Here’s some background information on our site, based on a web traffic analyser from Google on RealCajunRecipes which provides a summary of information about our visitors. Seems that more than 94% of the people looking to cook Cajun food come from North America.

I’ve never had such a geographically concentrated web audience! I thought Cajun food was a bit more universal but I suppose it’s not. After the US and Canada, the following countries are most popular: UK, Australia, Germany, France, Japan. Within the United States, we are most popular in Louisiana (per capita). Sweet! Being popular among Cajuns has always been my biggest goal for the site.

As far as keywords go, most people find our site by typing in “Cajun Recipes.” After that, it’s beignet recipe, jambalaya recipe, steak marinade and crawfish recipes.

On average, people stay on the site for 5.5 pages per visit (a great number) and people from Kaplan generally stay on the site for 11 pages per visit! The highest pages per visit of 55 comes from Colfax, Louisiana. Dang! It also seems that, based on IP address and not personal information, about 10% of Kaplan’s population has been to our site (Google knows that Kaplantel.net is the only ISP in Kaplan). Even though Kaplan is one of the tiny towns in Louisiana, it is still in our top 10 cities for visits from Louisiana. The others are, in order, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, New Orleans, Shreveport, Metairie, Houma, Lake Charles, and Monroe. All big cities..then K-town. Haha! Awesome.

This girl, Amanda Shaw, is awesome! This song makes me wanna dance.. especially when the band kicks in.

I searched for the term Cajun on YouTube and found a few interesting videos, most notably:

• Pirogue Maker - This is a really old video showing an old Cajun making a pirogue.
• Chataignier Mardi Gras 2004 Video Sample - This video shows, as it suggests, a clip of Cajuns in the super small town of Chataignier in Evangeline parish (pop. 383) celebrating Mardi Gras. Chataignier, pronounced Shah Ton Nyay, is French for chinquapin (chick-a-pin), a small chestnut.
• Party of Doom - Here’s a few dronk Cajuns celebrating the return of a Cajun soldier from Iraq.

Many of the results return videos of Gamit, the “Cajun” character of X-men. Gambit was born in New Orleans. He must have been one of the less than 1% of Cajuns who live(d) there. The creators of X-Men should have made him come from the community of Lebeau in St. Landry Parish, at least then he would have been born in Cajun Country! And lawd knows where that accent and improper pronounciation of “cher” is from. Not from Acadiana, that’s fo’ sho!

According to the Advocate’s article “Future of ‘Cajun Riviera’ Uncertain“, Ray Miller is a wealthy (well, wealthy enough to afford a 250k Holly Beach camp) former-Holly Beach resident and member of the Holly Beach Sewer Board. Judging from the article, he may also have a slight distaste for Holly Beach’s long held “laissez-faire, low-rent attitude of the past.”

Whatever happens, the days of building a “shack” on Holly Beach are gone, Miller said. When Miller was building his $250,000 retirement home at Holly Beach four years ago the locals saw the 14-foot-high pilings and high-quality construction and thought he was nuts […] Eventually, Miller said, Holly Beach could be transformed into an upscale camp community, home only to those rich enough to afford building to the new code.

The article is referring to new building codes (and sewer system requirement) which stand firmly in the way of Holly Beach’s camps which were known for being “built to be rebuilt.” What’s going on here? Those poodoo camps were what made Holly Beach what it was!

This article may have just framed Miller’s words against him but upon researching, I found that he’s run into ethical issues in the past. Mr. Miller may have wanted to profit from the sewer agenda he’s been pushing so hard for the past few years but the Louisiana ethics board ruled against him.

The Board concluded, and instructed me to inform you that the Code of Governmental Ethics prohibits Mr. Miller from selling his property to the Cameron Parish Sewer District No. 10 while he serves as an appointed member of the District, and from participating in the expropriation of his property by the District. Section 1113B of the Code prohibits an appointed member of a commission from bidding on, entering into, or being in any way interested in a contract, subcontract, or other transaction under the supervision or jurisdiction of the commission member’s agency.

Whatever the case, “upscale Holly Beach camp” is an oxymoron. Has anyone heard about what types of camps that are being planned by the current property owners?