Cajun Traditions. Washing away with the Coastline.

Map by Wikimedia

Traditions are something that most people take great pride in. Traditions are also something that authors love to write about.  But the truth is traditions often fall victim to progress.  Such is the case of the many traditions of Cajuns in Louisiana. As most know, our ancestral roots can be traced back to the eviction of the area now known as Nova Scotia. But the assaults have never really stopped!


My Grandparents spoke fluent "Cajun french" but, never taught it to my parents or my generation. They would only speak it in front of their peers, usually inside while sharing coffee. The oddest thing was that every so often they would all stop as one and look around the room, then resume their dialect. One day as a teen I decided to ask my Grandmother (whom I worshipped) why. Why not teach us and why do you all look around the room? Her answer was somewhat hard to believe. In the 1920's the all knowing government decided it was unintelligent to speak two languages and more specifically to speak "Cajun french". The solution to these little Cajun brats speaking their native tongue was to use the school system to eliminate such behavior. My Grandparents who only spoke "Cajun french" at home would be paddled for doing such at school. Which explains both behaviors of not teaching their children and looking around the room when speaking. Thanks to "intellectuals" the native tongue of my people is now a thing of folklore!

Then came the ingenious idea of flood control! It seems that living along side nature and it's bountiful harvest was not how a man should live. We must upstage nature. We must decide where rivers flow. We must drain swamps. And all this has gotten us a few more steps away from our Cajun heritage. Our way of life is dictated by floodgates. Or in the case of my home, lack of floodgates.  Our bountiful marshes erode everyday with no silt to cross the mighty levees. Our homes sink on the land that was pumped dry. The barrier islands waste away in the tide.  It seems the more billions of dollars we spend the more hundreds of acres we lose to the Gulf. All this thanks to great engineering minds.

Satellite by Fotopedia

In 2010, we faced a dire future.  An explosion and fire on an offshore drilling rig threatened the entire Gulf Coast.  For some six weeks the nation was glued to the TV while oil gushed out of the sea floor.  The bounty of seafood we love, eat, and take pride in was in harm's way.  Fortunately, we've survived that doomsday. Mother Nature always finds a way.  And that's the key.  Let nature take it's course.  We've lived along side of nature and lived well for over three hundred years. Cajuns will live on.  The same uniqueness that caused my grandparents to be punished is now held is high regard. No where else in this nation can you have a social gathering over some boiled bugs caught in a ditch.  Our marshes and coast lines may disappear.  God knows those idiots in D.C. haven't got a clue how to save the land or the culture.  But we will persevere.  We've been evicted before, we can build anew and bring more wrinkles to our storied past.  Come what may, we will find a way to coexist with whatever nature has and we will hand down as many traditions as we can to our kids.  So forget all the catching slogan's, Cajun life is out in the swamps and lowlands and it truly is the good life.

Crawfish Platter by Wikipedia.

A taste of Louisiana

Life in Louisiana is very unique and it's food is even more unique.  We are very passionate about our food.  We eat everything we can find and we spice it up like nowhere else.  Let me start with a few breakfast items.  Yes we eat coffee and beignets like advertised to the world.  Heavy on the coffee.  Most are familiar with "French toast" here we make it a little different and have two different names for it.  Some refer to it as Pan Pan Deaux, and others call it Lost Bread, but simply put it's stale bread coated in milk and egg wash then fried and sprinkled with sugar.  We love grits in the South.  Shrimp and grits is not uncommon but in my family we put Boudain in our grits.  What is Boudain you ask?  It is a sausage made from pork, rice, liver, green onions, and other spices.  In Louisiana, pork is a basic food group.  Boucheries don't happen as often as they did in the past but they still are a clinic in how we use the entire pig.  As the locals say, "we eat everything on the pig except the oink".  Most people would throw away a perfectly fine pig head.  In Louisiana we make Hog Head Cheese and pickled pig lips. Whoever made the commercial that says, "Pork, the other white meat" has never been to a boucherie.

Next we have our fruits and vegetables.  We love our onions and down here we refer to green onions as shallots.  I grow my own vegetables so I know a thing or two about tomatoes and in Louisiana, Creole tomatoes are things of idol worship.  My personal favorite is cucumbers.  We also brag on our own personal favorites when it comes to squash, beans, and peas.  One local favorite that is not for me is the mirliton.(pronounced "melly ton")  It's a "prickly pear" or a "vegetable pear".  But the vegetable that is a staple of Cajun cooking is okra.  Okra is something that can be cooked any which way and served at almost every meal.  It is also the base veggie for gumbo.  We also love our fruits, growing strawberries is an art form and picking wild blackberries is a rite of passage.  Figs are also included with those two and more jelly and jam you can eat is made every year. Also, if you grow fruit you must know how to make wine.  Whether it's strawberry, blackberry, or muscadine wine, everyone has a very passionate opinion about it.  As far as nuts go, there is only one you need to know about.  That's the pecan.  If you can't make pecan pie then you're not marrying material.  Most of our seasonings fall into the veggie category. Onions, bell peppers, parsley, celery, and basil are all chopped fine and considered seasoning.  And of course we love our cayenne pepper.  Whether it's in a jar pickled in vinegar, or a sauce, or dried season, a little red pepper makes everything better.


Everyone knows that Louisiana is a seafood lovers paradise.  Crawfish is one of our favorites.  While these mud bugs are plentiful, they are only available for about half the year.  Crawfish season usually starts in late January and ends in early June when they start to get to hard.  What can you make with crawfish?  There's crawfish etouffee, fried crawfish tails, crawfish bisque, crawfish jambalaya, crawfish stew, and oh yeah we like to boil them.  If you don't know how to boil crawfish, you'll never get a good woman to marry you.  We love shrimp as well.  There are two types of shrimp.  There is brown shrimp and white shrimp, and it would do you good to know the difference.  My wife's shrimp etouffee is the best.  Name a fish and we probably have it.  We have an abundance of freshwater and saltwater fish.  Two of my favorites are Red fish on the grill and the wife makes a mean fish court bouillon.  My all time favorite seafood is oysters.  While there are many ways to cook oysters, I prefer them raw.  In Louisiana they are good and salty.  They are so good you can pull one out of the cool water, crack it open and eat it on the spot.

Seems like I've only scratched the surface.  I haven't mentioned all the wildlife we eat.  Such as deer, squirrel, rabbit, alligator, quail, and ducks.  By the way nobody uses the word venison.  Most people that eat deer don't know it's called venison.  I've also failed to cover all the different types of dishes.  We have gumbo, jambalaya, etouffee, court bouillon, stews, deep frying, pan frying, barbecues, boiled seafood, baking, caking, preserves, and a few more that escape me at the moment.  Anyway, I hope that if you get to come to the bayou you don't waste a meal at a burger joint.  There's food everywhere and there's usually a good story told behind every meal.  Cooking is a part of our heritage and we not only enjoy it, we love to share it.  So in the words of my Dad, "come to la vey, and bring a little pig sha!".  That's truly C'est bon!