Second Street Deli
Address: 123 E. Ivinson Ave, Laramie, WY 82070
Website: https://2ndstreetdeli.com/
Country Represented: Cajun French & France
Specials:
Gumbo
Po’Boy with Shrimp and Roumalade Sauce
Lace Cookies
Ingrid Trahan,
Laramie Resident, Retired, Home Country: Germany
I have two heritages: my dad is Louisiana Cajun French and my mother is German. The dish that I remember my grandmother making is chicken gumbo. Not like the cans that you get in the grocery store but authentic gumbo with the sausage that a gentleman in Lake Arthur used to make.
Each region in Louisiana has their own take on gumbo. My family originates from the South near the Gulf, and there you always, always always start with the rue- a nice dark rue.
A good gumbo has to be made with an old hen, the grocery store chickens just don't have the flavor. It needs to be an old stewing hen- I think that is the biggest key to a good gumbo. But you can't find them hardly at all anymore. Even in Denver it was hard.
Friars don't hold up. You do cook your gumbo quite awhile and fryers fall apart. I remember my grandma going out to the chicken coop. And getting the oldest hen that she's got. You do notice a difference in flavor also. Then the next thing you do is you start with the Trinity, which is green pepper, onion and celery. You cook those until they're translucent add them to the gumbo,and then your chicken. Also, I use andouille sausage, I fry them a little bit and then add to it, and that's all that we used to put in our gumbo, However, a lot of people put a lot of other things in there, which is from a different region than I'm from.
I'll tell you the best sausage that we ever had, and it's unavailable now, which is a sad thing- but there's a gentleman, Mr. Broussard. He used to have a little mom and pop grocery store in Lake Arthur. And he'd make his own sausage. Oh my goodness, that was the best. Every time my mom and dad would go down and visit Louisiana, they bring back a whole suitcase full for us all. But unfortunately, he passed and didn't give anybody the recipe. My grandma used to serve this with homemade French fries. The gumbo, of course, was served over rice.
Brings back an awful lot of memories- the first solid food my first son ate was gumbo.
My mother would make a beautiful sauerbratten with red cabbage and knodel. I can still smell the red cabbage cooking- it's a very good memory for me. Americans have a wrong idea of sauerkraut. They seem to just open upthe can and heat that up. You wouldn’t drink a Thanksgiving turkey’s brine, same with sauerkraut. In reality, you wash the sauerkraut then you drain it, then you cook it with a little brown sugar or apple, and juniper berries. It is also delicious with veal bratwurst and German potato salad- made with oil, not mayonnaise!
My favorite dessert is Clafoutis, a French cherry cake- especially delicious when eaten outside in Laramie on a summer day with neighbors!