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Me Oh My Oh...

Almost everyone, even if they are not familiar with most Cajun music, has heard Hank William's classic song "Jambalaya." From the beginning saw of the fiddle introduction, people start humming along and moving their feet in that familiar two-step.

Goodbye Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh,
Me gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou
My Yvonne, the sweetest one, me oh my oh
Son of a gun, we'll have good fun on the bayou

Jambalaya, a-crawfish pie and-a filé gumbo
'Cause tonight I'm gonna see my machez amio
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-oh
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou.

You can almost feel the steamy humidity in the packed shack in the swamp, hear the slide of the flat bottomed pirogue against the swamp grass, and feel your nose tickle at the smell of the snappy cayenne. But most of all, you can hear your stomach rumbling for a steaming bowl of gumbo with a side plate of jambalaya. What about those delicious food items that Hank seems to crave so much that they make it into the chorus? Yvonne seems to be a big draw for the swamp folks, especially the Thibodaux and Fontaineau folk mentioned in the second verse, but I suspect that jambalaya, crawfish pie, and filé gumbo is what really kicks the place in the butt.

JAMBALAYA

Jambalaya, according to Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen is a rice dish highly seasoned and strongly flavored with any combination of beef, pork, fowl, smoked sausage, ham or tasso or seafood and often containing tomatoes. According to the Acadian Dictionary (Rita and Gabrielle Claudet, Houma, Louisiana, 1981) the word jambalaya "comes from the French "jambon" meaning 'ham' , the African 'ya' meaning rice and the Acadian language where everything is "a lá."

There are dozens of different recipes for jambalaya. Here is just one.

RECIPE FOR JAMBALAYA

CRAWFISH PIE

Now what is the heck is crawfish pie? When I was in Lake Charles, I saw people ordering and eating piles, no, mountains of crawfish, going through the well practice motion of grab, pinch and suck. I've had crawfish etouffeé which I loved, but a whole pie of crawfish? Ya ya! Did you know that Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, is officially the Crawfish (or l'écrevisse) Capital of the world. Some crawfish pies are fried like a pastry, others are made in individual pastries, and some are made like a regular pie. Try this recipe, from Chef Alex Guillory.

RECIPE FOR CRAWFISH PIE

FILÉ GUMBO

Filé gumbo refers to a kind of gumbo that uses filé to thicken up the gumbo, which is actually ground sassafras leaves. True Cajun cooks use either okra or filé to thicken up a gumbo, but they don't use both. In a February 21 article on gumbo in the Anchorage Daily News, Richard Stewart of the Gumbo Shop in New Orleans was quoted as saying, "You wouldn't want to use filé and okra in the same gumbo. I guess you could, but it would be disgusting." Here is a Creole Gumbo that uses filé . No okra.

RECIPE FOR CREOLE GUMBO

ONE LAST THOUGHT

Still, all apologies to Mr. Williams, this meal doesn't feel complete to me. I think I would add in "a piece of cornbread" from Beau Jacques album (Kick it, Chucky!) and a Louisiana Sunburst Salad from the Gumbo Pages. I'd fill that fruit jar with some good Homer Pale Ale which always goes good with gumbo. Then I'd be ready to dine with with Hank.

All Rights Reserved. Copyright Aileen McInnis 2007.