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Dance and dine in Cajun country
03:39 PM CDT on Thursday, July 2, 2009
BREAUX BRIDGE, La. – It was 10:30 on a Saturday morning at Café des Amis in Breaux Bridge. Breakfast may have been winding down at this small-town eatery in the heart of Cajun country, but the music and dancing were in full swing. In fact, the place had been hopping for two hours, with barely a moment's break in its bouncing beat. Spoons clinked in coffee cups, and waitresses carrying platters of eggs wove among dancers.
I was washing down my crawfish étouffée with a spicy bloody Mary while watching 77-year-old Antoine Melancon twirl around the crowded dance floor with a woman half his age.
"This is a phenomenon," said owner Dickie Breaux as he sat on a bar stool overseeing the action outside the kitchen.
Young, old, black, white, fat, thin, toned, tattooed – all were dancing together at his nationally recognized zydeco breakfast in a town of 7,554 that could itself be considered a phenomenon.
Located 129 miles from New Orleans, Breaux Bridge may be a small-town country cousin to the Big Easy, but it offers its own bite of rich cultural flavor and homespun hospitality. It also makes a perfect base for exploring the surrounding area known as Cajun Country.
Around here, "music is everywhere, every day," local Elizabeth English told me with pride. You can sit in on authentic Cajun jam sessions over at the Coffee Break, chow down at a crawfish boil where a band plays nightly, or simply dance from morning to night.
Often called Acadiana, Cajun Louisiana consists of 22 parishes, or counties – including Breaux Bridge's St. Martin Parish – in the southwestern part of the state. Home to many of the French Canadians run out of Nova Scotia after Britain took control in the 1750s, the French connection is still strong here, and not just in locals' accents. Street signs say "rue;" restaurants such as Chez Jacqueline boast fine "French and Cajun cuisine." At tiny Champagne's Bakery, a hand-painted sign spells it out clearly: WE SPEAK FRENCH.
But this is French culture without an attitude or little dog in sight. When I stopped in at one of the numerous gas stations selling boudin, the local spicy sausage, the first thing the girl at the counter asked me was, "Where y'all from?" As I opened the door to leave, instead of saying goodbye, she hollered, "Welcome to Louisiana!"
Visiting here is like visiting another country, one where the past isn't found on cobblestone streets or historic statues. Rather, it curves through the air on fiddle and accordion melodies, drenches your taste buds with its spicy zest of living and, more often than not, does both at the same time. Music and food are as intertwined here as the moss that wraps around the trees in the bayous.
On Saturday night I drove to Eunice, in the heart of the Cajun prairie, and the restored Liberty Theater. Originally a vaudeville palace dating from 1924, the theater hosts the Rendez-vous des Cajuns, a 90-minute variety show broadcast live on Saturday nights (A Prairie Home Companion, Cajun-style). They were celebrating the birthday of the evening's performer, D.L. Menard (considered the Cajun Hank Williams).
When they ended the show by serving homemade jambalaya and pineapple upside-down birthday cake, everyone was invited to partake. I never thought there would be enough to feed all the folks in the packed place. I was almost last in line, but there was plenty left to allow my plate to be heaped high with the best jambalaya I have ever eaten.
Jambalaya is a staple in Louisiana, thanks in part to the area's abundant rice fields. But the eerie and mysterious bayous and swamps that form much of the country's landscape still have the most haunting appeal for visitors.
Numerous excursions are available, but I chose to go on a tour of the Atchafalaya Swamp ("say it kind of like a sneeze," I was advised by a local) with McGee's Landing owner David Allemond, who was born and raised there.
Before we left on the tour, he gave me my first lesson in eating crawfish. At his dance hall-restaurant-bar on the levee, he demonstrated how you grasp the crawfish head in one hand, the tail with other hand (no knives and forks here) and then squeeze and twist gently until the meat twists out. A true Cajun will also suck the juices from the head.
Although business has slowly started to pick up, it's been tough since hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit New Orleans in 2005.
"People thought we were gone, too," Allemond said. Then he brightened as we readied for the swamp tour. "Growing up here was like being Huck Finn," Allemond reminisced before we roared off in his airboat to tour the swampland he knows by heart.
We didn't come eye to eye with a 'gator that day, but seeing a huge flash and splash as one leaped in the air to snap at a bird a short distance away was more than enough excitement.
In Cajun country, I learned that alligators are not only to be seen (and feared), but they are to be fried and grilled. When I dined at Prejean's Restaurant, a popular Cajun eatery in Lafayette, the menu included alligator, as well as crawfish enchiladas, shrimp po-boys and seafood bisque. Dessert was a slice of spice-rich gâteau de sirop (cane syrup cake). I was happily satisfied with a bowl of dark, rich smoked-duck and andouille gumbo served with a plop of rice in the middle.
You could easily spend weeks driving around the region, tasting the gumbos and seafood available at cafes where waitresses say "thanks, baby" no matter your age and where at least three hot sauces (including a house-made option) grace each table. Signs abound at small markets and gas stations for "boiling crawfish" (the state legislature has designated Breaux Bridge as Crawfish Capital of the World), "fresh boudin" and "cracklins," those deep-fried Southern delicacies, something like pork rinds.
On my way to St. Martinville to see the oak tree that Longfellow immortalized in his famous "Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie," I even picked up a sweet potato pie at an outdoor walk-up window.
The good news is that in Breaux Bridge you can easily work off those Cajun calories by dancing from morning until, well, morning. Regulars like Antoine told me that his weekend dance plan often starts at places such as Café des Amis' Saturday zydeco breakfast. When the music stops there, he heads to dance-hall restaurants such as Crawfish Town and Mulate's or wherever the best band may still be playing.
I was told that nobody misses the music and dancing at Whiskey River Landing. It's open only from 4 to 8 p.m. Sundays, and when I got there at twilight, a boatload of cars and trucks already were parked on the levee. Strings of Christmas lights twinkled against the water and outlined the ramshackle building. Smoke billowed from a covered grill where sausages were cooking. As its lid was opened and closed, spicy aromas filled the air.
Inside, hometown zydeco favorite and 2008 Grammy Award-nominee Geno Delafose was performing. (The Grammy Awards added a Zydeco-Cajun category in 2008.)
The place was packed, and every so often a cowbell clanged through the steamy din. "That's when the bartender gets a tip," a man on a nearby bar stool explained. Someone ordered me a drink. Someone else asked if I wanted to dance. I did.
We moved through couples while my partner translated the French words of the song. With his thick French-Acadian accent, I still couldn't understand much of the story. But by the second twirl around the room, the words had melted away, and then there was only the music.
Donna Tabbert Long is a freelance writer in Minnesota.
Getting there
Besides several daily nonstop flights to Lafayette, La., from D/FW Airport, American Eagle recently began offering nonstop flights to Lake Charles, La. Until Sept. 15, the airline is offering double frequent-flier miles on the route. Lake Charles is an hour's drive from Breaux Bridge and passes through the Cajun country towns of Duson, Crowley and Rayne.
Where to stay
•Cajun Country Cottages Bed & Breakfast, Breaux Bridge. Breakfast is delivered via picnic basket to each of the five cabins, and porches overlook a secluded 5-acre lake. Contact: 1-800-318-2423; www.cajuncottages.com
•Bayou Cabins Bed & Breakfast, on Bayou Teche. Eleven authentic Cajun cabins. Breakfast is a traditional Cajun platter with eggs and pork boudin. Contact: 1-337-332-6158; www.bayoucabins.com
•More options: Breaux Bridge Department of Tourism (1-888-565-5939; www.breauxbridgelive.com), St. Martin Parish Tourist Commission (1-888-565-5939; www.cajuncountry.org), Lafayette Convention & Visitors Bureau (1-800-346-1958; www.lafayettetravel.com).
Contacts
•Café Des Amis, 140 E. Bridge St., Breaux Bridge; 337-332-5273; www.cafedesamis.com
•The Coffee Break, 109 N. Main St., Breaux Bridge; 337-442-6607
•Crawfish Town USA, 2815 N. Grandpoint Highway, Breaux Bridge; 337-667-6148; www.crawfishtownusa.com
•Liberty Theater, 200 W. Park Ave., Eunice; 337-457-7389; www.eunice-la.com
•McGee's Landing, 1337 Henderson Levee Road, Henderson; 337-228-2384; www.mcgeeslanding.com
•Mulate's Cajun Restaurant, 325 Mills Ave., Breaux Bridge; 337-332-4648; www.mulates.com
•Prejean's Restaurant, 3480 I-49 North, Lafayette; 337-896-3247; www.prejeans.com
•Whiskey River Landing, 1365 Henderson Levee Road, Henderson; 337-228-2277; www.whiskeyriverlanding.net
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