Lafayette started off as a logical place to stop on our way to New Orleans. We had found a “living history museum” HarvestHost that looked really interesting. Louisiana feels like a place with some real culture and likely interesting history to go along with it, so I was looking forward to that visit. Unfortunately due to the drive to get there, we arrived near closing time.
So now the question came up: “what shall we do tonight then?”. Our deer-farming host from the night before had mentioned that the food in Lafayette is even better than in Shreveport, so we decided going out for dinner was a necessary course of action. I googled around for recommended restaurants, and compared a couple lists. There were a couple spots that appeared on multiple lists, so we checked out the menu online for each of those. We decided that the menu for Prejeans looked pretty good, a bit adventurous if we were feeling it but also some safe options to please the kids. We even second-guessed it since it was the furthest option on our list, but we had lots of time now, and why not drive around a bit and see the city? Let’s do it.
What we found out only later, was that this was a fairly famous restaurant which (including the specific dish I tried) was featured on multiple cooking shows. I guess we have good taste!
We arrived and as the kids checked out their big alligator statue, we were seated. The kids got colouring pages and a live band was starting to set up. So far so good. When the waiter came I asked for some popular/favourite suggestions. He pointed out a few, one of which being the “gator bites” on the appetizer menu. I had noticed this when I looked at the menu online, and joked to Kirsten about eating some alligator. Before I could over-think the situation I said “yea let’s try those!”, and I also ordered a local beer while we pondered the menu. I decided to order the “Crawfish étouffée”, Kirsten got the “Da Cou-yon Burger”, we got a ceasar salad to share, Mason opted for catfish fingers, and Niko… got a grilled cheese. At least we knew if Mason’s adventurous choice was a flop, he could probably share his brother’s safe choice.
And so the gator bites arrived… They looked like any other battered and deep-fried bite-sized meat… They came with two sauces to dip: “Thai pepper jelly” and another ranch-style sauce. I was helping Niko with something and as I turned back, Kirsten was already digging in! (I was quite impressed!) We all tried it, and it was pretty good! The closest thing I can relate it to is calamari (which I quite enjoy). Kirsten and Mason each had a couple pieces, Niko had several, and I cleaned up the rest. Honestly, I think it was only the spice in the breading that slowed the kids down. Gator bites were a success!
Then our meals came around. Everything looked great! We all dug in and wow… everything was amazingly tasty! Mine looked pretty simple, but I liked the presentation of the rice piled in the middle of the bowl. Kirstens burger was more than a burger… It wasn’t really a patty, and it definitely looked messy, but messy in the way that only the best tasting burgers are. I took a few bites and Crawfish étouffée immediately became one of the favourite dishes I’ve ever tried. I tried a bite of Kirsten’s burger, and I still can’t tell you exactly what it was or what was on it, but I also didn’t care. It was awesome! As I got about half way through my meal I was stuffed. But all I could think about was “I can’t wait for lunch tomorrow so I can eat this again!”. Mason was a trooper and ate most of his catfish before having a few bites of Niko’s grilled cheese to bring himself back closer to his comfort zone.
As we were finishing up, the band started playing. There was a guitar, an accordion, and a fiddle. They played some regional music with lyrics a mix of french and english. The kids were totally on board with this, and were dancing. A couple times, the fiddler came around and was going back and forth with the kids, with Niko giggling the whole time.
That night we had a wild rain/thunder storm that lasted through the morning. I feel like growing up in a rainforest gives us the credentials to say: this was serious rain. The museum was outdoors and based on how soaked Kirsten got in the 5 minutes it took her to hook the trailer back up to the truck, an outdoor experience wasn’t going to happen. It is also maybe noteworthy to mention we were parked next to a pond that had alligators in it… and the rain was causing flooding that by the time we left, was probably only an hour away from connecting the puddle at our front doorstep with the alligator pond. So unfortunately we had to skip the museum and start trekking through this storm to try to get to our next destination in the daylight.