Buddah’s 2013 Ultimate Chilehead Roadtrip – Part 5

Talking about stretching something out for all it’s worth. I am sorry I am not writing this faster, but we had some issues once again with our web host and had to relocate again. There was some malicious code that was hacked into the site and it was causing endless spam to be sent to site, causing ILIS to need more and more space. Outside of paying $200/month for more space, I had another benefactor step up and get me another free web server to host my site. It is slower, but it is free, and for now it is all we got until I start paying for something bigger and better. My deep appreciation goes out to those that have helped me through the last month’s ordeal with my site. Thank you so much for all the help you all have provided me.

So let us continue where I left off, in New Iberia with the Sauce Goddess…

September 24, 2013

Jen and I had originally planned on doing a behind the scenes tour of the Tabasco Factory setup by our good friend Ken Alexander, but we couldn’t get anyone else interested, so the plan fell apart. So we did the normal factory tour which was bland as the Tabasco mild green sauce. Speaking of which our tour guide gave us a mini bottle of the green sauce, the traditional Tabasco and the new Buffalo style. The tour guide was almost robotic and had no charisma whatsoever. Her eyes were glazed over like she wasn’t there. My guess would be she was thinking of other things, such as playing with her phone as soon as she ditched us to the film presentation. She was with us for a total of 5 minutes at the most, and told us where to go after the film was over. The film gave us some historical respective of the creation of Tabasco, but it was very dated just from the perspective that they talked about the Chipotle Tabasco as the “new” Tabasco, and that has been out for quite a while. After the film, we got to watch part of the conveyor belt operation which amounted to some labeling and bottles moving to and fro. It would’ve been nice to see the bottles being filled at the very least. Once we exited that area, the tour was over. We headed over to the Tabasco Country store and shopped a little and sampled some products. I tried the new Raspberry Chipotle, which was sweet, simple and nothing worth buying. Overall, I was very underwhelmed by the experience.

Next came the Jungle Gardens Tour. There was an app that Jen downloaded onto her phone so we could listen to a tour guide as we drove through. We saw no alligators or nutria as we were expecting to see. Lots of trees and shrubbery, some swampish conditions, but not much of anything to shout home about. We had some light rain, and that might’ve been a reason for the lack of life. There was a Buddha statue though.

Before we headed out of town we were to meet up with Dana once more at another one of favorite food stops at Cafe Des Amis. Dana had treated us for 2 meals and both Jen and I wanted to return the hospitality for this meal. He was more than a guide and host for our day spent in his neck of the woods and we so much appreciated it. My food while not the purdiest of colors was some of the best cuisine of the whole trip. Topping the meal I had the day before at Prejeans. Often when I go out to a new restaurant, I want to hear what the waitstaff recommends, and by the passion in which they describe it, I make my decision. Our waitress recommended the Yellowfin Tuna Rockefeller which was a tuna steak covered in crawfish etouffee on a bed of creamed spinach. Just not a fan of tuna steak as well as the creamed spinach. When in Rome do as the Romans do, so I surprised myself and went for it. That cream of spinach and etoufee was the best I ever had and made that tuna steak meal a 4 1/2 star dish. Every bite off the fork with all 3 components was more delicious than the next. The other picture is Jen’s dish, but I can not recall what it was, but I do believe she liked it as well, and my mind is blank on what Dana ordered.

Once we said our thanks and good byes to Dana, Jen and I made our way to Baton Rouge for our next leg of our journey. Dana recommended Mike Anderson’s restaurant, and CaJohn did as well, so that would be dinner for us later that evening. Dana would join us in New Orleans a couple of days later.

Once we got to Baton Rouge we traveled through the huge LSU campus on the way to find us a hotel. Purple and Gold was everywhere, and this made me feel at home with my Minnesota Vikings colors. Once we were all settled in we discussed our plan of action. We would head to dinner, then head for a night cap with music at The Chimes near the LSU Campus. It ended up being a bit of a disaster. Jen and I were trying to save money and at the same time be agreeable to each others choices. We spent way more than our comfort zone allowed, and it hit home when the bill came. The food was good, but it did not feel it was worth the price we paid for it. Then when we headed over to The Chimes for entertainment, there was none going on. So we decided to just turn in early and relax and get an early start for our sightseeing tour of the city.