Talk about Good!

The title above is something that you'll hear often in South Louisiana. Being Cajun, our life revolves around food (as if you couldn't tell by looking at us!). The photos are of my favorite salad in the world, and of my favorite pizza in the world (Pizza Village's Landry Special). Sometimes, I find myself dreaming of and wanting to drive home for those two things especially. I regret not taking more pictures on this trip, but you break out a camera in the middle of a restaurant to take pictures of the food on your table and you get strange looks.
Every time we go home, we have a small list of places we want to visit...for the food. Home cooking from our parent's houses is definitely a treat and I'll get to that in a second.
But first, I'll describe to you my favorite dishes from our some of our favorite eating establishments. Last Wednesday, we took our new car over to get it's first time service and it provided the perfect opportunity to hit up Pizza Village for lunch. I crave their salads especially for the home made house dressing on top. The Landry Special pizza is topped with hamburger, shrimp, green olives and I'm not sure what else, but by a few hours after eating it, and the salad, the sodium levels in your body go off of the charts and you find yourself dying of thirst. But still....talk about good!
On Friday, while Phillip, his dad and his brother played golf, Gabe and I met my brother, James, for lunch at another one of my old favorites. Damascas on Arnould Boulevard did not disappointment me; it's still the best Greek/Lebanese food I've ever had. I think James was impressed (it was his first time) and Gabe, excited after receiving a brand new watch from "Uncle Bubba", was also happy with my choice of restaurant. After filling up on humous, beef and chicken shawerma with yogurt & cucumber sauce etc., we headed out to the downtown area to explore Lafayette's Children's Museum and the Natural History Museum and Planetarium. Some of the locals might have a better idea of Greek food, but to me, you just can't beat Damascus.
On Saturday, Phillip was REALLY craving a shrimp po-boy (kinda like a hoagie for you non-cajuns). After spending the day with Mom and James, we met Dad and my step-mom Elaine at their house, and drove on to yet another favorite...Old Tyme Grocery near UL Lafayette's campus. We picked the best time to go, a cold and rainy Saturday night; you try to go any other time and you usually have to try to find decent parking (since it's near UL) and the place can be crowded. I ate the "killer" meatball po-boy that I always get...I had to take a dose of Zantac, but I survived.
On Sunday, just after church and before we left the area, we made our last restaurant stop at Prejeans. Phillip tended bar there when we were first married and I got hooked on their crawfish enchiladas. And I don't even like crawfish! I must always have a salad there also, because I love their house dressing. The menu has a great variety for any taste, and there is usually a cajun band playing LOUDLY in the background. We always suggest Prejean's to people who ask us where they should go while visiting the area. There, you get the ultimate cajun experience.
All around, it was a good trip, especially along the lines of food. Visiting our favorite places is always a treat when we go back home. Hopefully, when we go back home for Sarah's baptism, we will have more time to do lots of other things that we didn't have time for this time around. We planned to, but didn't quite make it on over to New Orleans for a brief visit; the last time I was there was about two weeks before Katrina and it's been a lot longer for Phillip. There's a small list of places in N.O. that we love to go to for the food, Central Grocery (for their muffalettas) is a must before we leave that area.
Before I close, I must mention the DELICIOUS home cooking that we also like to go home for. No restaurant can compare to the Thanksgiving feast (fried turkey, dressings, casseroles) that we had at Aunt Teeney's house, the fall-off-of-your fork brisket that we had at mom's house, Zella's smothered chicken and biscuits....we did not go hungry! (On our next trip, maybe we can get Elaine to smother some of her famous stuffed pork chops and I can get Mom to make a Chicken Fricasse')
During this past week, I've pretty much summed up our trip for you. We didn't stress ourselves out trying to be in too many places at once. We took it easy. We celebrated Thanksgiving with family, had a birthday party for a much loved stuffed tiger, ate good food and got the chance to just relax and be "home" for a few days.
And so....now that you've endured this loooong post on food, have I given you any ideas on dinner tonight?