Jerry, your posts were harmless. You were INTENTIONALLY bated. Just ingore those rude comments like we all have to.

It is a small world!! I want to start planning a trip for next year! Will let you know! Hopefully, Toto's animal socialization skills will have improved by then! :)

:eek: Thanks for sharing the pictures, you got unbelievable detail in them!! I would have been mortified just being out there in a boat ... can't imagine the terror of seeing that water rise! Hope Ed's Mom will be OK! It's hard when they are older to adapt to change ... at least that's the way my Mom is!

Something I have been wondering about ... there is a really, really long bridge east of Lake Charles that crosses miles of swamp [can't think of the name of it]. There are people who live out there in that swamp in little shanties. I wonder what they did during all the flooding?? I didn't believe Patrick when he told me that people lived out there, then we went on a boat tour & we saw them!!! It was just amazing!!

On I-55 going north from I-10 to Hammond over/around Lake Maurepas is where you're probably talking about.

There is an awesome restaurant out there in the middle on nowhere called Middendorf's. They serve the best shaved catfish and it is their trademark item. I was told they had no damage at all! Now for the other places around there, I'm sure they weren't has high as Middendorf's and haven't really seen anything about them.

I have a photographer friend on another forum that I know personally. She went into New Orleans this week -- 9th Ward, French Quarter, CBD, 17th Street Canal area, West End and Lakeview. OMG -- the images were devastating. You wouldn't believe what the damage looks like from the ground now that the water has receeded! If she posts her images in a slideshow, I'll share them with you. For now, she only has them posted in the private forum.

Lisa

Patrick said it is the Atchafalaya Basin on I-10 .... he remembers everything!! :rolleyes:

The restaurant sounds great .... hopefully we will get to try it next year!

Would love to see the pictures. As awful as everything looks on TV, I can't imagine how it must look in stills. Thanks!! When Patrick worked with ESPN he got to see detail like that! ;)

I'm scratching my head on that one. The next best restaurant I can think of between Baton Rouge and the city would be Mulate's in Breaux Bridge. Maybe there is another restaurant I should be going out looking for!!!

yummmmmm

Thanks for posting some more excellent photos. It's so heartbreaking.

Did anyone at all happen to have CNN on tonight when Paula Zahn was on? They had a couple on that had gone to their second floor with their little yorkie named Magnolia Blossom and they video taped the water coming into their home. It washed out all of the walls on the first floor and left nothing but the studs. They had three life vests in their attic, got those and put two on the wife and one on the husband. The husband said he had a bag around his neck and they were going to put the yorkie in it if they had to jump into the water. The husband ripped a venetian blind down and cut the cord to use to tie them together. They said just when they were preparing to have to jump that the water started going down. When they were talking about Magnolia Blossom, they said she was just like their child and they had tears in their eyes recalling the fear that they would die as well as Magnolia Blossom. The wife had told the husband if he started to go under in the water then to get Magnolia Blossom out of the bag and let her loose in the water. The husband, with tears in his eyes, said no, he couldn't do that. Thankfully, they never faced that terrible decision.

I was sitting here with tears in my eyes. It was so sad. They did show the video the husband took. I can only imagine the fear of certain death that they were feeling.

This is just one sad story multiplied by thousands. I don't know how people keep from losing their minds. :(

I had a customer come in yesterday to pick up football images of her son from last year (his senior year). She is a social worker and you wouldn't believe the stories she told me! Their workloads have increased no less than 10 fold. They are getting ready to begin working to help the children that have not been reunited with their families locate them or find out their fate.

Just as she had many positive stories of people being so grateful for being alive and being taken care of, she had stories of people being ungrateful. There is such a wide spectrum of emotions expressed by those who are still sheltered locally.

In addition, her husband is an Entergy worker and she hasn't seen him since the storm. He was working in New Orleans getting electricity reconnected and now has been sent to southwest Louisiana to work on the devastation of Rita.

My heart really went out to this woman. I don't think I could do her job!

Lisa

Now just how would one shave a catfish? :p

LOL! ! Good question ! :D :D

Very carefully!!!!! :p Are you ladies from the South?!? ;)

Sorry!!! Couldn't resist the laugh .... can just see the fish saying "No, no!!" :eek: Seriously, found this about the restaurant Lisa was talking about earlier and just copied the part of the article dealing with the catfish. Sounds wonderful!! We will definitely go there!! Thanks again, Lisa!! ;)



The art of fried catfish perfected at Middendorf's
By S.M. Hahn
Restaurant critic/The Times Picayune
December 10, 1999

Middendorf's has been frying catfish for 65 years. That's a very long time - long before some folks openly admitted to eating the whiskered bottom-feeder.

Of course there have been a few changes over the years. The catfish are no longer caught right outside the front door in Lake Maurepas; they are mostly farm-raised. Meanwhile, ownership of the restaurant has passed through several generations of the Middendorf family. Granddaughter Susie and her husband, Joe Lamonte, have been running things since the late '70s, shortly after the second building was erected to handle overflow weekend crowds.

The essentials, however, haven't changed. The original candy-striped restaurant still stands alongside the lake in Manchac. And hordes of people still drive the hour from New Orleans or Baton Rouge for a bite of the legendary fried catfish. The moment you crunch into these golden wafers, you will understand why Middendorf's has endured for so long on a little spit of land that's truly in the middle of nowhere.

Just how they do it is a secret, but the fish has been shaved impossibly razor thin before being coated with cornmeal and then fried. The result resembles a potato chip, if a potato chip could have layers. Not a spot of grease nor an excess grain of salt nor strange tendril of herb distracts your attention from these ethereal crisps. Because of that restraint, you can do whatever you'd like to them, such as pour on the Tabasco or Heinz, or both. Is there a fried food that doesn't taste better this way?

Great description of the shaved catfish in that article. Thanks Bettyanne for posting it!

Talk about fast service at Middendorf's! Most people order the shaved catfish so they are able to serve it up hot and quick.

Lisa

Originally from South Carolina, and I LOVE catfish!! :tongue:

Just never heard of it shaved. ;)

I had this image of someone trying to hold down a slippery fish while someone else tried to shave off the whiskers! LOL

Sherry Lynn...you are on a roll - !

Now I'm wanting Catfish - shaved or not - I'm starving and that sounded so good

Sounds good to me, too!! But where am I gonna find it in JERSEY!!!! Hard to get 'menter (pimento) cheese spread, good BBQ, and fried food around here!

I can order my favorite mayo (Dukes - Ymmmm) on line now, but I used to have my family bring it up to me or pick it up down there when I visited.

Funny what you crave...