What to eat at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival

Posted on by David
When it comes to the food vendors at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, the food isn't all crawfish, but to quote a good friend's catch phrase, it's all good. Well, most of it. I'd been given a big buildup from a couple of locals about Cajun pistols or pistolettes, which are buns stuffed with seafood and cheese and then deep-fried. As someone said, “they musta changed the recipe.” Cindy Harris from Houston, Texas (above) opted for Giant Shrimp on a Stick from the same vendor selling Gator on a Stick (“tender and delicious”). In fairness, I tried the alligator on a stick and found it more tender than most alligator I've tried. And, no, it doesn't taste like chicken. It tastes like alligator. Food on...Read More

Commencement Day at Crawfish College

Posted on by David
By the end of a short work week in and around Breaux Bridge, we the matriculated have been inculcated with the full flush of gracious community, the can't-help-but-smile chords of a pounding accordion and fiddles, and the feisty spirit of the crawfish (right), which seems to flourish no matter what the world might do to beat him down. (This might be the secret of keeping a French Acadian spirit alive and well in exile from its original homeland. Like the crawfish, they took to the rich swamps and became Cajuns.) So we at the College reached our graduation day as part of the opening ceremonies, where we were presented with cap, gown, and diploma (above). As the bands began to tune up for the one-of-a-kind...Read More

Trapping deepwater crawfish in the Atchafalaya

Posted on by David
Jody Meche is a third or fourth generation fisherman who maintains about 1,000 crawfish traps in the Atchafalaya Basin. He also happens to be a member of the Henderson Town Council and a board member of the Louisiana Crawfish Promotion & Research Board. So even if he can clown around with a grimace as he shows off a prize crawfish (above), he has the bona fides to be taken seriously on the subject of crawfish. And he's not modest -- not even a little bit. “My crawfish are the best tasting crawfish in the world,” he proclaims. He spent a half day on the Atchafalaya showing some of us in Crawfish College just how deepwater wild fishing is done. Meche fishes a much larger trap...Read More

Growing crawfish in ponds produces them by the ton

Posted on by David
To begin understanding crawfish, it's worth starting with the culture and harvest. A lot of the Cajun country crawfish business involves growing them in ''ponds'' – really flooded depressions fed with bayou water and held in place with an earthen levee. We went to visit Mike Clay's pond, where he's been growing and (after a fashion) breeding crawfish since 1985. Shown above is Mike's pond, with crawfisherman Robbie Guidry getting ready to make a harvest. Incidentally, Mike, shown here, is also the 2013 Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival king. Crawfish from his pond have also won the festival's crawfish races for the last dozen years or so. From every haul, Mike selects a few fast movers for training, which is why he has crawfish crawling around...Read More

Off to Crawfish College in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana

Posted on by David
Breaux Bridge, Louisiana's annual Crawfish Festival pretty much celebrates everything that is great about Acadian culture, from the mud bugs to the music to the Cajun proclivity for a darned good party. The heart of the festival, of course, is the mass consumption of crawfish farmed and wild-caught in St. Martin's Parish. This year the organizers put a little twist on the festivities by offering a crash course for those of us who did not grow up on intimate terms with the Bayou Teche and the Atchafalaya Basin. They call it Crawfish College -- a little introduction to the world of Cajun country's signature crustacean. Over the next few days HungryTravelers will be hitting some of the course highlights. The photo above, taken last night...Read More

Two favorite restaurants in Istanbul

Posted on by Pat and David
Whether you prefer to go fancy or casual, we found great food in Istanbul. Shown above was our table at Ulus 29 (Adnan Saygun Caddesi, Ulus Parkı İçi No:71/1, tel: +90 212-358-2929, www.group-29.com), one of the city's top restaurants, where we met designer Zeynep Fadillioğlu and her husband Metin. He owns Ulus 29, and she designed it. Placed on a hillside overlooking the Bosphorus Strait, the restaurant has floor-to-ceiling windows. It's worth dining here just for the view. The food is pretty spectacular as well, leaning toward contemporary fine European cuisine. While we made a point of eating a lot of Turkish meze and drinking Turkish wine, we also ordered some dishes that wouldn't have been out of place at an upscale restaurant in Paris....Read More

An Istanbul take on mideastern muhamarra

Posted on by Pat and David
One pleasure of dining in Istanbul was getting reacquainted with muhamarra, the walnut and pomegranate spread found all around the Middle and Near East. We buy it at home from Samira's Homemade in Belmont, where Lebanon-born Samira Hamdoun fashions all sort of tasty spreads. But we found it on every mezze tray in Istanbul, and decided we had to learn to make it for ourselves. Fortunately, our friend Elif Aydar of the Marti hotel group gave us her own recipe. It was a bit of a challenge to adapt, since we can't pop into the grocery store for red pepper paste or sour pomegranate condiment. Moreover, colloquial kitchen measurements differ between Turkey and the U.S. and the breads have different textures. But with a little...Read More

What to bring home from a Turkish grocery store

Posted on by Pat and David
When we were in Istanbul last week, we were surprised to discover that it's common for unmarried men and women to live with their families well into their 30s. So when we asked our first guide, who is 30-something, what to buy in a grocery store, he was utterly clueless. His mother does all the cooking, and apparently all the shopping too. He's not even sure what's in her recipes. But our second guide proved a more modern young Turk. Yusuf Kilig works in Istanbul, far from his family's village in the south, and shares a flat with roommates. He knows his way around the kitchen, and the supermarket aisles as well. Yusuf had also worked for a few months at Walt Disney World in...Read More

What to eat at the airport in Little Rock

Posted on by Pat
Chain eateries (Starbucks, Burger King, Quiznos and the like) constitute the bulk of food choices at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, and Bill is probably out of luck if he's searching for a vegan meal. But right next to Pizza Hut I discovered Whole Hog Cafe, the airport outlet of a small barbecue chain with two spots in Little Rock and one in Bentonville. Whole Hog has taken several awards in barbecue cook-offs and back when he still ate real food, Bill Clinton must have been a fan. Whole Hog claims that their serving utensils are in the presidential time capsule. I decided on a pulled pork sandwich and the server advised me to have the meat topped with cole...Read More
Sipping a Seelbach Cocktail on Urban Bourbon Trail

Sipping a Seelbach Cocktail on Urban Bourbon Trail

Posted on by Pat
I always think of the mint julep as the classic Kentucky drink, but there's more than one way to imbibe the Bluegrass State's signature spirit, Kentucky Bourbon. As I reported in the January 12 issue of the Boston Globe Travel section, I'm only two drinks away from claiming an Urban Bourbon Trail T-shirt. It's offered to anyone who visits six of the 20 participating bourbon bars and restaurants in Louisville. (Click here to see the Globe story.) The Seelbach Cocktail, named for the classic hotel where it was invented in 1917, is one of those great accidents that seem to happen at bars as the night wears on. The drink originated when champagne overflowed into a Manhattan, beverage supervisor Michael Anderson (above) told me. “It's...Read More