We thought we had a pretty good idea of what to expect as we entered the land of Poo Poo Broussard, but our stomach and liver weren’t quite as prepared as our minds were. We knew we were in trouble when we showed up to a festival in a town with only 2 stop lights (they just recently were upgraded from 1) and 2,000 people, and there were two 18 wheeler trailers slap full of over 1,000 cases of beer. We got there a little later than planned, and were met at the gate with the fruits of the said trailers. Even though we had just put down those McDoubles, the smells billowing out of the covered pavilion immediately lured us to the food stands. I know it’s called the Delcambre Shrimp Festival for a reason, but the variety of shrimp fare was enough to rival Pvt. Benjamin Buford 'Bubba' Blue’s selections. Boiled shrimp. Fried Shrimp. Shrimp Stir Fry. Shrimp Jambalaya. Shrimp Sauce Piquante. Shrimp and Grits. Shrimp Egg Rolls. Shrimp Pizza. Even Shrimp Burgers. We grazed on shrimp for what seemed like an hour, but made sure to leave enough room for more of those 10 ounce beers as we were taken back to the 80s at the band stands.
We mustered up enough energy to make it over to the bar in Delcambre, and I don’t think I can emphasize THE enough. It felt as if everyone within a 15 mile radius, was unsuccessfully seeking refuge from the humidity in the equally stuffy and humid bar, including a lady (or Billy Ray Cyrus circa 1992, or Jared Allen, or Kenny Powers, we’re still not sure) who had taken the 80s theme of the night a little too far. In the words of my cousin, she (or he) is so poodoo.
Next thing I knew it was 8:00 in the A.M. and the alarm started going off. I awoke in a bed full of Pepperoni Pizza Combos crumbs with the taste of Jalapeno Cheddar Chex Mix still on my tongue suffering from a slight hangover from the night before, or should I say 5 hours before (nothing a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese McGriddle couldn’t handle). One short hour later, and now going on six since I took my last shot of the night, I was back at the festival grounds for the Delcambre Shrimp Festival Cook Off. With my version of the “adult” lemonade in hand, the Bovina to the Bayou Cooking Team, a play on the blog, was now ready to go to work on our entry- a fried green tomato and fried shrimp poboy with tiger sauce and a homemade remoulade.
Our deep fried poboy was a crowd favorite, but, needless to say, my first attempt at trying to beat Cajuns at their own game was not a success (we’ll just say we finished 4th). To add insult to injury, the shade had fled from our team’s tent, leaving us vulnerable to the sucker punch August’s sweltering heat was about to deal us. Defeated and wounded, we hobbled back to some ice cold AC for temporary temperature relief and were treated to even more shrimp- curried Thai shrimp and grits.As the day turned to night, we made our way back to the festival for one last shrimp fananza. My internal organs didn’t appreciate it, but the rest of Saturday went much like the previous night, massive consumption of shrimp egg rolls, more of those tiny Bud Lights, entertainment from decades past, and another trip to THE bar.
My stomach probably thought it was finally headed to the post game showers as we pulled into our final resting place. Earlier in the day, I mentioned how awesome Betty’s corndog nuggets and ro-tel were and how awesome Petty’s BBQ nachos were. Well, Ches then unleashed the final assault in a flurry of late night gut grenades, BBQ Chicken Nachos with homemade BBQ sauce, and Corndog Nuggets Four Ways- cheddar, buffalo, McIlhenny (sweet and hot pickles), and The Eclectic (hot sauce and grape jelly).
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