Thursday, May 2, 2013

Beignets

I was feeling somewhat nostalgic the other night and began the tedious process of cycling through pictures of the glorious few months where Maine has temperatures that are labelled "warm." During this cycle, I stumbled upon ones taken at this years Folk Festival, you know, the one on the waterfront. If you haven't been, change that this year. It's a great thing. Music, dancing, people, and, yes, food. 

One of the great things is that, with the food, there's a wonderfully gargantuan variety. You have the barbecue, the brick-over pizza, the typical American stuff. But then you get to branch out into other things, like Greek, Korean, and Cajun. And that's where the fun is.

The Cajun food tent/structure/kiosk serves traditional Cajun food. If you've been to Louisiana, you've probably had it. There's the chicken and rice pilaf and gator, and, one of my favorites, the beignets, pronounced, as far as I can tell, "bin-yays," as in "Yay, I finally get beignets!"

A beignet is kind of a fancy dough-boy, I guess. I've never had a dough-boy, so I'm going off what friends have said. Anyway, this delightful cardiac arrest on a plate is a light, puffy pastry thing that's been deep-fried and covered in powdered sugar. That's it. Simplistically jubilant, and joyously messy.  

Everyone should try them, at least once. Even if it's just a bite. Do it. Try the beignet.

Photo by Jamo Frakes
These weren't beignets, but tacos from the Tic Tac Taco stand, along with tea from Specialtea. Oh, and a Lemon Sting hiding in there somewhere.