Louisiana: Cajun Country

Baton Rouge viewed from the Louisiana State Capitol Building

After finally tearing ourselves away from NOLA we headed into the heart of Cajun country. Our first stop was just between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, at the Evergreen Sugar Cane Plantation.

Evergreen was a German settled plantation that boasts one of the biggest and most intact slave quarters in Louisiana. And while it is a still functioning cane plantation, the original manner house now serves more as a museum and show piece rather than a functioning manner house. Although the owner does still use it as her country retreat from the beautiful chaos that is NOLA.

Evergreen Manner House…In all its symmetry

The drive way into the plantation and down to the slave quarters are some of the most picturesque in the area. The beautiful oak trees draped with Spanish moss line the drive with greenery on both sides, to which Al and Nic both remarked that I would have a field day in with any sort of ball given the chance.

Oak Way...

The slave quarters are humble and basic, but they (as per state law) provided shelter and a home for the families and the living spaces weren’t all that different (albeit not quite at luxurious looking or comfortable) from the main house.

I doubt the slaves ever got the chance to sit back and take in the serenity of the place, but if you ever do, it’s well worth the slight detour to get there.

Slave Quarters @ Evergreen Sugar Cane Plantation

From here we rolled into Baton Rouge for a couple of days downtime and it is here we said our farewells to Big Al. No doubt you might be reading this mate, so hopefully by now you have seen the Eagles get over the Giants and are on your way to Montreal – hope you have brushed up on your French. It has been a pleasure mate, from the Sundays at ‘church’, to the nights out on the town, everything was a blast – it’s how it should be when you’re on holidays! Cheers mate and hopefully we can meet up again in Canada!

Baton Rouge viewed from the Louisiana State Capitol Building

Now is where we enter food country – the real heart of Louisiana. Lafayette provided us with some of the best tasting food, nay cuisine, we have had in the U.S. to date. Thanks to Bec and Sal, Nic had her heart set on trying out the Blackened Catfish (Tilapia) from Bon Temps Grill, Lafayette. I am told this also served as another bucket list item for those of you who are True Blood fans – you’ll get it if you know it.

The blackened catfish lived up to the hype, and the mango salsa jerked chicken I had also fit the bill. Now I have been told in the past, and the present, that I may hoover my food. So whilst in the process of doing just this at Bon Temps, I had an epiphany – why don’t I slow it down and enjoy this because tomorrow you might be cooking for yourself. Yes that’s right, I actually consciously thought about slowing down my rapid intake rate and enjoying each mouthful before shovelling in the next – Maus would have been proud.

To be honest, Bon Temps Grill cannot get any better recommendation than that! Oh and yeah, Nic liked her catfish as well!

Heaven on a plate @ Bon Temps Grill, Lafayette

The waiter at Bon Temps implored us to try out the breakfast at T’Coons – a local run diner with the best breakfast in town. Given the food he was serving up was that good, we had to take his advice. Again, we were not let down. Although I will say it wasn’t as good as that of the night before, it was pretty fricken good.

Given all the eating we had been doing, I took it upon myself to stock up my activities bag and find some more appealing to Nic. Walmart came up trumps yet again, and we are now the proud owners of a 5 piece sports set, set to last about one session per sports given the quality coming out of Walmart. We have already exchanged it once!

Louisiana has been surreal. The people, the hospitality, the character, the food, the charisma…everything has been an experience.