Breaux Bridge, LA
All of our destinations are pretty close together down here. We got to Breaux Bridge around 11:30 with no real specific plans. I had heard that it is the “Crawfish Capitol of the World” and we needed to check it out. The restaurant that we were definitely not to miss was closed for good. Bummer! But there were several others that looked good on yelp so we picked one of them, Cafe Sydnie Mae, that had outside tables and served southern food. We shared a Muffeleto and an order of Chicken Andouille Gumbo. Now we have had Gumbo, Red Beans & Rice, Etouffee, Jambalaya, shrimp, Poboys and Muffeletos. We have pretty much tried all the local food. But not really. Each place had several obscure menu items like Crawfish Spinach Dip or Shrimp Stuffed Chicken that sounded delicious but we were sticking to the basics.
Our waitress told us we should come back tonight because they have live music and several other close restaurants do as well. Maybe Bruce can hear some live jazz here to make up for missing out in New Orleans. She also recommended a Swamp tour in St Martinville that we decided to take.
The swamp tour guy didn’t answer so we decided to drive out to Martin lake/swamp anyway. When we got there he was no where to be found but his cousin (and competition) Wendy, offered to take us on a swamp tour. Her grandparents owned property on one side of the lake so she was VERY familiar with it. I’m not exactly sure the distinction between lake and swamp. Best I can tell, a swamp is a lake with grass & algae at the edges and Cypress trees growing in it. I think the Spanish moss is just a bonus. We saw an alligator sunning on a log right off the bat. In all we saw about 15 alligators. Usually just heads swimming in the water. Wendy told us that if you measured the inches from the eye to the end of the snout, that translates to the number of feet long the alligator is. We also saw a pink egret. It was in a tree in a protected section so we could only see it at a distance with the binoculars. I think they are kinda rare.
After the swamp tour we went further south to Broussard to Parish Brewery, where they make the Ghost in the Machine IPA that Bruce likes. Since I’m not into tasting (or drinking because then you would also have to taste it) beer I decided to hang out with Harvey while Bruce went in.
From there we headed back north to Poche’s (pronounced Po-shay) little market that several people had told us about. It had all kinds of meat and sausage and chicken and crawfish. We bought a frozen shrimp stuffed chicken to take home. We had been told that they had great hot dinners that you could get to go. We ordered a fried fish and shrimp dinner and some Crawfish boudin balls. The fish and boudin balls were good, but the fries, shrimp, cole slaw and potato salad got thrown away.
We went back to the restaurant where we had lunch today to hear some live jazz. Since we found a good parking space around the corner, I hung out in the RV for a little bit working on the blog while Bruce went on over. He sat outside with the owners, David & Cheryl for a while shooting the breeze. I guess the bridge on their street has been out for over a year. David said that Covid had hurt their business, but the bridge out had hurt it even worse. Tonight it seemed to be hopping. Our Alchemist/Mixologist, Lauren, made us fancy specialized mixed drinks. Bruce had a Manhattan with date syrup and I had a something sour with amaretto in it and egg whites because she suggested it and I decided to live on the edge. She said egg whites made it frothier but I was thinking I could now call it a protein drink.
As we were heading back to Harvey, we passed this burger place where the owner, Grover, had the door propped open and was taking in food supplies. Bruce said, “No rest for the weary” which somehow sparked an hour long conversation with Grover. He told us all about how he cooks his food ALL from scratch, including grinding his own hamburger meat and alligator meat. We talked about how the quality of various products like plastic spoons, cooking oil, shrimp and onions is going down while the price stays the same. He said he could tell the shrimp had been in water to make them heavier since they are sold by weight. Apparently it makes them kinda pinkish instead of being “a pretty silver”. We talked about how the music around the town had stopped during Covid, but was now gradually coming back. He said that he was the first to come up with curbside delivery in Breaux Bridge. He had ideas about everyone and everything. I wish I had a tape recorder. I also wish we had eaten there. His dishes all sounded delicious. He gave me a can of his special cajun spice which I can’t wait to use! He also said we could park in his parking lot which was good because our original spot on the street had too much traffic. We really liked Breaux Bridge and hope to go back again some time.
I kept thinking I’d skip or cut way down on some of the pictures posted because they take SO LONG to load on this program. But the pictures are my favorite part.
It was enjoyable reading about your adventure. I heard that Bruce may have gained some weight on this trip. If so, maybe I can keep up with him on the bike. – John