On the Road to SFA, we stopped along the Houston to Oxford trail for bites of Cajun kolaches, hot-out-the-fryer cracklins, crawfish boudin, the best of NoLa-Sicilian and whatever else our bellies could hold. You can follow our foodsteps in a 9-part road diary series on Serious Eats, beginning today with sausage-stuffed kolaches at Rao’s Bakery in Beaumont.
Indulging in the ideas and eats of Southern foodways with my dad was a really special experience for me. He’s been inadvertently teaching me about food my entire life, coaching me in the kitchen and expounding on complex issues of cuisine and culture long before I was smart enough to understand what the hell he was yammering about. Cheesy as it may sound, we bonded more in these few days than we have in years, silently savoring mouthfuls of sweet and spicy memories.
-Katie Walsh
There’s an off-the-beaten-track town in northeastern Louisiana called Sicily Island that I’ve never been to but have long been fascinated by, just because of the name and imagined history. Settled by Sicilian immigrants over 100 years ago, famous for pasta and goat cheese and harsh red local wine and little stucco houses around a central plaza… well, maybe not, but that’s how I imagine it.