Staying in Lafayette, LA for a couple months, the official ‘seat’ of Cajun country. The food here is bananas good, but when you go to the smaller towns within an hour or two it really gets interesting. Recently went to Ville Platte, some 45 mins to the north. Stopped at Teet’s Market (since 1955) and bought some heavily spiced chunks of (heavily smoked) pigs tail. Spicy, smokey, porky, fatty, gelatinous. Stunning!
I think that the tail is my new favorite part of the pig.
And if that’s not enough, at the same place, I bought a Ponce, which is a pig’s stomach stuffed with smoked sausage, bacon, onions, celery, green peppers, green onions, parsley, garlic, cream cheese and Jalapeños, stitched up tightly with string and then heavily smoked. Prepare Cajun gravy (essentially gumbo base) then simmer the Ponce in the gravy (giving the gravy a great smoke aspect) until IT of 160. Slice and serve with gravy and rice:
What are the chances that any American whose name isn’t Boudreaux or Thibodeaux knows what a Ponce is, or the glory of its riches?
Cousin of haggis for sure, but they’d never, ever use the term ponce, since, in the UK, the word ponce refers to a pimp, or to someone overly effeminate and preening, flashy and showy. It’s a fairly derogatory term.
What gets me is that the Cajuns actually have two words for this delicacy. Some say ‘Ponce’ and some say ‘chaudin’ pronounced ‘shaw-DAN’. Not sure why/when to use one term vs the other.
John Edge;
“Fueled by sweat and charcoal, wood becomes fire and flesh becomes food. Through an alchemy of smoke and genius unique to this land and this family, Thomas turns pork ribs and pigtails into lollipops of sweet meat and sweeter fat. The menu is an encyclopedia of Alabama barbecue. Pork shoulder, pulled for sandwiches. Ribs, shellacked with sauce. And pigtails, the defining dish of the Black Belt. Squint through the smoke rolling out back, and you’ll understand how cooking can bridge the gap between cooking and art."
