Tuesday, March 4, 2014

FAT TUESDAY!

Happy Mardi Gras, my fellow revelers.  That's French for Fat Tuesday.  It's a day for sin and food and drink because tomorrow begins that l-o-n-g Lenten season of deprivation before we can get back to what we all love - food and drink and sin.

Oh I guess you could eliminate the sin if you're either religious or NOT religious or older than dirt, like I am.  To each his own.

I'm thinking about trying to convince SWMBO to go out for dinner somewhere that may be serving N'awlins food tonight.  I see where Barry Barbe has a Fat Tuesday menu at El Gato Azul in Prescott featuring shrimp etouffee, jambalaya and gumbo with maybe a few surprises.  On the other hand you can find recipes for just about anything courtesy of our friend The Google.  I found famed New Orleans chef Emeril Lagasse's recipe for shrimp etoufee HERE.  So you could make it at home if you have a lot of ambition and a quart of shrimp stock.

But I'm more inclined to let someone else do the cooking and I don't mean SWMBO.  Our friend, Diane, is stopping by for an hour or so tomorrow so SWMBO is cleaning house within an inch of its life today.

Well I've just discussed this with her and made a reservation for tonight at the aforementioned El Gato Azul.  I'll let you know tomorrow how it went.  In the meantime, laissez les bons temps rouler.  (That's French for the traditional New Orleans Fat Tuesday shout "let the good times roll".

(If your Spanish isn't too good - El Gato Azul translates to The Blue Cat.)

9 comments:

  1. I've yet to make it to Mardi Gras in New Orleans but it's on my bucket list.

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  2. Lots of parades and celebrations in Germany. All over tomorrow until next year.

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  3. I was just on a Caribbean cruise that turned out to have a zydeco band on board named "Nik-L Beer" from Louisianna and hundreds of their followers. They celebrated Madri Gras early and it was wild.

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  4. K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, Paul Prudhomme's place used to be my favorite New Orleans spot. Dined there a few times as work took me to the Big Easy. However one night at Emeril's I had a dish that I've never found elsewhere nor have been able to prepare -Andouille encrusted redfish. Absolutely magnificent. Ah, yes, what a magnificent town for foodies. Enjoy your little piece of it this evening.

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    1. Mr. Taylor please excuse my reply to a comment on your post.

      Tom, I've eaten at all those places back when I was consulting at Baylor. It was fabulous food, eh? Binget's and coffee in the morning, and Acme Oyster for a late lunch, a dozen or two on the half-shell, maybe a bucket of crayfish.

      Makes me salivate this night in Montana.

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  5. Tom is right....if you leave New Orleans hungry it's your own fault. Those folks know how to cook. And eat. And drink, too, but that goes without saying. :)

    S

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  6. The Niklbeer facebook page has pictures of the Mardi Gras celebration aboard the cruise ship, if anyone is interested. No one caught the old people in costume on camera twerking which is probably a good thing.

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  7. Cakes and I went to Ernie K. Doe's Mother in Law Lounge one night in Nawlins, that's a spot. We stayed at the Le Marais. We had breakfast at a place around the corner from the hotel and when we came out the sun was coming up. Great town.

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  8. So, did you have a nice meal at the blue cat place? There used to be a good Nawl'ns style restaurant here in Phoenix but I noticed a few days ago that it's closed now. When I was working in Chicago, I found a place on the second floor of an office building that served fantastic southern food. In spite if it's rather hidden location, it did such a huge business that there was always a wait for a table.

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