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?

I sometimes check the keywords that people use to find my site and I always giggle when I see people searching for "What does a Cajun family look like?" I can only imagine what they are thinking.. that we wear torn knee-high jeans, carry fishing poles and wear gator-teeth necklaces? I don’t know..but for those interested, here’s what my Cajun family looks like:

Poodoo background courtesy of Woodmen of the World camp on Elezar in Kaplan

That’s me, my brother Colby, my brother Bennett, my nephew Everette and my oldest brother Chad. Cajun families generally come in two shades — French and Spanish. Judging from the blaring whiteness of my arms, I’d imagine that we’re mostly French. Some Cajun families, such as the Landrys in Breaux Bridge (see Ali Landry), are olive toned and most likely have a heavy Spanish background.

And here’s our Cajun mother and father; both are native Cajun French speakers.

As you can see, we look like many other modern American families… though seeing that I’m 28 and look about 12 in that photo, we may age a little better

I was in Holly Beach last weekend (May 7) grabbing footage and pictures for all the Googlers looking for updates on Holly Beach. I have a lot of pictures and video that I can’t wait to share..but I’ll have to because my computer isn’t cool! Soon enough, though, I’ll get a Mac and infrequent blog postings will be history!

Anyway, I prepared myself for Holly Beach to be really bad off but I didn’t prepare myself for what I’d see along the way in Pecan Island, Grand Chenier, Creole and a few others places. Coffins were out of the ground, several cars were abandoned, no house was left untouched — even the ones on 14 foot stilts.

But! People are already rebuilding! There was quite a bit of activity down in Cameron Parish and surprisingly enough, HOLLY BEACH! Gotta love Meaux’s Seafood — they are already back in business!

Your trusty tour guide at Meaux’s Seafood in Holly Beach

There were about 50 people down in Holly Beach.. some were actively rebuilding.. some were kids just playing in the sand and others were partying and riding 4-wheelers.
 
People are buying up property in Holly Beach but I hear that you have to buy a minimum of 4 lots at a time. Can anyone explain how that makes any sense? We checked the prices of one lot (where we stayed in May of 2005) and they were asking $10,000 a lot. Multiply that times a minimum of four and it’s just not worth it for us. That’s not even including a camp! If anyone wants to split, let me know
 
I have lots of video that I’ll be encoding and I’ll post it as soon as I deau!

Do kids still get off three days of school for Mardi Gras in South Louisiana? I remember I couldn’t believe that children in other states didn’t get this huge holiday.. I mean, as kids, you look forward to Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mardi Gras and Easter. They’re really missing out (though they probably get off 3 days earlier for summer

My mom sent a really helpful link from the Time of Acadiana. Check it out of you are in the area: Mardi Gras 2006 in Acadiana - Get Busy.

Oh also, I made a Mardi Gras AIM Buddy Icon if any of you are in the celebratory mood.

Happy Mardi Gras, everyone!

I’ve often heard the term "Cajun French" but I can’t recall ever hearing the term "Cajun English" until I came across the PBS series "Do You Speak American?" Come to think about it, that’s a great way to explain how most Cajuns speak. I know from experience that a lot of the things we say in English don’t make much sense to people outside of South Louisiana. Here are a few phrases that come to mind:

- "Getting Down"
We use this when referring to someone getting out of a vehicle. For example "You gonna get down with me to buy some groceries or you gonna stay in the car?" You may have noticed I skipped an "are" in that phrase. We skip plenty of words too. Most of America interprets ‘getting down’ as dancing or heavy petting. This can be a problem at times as it was for my friend Ryan. He was in Tennessee with his wife, Nichole and her friend, a Tennessee native. Nichole went inside of a resturant and was taking awhile so Ryan looked at his friend and said "She’s taking awhile. I should check on her. You wanna get down with me?" and the friend started screaming at him. She thought he was putting the moves on her! He was able to calm her down but only after Nichole helped clear things up. This is a translated French term.
- "A gum"
This one baffled me.. a friend of mine was stuffing her face with spearmint gum so I asked her for some. "Can I have a gum?" She looked at me like I was crazy. "What do you mean?" "What do you mean what do I mean. I just asked for a gum." "Oh! You mean a piece of gum." Silly technicalities. Mmm now I want a gum.
- "Save the dishes"
I don’t even know how to say this in English. Saving the dishes is what you do after they are washed and dried..like, when you put them in the cupboard. "Put them away" is perhaps how other Americans say it. You can also save the clothes after they are folded.

Here are some other things you’ll hear in Cajun English
- Starting sentences with "mais." Ending sentences with "me"
Mais, I don’t know, me.
- Ending sentences in "no."
You call any, bruh, or no?
- Ending sentences in "yeah."
Man, that hurt, yeah.
- Making an entire sentence into one word
howsyamomanddem? (slurring is required when speaking French)
- Leaving out words or slightly changing the meaning
Where yall gone?
You heard about Holly Beach?
- The use of "Yaille" (ryhmes with pie)
Pooh yaille, Awe yaille
- The use of "tee." Tee means little in French. You can use it in place of "Jr." or in place of "bruh."
Tee-Tom is nuts!
Aw bruh I know. His brother Danny is even crazier.
Ay tee! You better watch it, that’s my cousin.

I believe you can hear some of this in the duck hunting MP3 I made in 2004. And in the video we made in Holly Beach in May 2005. If any of you Cajuns have any more, let me know. I’ll start a big collection and post it on RealCajunRecipes.com as an article

Baw baw baw. People think that New Orleans is the only city that exists in all of Louisiana. And they’ve somehow forgotten that Mississippi and other places were demolished by Katrina too. Just about everything you hear or read about hurricanes is about Katrina or New Orleans so it was refreshing to see that Miguel Bustillo wrote an article titled "Hurricane’s Forgotten Victims" recently in the Los Angeles Times that addresses just that. The summary reads: Four months after Rita and a world away from New Orleans, the ‘Cajun Riviera’ is still in ruins. Many fear they’ve been lost in Katrina’s shadow.

I wanted to thank the LA Times for giving some air time to Holly Beach and Rita victims wrote the following Letter to the Editor.

I’d like to thank Miguel Bustillo for bringing attention to the forgotten victims of Hurricane Rita in his February 6th editorial. I was born and raised in Vermilion Parish and spent many summers in Holly Beach. I first saw the size of Rita and her path which led right to my hometown while having dinner at Natalee Thai in Los Angeles. When I got home, I tied on my Holly Beach crabstring and beach shell necklace to feel some sort of solidarity with my friends and family back home. I knew they were on the "bad side" of the hurricane but hoped for the best anyway. My fears were confirmed when I picked up the LA Times and saw Holly Beach on the front cover, completely destroyed. The town was listed as Cameron in the caption but I knew without a doubt it was my family’s favorite beach.

Hurricane Rita destroyed so many of my friends’ homes but when people in California ask about my accent and I tell them I’m from Southwest Louisiana, the question that always follows is "Did Katrina destroy your family’s house? Did you live in New Orleans?" I tell them "No, my town barely felt a breeze when Katrina hit" and as I see them breathe a sign of relief, I follow up with "But a lot of people I know lost their homes in the flooding caused by Rita." They almost look baffled. How can this be? Even activists seem to have forgotten that all of the Gulf Coast was hit, not just New Orleans. Just two weeks ago I went to a political rally in San Francisco and repeatedly heard mentions of New Orleans and Katrina but never Rita or the Gulf Coast. I tried to do my part; each time I heard Katrina, I yelled back "Rita" and everytime I heard "New Orleans" I yelled back "Gulf Coast."

I thought after Rita hit people would realize that New Orleans isn’t the only city in South Louisiana. Sadly, I was mistaken. Just about everyone, even politically aware activists, has forgotten about the destruction that Rita caused in Cajun Country and the government’s following failures. I’m grateful that Mr. Bustillo and the LA Times have not. I hope to see the Los Angeles Times continue to report about victims of Hurricane Rita just as it has continued to report about the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Chrissy LeMaire
San Francisco, CA
(Formerly Kaplan, LA)

Here’s to more media coverage in the media on Holly Beach, Erath, Delcambre, "The Islands" and all of the other places affected by Rita and Katrina.

Bonne Année (Happy New Year) everyone! Hope you had a safe and fun holiday season. Mine was really nice — I spent Christmas at my mom’s place in Phoenix and gorged on my favorite holiday dish, candied yams. I also found out that after 7 years of living in Phoenix, mom is moving back to Cajun country! She bought one of the beautiful historic homes in Crowley (in Acadia Parish) and we’re all really looking forward to spending next Christmas there. I’m making a big move too — in less than two weeks, I will be moving from Los Angeles to San Francisco. I’ve wanted to write for a while about what it takes to make a gumbo out here in Southern California and this seems like a good time.

About 2 months ago, I got the envie ("on-vee" - urge) to make a big ol’ pot of gumbo. I ended up making two kinds - seafood and meat lovers. The meat lovers’ gumbo consisted of tasso (Cajun smoked pork), andouille, fresh turkey sausage and fresh pork sausage. I’m not a big fan of chicken so I nixed that.

Where can you find all of the ingredients to make a good gumbo in Los Angeles? The answer is the Grove’s Farmer’s Market at Fairfax and Third. Here, you can find everything from the Cajun trinity (onions, bell peppers and celery) to Savoie’s roux, fresh Cajun sausage, gulf shrimp and Savoie’s Andouille. You have to visit a few places in the market to make a complete gumbo.

Farm Fresh Produce
The vegetables are easy enough. Pick up your onions, bell peppers, celery and onion tops at Farm Fresh Produce. They’ve got great prices for fresh produce.

Marconda’s Meats
I was at the Farmer’s Market to enjoy the crepes at one of the booths but stopped in my tracks when I saw the bright yellow Savoie’s packaging at Marconda’s Meats. Marconda’s sells both Savoie’s Tasso and Andouille (my favorite) so I picked up a pack of each. The price was great too — just a little bit more than what I’d pay in Louisiana.

Huntington Meats
This place is wonderful! Fresh sausage is sold all over SW Louisiana and so I was really confused when I moved to California and found no traces of it. After years of trying to get butcher shops to make a good Cajun fresh sausage for me, Huntington Meats finally did it. I asked one of the owners, Jim, if he could make some sausage and he told me sure, all he needed was a recipe. I called my mom, wrote down the ingredients and handed them to him. He was a bit confused "You said it was Cajun but there’s relatively little red pepper. I thought Cajun food was spicy?" I get this question often and I always respond "Cajun food isn’t really spicy. We think it’s perfect if you just feel a kick after you swallow — not immediately when you take a bite." He made the 5lbs of turkey and pork sausages just as I ordered and I loved it! I went back a couple weeks later and ordered another 5 lbs.

Tusquellas Seafood
Tusquellas is stocked with a ton of Cajun products! From Savoie’s roux to Cajun Power hot sauces and even fresh Gulf shrimp, this place is a displaced Cajun’s dream come true. The day I made the gumbo was my lucky day too — Gullf shrimp were on sale for an incredible $2.99/lb! I also picked up a few jars of Savoie’s Roux because I was running low on time and I do like the taste of their dark roux. I left Tusquellas with my final ingredients and a big smile on my face. I never thought it was possible to find all this stuff in Los Angeles, let alone all in the same market place.

I went back home and made the gumbo for everyone I could find. In addition to our roomies, Delia and I invited our friend Liz and Johnny and our actor neighbor who looks like Val Kilmer. Everyone enoyed seconds and it still took us about a week to finish eating the leftovers.

Now to find that magical Farmer’s Market in San Francisco

Brandon and I are reworking all of RealCajunRecipes.com right now to make it easier to use and easier to manage. We’ll be adding some goodies to the site and here’s a sneak peak — more blog badges. You are free to use them just please copy them to your own server. A link back to http://www.RealCajunRecipes.com would be nice but it’s not required.

| |

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The code (for images saved on your server in the /images/ directory).

Cajun
<a href="http://www.realcajunrecipes.com"><img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="/images/cajun.gif" alt="Cajun" /></a>

Gumbo
<a href="http://www.realcajunrecipes.com"><img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="/images/gumbo.gif" alt="Gumbo" /></a>

Crawfish
<a href="http://www.realcajunrecipes.com"><img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="/images/crawfish.gif" alt="Crawfish" /></a>

Shrimp
<a href="http://www.realcajunrecipes.com"><img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="/images/shrimp.gif" alt="Shrimp" /></a>

Boudin
<a href="http://www.realcajunrecipes.com"><img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="/images/boudin.gif" alt="Boudin" /></a>

Cush Cush
<a href="http://www.realcajunrecipes.com"><img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="/images/cushcush.gif" alt="Cush Cush" /></a> Have fun and let me know if you are using them!

Oh, also.. I named the servers roux, boudin, alphonse, boudreaux and clotille. Roux is the main server because you know..everything good starts with a roux Also, I recently bought http://hollybeach.la and plan to make it into a Holly Beach news site. Stay tuned!

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. I loved eating all that Cajun food at gatherings for both sides of my family. My mom’s side made darn good candied yams and my dad’s side made great dressings (seafood and rice). And every year I’d listen to Disney’s Christmas album with the chipmonks and read my favorite Christmas book ever — Cajun Night Before Christmas.

The book stars Gaston, the green nosed alligator as Rudolf and is written with a ‘tick’ Cajun accent and illustrates the following story:

Cajun Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, An’ all t’ru de house,
Dey don’t a t’ing pass, Not even a mouse.

De chirren been nezzle, Good snug on de flo’
An’ Mamm pass de pepper, T’ru de crack on de do’.

Den Mama in de fireplace, Done roas’ up de ham,
Stir up de gumbo, An’ make bake de yam.

Den out on de by-you, Dey got such a clatter,
Make soun’ link old Boudreau, Done fall off his ladder.

I run like a rabbit, To got to de do’,
Trip over the dorg, An’ fall on de flo’.

As I look out de do’, In de light 0′ de moon,
I t’ink "Manh, you crazy, Or got ol’ too soon."

Cuz dere on de by-you, W’en I stretch ma’ neck stiff,
Dere’s eight alligator, A pullin’ de skiff.

An’ a little fat drover, Wit’ a long pol’n stick,
I know r’at away, Got to be ole St. Nick.

Mo’ fas’er and fas’er, De ‘gator dey came.
He whistle an’ holler, An’ call dem by name:

"Ha, Gaston! Ha, Tiboy! Ha, Pierre an’ Alcee,
Gee, Ninette! Gee Suzette! Celeste and Renee!"

"To de top 0′ de porch, To de top 0′ de wall,
Make crawl, alligator, An’ be sho’ you don’ fall.

"Like Tante Flo’s cat, T’ru de treetop he fly,
W’en de big ol’ houn’ dorg, Come a run hisse’f by,

Like dat up de porch, Dem ole ‘gator clim!
Wit’ de skiff flill 0′ toy, An’ St. Nicklus behin’.

Den on top de porch roof, It soun’ like de hail,
W’en all dem big ‘gator, Done sot down dey tail.

Den down de chimney, He fell wit’ a bam.
An’ St. Nicklus fall, An’ sit on de yam.

"Sacre!" he axclaim, "Ma pant got a hole,
I done sot ma’se’f, On dem red hot coal.

"He got on his foots, An’ jump like a card,
Out to de flo’, Where he Lan’ wit’ a SPLAT!

He was dress in musk-rat, From his head to his foot,
An’ his clothes is all dirty, Wit’ ashes an’ soot.

A sack full 0′ playt’ing, He t’row on his back,
He look like a burglar, An’ dass fo’ a fack.

His eyes how dey shine, His dimple how merry!
Maybe he been drink, De wine from blackberry.

His cheek was like a rose, His nose like a cherry,
On secon’ t’ought maybe, He lap up de sherry.

Wit’ snow-white chin whisker, An’ quiverin’ belly,
He shook w’en he laugh, Like de stomberry jelly!

But a wink in his eye, An’ a shook 0′ his head,
Make my confi-dence dat, I don’ got to be scared.

He don’ do no talkin’, Gone straight to his work,
Put playt’ing in sock, An’ den turn wit’ a jerk.

He put bot’ his han’, Dere on top 0′ his head,
Cas’ an eye on de chimney, An’ den he done said

"Wit’ all 0′ dat fire, An’ dem burnin’ hot flame.
Me I am’ goin’ back, By deway dat l came.

"So he run out de do’, An’ he clim’ to de roof.
He am’ no fool, him, For to make one more goof.

He jump in his skiff, An’ crack his big whip.
De ‘gator move down, An’ don’ make one slip.

An’ I hear him shout loud, As a splashin’ he go,
"Merry Christmas to all, ‘Till saw you some mo’!"

Consider getting this book for any Cajun child you know (and even some adults — I lost my book and asked for it again for Christmas). I couldn’t imagine my childhood without it and all the other Gaston books!