Back in the Gulf Coast....

HEY YAL, not much time to talk. Woke up all too early today and the same for tomorrow am. Cruising in and out of bayou land, I can say, I have a deep desire to come down here. The stories I have are just…so precious and I’m happy to share whenever I can.

Stuff here. It’s hard. TWO AND A HALF years later, so much remains to be done. In some areas, every other house is abandoned and has not been razed. What does this mean? A devastated house, probably lots of toxins inside leaching out, as everything inside just rots.

But the anger that I have felt so many times previous—both internal and from others—seems to have cooled. People seem to have accepted what is going on, that they can rely on volunteers, on their community, and on no federal/state/local agency to hook them up. Whatever they get later, if any thing, is viewed as a total blessing.

I met these incredible bayou artists whose work is featured in the Smithsonian (!!!!) who are old (92years!) exclusively French speaking Indians. We went into peoples houses, we stopped to chat on the sides of the roads, we hugged people we had never met before.

Let’s now focus on the other important bit—the FREAKIN FOOD. I ate at Praline Connection—a bit of an old dive on Frenchman street, where I had catfish plate with mac&cheese (southern style), collard greens, cornbread, red beans & rice…mmm…. Though heralded as a good local/tourist joint, it was tasty, but very fatty!

We had a mufaletta for lunch one day, from, where else, the Central Grocery on Decatur in French Q. I wont bother explaining so that you can look it up yourself. Olive salad and lots of olive oil is key. Also, lunch for 3 people for 13 dollars is kinda totally unbeatable.

Next memorable meal was at Angeli’s—after a failed attempt to get to Bennachin, a West African restaurant. Actually, we walked in, and were told, only after sitting down, that the restaurant was closed. Angeli’s served up some simple ceasar salad and then some deliSH feta/artichoke/spinach/toMAHto pizza. Yumm! Tho, let’s be honest, not too NOLA-y.

And today..the day of all days to eat. Well, in Raceland LA, we had warm and flavorful sweet potato fries…with an amazing fresh crab cake sandwhich. OMG! At “Big Al’s!” And…for only a few bucks! And consumed in a car. Yum, nonetheless. Dinner last night at Elizabeth’s…a special spot in Bywater, far from the Quarter, oh, I do not have time to go into the fresh sugar snap peas in a butter sauce, the insanely perfectly sweetened (with maple syrup or pralines, not sure?) sweet potato casserole with a roasted red pepper/caper salmon. A very cheap meal! And dessert was bourbon sauced bread puddin’ and chocolate velvet cake with an almost cream cheese frosting.

Dinner tonight was at Dick & Jenny's....and I'll have to save a spot to discuss later! Check out here.