And it's Bellini day today...

It's important to have to have a balanced and varied diet

Breakfast is served

‎Bottomless bloody Mary's - its going to be messy

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The big easy....

‎No, that isn't my pet name for Maria...

Finally made it to N'awlins yesterday and picked yvonne and Tony up at the airport this afternoon. The street sign does actually say bourbon st, so we are in the French Quarter waiting for the first of many parades to come past - think that will be the norm over much of the next week.

Mardi gras in new orleans was the one thing that decided our first visit to the US and doing the south for the winter. Everywhere else we could have visited at any time of year, but this one is immovable so here we are...

Cheap ass mardi gras floats

‎In Baton Rouge. Hope NOLA is a bit more upmarket than this

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How do you stop spelling mississippi?

‎Our first crossing of the mighty Miss at Baton Rouge. It is impressive in both river and bridge. Have a few days here in plantation country before the last leg into N'Awlins on tuesday.

Lafayette - the centre of Cajun country in Louisiana

The Cajun people here certainly like their food, and a little on the spicy side too. Anything that swims or even gets close to water gets cooked. Not only that, a local guy said that each animal at the zoo has three labels – an English name, a scientific name, and how to cook it!

Talking of spicy, today we visited the Tabasco pepper sauce factory on Avery Island, where the sauce has been made (and recipe unchanged) since 1868.

Anyone that's been to Phoenix will appreciate the poster below :-)

The sauce is made from red peppers (and a little salt) which is left to ferment in old whisky barrels for 3 years. Distilled vinegar is then added to the mash and it’s stirred for 28 days before being strained and bottled. This is the only bottling plant in the world and can turn out 700,000 bottles a day! We also got to try all the sauces and marinades that are made, including the new Habanero sauce which is not for the faint hearted! In fact, it blew my head off! I had to try their Raspberry Chipotle ice-cream to calm my mouth down J  

Eaten so far...

‎As we are in the home of cajun catering we have been sampling a few of the local specialties:

• ‎Cajun catfish/shrimp - floured with cajun spice and deep fried. Spicy and tends to mask the taste of the underlying food. Ditto minced alligator and boudin ( a local type of sausage meat with rice mixed in) Cajun is supposed to be fiercer and simpler than creole, and seems to be mostly cayenne pepper.
• Sausage and chicken gumbo‎ - thick soup, fierce spice and the sausage also has louisiana spice in. Closest thing we've had to a madras in 2 years...
• Pan fried catfish/tilapia/shrimp - Still spiced with the cajun seasoning but not as overpowering. Catfish is pretty bland, but the tilapia is really nice and quite meaty for a small filet fish.

• Sausage and shrimp gumbo ‎- thicker than before, more like a stew, with okra which goes to mush. Not as spicy as the chicken version and I'm not convinced.

• Fried alligator bites - quite meaty and again floured with spices. If it didn't say you would assume it was a tough chicken ‎nugget.
• creole shrimp - subtle and a bit sweet for my taste

Haven't found a jambalaya yet, or had an etouffee, but we have another 3 weeks to go....‎and the crawfish season should start around the end of the month