No trip through Acadiana is complete without a meat-market pit stop.  Chops in Broussard is a fine example of the Cajun meat market/one-stop/convenience store genre, offering everything from prime beef, buffalo, rabbit, elk, and (of course) pork to house-made sausages, boudin, cracklings, dried beans, Mello Joy coffee, and a decent wine selection.  Stuffed, deboned chickens, oddball sausages (like ribeye & portobello mushroom, which I couldn’t resist buying), frogs’ legs, shrimp poboys, curly fries:  you can get it all in one place, seven days a week, just off of US 90.  I scored a beautifully trimmed, 7.5-pound brisket (more on that later).

At Chops, you can buy happiness by the pound in a small, greasy paper bag:  fresh gratons!  The two-bite cracklings, studded with meat in the southwest LA style, are lightly seasoned and kept warm under a heat lamp.  (For the health-conscious, Chops sells pork skins, the lighter, puffier, carb-free crunchy, porky snack.)  Just don’t put the bag directly on your car’s seat, or you’ll have a permanent souvenir of your snacking habits.