Tabasco – Wandering Dawgs

State 16:

Welcome to the next post in my series highlighting states we have visited throughout the years. I hope you will enjoy coming along for the ride!

I will be featuring the states alphabetically. The next state is

Louisiana

Louisiana became the 18th state on April 30, 1812 and the capital is Baton Rouge.

Ever since I started working on this post about Louisiana the following lyrics from the Hank Williams song “Jambalaya (on the Bayou)” have been going through my head.

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and fillet gumbo
‘Cause tonight I’m gonna see my ma cher amio
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o
Son of a gun we’ll have big fun on the bayou

Each time we visited Louisiana we tried as much of the delicious local food as we could get. We sampled everything – boudin, crawfish etoufee, gumbo, dirty rice, cracklins, shrimp po’ boys and more! Chef Paul Prudhomme’s K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans served up one of the most amazing meals I’ve ever had. Is your mouth watering yet?

Acme Oyster House in New Orleans

Poche’s Meat Market and Smokehouse

Ralph and Kacoo’s in Bosier City

Lunch was delicious Boudin from the Tabasco food truck

Our meal at Poche’s – Crawfish Etoufee, Dirty Rice and Slaw – Sooooo good!

We’ve visited New Orleans three times – twice to watch our Georgia Bulldogs play in the Sugar Bowl and once to take our children when they were young. We wandered around the French Quarter, attended a performance of New Orleans Jazz at Preservation Hall, rode a streetcar to the Garden District, took a riverboat ride on the Mississippi River, chowed down on amazing Cajun food, and of course had coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde.

There is so much more to Louisiana than food and music. Our lake front campsite at Lake Bistineau State Park was perfect for watching the wading birds search for food among the huge cypress trees on the banks of the lake.

The rain didn’t stop us from enjoying our campsite on one of the ponds at Poche’s Fish N Camp. After a delicious meal at Poche’s Meat Market and Smokehouse I stocked up on Cajun goodies like homemade boudin, Andouille sausage and tasso ham to take home.

Pavilion at Poche's Fish N Camp — Poche’s Fish N Camp

We are one of the families who always has a bottle of Tabasco sauce on the table along with the salt and pepper. A visit to the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island was a must for us.

The world's best known hot sauce — The world’s best known hot sauce

We even took a tour of the Duck Commander headquarters in West Monroe.

Duck Commander Headquarters, about 3 blocks south of I-20 in West Monroe, LA

I started writing this post right before Mardi Gras and have been hungry for Cajun food ever since. On Fat Tuesday I made a big pot of Shrimp and Andouille Gumbo using Alton Brown’s recipe (I added okra ). Yesterday I made Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Jambalaya (I left out the oysters). Now if I could just find some crawfish tails I’ll make that crawfish pie.!

To read previous posts about the states featured in this series just click on the state name: Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky

After a rough ride traveling west in Louisiana on the worst section of I-10 in the United States we arrived at Poche’s Fish N Camp in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana for a couple of days. The campsites are arranged around a large fishing pond lined with Cypres trees. Most of the sites have a paved pad, full hookups, and WiFi. There are several ponds for fishing, a clubhouse, swimming pool, and laundry. The staff was great. Many thanks to them for recommending Fun in the Sun RV Repair to repair our heater and many thanks to the repairman who came out in the rain the same day we called him and got it fixed.

It rained off and on the whole time we were there so we couldn’t do too much exploring in the area. I had to do my bird watching at the campground. A Snowy Egret walked along the pond right behind our campsite in the afternoons and Cormorants and ducks were in the water every day. A Great Blue Heron even made an appearance.

Office at Poche’s Fish N Camp

Clubhouse at Poche’s Fish N Camp

Our site from across the pond

Campground at Poche’s Fish N Camp

Ducks on the pond

Picture taken through our back window of Snowy Egret behind the camper

Great Blue Heron

The rain couldn’t stop us from enjoying some amazing Cajun feasts! Crawfish etoufee, rice dressing (dirty rice), slaw, fried catfish, fried shrimp, chicken and sausage gumbo, Boudin, Andouille sausage and more! We ate several delicious meals at Poche’s Market and Restaurant. Their market has a large selection of sausages, meats and seasonings so I filled the freezer with Andouille sausage and Boudin to take with us and now my pantry has some of their seasoning mix and File powder.

It’s so good we had three meals here!

Poche’s Cajun Cuisine

Our meal at Poche’s – Crawfish Etoufee, Dirty Rice and Slaw – Sooooo good!

A visit to the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island was a must see on this trip. Henry is a hot sauce aficionado and Tabasco is a staple on our table along with the salt and pepper. We visited the factory 30 years ago when our kids were young and we both have memories of walking into the aging room with the aroma of the sauce so strong that most of the other people in the tour got out of there as fast as they could. Not Henry! He loved it! Unfortunately, they no longer take the tours through that room.

The sauce is aged in barrels that were first used to age Jack Daniels Whiskey. We watched a short video and then watched original Tabasco sauce being bottled and labeled before browsing in the museum. We had our first taste of Boudin sausage (yummy and spicy) from a food truck and spent a few dollars in the gift shop before heading back to Breaux Bridge. A stop at Walmart for some necessities and we were back at camp in time to watch the rain come down the rest of the day.