Here in the South, meat, grease and rib sticking fiddles are the norm. It’s a lot different than the light eating I’ve grown accustomed to in the Northwest. In the Northwest you’ll find that spinach is the new bacon, meaning, it’s the new added topping of choice. More food is going vegan, vegetarian, organic and light. Here, bacon is still bacon and fried is fantastic.

Soon after moving here, I started seeing signs for interesting food (at least I hoped it was food) and I wasn’t sure what it was.

Sure, in Oregon we have Crawfish, we call them crawdads and some people eat them. It was a favorite summer event around my house to catch them in the fresh, clean Oregon rivers (you really could essentially reach in and pull out massive handfuls), gather them in five gallon buckets then and start the assembly line of cooking pots at home.

The one that stood out most was Boudin. I had recalled hearing something about it at one time or other on a food show. What is Boudin? If you’re the squeamish type that doesn’t like to know what’s in your food or how it’s made, you should stop reading now.

Boudin is a sausage. That alone should tell you a little about the nature of this delectable. It is used in French, Belgian, German, French Canadian, Creole and Cajun cuisine. There are many varieties to choose from and southerners swear by this style of sausage.

This tasty sausage came about when people were looking for a way to make a little meat serve more people which is why there’s rice included in the mixture of pork meat and pork liver and heart that is stuffed into a sausage casing.

The most common variety of Boudin is Boudin Blanc which pairs nicely with some cracklin’s (deep fried pork skin) and a cold beer. You can get other meat versions of Boudin, too; like gator and crawfish.

In Lousiana you can find Boudin everywhere, from truck stops and gas stations to restaurants and small diners. It sounds like some places in Tyler, Texas that are gas station/barbeque restaurants. In the Northwest, you’re lucky if you find a sandwich shop attached to a gas station, so these food-fuel occurrences still give me pause.

In Tyler, Texas crawfish is available at many locations with Randy’s Crawfish and Cajun Grub getting rave reviews recently. Boudin is available at the Cajun Bayou Seafood Market and a few other spots in, and near, Tyler.

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