Day 12
Late morning, we headed to downtown Lafayette for the Boudin Cook-off festival (Seriously, there are numerous festivals for whatever reason just about every weekend here in the south). The Boudin Cook-off is a one day, yearly affair in Lafayette.
Simply put, boudin is a combo of pork, cooked rice, onions, green peppers, and varying amounts and types of seasonings. The ingredients are put in a meat grinder and then stuffed into a sausage casing.
People here are passionate about their boudin.
The day consisted of activities for the kids, ten boudin booths serving various variants of boudin, music, and a boudin eating contest.
The winner was the one who could finish the 1 ½ lbs of boudin first. (The guy who won finished eating it all in 1 minute, 56 seconds).
Video footage of contest !
After the Boudin Cook-off, we drove to Parish Brewery for a tour.
The brewery has been around just over 3 years and distributes to areas within Louisiana. They just installed an automated bottle filling machine so they can start distributing more product in standard size bottles.
Demand is high and they struggle to keep up. The day we visited only 3 of their 7 beers were available.
For dinner, we walked to Nimbeaux’s – a local seafood restaurant. I ordered grilled chicken (one of the very few non-seafood options) with smothered okra (see – outside the comfort zone a little) and potato salad.
Todd ordered the Crawfish Etoufee served with rice and a side of potato salad. He said it was really good (I will take his word for it).
Day 13
Today included a trip to Vermilionville.
This is a living history museum and park that preserves and represents the cultural resources of the Acadian, Native American, and Creole cultures – from the time period 1765 to 1890.
Various houses,
a church (note – 2 Sundays in a row that we have been in a church LOL)
and a school make up the village.
Todd maneuvered the “ferry” across the river.
Also included in today’s admission was music and dance at the Performance Center.
We had a lot of fun listening to the music and “people-watching”.
When we got back to the hotel, we began to research possible places to eat for dinner (celery and hummus made up lunch); turns out all restaurants around us (and some further) are closed on Sundays (sure a lot different from what we are used to….). So I guess it will be a night in nibbling and watching The Saints game on TV….