Thursday, February 1, 2007

Red Beans and Rice

Some months ago at MadPriest's place, there was a long comment thread on New Orleans-style red beans and rice. I have no idea what the original post was about (it was not red beans and rice) but that's where we ended up in the comments, unruly crew that we are about staying on topic.

It seems that when the New Orleans Saints football team played the Chicago Bears in the final four, the two senators from Louisiana placed a bet with Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois on the outcome of the contest.

Yesterday, Senators Landrieu and Vitter paid off.

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

A routine photo opportunity for Louisiana's two senators settling a friendly football bet got swept up Wednesday in the national political craze known as Obamania.

Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter had hoped for a little media attention as they wheeled a cart of red beans and rice to the office of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to pay off a losing wager on the Bears-Saints National Football Conference championship game Jan. 21.

They were greeted by a media throng: Five photographers, six TV cameras and an assortment of other reporters. The explanation was provided by a Japanese TV producer who hustled up to the scene with a cameraman, boom microphone and step stool.

"Obama?" he asked to make sure he was in the right place.


I guess the Japanese TV producer did not know about New Orleans red beans and rice. We were way ahead of the curve at MadPriest's blog. Soon the whole world will know about our red beans and rice.

At about 11:30 a.m., they emerged from Landrieu's office pushing a service cart decorated with fleurs-de-lis and carrying simmering pots of red beans and rice. They obligingly stirred the food for the cameras.

"Mary and I have been preparing this from scratch," Vitter joked about the home cooking prepared by Copeland's Restaurant. "There may be an extra dose of Tabasco sauce in there."


And if you don't know about Tabasco sauce, you've been living in a cave. Everywhere I've been in the world, I've seen Tabasco sauce.

7 comments:

  1. My grandmother was from Talulah, a little north of you across the river from Vicksburg. She always added slices of polish sausage to her red beans and rice. Not traditional, I know, but we always loved it.

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  2. Dennis, back in my college days, I knew a guy from Tallulah. He was quite nice, and considering the size of the town, could very likely be a relative of yours.

    My roommate in graduate school was from Delhi, LA, a very small town not far from Tallulah.

    I spent a weekend at her family's home, and it was true culture shock, coming from New Orleans.

    Her father was well-to-do from owning a small country store. He was a Southern Baptist, who fell out with his minister, left the congregation, built his own church, and hired his own minister - someone more inclined to his ways, I'm sure.

    I'll bet the beans were good with the Polish sausage.

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  3. I went through a period in my cooking when I put Tabasco in everything. My daughters used to kid me about it. One day my daughter Anne called me and asked me to gather the ingredients for Toll-house cookies so that she could bake when she got home. I gathered the flour, chocolate chips, butter, brown sugar, etc, and placed a bottle of Tabasco next to it all. She liked the joke.
    Here in Panama I don't use much Tabasco; I use "peppa" which is a West Indian hot sauce. It burns real good!!!

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  4. Woo hoo! Red beans and rice! I remember that comment thread... I need to make some. Time to go buy some Aidell's Andouille sausage to put into it.

    I made my first batch of jambalaya in a very long time the other day. I thought of that comment thread and you : ) It came out wonderfully, although whether that was because of your influence or the fact that I substituted chicken stock when the recipe I was using called for water is unclear. : )

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  5. Pat, in all modesty, it was my influence. The chicken stock idea was good and probably did make the dish better.

    Would that sausage be Haydel's andouille sausage? Phonetically, it would be spelled your way - in the rest of the country - but not around here.

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  6. No, Mimi. the brand we have is Aidell's -- they're a sausage company in San Leandro, California. They make a wide range of sausages -- the chicken and apple is really good.

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