LA CUISINE DE BEAUREGARD!!

Welcome back, Blogging Pals!! Hope you are well on your way to preparing for that Turkey feast on Thursday!

What better way to prepare for an upcoming Thanksgiving holiday than to attend a food festival! Yes, indeed. Gives one the opportunity to rethink that traditional roasted (or fried) turkey and dressing. Be careful! You might find something you like even more!! I attended the first one of these last year. It was not very organized and not something I felt of enough interest to share with you. The city, merchants, and organizations did a MUCH better job this year and I want you to join me there.

The whole premise here is you purchase a "ticket" for $5. This ticket entitles you to a taste of their specialty from each of the entrants. There were 10 entrants this year so there was a great variety of things to eat!! We were treated to Roasted Red Pepper Hummus (which not everyone thought was good but it was!), Bar-B-Qued Turkey, Spaghetti & Meatballs (which I wasn't really clear on since that isn't a typical Cajun/French dish!), Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya, Gumbo, Shrimp Creole, Pork Bar-B-Q, Chili, and a couple of other items that escape me right now. Now the key is you MUST taste all of the entries in order to vote for your favorite. Each booth has a highlighter-wielding person who will highlight the entry you are tasting. If you don't taste them all, your vote will not be counted. Besides, why on EARTH would you want to miss one?!?!?!? This will be the best, most varied, $5 lunch you ever had!!

Here we go... to La Cuisine de Beauregard!!

I arrived early in order to catch some photos before the crowd showed up! (You know Louisiana folks will show up for food, right?!?!?) This is the street scene (the block cordoned off for the festival) at 10:50 a.m. The festival ran from 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. It hasn't even started yet!

There are always opening "ceremonies" to endure. These, however, weren't bad at all! We started with the introduction of the "celebrity chef" who would be providing a cooking demonstration in the Pavilion a little later. (Sorry, I don't know who he is but the web site I provided you earlier indicates he is Joe Heacook of Sowela's culinary school. Great last name, huh?)
The young lady holding the microphone is Erika. She is the wife of one of the entrants. She sang our National Anthem, a cappella, in such a way that the day looked better when she was done. What a marvelous voice with which she has been blessed.

It is rare for any event in the South to begin without an invocation. This was no exception. The pastor who delivered it did an excellent job. Even with all of the people who had gathered by now (this was 11:15 a.m.), you could have heard a pin drop during the prayer. A resounding "AMEN" from the crowd followed.

At last!!! It was time for the ceremonial "Cleaving of the Sausage" to get this thing officially started!! This was one BIG ol' sausage to get things going! I hope you can spot it as the young lady holding it is wearing a dark top which tends to hide it!

Martha Lou (the "May-uh's" wife) was good-natured about the whole thing. The cleaver was embellished with purple/green/gold ribbons (those are Mardi Gras colors in case you are uneducated in things Louisiana) and certainly capable of doing damage to anything it might strike. Martha Lou wielded it with aplomb and relish, striking a surely fatal blow, and kicking off the festival with laughter and good cheer!!

Leroy Thomas and the Zydeco Roadrunners provided some excellent zydeco music under the bandstand canopy. The early dancers enjoyed lots of room but the area in front of the bandstand was shoulder-to-shoulder by 1:30 p.m.! (Everyone wanted to taste first, dance later!)

As luck would have it, I only took pictures of about five of the ten entrants' booths. I took them for aesthetic reasons but, as luck would have it, three of them were the top finishers!!! I will tell you my vote was for the second place winner (the shrimp creole was EXCELLENT!) but everything was good. Here they are in first, second, and third place order:

The Butt Brothers had a terrific Bar-B-Qued pork product. I didn't ask too much about it, though, as I had attended high school with one of the "chefs" and old prankster reputations die hard!! It was the first place winner.
(If you can't read the writing, it says: "THE BUTT BROTHERS...first we rub it... then we spank it... then we slowwww cook it." The bottom states "FORMALLY THE CRACKLING BROTHERS" and I am not going to make the spelling correction for you. :) It's their sign.)

This guy, attired in Mardi Gras beads, got my vote with his excellent shrimp creole. It was the second place winner.
Finally, one of our local judges, Kerry, picked up third place with his Red Hill Farm Chili. Can you tell his school loyalty?
(The apron reads: "LSU Certified Tailgate Chef.")

I hope you enjoyed our stroll through La Cuisine de Beauregard. It was a beautiful day, cooler than it has been with a lovely breeze. I know I completely enjoyed myself.

Until next time!!