Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne and the Louisiana Office of Tourism have deemed 2015 the “Louisiana Culinary Celebration!” With that in mind, how can I possibly diet? Plus, it’s almost Mardi Gras, so King Cakes are in no short supply and my office is directly across the street from Steamboat Bill’s on the Lake. I can practically hear the boiled crawfish calling my name every day after work.

Eating in Cajun Country means good food prepared by the people who know what to do with the bounty that nature provides.  My mom recently “borrowed” kumquats from her neighbor’s tree to make a marmalade. My brother-in-law knows a thing or two about preparing ducks and geese after the hunt. 

With seafood, everyone has their preferred methods of cooking.  You won’t find a shortage of fried foods in Southwest Louisiana restaurants! Don’t get me started on boudin. Or cracklins.

One of my favorite gumbo stories was covered recently by Michelle Winner on www.CulinaryTraveler.com mentioning Chef Lyle Broussard from Jack Daniel’s Bar & Grill®. He was telling Jay Ducote, Bite and Booze food blogger, how he knows when the roux is ready – he recalls the flavor from when he was a small child, standing on a stool with a big heaping spoon of “chocolate” on his mother’s stove.  Little did he know, the “chocolate” was actually roux! He’ll never forget that surprising taste!

Check out The Culinary Trails Taste-umentary YouTube video that celebrates the local food scene and features local restaurants at www.visitlakecharles.org/seafood. Other culinary videos can be seen on the Visit Lake Charles YouTube channel.

Cajun food is simple. And it’s complex. It is a conversation starter.  Food in Southwest Louisiana is filled with passion.  Don’t take my word for it- come and taste for yourself!

My three-year-old son, Banks, is a pretty picky eater!  His favorite foods all involve loads of sugar, but there is hope for him yet! Banks loves shrimp. He eats fried shrimp, boiled shrimp (if I peel it for him), shrimp gumbo, but his favorite is shrimp stew.  So for this cold night, I’m making shrimp stew for dinner!

From visiting Big Easy Foods in Lake Charles, I’ve learned that Gulf shrimp are notorious for their robust flavor profile and better yet – they are really healthy!  Shrimp are a good source of protein, omega-3, selenium and vitamin B12.

Big Easy Foods has a great selection of Louisiana shrimp in the freezer section at your local Wal-Mart or grocery store, but if you are visiting Southwest Louisiana, try cast netting along the Creole Nature Trail All-American Road to catch your own!  

Find some of the most popular shrimping spots and a checklist of the things you’ll need, like a fishing license, here.

Click here for the best shrimp stew recipes I’ve come across from Louisiana Kitchen & Culture Magazine by Karlos Knott. It’s what I’m making for dinner! 

Watch this video on where our famous, Louisiana shrimp come from and why they are the best!

By Buzzy Gordon 

Thanks to the popularity of Cajun cuisine, Louisiana cooking has become world famous. And as a big fan myself, I thought I knew most of what there is to know about the food. Until I went to Southwest Louisiana for Mardi Gras, and attended the annual Gumbo Cook-Off in Lake Charles, that is.

This is nothing like any other BBQ or chili cook-off you may have ever attended. More than 50 krewes and other competing teams filled a hall of the Lake Charles Civic Center, spilling over outside adjacent to the lakefront promenade. The noise level is astounding: krewes are also competing to win the “spirit stick,” by engaging in raucous revelry.

As the smells of simmering roux start to activate the salivary glands, you begin to wish the tasting would commence. But the teams have been admonished not to serve until the judges have collected their samples. Finally, lines begin to form; and one by one, krewes begin ladling out their savory offerings. These are no measly samples: styrofoam bowls are filled to the brim with the steaming samples.

I did my best to try them all, but after 20 or so half-bowls, I had to call it quits.  But I managed to taste a bit from each category: traditional chicken and andouille sausage; seafood; and wild game. Some of the latter were quite exotic -- like pheasant and elk sausage. Alligator featured prominently, along with rabbit, and even the occasional squirrel.

While most of these mouth-watering recipes may be available to the public to eat only once a year, you'll be glad to know that the best in the professional competition -- as awarded in two of the three categories in 2014 -- comes from the kitchen of the Jack Daniel's Bar & Grill restaurant at L'Auberge Casino Resort.  Professional seafood honors went to the Krewe de Sauvage, while Krewe de Mischief danced away with the coveted Spirit Stick.

For the aspiring chefs who want to make their own gumbo, check out this "How to Make a Gumbo" video by Chef Scott Landry.

In Southwest Louisiana, gumbo is a staple that’s cooked in big cast iron pots and stirred with large wood spoons – or boat oars, depending on how many people are being fed.  Variations of the roux-based soup include chicken and smoked sausage, shrimp and okra, wild duck and smoked sausage, even rabbit or seafood gumbo with shrimp, crab and oysters.

Gumbo is eaten year round in Southwest Louisiana, but home and professional cooks enjoy it most during the cool months of fall and winter.  It’s gumbo season, y’all!

Everyone makes their gumbo differently and the origin of “gumbo” is a melting pot, as well. The Southern Foodways Alliance put together a great oral history of the Southern Gumbo Trail that even interviews David Papania from Seafood Palace.

One of the best attended cook-offs in Southwest Louisiana is the “World Famous Cajun Extravaganza/Gumbo Cook-off” that occurs the Saturday prior to Mardi Gras at the Lake Charles Civic Center. With over 50 teams competing, there are professional and amateur categories for Wild Game, Chicken and Sausage, and Seafood Gumbos.  For $5, you can taste from event pot!

Learn how to make your own traditional chicken and sausage gumbo from Chef Scott Landry from Lake Charles, La.

Crispy, juicy and often salty - and when prepared correctly, nothing satisfies me like fried food.  In fact, I sometimes only eat fried food when I travel.  While I’m not a food expert, I did grow up in a household that traded in their Fry Daddy for a Fry Pappy (a larger model of the popular Fry Daddy – in case you weren’t aware) and never felt the pantry was full unless you had Crisco on hand.  So I guess you could say, I know my fried foods.

Getting older, I’ve learned you can’t eat fried foods for every meal, so it with a discerning group of taste buds that I seek the finest fried foods.  I’m not into the “frankenfried” concoctions that lure people to the nearest state fair – you can keep your fried bananas, Snickers, Twinkies and peaches.  I want the real McCoy.

I have logged the tens of thousands of miles driving around the country eating at diners, roadside food stands and sometimes dripping grease on fine white table linens.  There have been times the soggy, reheated and fresh from the freezer fried foods have been piled high in a red plastic basket only to disappoint.  But I trudged forward knowing I’d be rewarded one day with fried food magic.

Then two years ago, I discovered the Holy Grail of fried foods.  It wasn’t one restaurant, it wasn’t one dish, but it was an entire city!  Sure I’ve written about Lake Charles before, but never in such a blatant and open way.  I think part of me wanted to keep this spot a secret.  But the softer side of my heart tells me that isn’t fair.  While I try to make regular trips back to savory these goodies, I am still no where near as regular of a visitor as I aim to be.

So without further ado, here are my five favorite fried foods in Lake Charles,Louisiana.

A s a part of OUTSIDE magazine’s 2014 Travel Awards, Southwest Louisiana was featured today on NBC’s TODAY Show for being one of the best foodie destinations.  The TODAY Show interviewed OUTSIDE’s Executive Editor Michael Roberts as he discussed five destinations from their recent Travel Awards.

Steamboat Bill's by www.lindseyjanies.com

“We constantly pitch story ideas to travel media and were thrilled when the Louisiana Office of Tourism informed us that OUTSIDE wanted to feature our seafood cuisine in their latest issue.  I followed up with the writer, Tim Neville, and explained that in Southwest Louisiana you can fish year round and cook your own catch at a local charter guide’s lodge or, if you prefer, you can eat fresh seafood at one of the area’s delicious restaurants,” said Megan Hartman, senior marketing manager at the Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“Winning Runner-Up a Best Food Destination by OUTSIDE was exciting, but being called by the TODAY Show for footage of Big Lake Guide Service and local seafood topped it all,” explained Hartman.

The 2014 Travel Awards are in the April issue of OUTSIDE magazine and currently on their website.  For more information on the 2014 Travel Awards, please visit www.outsideonline.com. The Seafood Sensation Trail is highlighted here.  To see the TODAY Show segment, visit www.visitlakecharles.org/TodayShow and Southwest Louisiana is featured around 2:34.