Showing posts with label norwegian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label norwegian. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Vegetarianism, Vegans and Trojans at Lunde’s


Vegans build their pyramids on water. They are not good swimmers. 

Unbeknownst to us, effective July 5, the Bama Bistro decided to close on Mondays. So when the LITG gang (Tojo Yamamoto, Big Easy Slim, Show Dog, Chase N. Allpots, Bama Bing, Cornbread Carp, Shadow Pup, BB MAK and Fat Clemenza) showed up at Bama Bistro hungry but locked out, the consensus was to shift the meeting to nearby Lunde’s (pronounced “Loond’s” because it is owned by Norwegian Cajuns) in the Bell Building. Once again, Bama Bistro forced us into a very fine corner table at trusty Lunde’s where one of the best lunches in the Gump can be had for two bucks under the Tojo line.

It is somewhat old news that everything at Lunde’s is good and reasonably priced. The red beans and rice, shrimp etouffe, chicken salad po’boy and blackened pork loins were devoured by the group with a slice of freshly baked “lemonade cake” for dessert. Me-oh, my-oh. However, today the real treat was catching up with the news and banter of the diverse LITG crew, which started something like this:

BB MAK: Wow, look across the street at the two MPD Segway scooters parked on the sidewalk in front of Flames Grille. Has Flames started giving away doughnuts?

Show Dog: Maybe Flames serves Krispy Kreme doughnuts now.

Tojo: Good doughnut never too crispy. Good doughnut yield to bite like Superfly Jimmy Snuka yield to Stomach Claw.

Allpots: Can vegetarians eat doughnuts? I was in Asheville at the Biltmore House this weekend and upon leaving Sunday went downtown and breakfasted at the “Happy Greens” on Wall Street. Everything had a “V” by it except the omelets and mine came with a biscuit and some type of fake non-meat sausage I cannot name. But I was wondering if vegetarians can eat things like doughnuts.

Bama Bing: I ate at a very fine vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco one time. The food was real good but I would bet you there was some bacon fat involved in the process somewhere. I like any recipe that starts with “melt 1 ½ sticks of butter.” [At which time Karen Lunde presented Cornbread Carp and Fat Clemenza with two warm pats of Land-o-Lakes for their delicious cornbread].

BB MAK: Vegans can’t eat any animal byproducts but some vegetarians can eat eggs, cheese and butter.

Tojo: Tojo vegetarian. Tojo not eat meat—just pork.

Shadow Pup: Pork is the other white meat.

Tojo: What is first white meat?

Shadow Pup: Chicken. You must have taken too many blows to the head.

Tojo: Tojo vegetarian—just eat pork and chicken.

Bama Bing: Yeah and I’m a male Lesbian….. [Awkward pause].

Shadow Pup: Not that there is anything wrong with that….

Show Dog: I’ve never understood the various types of vegetarian labels. There are strict vegetarians and then there are some that eat fish and, err… pork and chicken. What are they called?

Fat Clemenza: Episcopalian vegetarians. By the way, I’ve never understood why vegetarian restaurants serve dishes that mimic meat dishes.

Bama Bing: Yeah. If their food tastes so damn good why do they have to pretend like it’s my food… tofu “burgers,” mushroom “sausage”…. eecch. Next time I see a vegetarian I’m going to hog-tie him and force-feed his hippie ass some Conecuh sausage. That’ll cure him.

Cornbread Carp: I just wish that one time when I go to eat at the home of a vegetarian they will return the favor of me serving them a dish served without touching meat by serving me a meat dish served on a plate that never touched bean sprouts. That’ll never happen.

Shadow Pup: Have you ever noticed that strict vegetarians have an odor about them. What’s up with that?

Show Dog: There was a guy I knew growing up in Troy that thought male vegetarians were either communists or carnivores trying to lay girl vegetarians and then eating Big Macs on the way home.

Bama Bing: I knew that guy. His name was Robert [censored]. He was a character. At the local restaurant he loudly announced his plans to marry his fourth wife. His buddy told him: Robert, you know that girl has slept with everybody in Troy? The whole restaurant got quiet and
Robert said: “I know. But Troy ain’t no big place.”

Show Dog: Robert quit school in the 3rd grade—sort of like Tojo—and liked to boast he was told he would never be anything but a ditch digger and that he was, in fact, a ditch digger….but one who dug them with several D350 Caterpillars worth $300,000 each.”

Bama Bing: He is the same guy who learned to fly his own Bonanza and landed illegally behind a 757 at Hartsfield because he had to pee.

Show Dog: Yeah, they were putting the handcuffs on him as he relieved himself at the end of the runway. Thankfully it was before 911 or they would have shot him down.

Chase N. Allpots: What a classy fellow. You know they call themselves the “Trojans” for the same reason. [Awkward pause]

Bama Bing: They call all the teams Trojans down there because Troy is so safe and secure.

Show Dog: Real snug.

Bama Bing: There used to be a condom factory in Troy, but they only made “Ramses” and “Sheik.” They call that irony.

Allpots: "Stay classy Troy."

BB MAK: Anyone want to split a piece of the “Lemonade Cake?”

Tojo: Can vegetarian like Tojo eat cake?

Fat Clemenza: You think they got cannoli?

Cornbread Carp (to Show Dog): You gonna finish your cornbread?

[And the banter resumed….]

Now you see why we enjoy our LITG meetings. They bring out the best (or worst) in lunchtime conversation. At LITG, like this blog, you will always learn something….you did not know. Enjoy!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Lunde's Cajun-Norwegian Fusion

You heard it here first. Cajun-Norwegian Fusion. It's a movement.
It is probably true that few Norwegians ever settled in the squishy part of southern Louisiana. The heat, humidity, gnats, gators, binge-drinking and non-stop sex would be too harsh for Norsemen (this is why they took over Minnesota instead). But I can tell you that  Lunde's Norwegian apple pie sits just right with their excellent shrimp ettouffee. I think they may be onto something.


Yesterday Shadow Pup, The Younger, Tojo Yamamoto, Big Easy Slim, BoDiddly, Chase N. Allpots, The Great Grantini, Cornbread Carp and I strolled over to one of our favorites -- Lunde's on Montgomery Street.

We've always pronounced it American-style like "Lundy's" and since the joint serves up reliably tasty cajun/creole type dishes, we erroneously thought the name was some kind of play on "Lundi," which is French for "Monday," which is pronounced "Mundy" here in the Gump. Shortly after being seated, however, our preconceived notions began to crumble.

The trouble started when Big Easy Slim, a native of New Orleans and LITG's expert on all things Louisianian, advised us to save room for the Norwegian apple pie. "Huh?" I said, "Norwegian desserts in a Cajun joint? What the hell is up with that?" Turns out the co-owner/chef at Lunde's is a Norwegian guy named "Lunde." I googled it on my phone gadget and found out that "Lunde" is Norwegian for "Jones."

"It's probably pronounced 'Loond' or something," sniffed Allpots, the elitist snob. "Apparently we shall now have to call this place Loond's."

About this time co-owner Karen mistakenly put Allpots' salad in front of Tojo, who never orders salad, but ate it anyway, sans dressing, just to watch Allpots squeal like the overindulged Irish brat that he most assuredly is.

Apparently Karen has some bayou country in her DNA because she shared grandmother's take on the origin of the word "jambalaya." It is an interesting story (click on the picture below) but conflicts with the etymology foisted on me as a youngster, which is that the loose translation of "jambalaya" is "Warden, I'll have me some of that stuff there for my last meal before y'all shave my head and put the juice to me." You live and learn.

As usual, I digress. Back to the lunch.

The gumpers went with a variety of dishes and nobody was disappointed (except Allpots, who had his lip poked out until somebody brought him a salad). We had shrimp ettouffee, red beans & rice, jambalaya, blackened shrimp, grilled pork loin... plus some other stuff I can't remember or spell correctly. You can also get a mean meat & 3 at Lunde's (see below). Cornbread Carp approved of the cornbread and noted, for the record, that Lunde's serves real butter and that the cornbread is served hot enough to quickly melt said real butter.

Shadow Pup asked his pal, "How's that ettouffee, Tojo?"

"Tojo like." came the reply. That is Tojo's highest rating.

How to top off a great Cajun lunch? Well, how about some of B.E. Slim's favorite Norwegian pie? It was sort of a cross between a pie and a cake, served fresh out of the oven with vanilla ice cream on top (which sort of Americanized it). We jumped on that foreign pie like it was Liv Ullman back in the day, gobbling that stuff up so fast nobody remembered to take a picture, but I found this one on the web, which pretty much shows what Norwegian apple pie looks like.

Anyway, Lunde's is a real good lunch place, even if we don't really know how to pronounce it, and I think this Norwegian/Cajun thing is going to catch on.

I'm outta here. Have a good weekend. See y'all Munde.


Random Lunch in the Gump picture of the week:

BoDiddly snapped this one at the grocery store the other day.

Publix has everything.


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