Awwrite - from New Orleans

[coonass]

Figured I'd better go ahead & get it over with & join this mess... I used to be an informed citizen, listening to NPR on the way to work & back, speaking intelligently to my coworkers. Then I discovered the BN & bought an IPod. Geezis... 20 or so archives later, I have no idea what's going on in the world (is Bush still president?) my CD collection is holding up a pound of dust & cat hair, and my standard answer to my wife's "What are you doing?" inquiry is "Beer stuff..." Life is good.

Kind of.

New Orleans beer scene blows donuts since Katrina. The supply shop Brew Ha Ha is gone-pecan (rhymes if you say it right), so it's NB for me (B3 is too long & hot a trip for my yeasties!). The one decent brewpub has gone to shite since the brewmaster Pat split & was replaced by a German guy that turned my favorite malty, full-bodied, hoppy hoppy hoppy, awesome strong pale ale into a watered down piss. Don't fear the hops dude! My temple is crumbling. Thanks BN for making me smile in spite of all this, & teaching me a TON of stuff!

Brewed on & off for 10 yrs. Just got back from Belgian beer tour - was awesome but left me asking myself "That was the pinnacle, the highlight of my life. What now?" Keep brewing...

[Bugeater]

I too used to be an informed citizen. Now after hanging out with this bunch of degenerates for two years I'm not even sure what day it is.

Sounds like you will fit right in here. Hope you check back today in time for Lunch Meat at 12:00 left coast time.

As far as the Belgium trip goes, I'm jealous. About the only thing left to do in life is to visit Munich in September. We do have some connections there to help guide us around.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Thirsty Mallard]

Welcome coonass!

First off, pecan pronounced pee-can... you illiterate cajun.

Secondly, the beer may not be great, but at least you can get some good cajun cookin'! I would kill for some authentic boudin and a bowl of jambalaya or gumbo. My Houston Cougars play football vs. Tulane in New Orleans (N'awlins) this year, so I may be making a pilgrimage, if only for the food...

[DannyW]

I had a crawfish boudan the other day. First time I'd had the opportunity so I didn't know quite what to expect.

It looked like they cooked the rice and meat, then stuffed the casing, then served it. No grilling or other cooking once it was stuffed. It was tasty but the texture was softer and mealier than I expected compared to a regular pork sausage, and the color was just kind of gray.

Is that what they are supposed to be like?

[coonass]

You guys are right, the cooking is nice. I'm a transplant - been living here about 9 yrs... We're actually having some Jambalaya tonight! It took me a while to get into the crawfish, but I enjoy them now (after at least 3 beers). There's just something about having to rip a critter apart to eat something you find inside that initally didn't excite me too much.
As far boudin, it seems it's kind of a free-for-all. I've eaten all kinds at work when people make it out of their latest kill. But I think traditionally it was a blood sausage. Put some rice & blood in the casing, boil it, & yummy yummy. Now everyone has their own recipe. Crawfish, deer meat, nutria??? But you're right, it's not grilled and is usually more like a rice-dish in a casing than a hard sausage. It's usually pretty spicy...
Whelp, time to make some coffee. Talk to you guys later.
ps. Mallard I finally learned how to pronounce puh-CON "correctly" after hearing that phrase here.

[codewritinfool]

Welcome to The BN.

Here's a story for you... It isn't a particularly good story but it is the only sort-of-related story I know. When I was a kid, we used to visit my Grandma all of the time. She had a creek near her house that was loaded with crawdads. One of my older brothers showed me how to put bacon on a string, lower it into the creek, and the crawdads would go for it and clamp down, then you could just lift them right out.

I don't know why they went for the bacon or if bacon was even required, that's just the way I learned it. Anyway, there we were loading up a bucket with crawdads. We got maybe 20 or so and decided that was enough.

I took them home and filled an old washtub with about an inch of water and put them in it - they were going to be my pets. I went inside and came out after lunch and the birds were just swarming. Huh? I walked over to the tub and looked in and there were just crawdad parts everywhere. It seems that blackbirds like crawdads.

[coonass]

The poor little buggers just can't win... guess next time you'll know to bring that water to a boil & throw in some seasoning before putting the crawfish in!