D and I are back from a trip to Baton Rouge for the Independence Day
holiday. We hit the town Saturday with my sister on Saturday after an
eight-hour drive through almost continuous storm. Rain and wind and
lightening, that is. I think I saw an ark float by on the Atchafalaya
Spillway. It rained that much on us. Frogs drowned. The fish in
Bayou Teche were sticking their heads out of the high water and
gasping for breath. I kept the sun roof closed. On the way down, we
discussed an idea of mine from years past to make a remoulade
pilgrimage across Louisiana's Acadiana, sampling local remoulade
dishes from Lake Charles to Slidel. Well, maybe not Slidel, but
Plaquemines and Avery Island, at least.
It would be an onerous task, to be sure -- just think of all the
remoulade-related issues we'd have to resolve: Which is best -- olive
oil-based or mayonnaise remoulade? Is it tastier in Avoyelles or
Rapides Parish? Do Protestants make good remoulade? Is there good
remoulade in Morgan City? New Iberia? Avery Island? Do recipes like
remoulade crab salad deserve serious consideration? Can you get
remoulade in take out Chinese in New Orleans? Why not?
There's more, of course, and we'd have to look at the remoulade
question from every conceivable angle, culinary and geographical. But
having covered the topic in Acadiana, we'd surely have to follow it up
with a tour of French remoulade, sampling remoulade from Marseilles to
Paris and from Alsace to Brittany.
Such a project, undeniably worthwhile as it surely would be, will be
costly. I sincerely solicit any donations the good people of rfc may
care to provide, and naturally I and D will pursue as many avenues of
private an public funding as we can imagine.
But what price is too high for a greater understanding of noble
remoulade?
modom
Only superficial people don't judge by appearances.
-- Oscar Wilde