Want to sample the food Cajuns savor every day, to break away from the pack and explore a slice of Louisiana you’ve heard of but probably never seen? Head to the Lafayette area. Delta Connection will jet you there nonstop from Atlanta, American Eagle nonstop from Dallas/Fort Worth and United Express nonstop from Bush Houston Intercontinental. Get off the plane, rent a car and prepare to eat.
Some suggestions:
- Prejean’s is one of those places frequented by locals and high-profile visitors alike. The restaurant lays claim to the most medals captured by any culinary team in the South. Start off with Eggplant Abbeville, fried and topped with lump crab meat and shrimp with cane syrup. Make the main course Catfish Oscar Prejean, more lump crab meat topping and mesquite-grilled asparagus. Don’t be shy in asking for extra hot sauce.
- Jolie’s Louisiana Bistro is a Creole culinary enclave, one whose cuisine is fashioned by farm-to-table products. A recent weekly menu tells the tale: start with brie, stewed apple and pistachio. The main course is Gulf-caught wahoo, replete with Louisiana-foraged chanterelles and Creole tomato salad. Jolie’s is simple and sumptuous. Hold the hot sauce in this instance. You don’t want to mess things up.
- Randol’s Restaurant & Cajun Dance Hall is all the name suggests – a full-tilt, no-sauce-barred dance hall where food and flat-out fun reign. That food includes pots of boiled crawfish and large steamed crabs – while they last. The music lasts too, long into your trip home after you start humming it in your head. Dance to music of Zydeco Ray, maybe the Louisiana Rhythm Devils.
If you’re looking for ways to connect to the rich, redolent history of this unique piece of the planet a good place to start is the Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commission.
(Image: Southern Foodways Alliance)
