Crazy 'bout Cajun Country

Cajun country is my new favorite spot. True, I was probably severely influenced by the food--fresh seafood everywhere. But it really has a great feel, and is a lot of fun. It looks quite unassuming. In fact, when we drove through the guidebook-recommended towns, we didn't want to stop in any of them. But we had planned a night in Cajun country and had to pick one.

By chance, we ended up at the Bayou Teche B&B, and met Mary-Lynn, the proprietor. Mary-Lynn could make anyone love the Cajun country. She had plotted out a three-day itinerary for us and probably would have gone further if we'd actually stayed. Her B&B was outside our budget, so she offered us her "hunting lodge" (more of a mobile home by the side of the road) for "whatever your budget is". She sent us to Crazy 'Bout Crayfish for dinner, then met us there and drove us out to her favorite little nightclub, where she chatted with friends and we listened to a great jazz/blues ensemble. And then she told us when to wake up to catch the Zydeco breakfast.

Zydeco (pronounced ZIE-deko) is the black cajun music. People come from all over the country to listen to it, and to come to this breakfast. The band started playing at 8:30am, and people were dancing by 8:35. I ate eggs over-easy, served on top of some kind of cajun biscuit and smothered in "crawfish etoufee", which is this creamy sauce with crawfish tails. Then we danced. Incidentally, we had an appetizer of crawfish etoufee over jalepeno cheese corn bread at Crazy 'Bout Crawfish, before our 5 lb. of boiled crawfish for dinner. So good...

I could go on and on about the food. On the way out of New Orleans we stopped at this shack by the side of the road (recommended by Road Food), which was packed, and I had fresh shrimp cajun with jambalaya. Yum....

And now we're in Texas, where the only "vegetables" on the menu last night were (I kid you not): cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans, pinto beans, or jambalaya (rice with meat). The menu warned "our vegetarians" that even the BBQ sauce had meat in it--as if a vegetarian would be there to begin with.

Anyway, I highly recommend Cajun Country. Stay in Breaux Bridge with Mary-Lynn.

So far Texas has failed to impress me. It's big and flat and hot and humid. I thought the beach in Galveston was ugly, but I've never been one for city beaches. Some of the old streets and mansions were nice. Houston feels like one giant suburban sprawl. But wow, the people are nice. In Germany, if you smile at someone, they look at you like you might be crazy. In Boston, if you smile at someone, they smile back. Here, if you smile at someone, even just on the street corner while you're waiting to cross, they say "hi, how are you?" I don't even know the correct response to that. "I'm fine, how are you?" Right there on the street corner?

With love from Houston,

Sarah