Girls Gotta Eat, Y'all

So the Saturday night after Christmas my two travel girls and I were chit-chatting about the rest of our Christmas breaks.  One shared she wanted (or had) hit the casino and the other wanted some crawfish nachos from a previous trip to NOLA - New Orleans.  Well, since we had some free time we ended up meeting on New Years Eve and heading out on a fun day trip to Lafayette and Coushatta Casino in Louisiana.  

The first stop was Prejean's, a Cajun restaurant in Lafayette (yeah, look it up on Maps, we drove 4 hours for food but girls gotta eat, you know).   Prejean's (pronounced preh-shaun, like the fancy French would say with that whole fancy jjjjjj sound.)

It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be just hanging off a highway.  The inside of the place had a LOT of character and really hit home with a lot of the authentic cajun/Louisiana hot spots I've traveled to.

My favorite decor was the 12 foot gator with the Santa hat.  Somehow, though, we offered to be seated anywhere and we ended up back in the bar.  Not a huge problem but was tricky to get a good open shot of the restaurant, although if you've stumbled upon my blog to find out about Prejean's perhaps the mystery will fuel your curiosity to try it out!

Now, if you are one to click on the picture and explore the menu, I apologize for any drool that may hit your shirt and any humiliation that may ensue if in a public place.  This menu is LEGIT and thankfully after ordering you get some pretty tasty bread to hold you over while your stomach groans in anticipation.  If you're going for the Southern experience I definitely recommend ordering a glass of sweet tea like I did.

Then BAM!  Crawfish Nachos... Tasty, cheesy, meaty pieces of heaven.  Please note that I rank nachos in my top 3 best foods of all time.  So that being said the nachos were amazing!  The dark chunks you see in Texas would be beef pieces but here they are jalapeños which really add a great kick without having to consume big amounts of water or sweet tea.

Because we're girls we like to share food so we actually ordered a few things and just had a feast.  This big looking thing coming near you is a crawfish enchilada which was equally cheesy and amazing.  We didn't even need those hush puppies peeking through in the back but want to give a shout out on the freebies we got from our awesome waiter.  Overall, I have a new place to stop each time I pass by Lafayette!  I'm not sure I'll have the will power to try anything else but would love to keep exploring the menu.

*Just a small note...  I have been eating a clean diet for the past few weeks so about an hour or two of eating the nachos I did have a bit of a stomach ache but it did pass fairly quickly.  I mean, it's Mexican-Cajun food so if you've been eating like a rabbit just be careful with consuming large amounts of delicious, greasy food.  

Coushatta Casino 

Just a fun update of Coushatta for this last trip in case anyone needs to know...  New Years Eve wasn't a horrible time to go but it was a bit too busy and the tables were fairly full.  I was really disappointed in the dealers and pit boss who wouldn't allow us to sit down and play our favorite card game.  We've played our game often in Louisiana and what feels like weeks in Vegas and never has the service been so bad.  I mean we know the rules of letting new people come to the table and doubling down your bets.  I'm hoping it was just a bad dealer... "Girls, are you looking for black jack?"  "Ummm no."  I don't want to get into it but suffice it to say...boo on them.  Having vented that little mess, I must say the reward program at Coushatta is completely worth the effort of giving them your email address and standing in line for a bit.  Lots of freebies (even gas at the connected station) and easy to rack up points.

Funny story though: I only brought a light amount of money to play with.  When I gamble just for fun on limited funds I change some of my $20 bills to $5 and play slots I like the names of.  Because we had just booked our cruise to the Bahamas I saw a fun game called the Caribbean...sat down and ended up turning my $5 to $40.  Not bad, huh? I didn't do too good on anything else but that made me smile.

So.....I ended up being somewhere in between the casino and Houston when the 2016 year started with my two best girlfriends and I have to say it was a super fun feeling to know I've found two like-minded travel friends to explore the world with.  It's been quite a change since Where is Brandy? started, when I was just blogging so my parents and friends could keep tabs on me for safety.  What a great world we live in, you know...  Here's to a happy 2016 to everyone and safe travels til next time!