Looping NZ Style: Saturday 21st...more rain and beyond

We woke to more rain this morning. It had dumped down last night and when I stuck my nose upstairs to see what it looked like, I quickly closed the hatch again. It will dry out, but not this week it appears. We are in for more rain all week.

A little lesson on cuisine here...
People ask what is the difference between Cajun and Creole cuisine here in Louisiana. We have not had the pleasure of Creole cuisine yet, because we are in Cajun country, but when we get to New Orleans, we will be in Creole country!

Creole cuisine incorporates French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Native American and African influences, as well as 'general' southern cuisine. It is similar to Cajun cuisine in ingredients, such as the 'Trinity' (Onion, Peppers and Celery), but the important distinction is that Cajun arose from the more rustic Provincial French cooking adapted by the Arcadians to Louisiana ingredients, whereas the Creoles tended towards classical European styles, adapted to local foodstuffs.
Broadly speaking, the French influence in Cajun cuisine is descended from various French provincial cuisines of the Peasantry, while Creole evolved in the houses of the well-to-do aristocrats.

We have, I hasten to add, been eating rather a lot of the canjun kind.
After visiting at and eating 'Shucks' Cajun yesterday, we ventured into New Iberia, tagging along with Katherine and Jim, who had a number of stops to make. They were kind enough to take us on a 'tiki-tour' of the main drag, and surrounds. This meant crawling past the lovely but (some) tired looking Antebellum homes.

Sorry the photo is blurred, but the crawl wasnt quite slow enough to make for clear photos.

Coming back to Delcambre, we stopped off at the Library to meet the librarian, and for K and J to get some more Inspector Morse DVDs which they love watching.

We had picked up our rental car on the way into New Iberia and left it in the Enterprise parking lot so that we could pick it up on the way back to Delcambre. It worked well, because we didnt know where we were going anyway!

It is only 9 miles between Delcombre and New Iberia, so we arent driving MILES.

This newspaper article about Katherine and Jim is on a board at the library.

One little fact here that might be a suprise...In LA (Louisiana) they have Drive-In Dacquerie Bars. It is the law that the driver of a vehicle cannot have an open drink container in his/her posession, but the passengers can!

Once home again, we were happy to put our feet up before I attacked dinner which was local white shrimp tossed lightly in olive oil, lots of garlic, a little lemon and Shucks special sauce. YUM! all on sticky white rice with a pear, blue cheese and pecan (with lettuce) salad. Do we eat well or what?
:)
By 10.30 we were in bed.

This morning we were up and out by 9am, on our way to the local Farmers and Seafood market. We had put off buying our produce et al from the supermarket until after we had checked everything out at the farmers market.

One problem we had was negotiating the water (pond?) at the gates of the marina. We ended up walking though the garden to get to the road.

We were not disappointed by the turnout in the rain.

Most of the market was under cover, but some of the food vendors weren't.

Jim was a bit 'rude' about me taking photos...again???:) So for that he got his taken AGAIN:)

The first person we were introduced to was the distributor of the white shrimp. Her husband owns a shrimp boat and is a shrimper. They were selling these Vermilion Bay sweet white shrimp which I had cooked for dinner last night. They had kindly donated the bag ..yes, this size..to us as a welcome gift! Lovely folks.

I dont remember the next ladies name, but she made fantastic bean and MASA Tamales..HOT tamales...both in temperature and spice...enough to have a GOOD tickle at the back of the throat.

From these Cajun folks we bought Blackberry (wild kind) Jam, Fig and strawberry preserves and Banana bread.The hubby also sold us some delicious smoked pecans...their last bag. He does them all himself.

I was naughty to tell this lady that we were on our way to get some Beignets...her hubby was not happy with me...she is an addict, apparently:)

Yes, Waz is saying...not another photo!!!

But he is holding the 10 or so Beignets with powdered sugar (icing sugar for the kiwis) and a coffee...2 coffee and beignets..$5 please!

These are the blue crabs which we all love to eat. They also had my favorite Soft shell crab.

These shrimp were huge!I didnt buy any coz I was going out for the day and didnt have time to shell and devein them. bummer. The suppliers are all around us in boats, so Im sure we wont have trouble getting any more.

I think this is Aligator Gar Fish flesh. These fish were at one time hunted almost to extinction...they are the stuff of legends.

I was talked into buying some Aligator meat by katherine who had saved me the last bag..frozen, fortunately. It cost $12.50 a lb, and we bought a 1lb bag.

We went to the Le Blanc Diesel station to ask Mike, the owner, how to cook it. Well, actually, I asked the group of old timers at the store/station how to cook it, and was told it needed to be fried. Well there has to be another way, no? No!

Anyway, Mike told us outside, that you chop it into small chunks, marinate it in buttermilk for about 6 hrs (tenderizes it) and then dredge with flour, egg it and crumb, or batter and shallow fry. It should be cooked through properly. Has a different taste...kind of like strong chicken:)

Mike is the third generation owner of LeBlanc Oil Company and store. His grandfather started it in 1947, and Mike took over from his Dad when he retired. Mike has two kids who have their own careers, so he said there would be no continuation of the LeBlancs in the business. Shame. We need these small mom and pop stores, they are the lifeblood of the small towns and villages. Not just that, they give good service, are friendly folks and nothing is too much trouble.

We stood outside the store, dockside, watching some shrimp boats refueling...This is in preparation for us refueling here later in the week. It is not the most hospitable dock, so we needed to see what prep. we need to do with the fenders beforehand.

The tide was very high today.

This is a Shrimp processing plant directly across the Bayou from the fuelling dock.

Mike told us that before the year 2000, there were more than 1200 Shrimp boats in Delcambre, up this Bayou. The decline in the industy came when the US Govt, in it's infinite wisdom, allowed imported shrimp from Asia into the US. This totally knocked the wind out of the domestic industry and the Shrimp industry here dried right up. He didnt say how many boats there are working out of Delcambre now, but the ones we see around us would number about 20.

There are about three shrimp processing plants up the Bayou.

Having investigated the fuel dock, we made our way back to the boat with all our goodies. The Aligator meat needed to be in the freezer!

Some of the water at the gate had subsided, but we still had to climb through the garden to get to the gate.

We drove to New Iberia, remembering some of the landmarks so that we could return easily. We recognised where we had been yesterday with J and K, so it wasnt too big a problem. We found our way to the center street leading into the Historic District of New Iberia...along the way you see homes like this, on the banks of Bayou Teche.

We happened upon this delighful interactive sculpture in a small park beside the Bayou Teche, which runs through the middle of town. By accident (arent they the best ones??) we turned into this place to park so we could walk and photograph. The light was horrid and I didnt take the time to make adjustments, sorry!

This fantastical sculpture was called 'Peepers':)It is made up of all kinds of spare parts. Neat!

One of the shops on West Main Street...the heart of the Historic District.

...and no day would be complete...make that lunch...without some new food!

As we had driven past this restaurant yesterday with J and K, they pointed it out as a good place to eat. Mes Amies was a very old style Dining Room and bar, which was rather delightful, and Im sorry to say I didnt take any photos, because, well, it just didnt seem appropriate. Some might say "that never stopped you before, Mon", but...

Below we have the Fried Eggplant with a Crawfish sauce...cajun of course. This came highly recommended by the waitress, so of course we had to try it. She was right..fantastic!! and the best dish of the day.

These are the Chunk Crab cakes...mostly crab chunk and very little else, but delish! in a cajun sauce.

I might take a moment to tell you about the cajun food here. It is NOT 'HOT'! The key ingredients in cajun cooking are the 'Trinity' (as I noted before) of Onion, Celery and Peppers (bell or capsicum). It is 'spiced up' with Cayenne Pepper, but it does little more than tickle the back of the throat, or break a small sweat on the top lip. It is a magical mix of sweet and spicy. Perfect!

This was something you should all try. Fried Shrimp with a honey Aioli and candied pecans. Blimey! Sublimey!

and, to top it all off...something the waitress also insisted we try...Boudin sausage Egg rolls. Not sure if the French married the chinese here, but it works!

A note about Boudin sausage. (Pron. Boo Darn)

Local legend has it that the workers in the fields would stuff sausage casings with a ready cooked mix of rice and meat (spiced, of course) and put it into their pockets for lunch. Im not sure if this is true, someone was pulling our legs, or that it is a fact. Anyway, it is delish!

The sauce was a sweet pepper sauce, which perfectly complimented the meat and rice.

Now, if you are thinking we ate ALLL this food for lunch...you are mistaken. We would have had to walk 30 miles to walk all those calories off...though we did a pretty good job of it:) The waitress very nicely put the left overs in two containers for us and we just ate the rest for dinner...so I guess you could say we ate the lot! no?:)

Do I feel sorry? nope!:) (see garfield-like grin, here)

One thing about this area...all the street signs are in three languages. English, French and Spanish.

Now, if you haven't already guessed it, from the latter language...there is a good reason this town is called NEW IBERIA. Can you guess what it is?

The Spanish settled the region. It is a fascinating history, which we explored at the Museum Teche on W. Main St.

This is a huge (copy of a ) painting on the wall of the museum that depicts early life on the Bayou Teche at New Iberia.

To save me some time and effort and perhaps getting it all wrong, the docent kindly let me photograph the timeline wall for your pleasurable reading:)

Atchafalaya is Pron. At char fal eye a..emphasis on the char.

This is mostly Vietnamese/Cambodians

And if you can't read this...you will be interested to know that Christopher Columbus brought Sugar cane to the Americas on his second voyage in 1493.

Now, something else that is fascinating about this area....Salt. A whole salt mine full...The salt dome goes down about a mile into the earth.

Something of Great interest....read on...

Lake Peigneur is located 1.2 miles (1.9 km) north of Delcombre and 9.1 miles (14.6 km) west of New Iberia, near the northernmost tip of Vermilion Bay.

Lake Peigneur was a 10-foot (3 m) deep freshwater body popular with sportsmen until an unusual man-made disaster on November 20, 1980, changed its structure and the surrounding land.

On November 20, 1980, when the disaster took place, the Diamond Crystal Salt Company, which owned the Jefferson Island Salt mine under the lake, while a Texaco Oil Rig drilled down from the surface of the lake searching for Petroleum. Due to a miscalculation, the 14-inch (36 cm) drill bit entered the mine, starting a chain of events which turned the lake from freshwater to salt water, with a deep hole.
It is difficult to determine what occurred, as all evidence was destroyed or washed away in the ensuing Maelstrom. One explanation is that a miscalculation by Texaco about their location resulted in the drill puncturing the roof of the third level of the mine. This created an opening in the bottom of the lake. The lake then drained into the hole, expanding the size of that hole as the soil and salt were washed into the mine by the rushing water, filling the enormous caverns left by the removal of salt over the years. The resultant Whirlpool sucked in the drilling platform, eleven barges, many trees and 65 acres (260,000 m²) of the surrounding terrain. So much water drained into those caverns that the flow of the Delcambre Canal that usually empties the lake into Vermilion Bay was reversed, making the canal a temporary inlet. This backflow created, for a few days, the tallest waterfall ever in the state of Louisiana, at 164 feet (50 m), as the lake refilled with salt water from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay. The water downflowing into the mine caverns displaced air which erupted as compressed air and then later as 400-foot (120 m) geysers up through the mineshafts.

There were no injuries and no human lives lost. All 55 employees in the mine at the time of the accident were able to escape thanks to well-planned and rehearsed evacuation drills, while the staff of the drilling rig fled the platform before it was sucked down into the new depths of the lake, and Leonce Viator, Jr. (a local fisherman) was able to drive his small boat to the shore and get out.
Three dogs were reported killed, however. Days after the disaster, once the water pressure equalized, nine of the eleven sunken barges popped out of the whirlpool and refloated on the lake's surface.

The lake had salt water after the event, not as a result of water entering the salt mine, but from the salt water from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay, which are naturally salt or brackish water. The event permanently affected the ecosystem of the lake by changing the lake from freshwater to saltwater and increasing the depth of part of the lake.
Thanks to Wikipedia for all that information.

This is rock salt. these are the size of boulders, sitting in the museum!