Friday, June 06, 2008
A good omen on the nutria tip
I've refused to mitigate my determination to taste nutria, the semi-acquatic swamp rat that has invaded the bayous, on my trip to visit LL Cool Jew in New Orleans this weekend. I've even contemplated tracking down the elderly Cajun trapper shown bludgeoning a nutria (nutrium?) to death with a stick prior to stewing it for Andrew Zimmern on "Bizarre Foods" in order to slake my nutria lust. I even corresponded with Razzyphile who is a current Smith bitch and Jordan House resident about stalking the nutria in her Lafayette, Louisiana city park with a club and a stew pot. Yesterday LL Cool Jew and I had a strategery session about how, short of actually going on a nutria hunt, we might get some through sheer guile.
LL Cool Jew: dude i don't think we will be able to eat any nutria
LL Cool Jew: i wonder if we'll even be able to see any?
LL Cool Jew:what we can try is this, even though it makes me somewhat embarrassed
LL Cool Jew: ask at the best stop near lafayette when we swing by for rgular jerky
Razzy: YES
Razzy: let's ask around
Razzy: we won't be offensive!
LL Cool Jew: we're going to have to work on our spiel
LL Cool Jew: maybe do some role playing on the drive over
Razzy: i'll say that i saw it on tv and it looked good
Razzy: nothing patronizing about that
LL Cool Jew: true
Razzy: i won't say i saw it on "bizarre foods"
LL Cool Jew: andrew zimmern can make lots of things look good
Razzy:: i'll just say it was "a food show"
LL Cool Jew: they will probably know which one
LL Cool Jew: it's OK, the show celebrates the foods
Razzy: well true
Razzy: i won't make it seem like i'm some city bitch looking to patronize the country folks
Razzy: by eating their swamp rats
LL Cool Jew: yes.
LL Cool Jew: we have to be shy and self-deprecating when we ask
LL Cool Jew: and precede it with a lot of hemming and hawing about "i know this is a strange question..."
LL Cool Jew: "i'm not sure whether you might be able to help me but..."
LL Cool Jew: don't want ppl to be like - "do i LOOK like someone who eats R.O.U.S.s?"
Well, it turns out we may not even have to go to the country for our Dorito-toothed rodent fix. LL Cool Jew e-mailed me an article from today's Times-Picayune detailing a nutria problem severe enough to warrant a SWAT team that has exploded in the suburbs of New Orleans.
Nutria under the gun on the 17th Street CanalI think this bodes well for our nutria-acquiring mission. If there's an excess of freshly shot nutria laying around New Orleans, there's a chance that the fancy "country chic" restaurant LL Cool Jew is taking me to tomorrow night might have a nutria special on the menu! As early as tomorrow we might be dining on nutria etouffee. Score!
Posted by Andrew Vanacore June 05, 2008 11:02PM
A Jefferson Parish SWAT team has been called in to defend the 17th Street Canal.
The threat? Nutria, the orange-toothed rodents that eat through marshlands and levees, among other offenses. Officials say their numbers around the canal have jumped in the last year and a half, damaging levees."They've not only damaged the intake pipes but burrowed into holes along the canal," said Chief Bob Garner of the East Jefferson Levee District Police.
Inspections around the 17th Street Canal began turning up signs of nutria about a year and a half ago, said Danny Abadie, superintendent of operations for the East Jefferson Levee District Maintenance Department.
"We've seen a bunch of these critters out there," Abadie said. "They're eating at the base of the grasses," which can lead to soil erosion.
Over time, that erosion can add up. When Jefferson Parish officials first recognized the nutria epidemic in 1994, they estimated it had already caused $6 million to $8 million in damage.
Jefferson Parish SWAT teams have targeted the rodents along drainage canals for more than a decade.
Their ever-burgeoning numbers and destructive eating habits have left the nutria with few friends - even among animal rights groups.
Garner said he asked the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office to deploy the SWAT team as a favor.
SWAT members will stalk the rats with rifles in the wee hours, They plan to start as early as today. Garner said the operation could last weeks.
Still an open question is whether SWAT members will have jurisdiction to go after nutria on the Orleans Parish side of the canal.
Garner said East Jefferson officials have focused on the Jefferson side. But he couldn't say whether sharpshooters would hold their fire if they spot pests across the water.
"For the time being, we're only concerned with those that are on our side," Garner said. "If that problem arises, we'll deal with it."
Labels: Dirrty Dirrty, gluttony, LL Cool Jew, sexy delicious animals
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