Open Invitation to Anthony Bourdian

If you watch this guy’s show ya know how he always goes someplace, meets an old friend and they partake in the local history and then chow down. He goes on to tell this great story of the people and the food of this place.

So I’m thinking he should head south to Mobile and focus on Mardi Gras. Focus on how the regular folk celebrate Mardi Gras. Everyone knows about the old Mystic Societies that one must be born ( or married) into, not so many know about Crewes like the Mystic Fish.

Bourdian could come down and spend about 3 or 4 days with us. We could fill him in on a little Mardi Gras history. Tell him a little about the history of Mobile, like how Mobile was under the rule of 3 different countries in the 18th century. Tell him about how important Mardi Gras is and was to Mobile. Tell him about how Joe Cain was the guy that really revived Mardi Gras after the civil war tore the country apart. Mobile Mardi Gras is what it is today because of Joe Cain.

Then you could spend the other three and a half days showing him how it works, the food, the parties, the parades, the Mystic Fish Parade and the golf tournament. You could take him to a few float barns, if you knew someone who could get you in. You could show him the most beautiful floats, all sculpted from paper mache.

Then you could talk food. Do we want to roast a pig again, do we want to buy a sack of oysters and do some on the grill? How much shrimp will we need for the weekend, 25, 30 pounds? Some for the shrimp boil Saturday night, some for shrimp and grits Sunday morning. We need mudbugs, we need beer, we need gumbo. Five gallons, with shrimp please. Bloody Marys, Mimosa, whatever.

We could then show him how we have been celebrating Mardi Gras for the last 16 years. We could teach him to build a fish float on a bicycle. We could show him good spots to see the parade from. We could teach him about Joe Cain, stuff like that. Oh yea, then there’s the food. I bet he would like the food just fine. We could tell him about the G.D. Marching Society. One of the first renegade Mardi Gras organization in Mobile.

Anyway if anyone runs into Anthony, let him know there’s an open invite for he and his Crew down in beautiful downtown Mobile, Alabama, for Mardi Gras 2009.