JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – We may be in Jacksonville, but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate Mardi Gras.
Monday marks Lundi Gras, a day of celebration before Fat Tuesday.
Even though there aren’t parades here locally, The Morning Show was able to bring some of the culture to Monday’s show. We were able take a look into the history, traditions, and food surrounding the holiday--as well as taste testing it.
As someone who spent nearly a decade in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I was excited to come across an authentic Creole and Cajun-style food truck in Jacksonville.
Jeff Lavender is a native of Louisiana and went to the same college as me, Southern University A&M. He helped take me back to my Louisiana roots and cooked up some of the popular dishes from Louisiana while giving us a history lesson.
His food truck The Gumbo Man has a wide range of menu options from pork chops to shrimp po’boys. However, he showed his seafood options.
First on the menu was his shrimp and crawfish etouffee, which is one of Louisiana’s most popular dishes, especially during the season of Lent when many Christians give up meat on Fridays.
“Well, Mardi Gras is Fat Tuesday, and Fat Tuesday is basically you’re fasting, you’re eating all of your fats on that Tuesday,” Lavender said. “During that time you are abstaining from meat. You are fasting up to Easter. So we eat things like this, crawfish tails and shrimp.”
Next up was the shrimp and catfish po’boy, another Louisiana staple.
“The po’boy started in New Orleans. The guys who worked on the street cars went on a strike, the union strike. It was back in 1927 or something like that,” Lavender said. “The Martin Brothers had a restaurant and they would see guys out there on strike. Back then people would say ‘Look at that poor boy out there’. Basically, over the years, the way Louisiana talks, it just translated to people saying ‘Po’boy.‘”
If you would like to check out Lavender’s food truck, click here for his Facebook page.
