Living in New Orleans, it can be easy to forget you’re not really in that big of a city after all.  There’s an entire world, just a few miles away, that most people in New Orleans would never dream of venturing .

Unfortunately, St. Bernard Parish gets a bad rap.Aimee is a Chalmette native, so I’m down there on a regular basis.  It isn’t necessarily St. Charles Ave, but there is a certain charm about Chalmette. There’s lots of open land, diverse wildlife, and the mighty Mississippi.  And, while the air may not be the freshest around, it does have one thing Magazine Street doesn’t have.  Fresh Alligator.

Aimee’s brother-in-law, Chris, was driving back home down the road last weekend. Chris and Aimee’s Sister Ashley live so far down the road that their house isn’t even in St. Bernard Parish anymore.

It was late, the road was dark, and a ten foot alligator decided to make his way across the road. Unfortunately for him (and for Chris’s truck) alligators aren’t as fast on country roads as they are in the water. Fortunately for all of us (the alligator included) Chris has a great fried gator recipe.

I won’t go into the gory details, but suffice to say he took that bad boy home and sliced him up.  And that, my friends, is how I came to possess two very large alligator tail steaks.

I’m not exactly sure what it is about this story that makes me appreciate southern Louisiana so much.  I don’t love it because of the ignorant racists, I don’t love it because of the urban crime, nor the corrupt politicians.  I love it for the family, the food, the music and the culture.

This might sound crazy to all you fancy uptowners, but I couldn’t be more excited about grilling up some road kill this weekend.

Tags: aimee, alligator, beer, chalmette, new orleans, road kill

posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 10:58 pm under general.
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