Friday morning, one of my friends at work asked me if I wanted one of her extra boudin colaches. While the question got a great big "Yes!" from me, I realized that most of you not only have never had boudin, but, most of you probably don't know what boudin is.
We'll start with the pronunciation. The "bou" is pronounced "boo" and the "din" is pronounced "da" as in "Dan" but without the "n." Never, never, never pronounce the "n." So, to recap, repeat after me: "boo-da."
Basically, boudin is rice dressing in a sausage casing and I love it. (Here's a recipe from Danno at NOLA Cuisine.) I also found a site with a lot of reviews for vendors in Cajun country. I prefer the spicier links that don't have a strong liver flavor. Crawfish boudin is excellent, if you can find it, and there is also a type known as blood boudin which I never have tried. Odds are, I never will try it.
Boudin can be smoked on a pit and it's delicious if it isn't too smoky. Boudin balls are boudin without the casing with a small piece of cheese in the center, rolled in breading and deep fried. Gulf Coast Market at Crystal Beach has the best boudin balls in the world. Boudin colaches are a relatively new way to eat boudin and they are out of this world.
I prefer to squeeze the boudin right out of the skin straight into my mouth but I don't, generally, do that in public, unless I'm surrounded by family or a predominantly Cajun crowd (Mardi Gras, zydeco festival, etc.) It's best with saltine crackers or a great big bag of fresh Lay's potato chips.
I close this post with a tribute to my absolutely favorite boudin in the world. Nick's Grocery in Port Arthur, Texas served the most perfectly spiced, moist boudin I've ever eaten. It had lots of green onions and wasn't too liver-y. I don't know if Nick's still sells boudin or if the store even still exists but I'll check into that and let you know.
15 comments:
Oh, yeah. Nick's is there. Selling the best boudin you can get around here. Crawfish boudin, too. I was so happy to see boudin hit Las Vegas Wal-Marts when I was living there. It was Zummo's. Nice that it was from home, but it's not the greatest in the world. And dammit, you couldn't get Party Time Links at all. If you got the kolaches in the soft roll type bread, they are excellent. We used to get those at Cowboy H-D.
I'm willing to try just about anything as long as it doesn't have eyeballs staring back at me.
All this time I thought you pronounced it "boo-dan." French is completely unintelligible to me!
Some places make boudin balls by slicing the boudin into approximately 1-inch pieces (and breading and deepfrying). My favorite, at my nearest Mom-and-Pop Cajun restaurant (Vautrot's), differentiates this from rice balls, which are the size of a baseball. Any way you slice it, thaz good eatin!
Pokerboss - Zummo's and D.J.'s boudin are good but they aren't Nick's. I think I'll buy me some Nick's boudin when I go down to P.A. for Mardi Gras and have myself a little picnic on the seawall.
Roxan - I know what you mean although I've had shellfish and whole trout stare me down before.
Laura - I LOVE Vautrot's! I didn't know they were still open. Road trip!
I've eaten it but had no idea there was liver in it, so I must've gotten that boudin, which was not livery. I guess I've really only eaten it in crawfish boils. Ewww. Liver. Crawfish boudin sounds heavenly.
"bfixh"
Sophmom - Yeah, there is some boudin I can hardly eat because of the liver flavor.
aI have never had it! Sounds tasy and I'm willing to try it. I'll pretty much eat anything except pork products. And I love me some crawfish.
And once the Bears beat the Saints this afternoon, Mayor Nagin may be sending some to us.
;-)
Wd verification = hemoglobin (abbr.) tea. eeiiw
LaSirena - Boudin is usually made with pork, so, I guess you'll be sticking to the crawfish variety.
OK! I feel like and idoit! I have always pronounced it Boo-Dan and noone has ever corrected me! Can you mail me some????
Texas Gal - I would love to send you some but it costs a fortune here in the good old US of A. I can't imagine what it would cost to send to Singapore.
nice pick for the boudins :lol:
I had like to taste them
Nomad - :) It's delicious.
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/Boudain
It has a little voice pronouncing it. Its spelled both ways
Baby Sis
Baby Sis - I've always spelled it boudain but when I was researching for this post, everything (especially south Louisiana) spelled it without the a.
Zummo's is junk. We did a taste test wih 7 different brands of Boudin or for texas Boudain. Here in Arkansas Boudin is barely heard of. The only brand we can find in the stores is Zummo's which came in last (Hands down) in our tase test. Unfortunetly, we hadn't heard of Nicks. The top three in an unbreadable tie was H&H (Mercedes, TX)a realatively small unheard of company, Manda's Fine Meats, and DJ's. We waited a week and then retested the top three and could not break the tie as one third voted for each brand. Waltart sells Zummo, very unfortunate as every one here in this region is saying they don't like boudin because they have tasted the worst Junk from Waltart. If anyone know of a retailer in the Fort Smith, AR area that carries a selection of Boudin, taso or andouile. Please post it here. Thanks
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