louisianna vacation

going to louisianna for vacation next week.Wanting to stay and ride around the rural areas. looking for good food,resterants and also want to take cooler to get some alligater meat and crayfish and shrimp to take back home.any ideas where to pickup the stuff. good cajun resturants/

depends on what part of La you gonna be in. if around the Breaux Bridge area, you have Randol"s, Mulattes. Landry"s, if around Crowley Feezo"s or between Crowley and Jennings you have D.I."s about 15 miles north of I-10 on highway 97
if in Baton rouge there is a Mike Anderson's seafood rest. on college south of I-10 i think, around Rayne there is Chef roys and in Kinder there is the casino and Roys catfish house.

I spent a few weeks around Baldwin and Franklin, Jeanerette, Charenton. Salt of the earth people, real friendly places. I sampled several local eating houses and never hit a bad one. I especially liked the ones with live music. Enjoy your trip, You will see stuff growing in gardens that we have not even thought about yet up here.

Shrimp and crawfish are out of season. Crawfish start in March and shrimp in May. Oysters are in season but are pricy thanks to BP. There are a zillion great places to eat. Hope you like spicy.

Mois:

What do you hope to see in Louisiana ?

I’m sure this will draw some fire from my Louisiana brethren , but a first time visitor on a search for farming and food would be well served by drawing a line east –to- west where our state makes its hard- eastern -border turn in West Feliciana Parish. Such an imaginary line, historically, divided our state both culturally and agriculturally. This is less true now but still has a bearing on ag and food.

North of the line, cotton dominated as the cash crop until about 1970. Below the line , sugar cane, rice , and cotton dominated as cash crops. Today one generally will find cane and rice below the line and not above it. Now , below the line one can also find soybeans and corn. Now north of the line one finds cotton , corn , soybeans , wheat , and some milo.( Sweet potatoes too ).

The superb restaurants tend to be below the line. The ones Mike Stockwell mentioned are great. Try these too:
Palace Café , Opelousas
Landry’s (the original) – Lafayette
Acme Oyster House – Baton Rouge
Hymels – Convent , La ( crawfish )
Spars – Des Allemands,La (wild local catfish )
Mittendorf’s --boonies near Ponchatoula,La (wild local catfish)
Tony’s Seafood – Baton Rouge for the stuff you want to take home.

Notice that I have kept you out of New Orleans . Don’t get me started there.

Kajun

Mosi:

Make that Don's (the original ) in Lafayette . This is the original Landry family restaurant. Ask for the shrimp gumbo--- a favorite of mine. This dish is unique to the specific area.

Happy travels

One thing I can tell Ya' Don't attempt to Drink the Water... That stuff Tastes as bad as it Smells!!...I was there Two Mos. in basic training , Thats enough for me.. LOL!BUT I'm sure there are great Eating Establishments also. Larry KF4LKU