Alex and I are in good ol' Louisiana! I've already experienced so many new foods for the first time; Alligator, beignets, King's cake, creolaise, boudin, and fried catfish! I'm a huge fan of food. I think I enjoy food more than most people do. When I take a bite of something I'm usually able to taste every spice and flavor and I try to enjoy it to it's full potential. All these new foods and flavors were excellent to say the least. The alligator was spiced to perfection, the beignet's had the perfect touch of sweetness, King's cake, well that was just "Bombtastic!" Creolaise was a spicy spin on Hollandaise; boudin, well it was too good to describe, imagine a ball of spicy cajun fried goodness and that basically sums it up. The fried catfish was pretty standard, but still good. Mmmmmm, I wish you could have enjoyed these foods with me:)
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| Enjoying a Beignet |
You've probably heard of "Southern Hospitality," Well, Alex and I got to experience some of that first hand upon arriving in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On Sunday morning we went to a church and the service didn't start until 1130, but they had Sunday School classes at 1030. So, I decided we should go to one of the classes before the service. We went to their college group and met some awesome people. Baton Rouge is home to Louisiana State University, so to say the least, it's a college town. If you've been following my blog then you know that I have come to love college towns. What can I say, they really make you feel young, so you can't blame me, right? Anyways, one of the college professors was leading the College Group Sunday School class and I thought she did a great job with the Bible study. The group was very welcoming and one of the students invited us to lunch after church. His name is Tommy, he's in his last year at LSU and he really wanted us to experience Louisiana cooking at it's best! He is the one who introduced us to all those great foods I mentioned previously. He even invited us to stay the night at his home. Wow! I was impressed at his willingness to be so open to us when he had only known us for a few hours. The only time we have experienced that much love from a person we had just met was when we were in Huntington Beach, CA. From what I know of Tommy in the short time I got to know him is that he has a love for people in general and it is a sincere love. After he graduates he plans on going to 11 countries in 11 months so that he can share God's word and love with people who don't know Jesus. I think that is amazing and he is just the person to do it.
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| Clock Tower at LSU |
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| LSU Mascot |
On Sunday night we went to a church service at The Chapel on Campus that Tommy had invited us to. The place was filled with college students and the sermon was part one of two on How to be a Great Lover. The message was geared more towards young people who weren't married, but it was a good sermon; the thing I want to mention about the service is that one of the pastors had a young man come up on stage who had recently accepted the Lord into his life and I thought his testimony was great. He started off by saying that when he accepted Christ there wasn't anything crazy that went on, there were no "fireworks," it was just that he realized God's truth and the need for God to be in his life. He had a Christian friend that didn't give up on him and was actively showing him God's love. And that was it, so simple.
How many people do you come in contact with that are lost, broken, hurting, wandering, etc? Do you take the time to show them how much joy they could have with Jesus? Well, it really inspired me to more actively express Jesus' love to those I come in contact with. I was raised in a Christian home, but the day I really understood who Jesus was, is a day that I will never forget. My life without Jesus would be a life not worth living. Knowing Jesus is the kind of joy that is hard to explain, but once you experience it you know that Jesus is truth and there is nothing that can sway you otherwise.
So far, Louisiana has been beautiful! The capital building in Baton Rouge was gorgeous. Unfortunately, we got there right when it closed so, we didn't get to explore it much.
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| Old Baton Rouge Capital Building |
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| Old Governor's Mansion |
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| Current Capitol Building and the tallest in the US |
OMG that movie theatre/restaurant idea is genius! I always rush to a movie and don't have time to get dinner first--what a great idea! Was the food good too? What kind of fare was it? I would make a movie theatre that had weekly specials themed towards the movies that were playing! BTW what's King's cake? I love hearing about all the food! I'm a food junkie too :) Take pics of the food por favor! Love you, Kim
ReplyDeleteThe food at the movie theater was great! And the price range was average, drinks between $4-5, menu entrees between $7-15.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so some other people asked me to expand a little more on the food items I mentioned above, so I will include the King's cake in my expansion:
#1: Beignet: a better version of a doughnut, made with french bread batter/dough, fried and then heavily sprinkled with powdered sugar.
#2: Creolaise: A spin off of Hollandaise sauce; it's whole grained mustard, minced parsley, and tabasco sauce mixed in with your traditional hollandaise sauce.
#3: King's cake: You can only get it during Mardi Gras season and it's kinda like a huge doughnut/coffee cake/cinnamon roll all rolled into one. Then, it is frosted and sprinkled with yellow, green and purple.
#4: Boudin: Well, the boudin I tried was cajun boudin balls, which is white pork sausage and rice rolled up together and then battered and fried. Regular boudin is white pork sausage and rice stuffed into pork casings and then cooked.
#5: Alligator, well that speaks for itself.