The Perfect Cajun Diet Food

Last night Russ and I were the lucky guests at a New Orleans dinner put on by Big Easy Native Bennet and his wife Jane with help from Jimbo, Emmy, Jay, Kim and Fraser.  Russ and I have a particular fondness for all things New Orleanian.

The first time I visited was with my Dad when I was fourteen and he let me drink two hurricanes at Pat O’Brien’s and I promptly threw up all night.  The second time I went to a trade show with Russ, but I was dating someone else at the time and paid no attention to him.  He said that he sat next to me at every company dinner and I laughed at his jokes, yet I foolishly did not recognize him as the man I should have been interested in.  Thank goodness he kept after me.

In my fifty plus years I have visited the Crescent city at least a half dozen times and I have to admit that one reason we keep going back is the food.  From the Oyster Po boys to the gumbo there is hardly a meal there that I would not want to repeat multiple times except that I am almost certain that I gained a pound a day on every visit.

Last night our hosts imported all the makings for a perfect Cajun meal with the alligator and crawfish being flown in from the bayou.  After passing on the appetizers, especially the ones fried in Bennet’s new industrial-driveway-three-basket-no-waiting- fryer I was sufficiently hungry by the time dinner came around.

I was thrilled to sit down to the figure friendly shrimp cocktail with a healthy dose of horseradish laden cocktail sauce.  A yummy gumbo followed and I did my best to leave a little rice.  The grilled alligator Tabasco Cesar salad was next.  I left the croutons in anticipation of the main event- the Crawfish boil.

I was seated next to gulf cost native John who was a crawfish pickin’ and eatin’ machine.  After giant platters of the red mudbugs were placed between us, John instructed everyone how to retrieve the tiny meat from the tail, which was no bigger than my pinky from the last knuckle to the end of my finger.  It took us armatures ten times longer to pick the meat than it did to eat it.  This morning I looked up that calorie count for Crawfish – 70 calories for three ounces.  I have to say that after a good twenty minutes of picking I do not think I ate three ounces worth.  Delicious as it was I clearly burned more calories getting the food than I ate therefore making it the perfect food.

I wish that I had known last night how few calories there were in my main course because I only allowed myself one tiny bite of the homemade-driveway-deep-fried beignets which was orgasmic, but probably best I kept that sentiment to myself.

Thanks to Dave and Sara for sharing the experience with us.  And hats off to the chefs and servers – It was a really fun evening and guiltless to boot.