Gas Station Shrimp Po' Boy

 Baton Rouge, LA

36 inches of fried shrimp and bread and a few pickles

Save More Market

Today I lived my dream of buying a 36 inch Po' Boy in Louisiana and eating half of it!  It only cost a few more dollars than eating all of a 16 inch Po' Boy.  

While I was doing my research on Reddit about Baton Rouge, I came across a post on Reddit giving someone advice on what to do with a handful of hours before and after an LSU game and the advice was fantastic.  I made a few notes but the note I mostly walked away with was that Save More Market on Nicholson has the best Shrimp Po' Boy in all of Baton Rouge.  I put it on the list of things to do.  I figured it was a Grocery Store that had a hot counter.  We ate some great burritos in San Francisco from a hot counter in a Grocery Store.  Well today I walked down the street and went to Save More!

It's a gas station!  Anthony Bourdain had a quote about gas station food I think and I think he liked it.  Good enough for me!

Po-Boys and Hot Wings!

There was also a meat counter selling all kinds of cuts of meat.

When I got to the counter and ordered my Po' Boy the lady said something so fast and with such a thick accent I didn't know what she was saying so I asked again and she said the same thing and I still didn't understand.  I tried to guess my way through what I would be asking so I answered the question I would ask, "The Large One Please".  She nodded and asked if I wanted everything on it and I said yes.  Great!  We are communicating!  I did it!  While I was waiting for my sandwich to be made I had time to actually look at the menu.  I usually know what I am getting and how much it is but Reddit already told me what I was getting and it was a gas station so how expensive could it be?  As I looked at the menu I realized that there is a normal one that is like 12 inches, another one that is 16 inches and the big one that is 36 inches!  Oh boy,  What have I done?  When it all sank in I had spent about 6 dollars more than I would have spent.  The whole thing was only $15.99 so no biggie, it will make a good story.  

They hand you your food through the window and then you wait in line with people buying beer, gas, slushies, and other things that one would buy at a gas station.  I paid and then folded it in half and put it in my insulated shopping bag.  I was also stopping by La Salvadorena for Donna's food.  We had it last week and it was awesome.

The big reveal to Donna was great.  It was a bit like Marry Poppins pulling her hat rack out of her travel bag.

I didn't get footage of this so here is the stand in

Here it is on our 12 inch cutting board.

I feel like if I had just ordered fried shrimp it would have cost twice as much but putting it in a bun and adding sauce and pickles dropped the price by half.  There were so many shrimp!  (there still are so many shrimp in the fridge and now I am afraid to eat it).

That's it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

Keeping Busy Without Really Going Out

 Baton Rouge, LA

Francis is too busy to open his eyes

The Call of the Couch

This week we are going through a cold snap and this Airbnb has a really nice couch and TV so sometimes it is hard to get out there and do stuff all of the time but we are keeping busy none the less.  Here are some of the things we are doing to keep busy when we aren't exploring the city we are staying in because sometimes you have to take a break.

Clear Ice

I watch quite a bit of YouTube and I often scroll through the suggested for you stuff.  The other day a video on how to make clear ice showed up so I watched it and it was fantastic so I tried it and it worked!

Cooking

We cook a lot. Donna has been taking the lead this past week and the food has been great!  She has been making a bunch of meals with local ingredients.  I help chop those ingredients sometimes.  Other times I watch YouTube and let her know it smells good.  

Here are the recipes we made this week.

https://acadianatable.com/2021/12/27/cajun-cabbage-casserole/

https://acadianatable.com/2019/06/10/potato-brussels-soup/

https://acadianatable.com/2022/01/31/red-bean-mustard-green-green-onion-sausage-soup/

I also made Pain De Epi last week and baguettes this week.  

The counters are gross here so I have to kneed on a cutting board which isn't optimal.

It still turned out though!

These are my favorite videos for these recipes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36CisvPJYXI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBBJYda-dyA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLfLetvF96E

Taking Photos of Silly Stuff

I also keep busy by constantly taking photos of things that get my attention while we are out.  Most end up here but some just have no context and don't really fit with the story I am telling.  Here are a few of those.

We took a special trip to the grocery store for really cheap yams.  

And picked up some more really really cheap Mirlitons.

I have heard Yellowstone is good.  

Some butcher got an idea.  Maybe it will catch on.

This syrup is reveling in he fact that it is artificially flavored.  Who would buy this?

Nintendo Switch

Yesterday I hooked up The Switch.  I figured we would have low energy days during the Thanksgiving weekend.  I started playing Hollow Knight and Animal Crossing again.  Animal Crossing bought back waves of Covid Quarantine Nostalgia if that is a thing.

We have 2 weeks left and the list of things we absolutely have to do is short.  I know there will be a ton of things to do in New Orleans so taking it easy isn't such a bad thing, it just gives me less to write about.

That's it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.  We had a fairly high energy day climbing to the top of Tiger Stadium.

The Golden Band From Tigerland

 Baton Rouge, LA

Geaux Tigers!

The Band and Team Procession to the Field

LSU has a tradition of only having night games at Tiger Stadium and having a celebrated procession about 2 hours before kickoff where the band marches and plays heading to the stadium and then the team follows up.  We are into the whole marching band thing so we braved the rain to go watch the procession.  We were told the game against UAB (The University of Alabama at Birmingham) wasn't a "Big" game so we figured between the rain and the less popular opponent the crowds would be light.  Nope!  People were packed in and partying!  The first band to go by was the Alumni Band.  An older teen was standing next to me and watched them go by and said something like, "That's it?"  Her parent explained that it was just the Alumni Band.  She responded with, "I don't even know what that means".  

The Alumni band makes its way to the field.

We had hoped for a cool marching band experience but we got a running band.  It was still cool.

$4 Tickets to the Game

During the week I was checking Stubhub for ticket prices.  On gameday I found 2 that were $4 each.  I asked Donna if she wanted to spend a few bucks to show up to the game late, watch the band, and then leave.  That sounded great to Donna so I pulled the trigger on the tickets.  After the procession we headed home to dry off and wait for the right time to head to Tiger Stadium.  I was watching updates on the game and we headed over around the start of the 2nd quarter.  It was going to be about a 15 minute walk.  We got to our seats with about 7 minutes left in the quarter.  We got to see an LSU touchdown which was a bonus.

We were up top and the stadium was much larger and much steeper than I had thought it would be.

The band played in the stands until it was time to head to the field for half-time.

I took the opportunity to take photos from the top of the stadium.

You can see the state capitol in the distance.

Touchdown!

The band sounded great and their marching was pretty tight.

The Alumni Band also got to get out on the field.

Tiger Stadium

Tiger stadium holds 102,000 people.  It's probably the 2nd largest stadium I have been to.  2nd to The Auto Club Speedway in Fontana which holds 120,000 people.  2 weeks ago LSU played a huge rival, The University of Alabama.  Alabama came into Baton Rouge the favorite and left having lost in a dramatic fashion.  The game had eight lead changes and went to overtime.  Alabama scored quickly in overtime and put LSU in a bad spot but LSU came through with a touchdown and decided to play for the 2 point conversion instead of locking up a tie.  It paid off with a dramatic victory that caused the crowd to rush the field resulting in a $250,000 fine from the SEC.  During the game the crowd was so "stompy" and noisy that they set off the seismograph at LSU.  Tonight's game was very different.  LSU did win but the crowd was much smaller and it wasn't as big of a deal.

It's really fun being so close to a university.  They are great places to walk around and they provide a lot of low cost opportunities for fun. 

That's it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

The Old State Capitol and a Would Be Louisiana Dictator

 Baton Rouge, LA

When I see a pulpit with a state seal behind it, I have to pose!

The Old Louisiana State Capitol Building

Yesterday we had intended on visiting the current capitol building and the Old Capitol Building which is now a museum focusing on Louisiana's History and the Democratic Process.  The current capitol building had some giant tour busses out front and a line to get in so we will go back another day.

The Old Louisiana State Capitol Building is located downtown.  When Louisiana became a state the capitol was in New Orleans.  The state constitution mandated that the capitol be moved out of New Orleans by 1849.  Baton Rouge was chosen and the building was built and dedicated on Dec 1 1849 but a week before the dedication a major fire broke out in Baton Rouge and the funds that were going to be used for the move were used to help in the fire recovery so the move was delayed.  In 1861 both New Orleans and Baton Rouge were occupied by the Union Army so the a building in  Opelousas and then in Shreveport.  All in all 13 buildings were used at the capitol building during Louisiana's history.  

By the 20s the old capitol building was showing its age and becoming too small so a new capitol building was erected.  I will talk about that more when we actually go inside.

We found another Merci Box Car.  I think that is now 3 of the 48 that exist.  If we had known about these earlier in our travels we could have seen quite a few more.

The dome is incredible and lights the center of the building in really cool ways.

They had photos of many of the past governors.  

There was a whole room dedicated to the importance of democracy including voting and protesting

In another room an important vote was happening

The actual flag of the confederacy that flew over the capitol.  That flag racists fly isn't even the real confederate flag.

It really feels like a Meow Wolf installment right here.

Did a pirate run Louisiana at some point?  No he was a French explorer and at one point, the governor of Louisiana from 1713 to 1716.  His name is  Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and he was a French explorer.  He also explored the Detroit are and a famous car brand adopted his last name.  He was The Cadillac of explorers.

The museum spent a lot of time talking about Huey Long.  I could write a whole post on him.  He was a Louisiana Politician that didn't play by the rules and used his position to gain wealth and notoriety (sound familiar?).  He did a lot of great things for Louisiana in not great ways.  When we got home we watched a Ken Burns documentary on him.  It was really fascinating.  

He was assassinated in the new state capitol building, a building he had built.

I love going to a new place and learning about its history.  Today was a great example of this.  We ended up learning about important events that took place in Louisiana and had a big impact on the rest of the country.  

That's it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.