(Fishy) Friday Facts: Louisiana Commercial Fisheries.

I was going to discuss the oil industry in Louisiana, but I figured, hey, this is a food blog—let’s talk about something we can actually EAT!  And when I think Louisiana, I think SEAFOOD.  Beautiful, fresh, delicious seafood.

Crawfish, oysters, shrimp, crabs, alligator, freshwater fish, saltwater fish… Louisiana is known officially as “The Sportsman’s Paradise” with a wide array of recreational hunting & fishing opportunities (I like to think the motto of the average Cajun is “you kill it, I’ll cook it”), but it’s also home to a LOT of commercial fisheries.  So here’s an assortment of facts about commercial fishing in Louisiana:

• One out of every 70 jobs in Louisiana can be attributed either directly or indirectly to commercial fisheries. The Gulf of Mexico produces more shrimp and oysters than any other area in the US; in 2010, Louisiana shrimpers harvested for 74.1 million pounds of  shrimp, second only to Texas and their much longer coast. 
  
• Earnings from commercial fisheries amount to approximately $385 million.
  
• In Louisiana, there are approximately 350 permitted and inspected wholesale seafood processors/distributors.
  
• Commercial catches in the Gulf represent approximately 25% of the total U.S. domestic commercial fishing revenue.
  
• The Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries (LDWF) manages approximately 1.7 million acres of public state water bottoms for the purposes of oyster fishing and issues private leases for harvesting oysters; in 2006, private leases accounted for 392,118 acres of water bottoms with over eight thousand active leases.

(Taken while working.  We were doing an oyster assessment to evaluate quantity & size of oysters per square meter…usually we have to dive in order to do this---thus the wet suit—but my coworker got really lucky this day.)

• Louisiana is one of the national leaders in oyster production, averaging over 12.8 million pounds of oyster harvests, worth approximately $35-50 million in annual revenue.
  
• In 2010, nearly 110.9 million pounds of crawfish were raised, with a total value of more than $168.5 million. 

(…it takes a lot of time (and beer) to train your crawfish to conga…)

• Blue claw crab production runs on an average of 50 million pounds annually, along with about 100,000 pounds of soft shell crabs. (Mmmm, BBQ soft shells…)
  
• As if having an estimated 1.5 million wild alligators roaming the bayous wasn’t enough, approximately 500,000 of the giant reptiles are raised on alligator farms each year.  Louisiana alligator hunters harvest over 30,000 wild alligators annually and farmers harvest over 280,000 farm-raised alligators annually. Raw meat and hide values are estimated at over $10 million for the wild harvest and over $33 million for the farm harvest in 2005.

(Taken while working in Louisiana…I think I should have gotten hazard pay.)

• Common sport fish in Louisiana offshore waters include blackfin tuna, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, red snapper, mangrove, cobia (also called lemonfish or ling), blue marlin, mahi mahi, amberjack, and shark.

LING! (Caught by my former boss for the 2007 Tibby Faulk Tournament…definitely not by me.)

• While fishing in Louisiana, you may be privy to absolutely beautiful scenery.

Friday Facts & Maps: Rice & Potatoes.

Growing up in the Midwest, I ate a lot of potatoes.  I love potatoes with a big fat potatoey passion.  Any time one of those questions comes up of “if you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?” my answer is potatoes, because they can be made so many different ways, and they taste SO FREAKIN GOOD in every way that they’re served.  Roasted, mashed, smashed, fried, french fried, home fried, pancaked, hash browned…dear sweet baby Jesus, I love you and potatoes.  And my husband, but that’s beside the point.

And then I moved to Louisiana, where the potato is NOT the staple starchy side dish of choice.  In Louisiana, everything comes with rice.  Jambalaya, etouffee, red beans & rice, white beans & rice, gumbo, rice & gravy… and it was all tasty, but just kept me wondering…where are the potatoes???

Sure, sweet potatoes are plentiful in many forms down south, and since I also have quite the sweet tooth, they make for a decent substitute (I mean, it’s hard to pass up a good crispy batch of sweet potato fries sprinkled with cinnamon):

…but as someone who grew up surrounded by potatoes & essentially NO exposure to rice (my mom occasionally made sweet rice with cinnamon, sugar, and milk, but I wasn’t a fan), it left me wanting, and wondering…

…why no potatoes?

Of course, with modern commerce, potatoes are available at every grocery store in Louisiana, and they’re not priced that much higher than they would be in Missouri or anywhere else.  But these people of Louisiana seem to just PREFER rice.  It blew my mind.  So I, being the nerd that I am, did some investigating, and it’s just all about the weather.

“Irish” potatoes just don’t LIKE Louisiana.  They don’t grow well there, because of the soils and the early warm weather.  Most seed producers release potato seeds for general purchase in February or March—but by that time, average temps in Louisiana are already in the 60-70’s (F).  Irish potatoes need cool weather to grow—you know, places that are a little more like IRELAND.

  

Ireland……….…………………………….            vs. Louisana…………………

However, rice does VERY well in Louisiana.  Louisiana is the U.S.’s third largest commercial producer of rice, in fact, bringing in over $300 million in income to the state annually.  Rice cultivation began in Louisiana back in the 1700’s, although mass production on a commercial level didn’t take off until about 1900.  Rice first arrived in the States in the Carolinas; the Acadian settlers brought rice from the Carolinas with them during their relocation to Louisiana.  Louisiana rice was originally grown for home consumption by utilizing areas that couldn’t be plowed; farmers tossed rice seed into the wetlands near bayous or ponds. What grew from this casual method was termed “providence rice” by its thankful harvesters.

Today, the majority of commercially grown rice comes from the Southwestern portion of the state, and the town of Crowley, Louisiana (just west of Lafayette on I-10) holds the nickname of “Rice Capital of America”, as it was one time a major center of rice harvesting and milling for the area.  Crowley is also home to the annual International Rice Festival (GOOD food at this festival).

It’s also the rice fields that allow for cultivation of another one of Louisiana’s bumper crops: CRAWFISH.  The rice fields produce rice between March & July… farmers “seed” crawfish into the rice fields in June, harvest the rice in July/August, then reflood the field to use as a crawfish pond, harvesting the crawfish from November through July of the next year. Also, the fields hold water over the winter months, providing a quick resting spot/snack for migratory birds, along with supporting other wetland-dependent species.

And as much as I hate to admit it---rice is much better for you than potatoes.   It’s an enriched grain with loads of thiamine, niacin, & iron, it’s cholesterol- and sodium-free and has no trans or saturated fat. Rice is also gluten-free and is the least allergenic of all grains.

All that being said:  I still love me some potatoes.

Friday Facts & Maps: Tchoupitoulas Street.

I figure it's good to stimulate the brain on a slightly random & nerdy level on Fridays, since I know I have a hard enough time focusing on work, when I'd rather be pondering forward in my psyche on the things that will be occurring during the coming weekend. For example--I have a spa treatment and my husband's business fraternity reunion this weekend (as well as posting this week's Cajun recipe, which will, just FYI, include a BONUS recipe of what to do with leftovers, assuming you have any.)

So, why not throw a little education into your Friday? And if that education just HAPPENS to be about Louisiana, then hey, I've done my job. I personally enjoy learning something new every day, so I hope this contributes to your knowledge base. (For my readers that actually live in Louisiana, I guess I'll have to try to dig extra deep for my pearls of wisdom.) ;)

So anyway--Tchoupitoulas Street, in New Orleans. It's one of the longest streets in the city, following the river along the east-then-south side of the city between Canal Street and East Road, where it dead ends at Audubon Park. In the portions of the Uptown area it acts as the river road, located just inside the levee. When I lived in New Orleans, we lived Uptown just a few blocks north of Tchoupitoulas, but pretty well the only time we went down to Tchoupitoulas was to go to the Super Wal-Mart (fun fact--people in New Orleans are kind of antiWal-Mart--so demonstrated by the fact that there are only TWO on the East Bank of the city, the one on Tchoupitoulas being the only one in the actual city of New Orleans. I currently live in a city of 200,000 people & we have 5 Wal-Marts within city limits.), or to go to Clancy's Restaurant to pick up one of their famous key lime icebox pies.

Like so many street and city names in Louisiana, Tchoupitoulas is infamous for being misspelled and mispronounced, but the the proper pronunciation is "chop-uh-tool-us". My favorite story about the street comes from a book called "Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children, and Other Streets of New Orleans" by John Chase:

One morning a police officer found a dead horse lying in the street at the corner of Common and Tchoupitoulas streets. He took out his notebook to record the incident. After several futile efforts to spell Tchoupitoulas, he grabbed the horse by the tail and pulled it a block down the street. "Dead horse at the corner of Common and Magazine," he wrote.

For your reference, here is the intersection from the anecdote:


Note: to keep this at least somewhat food related, I've left the map zoomed out a bit to show some of the famous restaurants in the area (thus the "Maps" part of the "Facts & Map". Feel free to use these if you have travel planned to the area.)

Palace Cafe: The first time I visited this restaurant, the special of the day was a panneed rabbit stuffed with proscuitto and gruyere cheese. If you visit here & they're serving it as the chef's special, GET IT. You will not be disappointed. If they don't have it, I highly recommend the Catfish Pecan.
Restaurant August: One of Chef John Besh's restaurants, it's situated in a gorgeous 1800's creole building. The menus run a bit high dollar for my budget, but they get rave reviews, so I doubt there's a bad meal to be had if you're in the mood to splurge.
Mothers: This was one of the first restaurants I visited when I moved to New Orleans. We got there and the line was out the door and down the block, and I was terrified that we were going to be waiting forever and a day. But, the line moved rather quickly--because, as I learned inside, the order line was set up cafeteria style. Use your time in the line to decide what you want, because the staff is ready as soon as you get up to the counter. I personally love the deliciously messy Debris Po-boy, though they're famous for their baked ham.