Mardi Gras is one of my favourite days of the year and unfortunately it doesn’t get much attention in Pittsburgh. Perhaps the food is too scary for local haluski appetites (what is that stuff anyway?). There’s nothing small about Mardi Gras and certainly nothing fat-free, and though this isn’t necessarily a post about food art, well I’d like to think everything from my home city is art :p

Perhaps the most familiar food of Mardi Gras has to be the King Cake, a donut-like filled feast decorated with beads and purple/gold/green sugar and stuck with a tiny plastic baby. I have heard northerners freak out a little about that baby but it’s tradition don’t knock it. In my parents’ town of Lafayette, the place to get a king cake is Pouparts, though everything they make puts your mouth to water.  (Prantls? Nice but not the same!) Of course the point of eating nothing but rich food on Mardi Gras harks back to using up all the rich ingredients in the cupboard before Lent and fasting beginning on Ash Wednesday. Living in Dallas and Loving it has some nice food reviews including this bakery.

I am a keen observer of this tradition, making my chocolate 8 layer Doberge cake (New Orleans birthday cake) 3 weeks or so before Mardi Gras along with pralines, chicken gumbo, occasionally beignets and on the day itself my husband makes crepes we serve with lemon juice, sugar and honey drizzled on. Ooh and lots of butter.

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