Posted by Bruce Bilmes and Sue Boyle
, April 13, 2009 19:13
At first glance, some people might not find street festivals especially special. But when Roadfood gets involved you know it won’t be just any street festival. The first Louisiana Roadfood Festival featured block after block of food purveyors from all over the state, many of whom do not regularly do the “festival circuit.” It was possible to taste just about everything, foodwise, the state is known for (with the one noteworthy exception of boudin – next year, hopefully!). The weather was perfect; the crowds were large without being oppressive (anyone who’s been to the summer barbecue festival or 9th Avenue Festival in NYC knows what we’re talking about).
Dave’s Cajun Kitchen featured seafood gumbo, smoked turkey legs, and red beans with smoked sausage. (Most of these photos come from Stephen Rushmore Jr.)
We had a taste of a smoked turkey leg that Marc Bruno picked up (somehow Marc Bruno just looks right with a turkey leg in his fist). It was no ordinary festival turkey leg; this one was moist, smokey, and delicious.
Vaucresson Sausage sold po’ boys made with their excellent sausage, either Creole Hot or Creole Crawfish. We wish we had tasted the hot sausage. We did get a crawfish version, which Sue was very fond of. Bruce found it OK but finds seafood sausages to be almost oxymoronic; the delicate tastes and textures of seafood can get lost in the grinding and grilling, as he sees it. We thought the serving of sausage was too small for the roll, too. Just Bruce’s personal opinion, though. We believe we heard Elise say that the crawfish sausage was her single favorite food at the festival.
Vidalia Grill by Hurricane Fence had BBQ Shrimp. Very nice!
Lasyone’s was a huge hit with their pies. They are famous for their meat pies, and they were as good as expected, but the crawfish pies were the talk of the festival! The crawfish filling had some kick (with a seasoning that veered toward curried, we thought), and with the mouth-filling flavor of crawfish. This was Bruce’s favorite item at the festival:
Chad’s Bistro had Gator Etouffee Over Creamy Grits, Shrimp Pasta, Fried Shrimp Balls, and Fried Artichoke Hearts. We had a taste of Chris’ (ayersian) shrimp balls, served with a spicy remoulade, which were crusty and creamy and good, and we heard lots of raves over the artichokes.
The Que Crawl was a big hit. They served a Couchon de Lait Po’ Boy, 12-Hour Roast Beef Po’ Boy, French fries, and an off-menu item called duck cracklins. Duck cracklins! We were looking forward to trying them when we heard they would be served but before we got to the Purple Truck we saw buffetbuster and his gang who said that these were most foul fowl indeed. We passed on them that first day. On day two, Elise had good things to say about the cracklins, so Elise and Bruce hoofed it over to the truck for an order (we think Elise just wanted to gaze at the boys manning the purple truck). These things were amazingly good! We (Bruce, not Sue, who wouldn’t touch ‘em) mean really, really good! Did Bruce say the crawfish pie was Best In Show? Maybe he meant the cracklins. He’s not sure. We always maintain that taste is personal, but Cliff! What were you thinking! If you didn’t like these luscious, crunchy, melting, spicy nuggets of duck fat laced with bits of meat then cracklins in general just ain’t your thing. Is that right?
We also sampled the couchon de lait (roast suckling pig). Wonderful, but we probably needed to spritz it with one or more of the sauces and/or pickles that the truck provided because it was a tad dry.
Royal Street was filled with people walking with Plum Street Snowballs:
Saltwater Grill featured Fried Green Tomato Shrimp Remoulade on a po’ boy and a crawfish and spinach boat. We didn’t try any but they sure looked good:
Cafe Reconcile had that strawberry shortcake we sampled on Friday, and also a shrimp pasta dish.
Dunbar’s Creole Cooking had fried catfish with potato salad which we wish we had sampled. We did taste the pralines, and these had great flavor but could have used more pecans.
The Tabasco Country Store offered Jambalaya (Sue loved it, Bruce found it meaty and just OK), Gator On A Stick (this was actually slices of grilled alligator sausage, very popular and indistinguishable from a spicy pork sausage), and pralines.
It’s not a Louisiana po’ boy without Leidenheimer!
There were street performers galore!
Roadfood.com royalty! Rushmores Sr. and Jr.
We spent a good part of the first day munching and strolling with Chris and Amy and their very interesting friends from Baton Rouge, Michael and Anne. We had a grand time! And of course we met up with all those other Roadfooders who made it to the festival. And the occasional Pyrate; Pyrates are much like pirates, with the added frisson of trademarkability. There was a Pyrate fest going on at the same time in the city. This is a big thing; we had not been aware of the “Pyrate subculture”: lots of men dressed like Johnny Depp walking with some very busty women. There were even a few on our plane from Philadelphia to New Orleans!
All in all, it was a very successful event. A splendid time was had by all we spoke with. We only wish we had the capacity to sample a few more of the vendors’ specialties. But it was not over yet, not by a long shot! The great Saturday night Roadfood.com Shrimp and Crawfish Boil was still to come.
Coming up… The Great New Orleans Group Brain Freeze and Hey, Those Alligators Are Real!
