe you do?  To me this could be the epitome of Cajun flavor.  There’s no way easy way to describe the taste, but Tami, who has a better pallet than I do, says it’s a thick, beefy flavored gravy with a bit of a fishy taste added.  It’s very distinct, and you’ll probably love it or hate it.  I don’t know if saffron is a normal part of étouffée, or a staple seasoning in Cajun food, but when I smell the strong aroma of saffron when we enter the restaurant, I know étouffée will be on the menu.  The smell of fried oil also tends to permeate these places and unfortunately that subtracts from the experience for me.  Love the food … don’t like coming home smelling like a fry basket.

Mahi Mahi

I thought Mahi Mahi was strictly a Hawaiian fish.  You’ll always find it in Hawaii, but we learned it is just as common in the gulf of Mexico and is a sport fish and restaurant specialty in Louisiana.  Like salmon in WA, or the great Walleye where my parents hailed from in Minnesota, Mahi x 2 is on every menu as a fresh-caught entree.  It even comes on the nachos here!  It is a nice firm-textured fish with a little more of a fishy taste than most other gulf options.  It’s commonly blackened with Cajun spices, but also seared on the grill.  

Shrimp Everything

Everyone has had shrimp, and everyone has probably seen Forrest Gump at least once, so you know that there are around 20 ways to cook it.  Probably most of those are found here, but beyond a doubt you’ll find it fried in every restaurant that serves shrimp.  “And that’s all I have to say about that.”

Blue Arrow Crab

We’ve never tried this on it’s own.  Speaking to people that have had the arrow crab as well as the dungeness we’re used to from the Puget Sound, they say there is no comparison, and the dungeness takes the Olympic Gold Medal.  So far we’ve only had the arrow crab in a shrimp/crab dip which was marvelous, but of course we couldn’t tell exactly what the crab was like on it’s own.  At some point we will and I’ll add a side-note.  For now … it tastes a lot like crab.

Gumbo

Soup flavored with celery and okra.  That’s the simple version as I’m sure most of you are familiar with gumbo.  Okra gives the soup it’s signature slimy consistency, which is forgivable or even favorable once you get into the hearty flavor that takes it a step above your typical chicken soup for the soul.  This is a soup for the Cajun in all of us.

Bread Pudding

When you’re too full to eat anything else, you might as well just keep going either to prove you’re unstoppable (ly dumb), or you’ve completely given up on avoiding the seven deadly sins.  Bread pudding is like French toast soaked in things like cinnamon and vanilla, probably heavy cream and maybe some sort of spirits, and then sometimes topped with a custard.  It’s a wholesome way to finish a proper southern fried meal before you hire an electric crane operator to raise you from your sunken booth seat and place you in your powered wheel-chair that will escort you to your painful ride home.  But what a sense of accomplishment!  

In summary, and speaking completely for myself here, I am a roly-poly dough boy who’s overindulged a tad. Nothing a few weeks of correcting this gluttony won’t fix!  Southern food is something everyone should experience at some point without holding back.  How many times will we visit the gulf?  Unknown, but next time we won’t have to try everything on the menu.  Being from the North where Mardi Gras is not celebrated, we’re a little bummed that we’re just a few weeks too early to be a part of the celebrations that are being prepared for in every town across the Gulf of Mexico.  But that sure does give us a reason to return at some point (as if we needed another one), as well as to visit when the water temp is above the frigid 50 some degrees it is now.  And by then we’ll have our beach-bods back!  

Lastly – if you want to ride along a bit, here are some scenes from the window as we drive the gulf coast.

As always, thanks for joining us and stay tuned for our next adventures in Florida!

Much love to you all! -G&T