Pontchartrain Pete

Nola couldn’t get enough of the Catfish Queens mentioned in passing in the prior post. I started poking around the old interweb. The same site where the Catfish Queens reside is the home of the Louisiana Association of Fairs and Festivals (LAFF). All of the queens of all of the festivals are featured on one page on the site. So I sent that link to Nola. "The crowns! The crowns!--did you see some of the crowns on those girls—there as big as their dresses!" she says. "You've got to blog about them."

So here we are.

Now, people who live in Louisiana know that once spring and summer roll around the area is crawling with festivals celebrating even the most obscure aspects of local culture. Fall is usually when the various parish (counties to you “others”) fairs are held. This makes sense because most of the parish fairs also serve as local agricultural showcases; fall is harvest time, etc.

Without anything really interesting to blog about, today will be a brief entry on the stuffed crab I had for dinner last night.

Of course, as I was thinking, "this is going to be about a 3 sentence entry," some ideas began to flow.

I remember when we were kids and would drive to Houma to visit family. On the way back to New Orleans we always would stop in Des Allemands (the catfish capital of the world--take a look at the Catfish Queens here). We would pull up to this nice little white house off the bayou, park in the shell driveway, and a little old lady would come out to greet us on the back porch. Her name was Mrs. Matherne, and she sold seafood goodies out of the chest freezer on her screened-in porch. Pete's Mom and Dad would always buy a dozen or so stuffed crabs.

Nola's non-stop noshing and her blogging thereof (mainly the dim sum entry) got me thinking. I haven't been out to New Orleans East to shop at the Vietnamese markets in quite a while.

On occasion, before the storm, I would trek out to the Vietnamese section of New Orleans East to visit the Vietnamese markets. I would usually buy some ginger and lemongrass, maybe some chili oil or fish sauce, and take time to gawk at all the odd ingredients inherent in Oriental markets.

In exile on the Northshore for 5 years now, I always enjoy having time to spend in the city. Having partners-in-crime always helps, and this past weekend it was none other than Nola, Captain Sarcastic and my sister, with guest appearances from Nola and CS' menagerie, Lucy, Zella and Peanut.

Saturday started in a fine New Orleans tradition, a breakfast of beignets and cafe au lait at the Morning Call. Not as well known to the outside world as its French Quarter counterpart Cafe Du Monde, the Morning Call was originally located in the Quarter and in its day was probably the more well-known of the two.

Off-theme post here...

Just a celebration of the new MP3 player I bought today. Having a long-standing affection for digital music, one would think that I'd have gotten one of these a long time ago. Wrong. I was hard-headed, stubborn and didn't think anything was wrong with burning endless CD's to bring my music home.

I'd been thinking about it for awhile. I knew I was too cheap to get a real iPod, so occasionally I would shop for a non-Apple product. Today, the jackpot appeared by way of a 1 gigabyte Sandisk Sansa player with built in FM tuner for $39.99 at Circuit City. I think it will make me very happy. I can download MP3's of radio shows I missed and listen at my leisure at home.

Moving on...still Friday the 13th at the French Quarter Fest...

To Woldenberg Park, and another extended outlay of music stages and food booths. As I was looking around trying to plot a strategy, I heard a loud plane overhead, and looking above spotted an F15 flying fast and low over the riverfront. I picked up my camera and switched it on, hoping the plane would circle back around.

Hello everyone, Pontchartrain Pete here (just call me Pete, Pontchartain can be hard to spell and is too long to type). Today's my first stint as guest blogger for Nola at nolanotes and for this and future posts I'll keep with the "all things New Orleans" theme. Being single and male, your author will not, however, be discussing any issues relating to pregnancy, childbirth or spousal strife.

One continuing theme is going to be "the things that are ours." Although not fully developed, the idea is that there are certain things that are unique New Orleans things, and it just happens that these things are also the things that draw "the others" to town.

I'll try to more fully develop this topic in later posts, let's go to a really big "thing that is ours," this year's French Quarter Festival.