I’m a south Louisiana native, and a longtime resident of Greenville. I attended neither LSU nor Clemson. I do love a good party though, and when our good friends Greg and Tammy invited us to tailgate with them for the season opener, my wife, Amy, and I readily agreed.
Perhaps I would find some Clemson or LSU fans cooking up something wonderful? We prepared everything we needed to make jambalaya and fry up some beignets with a peach and bourbon glaze, then headed to Clemson.
College football can bring out the best and worst in us. All it takes is a little too much alcohol and a lopsided score. We didn’t see anything like that from either set of fans and we did see a whole lot of hospitality.
While Amy tended to the beignets, I wandered around and introduced myself to anyone who was making something delicious or wearing LSU colors. There was plenty of both. One father and son, decked out in purple and yellow, told me how beautiful Clemson’s campus was and marveled at the friendliness of the fans. Another family of four, dressed in similar fashion, told me they’d been invited by several groups of Clemson tailgaters to share their food and beer.
It took me a mile or two before I found LSU fans who were actually cooking. They had a cast iron Dutch oven hanging over a propane burner, and one gentleman in an LSU shirt was stirring it with a large wooden paddle. After I introduced myself, Zack offered me a plate of jambalaya that was “my maw-maw’s recipe.” That’s a south Louisiana nickname for grandmother. I mentioned to Zack I once dated a girl from Gonzales, a town on the Mississippi River that claims to be the “jambalaya capitol of the world.”
Baton Rouge Jambalaya at Clemson vs. LSU.“Could she cook?” Zak asked.
“Nope,” I replied.
“Can your wife?”
“In her sleep.”
“Well, you made the right choice, chef.”
His jambalaya was quite admirable considering he was in foreign territory and without the necessary ingredients for a proper jambalaya.
A few minutes later I found some Clemson fans grilling some legit-looking burgers. For appetizers they made jalapenos stuffed with spiced cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. The cook told me: “I grind my own beef and my neighbor bakes the buns; want one?” Wow. Those were amazing.
I wanted to keep going but I was needed back at our own tailgate, where Amy had fried up dozens of small beignets. We gave some away to LSU fans and shared the rest among our group. Soon enough it was game time and many LSU fans walked past us, smiled and hollered “Go Tigers!”
Tailgating at Clemson brought out the best of us. Go Tigers!
“City Juice” is a colloquial term for a glass of tap water served at a diner. John Malik is a restaurant coach and hospitality consultant. He can be reached at chefjohnmalik@gmail.com.
