Last weekend was the 2nd Annual Wine Country Cajun Food & Music Festival in downtown Napa. My hubby and I attended, along with our dog Bogie, aka Beauregard, and two Sonoma Valley friends. Even though we hadn't attended last years event, I didn't have any trouble talking my hubby into this fete because as everyone knows, Cajun music is infectious and Cajun food even better.
As soon as we arrived, we were enveloped by the sounds of 8,000 people having a really good time.
There was a Mardi Gras-style parade, which wound through the downtown streets twice during the day. Napa High's marching band was in attendance as was Henry Clement and the Gumbo Tribe. Henry, dressed as his alter ego Chief Takawaka (I COULD NOT make up that name!), led the parade dressed all in feathers.
Music on multiple stages, zydeco, blues, you name it, people were dancing everywhere. Each time the parade marched by, the colorfully-garbed attendees threw the requisite beaded necklaces to eager recipients both high and low. Even Bogie amassed quite a few!
A party like this just wouldn't be complete without fabulous Cajun/Creole food and drink. My friend Judy and I ordered wine, I picked a Napa Sauvignon Blanc and she chose a Sonoma Zinfandel. The men opted for glasses of frosty Hefeweizen, an unfiltered wheat beer, from one of our local microbreweries.
When it came to choosing food, we had many options and not all of them Cajun or Creole. Three of us went Cajun (you know, when in New Orleans...), with Judy enjoying slices of pizza, she being the most conservative diner of the group. Randy ordered the alligator jambalaya, it's been a long time since I've had alligator, but he thought it tasted very much like chicken. Kejay ordered the seafood gumbo which came with a big mound of white rice and sliced scallions. 
I ordered the crayfish boil, which was a mess of crawdads, small red, round potatoes and pieces of corn on the cob, all cooked together in a spicy concoction. My serving was generous enough to share with my two more adventurous companions, we twisted off tails and sucked crawdad heads like New Orleans locals. The Sauv Blanc I chose had a nice, crisp, citrusy body, which balanced out the richness and spiciness of the crayfish boil, it was a match made in heaven.
A few more hours of colorful costumes, fun music, group dancing and friendly Napans, and we were ready to head home for the evening.
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