Acadiana’s biggest boudin celebration, the 9th Annual Boudin Cook-off, returns Oct. 22 to Downtown Lafayette to offer boudin samples from across the state along with a boudin eating contest and a people’s choice award for the best boudin.
The festival will also offer plenty of family-friendly events including free fun jumps, face painting and contests with prizes.
“We’re just trying to focus on what we do, and we’ve done well; it’s been a really successful event,” says Bob Carriker, the Boudin Cook-off’s founder. “We’ve accomplished precisely what we’ve always wanted it to accomplish. So, we’re trying to stick with what people want and what we need to be dealing with the event, which is celebrating boudin and our unique culinary culture here.”
The Boudin Cook-off benefits the Historic Preservation Alliance of Lafayette and has quickly become a welcomed favorite among the many festivals held each year at Parc Sans Souci. The cook-off will also feature live music from the The Specklers, The Babineaux Sisters and Zydeco Radio.
In addition to the traditional boudin links from various vendors, the cook-off features several unique boudin dishes made with a more creative flair.
“One of the things that we also encourage is creativity in how boudin is used as a main ingredient in some other menu items,” says Carriker. “So, we’ve had a lot of success with what we call the Unlinked Category, and that is taking boudin outside of the casing and doing something else with it.”
Some of those dishes include boudin burgers, bacon-wrapped boudin, boudin-stuffed cornish game hens and boudin egg rolls to name just a few. There has even been boudin pupusas, which is a traditional dish from El Salvador made with a cornmeal cake that is griddled and then stuffed with cheese and boudin.
The 9th Annual Boudin Cook-off will be held on Oct. 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Parc Sans Souci in Downtown Lafayette. The event is free, though tickets must be purchased for each boudin sample. For more information visit www.BoudinCookoff.com.