Shrimp appetizers are an interesting concoction that I thought was exclusive to Scott's family, but apparently it is widespread in New Orleans. It is not really an appetizer, but we served it that way. Traditionally, when New Orleanians peel & eat shrimp, some of them like to take the shrimp and put it atop a buttered Ritz cracker, and top it off with a squirt of ketchup. Fancy, I know, but it really is tasty.
Dinner was Po'boys, a New Orlean sandwich of fried seafood and lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mayo and ketchup, on a sourdough baquette. We planned on having crawfish po'boys, but the crawfish Scott ordered came already cooked, so we couldn't use it. Instead, we fried shrimp and oysters. Caroline (his brother's girlfriend) found a partially formed pearl in one of her oysters. With the po'boys we served dirty rice. The dirty part of the rice is chicken livers, which are cooked down with bell pepper, green onions, celery, and cayenne pepper, and then mixed with the rice. Linda said it tasted exactly like she remembers it.
Dessert was the gem of the meal. A king cake is a Mardi Gras cake sold only in New Orleans. Scott and his family are addicted to this cake, and if you didn't grow up with it, you don't quite understand what the big deal is. It is basically a ring of cinnamon cake that tastes like a dry cinnamon roll. It is topped with GOBS of white icing and DRENCHED with purple, green & gold sugar (mardi gras colors). There is a plastic baby hidden somewhere in the cake, and whoever gets the baby in their piece is responsable for throwing the next party. This is something Scott won't even attempt to re-create, so we ordered it from Haydel's Bakery in New Orleans, and they overnight it to us. The funny thing is Scott ordered on online Wednesday night, but the order screen said there was an error and did not go through. The next morning Scott called the bakery and ordered the cake, but then that afternoon we had one at our door. Apparently the online order did go through, so we ended up with 2 king cakes. Scott was super excited as king cake is his weakness, and has been known to eat a whole cake by himself in one day.
The 2 cakes! They come with mardi gras beads, chicory coffee, a jazz cd, and a mardi gras magazine.
Linda blowing out her candles. Notice the festive beads. Mike (next to her) got the baby in the cake!
7 comments:
that sounds so fun! the french have a similar tradition, but i dont exactly remember what it is... when i was in 8th grade, my teacher brought in a cake with something hidden in it and i forget what it meant to get it. my memory is fantastic! :)
yum! we've been receiving king cake after king cake at the office. i won't go near the stuff but everyone else seems to love it. no word on who got the baby around here.
Is that a Scripps champagne glass that I see in the corner of the picture where Linda is blowing out the candles?
i wonder, why a baby?
hey look, stephanie commented!
what a fun bday theme!
i am a little familiar with king cake...my nana's birthday is jan. 5th, which is the day before jan. 6th which is the "epiphany" holiday...a holiday with which the king cake is associated (esp. over in portugal, spain, france --- hence how it got to new orleans and associated with mardi gras). so last year we almost did a king cake for her 80th birthday. the baby inside is jesus. just imagine how bad you'd feel if you chomped jesus' foot off. sheesh.
omg. the baby is jesus. how did i not figure that out?
The baby is laying in the same postion as Jesus in the manger...on his back with arms and legs raised. Although the baby is a little more pinkish-tan than I picture Jesus being...
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