#1- Community Coffee
Community Coffee has been the connoisseur's choice in South Louisiana since before Starbucks was even invented! It would be unheard of to enter a Cajun's kitchen west of Baton Rouge prior to noon and not smell a pot of Community Dark Roast, in an aluminum drip pot bathed in a pan of water on the stove, if you go back as far as Miss G's early childhood! East of Baton Rouge, the preferred product was "New Orleans Roast", a combination of coffee and chicory popular there. It's the only coffee most Cajun's will drink, and Momma and Daddy G NEVER traveled without a coffeemaker and a can of Community Dark Roast! So addicted were they that, the only time Momma G every traveled overseas, they arrived in London, checked into the hotel, and took a taxi straight to Harrod's to buy a coffeemaker that would work with a European outlet!! Momma G was NOT going to wake up on her first day of vacation without a cup of Community Dark Roast!
#10- Gumbo- You all know how Miss G feels about that!
#24- Evangeline Maid Bread
In Momma Ginger's kitchen, on the counter between the toaster and the coffeemaker, there was ALWAYS a loaf of Evangeline Maid bread. Large loaf. Thin sliced. All 5 of us boys knew exactly which bread to buy if Momma G sent you to the store for bread. Which she did. Often. Lord, the 7 of us could go through some bread! Momma G would buy 2-3 loaves when she went to the store, and put a couple in the freezer, but it never failed- right after dinner: "Oh, crap, we're not gonna have any bread for your daddy's toast in the morning! Who wants to go to the store for Momma and get a loaf of bread.. and you might as well get some milk, too!" Usually, it was whomever had most recently gotten their drivers license. Unless we were between new drivers. In which case it fell on Baby G. "Baby, get one of your brother to take you to the store to get Momma a loaf of bread. Here's $5. You can keep the change." Sounds like cha-ching- BUT- usually Baby G had to offer to split the change to get one of the brothers to drive. Still, I guess a 2 buck tip to fetch a 96 cent loaf of bread is not a bad days work!
And it was the best damn bread you ever laid a lip on! So soft- like butter! They don't sell it anywhere north of I-10!!
#34- Goin' to Lafayette
Lafayette is smack dab in the middle of Cajun Country- the hub city for hundreds of little country towns that follow the bayous, rivers, and lakes that surround it. (The pink area on this map is "Cajun Country") Even though Miss G grew up in Lake Charles, which was almost as big as Lafayette, we STILL went to Lafayette all the time, to shop, eat, or something! There was a little butcher shop that Daddy G LOVED because they sold these stuffed pork chops filled with Cajun pork sausage and covered in red pepper rub. They were about 4 inches thick, and so big that Momma G could make 3 meals out of hers. Daddy G would take an Igloo cooler (known in Cajun Country as an "ice chest") in the back of the station wagon and load up on pork chops, roasts, steaks, and other sundry cuts of the one true meat, and take them home and fill the freezer for months of cookouts to come! But the night of the trip, when we got home, we always had those delicious pork chops, which would we eat in their entirety! Such gluttony! What a happy child was Baby G! Miss Ginger still travels to Lafayette, but now it's all business because one of her stores is there!
Stuff Cajun People Like a charming site!! Pay it a visit- and if you leave a comment- tell 'em Miss Ginger sent you!
1 comment:
I drink New Orleans blend, but that's understandable. I don't remember the bread but I do know that I could get crawfish bisque in Lafayette because Mom would not make it. And Godchaux's sugar is not on there. I thought it was the only sugar on earth.
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