Yesterday at sunset someone knocked on my door and it was a man selling shrimp he had caught out in the Gulf that morning for $3.25 a pound. I bought twelve pounds for $39, which if it really is twelve pounds is a decent deal. The bags had a lot of water in them, though, and I am not sure this man was entirely honest about the weight. Still I liked the whole experience for its exoticism, its adventure and its ease. Now I have both redfish and shrimp in my freezer. That is very hard to beat, especially since I caught the redfish myself and bought the shrimp from someone who had caught them and was selling door to door.
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Chank-a-chank. We went into the country to a zydeco dancehall for Lundi Gras and were still further out on the prairies by the next morning, seeing the mardi gras come in on their horses. We ate etouffée with crawfish, gumbo with chicken and andouille, and king cake with marzipan, and everyone danced and sang. We have already sung the Chanson de Mardi Gras and Jolie Blonde on this site, but we have not sung La Porte en Arrière:
Moi et la belle on avait été-z-au bal
on a passé dans tous les honkytonks
s’en a rev’nu le lendemain matin
le jour était apres se casser
j’ai passé dedans la porte en arriere
L’apres-midi moi j’étais au village
et je m’ai saoulé que je pouvais plus marcher
ils m’ont ramené back a la maison
il y avait de la compagnie, c’était du monde étranger
J’ai passé dedans le porte en arriere
mon vieux pere un soir quand j’arrivais
il a essayé de changer mon idée
j’ai pas écouté, moi j’avais trop la tete dure
“un jour a venir, mon neg’, tu vas avoir du regret
t’as passé dedans la porte en arriere”
j’ai eu un tas des amis tant que j’avais de l’argent
asteur j’ai plus d’argent mais ils voulont plus me voir
j’ai été dans le village et moi je m’ai mis dans le tracas
la loi m’a ramassé, moi je suis parti dans la prison
on va passer dedans la porte en arriere.
Here is Bayou Pon Pon:
Now my youngest brother is escaping from his mother’s house to come over here. He is from Louisiana. You can tell because he asked from the road, “Do you want me to bring you anything? A daiquiri [meaning, from one of the drive-in daiquiri windows]? (These daiquiri windows, by the way, are not a Carnival thing – they operate all year.) He was listening to KBON. Or as we would say in Brazil, K-bom, or Que bom!
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Drive-in daquiris?
I need to take a road trip…and then, of course, stop driving.
now i’m hungry after reading this post. it reminds of a friend who invited me to dinner because she had just bartered for a free range organic chicken from an Amish couple who came to her door. they gave her a ticket to pick up the fresh chicken the next day. one of the best meals i ever had.
Oh, lord, yes, the drive-up daquiri places.
My brother has a great story about buying a giant one for my cousin, who was a year underage at the time and thus couldn’t buy for herself. He brought it out to the car and she promptly dropped it and spilled it. So she made him go back in and immediately buy a second one.
After leaving Louisiana I acquired an allergy to shellfish, yet one more indicator that I never again will fit in there. In some ways this is convenient, when visiting, because I never liked boiled crawfish anyway and my family can be very persistent… but I do miss shrimp gumbo!
I hope you had a good carnival.
Human – merci, yes, pleasant, not the *best* I’ve ever had but still *good.* I don’t like crawfish either, although I eat them to be nice. I am sure they are carcinogenic – somehow the idea of growing them in a pool of agrotoxics just doesn’t seem good. Seafood gumbo with oysters, raw oysters, and shrimp remoulade are my favorite foods.
RG – Yes although I think the actual point is to drink and drive … way out in the country there are also these windows which will hand you an open bottle of Jack Daniels’.
wow!
Reminds me of getting off the train one morning in Belgrade after days and days of traveling. My husband’s family picked us up and took us to their tiny apartment where they fed us – it was 10 in the mroning – grand food and shots of Jack Daniels bought special for our arrival.
That’s what Americans drink, isn’t it? they said.
We don’t usually drink like that but we did that morning. What are you gonna do?
Oh yes – they probably would have drunk local fire water otherwise. What a marvelous story!