Fat Tuesday, mardi gras, carnival, food, music

I lived in NAwlins long enough to survive two MArdi Gras. My wife was doing an MFA at Tulane and she wore a huge roll of big beads one day and the guys were kidding her that she must have really flashed a krew member to get them.

We had a Hurricane drinking contest on the MArdis eve and everybody was shitfaced and sick the next day. Hurricannes are a really not nice. Its like koolaid with vodka and something else that gets you screwed up.

I was in carnival, la corso de Buenos Aires,in 1999 and 2000. It was a shaving cream battle and the Murgas(sp?) groupd were doing music, thetaer and comedy (comedu=y was in Spanish but some were in German so I sort of understood). That was fun. HOWEVER, the FAstnacht Tuesday celebration around here is a donut eating fest that traditionally marks the end of the season when cooks use lard and shortenings until after Easter, so they binge on fatty foods and donuts till late at night.

I know we will get some fastnachts from our Amish neighbors and they just drive around partying for tomorrow is the start of the solemn seson

I attended my first mardi gras parade on Thursday night. They throw shoes.

http://www.kreweofmuses.org/

I found out the hard way that folks take this stuff seriously. For the first (only) time in my life I was swept away by a crowd of folks who were all reaching for a coveted shoe and carried a ways down the street whilst the krewe member dangled the coveted item over the mob.

Today I caught a bunch of spoons from the NOLA chefs who were out there in pouring rain (so were we) for their inaugural event.

http://www.nola.com/mardigras/index.ssf/2012/02/soggy_yet_still_sizzling_chefs.html

The crowd was thin because of the rain. I now have a full drawer full of wooden spoons and, yes, I did eat a Hostess cupcake in the rain. I also waded/swam out for one of the spoons.

We're skipping tonight's parade. Will Ferrell will roll on by without me seeing him. I'm sure we'll both survive. Tomorrow, otoh, will bring a FULL DAY of eating, parading, partaking and reveling. And then there's Monday and TUESDAY!!!!

And, then, I'll pretend I'm a Catholic and fully embrace the season of Lent and abstinence. Oh!!! I had my first ever piece of king cake today. WAY TOO SWEET to my liking, but when in Rome...

I've only been swept away like that once, a mix of scary, weird, and childishly fun at the time - going down the stairs of a subway station with a huge mass of other people trying to catch a train.

I just read about King cakes (maybe on wiki) when I was looking up Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, et al.

Have fun! Report back!

This donut thing sounds like an excellent tradition.
Buenos Aires, be still my heart (one of the places I've wanted to get to sometime).

Only 'carnival' type thing I've been to was in Guadalajara, at a university get together: it didn't start, I don't think, until at least midnight, when bands came marching into the room (tubas, et al) and soon after everyone was up and dancing the meringue, including me. (Well, it was so crowded it was hard to tell how well I could or could not dance.)

We'll be having pancakes, Pancake Day doesn't have the same ring to it as Mardi Gras, but that's what we do over here.

Why would anyone want to go to Mardi Gras in Buenos Airies when they can see this?


http://www.visitlondon.com/events/detail/7518695-pancake-day-in-london

is this where they put a pancake on top of a rabbits head?

I'm sorry, but I don't get the reference, I feel a bit thick because I think I should. Is it from Winnie the Pooh?

nah, its from the halcyon days of A2K. (We hadnt had any halcyon days this year cause we havent had a winter yet) Back several years ago, I think gungasnake was being his normal self when he posted something stupid and a bit confusing. Then Rosborne followed up with a post that said "I have no Idea what you are talking about but here is a picture of a rabbit with a pnacake on his head". It was just funny.


ya hadda be there I guess.....



It loses a bit in translation I suppose......



I have to go to the bathroom now.....

Thank you, I now feel that I've been allowed into the inner sanctum of A2K.

There isn't really any special foot at 'Karneval'/'Fastnacht'/'Fasenach'/'Fasching' (or whatever more its called in German-speaking countries) besides fried dough foods like ...
Berliner

Muzzenmandeln

Apfelberliner

and so on

http://www.kochbar.de/rezept/283977/Apfelberliner.html (then click translate for english)

So when Kennedy said 'Ich bin ein Berliner,' he was saying, 'I'm a jam doughnut?'

No wonder the crowd loved it..

No. Only some English-speaking people thought such who know just and only their own language.


He just said what he said - that he was someone from Berlin. This was applauded by the Berliners and all other Germans.

(A 'Berliner', the cake, [which is short for 'Berliner Pfannkuchen'] is in Berlin and all eastern states called 'Pfannkuchen' = "pancake" by the way.)

A person from Hamburg is called 'Hamburger' in German, someone from Frankfurt "Frankfurter". I'm a 'Lippstädter' but a born 'Geseker'.

Thaks for that Walt, now I'm going to have to beat my daughter.

Walter - I was around then, had taken German - I was kidding and so was Izzy.

Plus, I think that Americans knew the city of Berlin more than they did the name of the donut.

Some carnival photos via SFChronicle -

"An oversized rat uses his cell phone before carnival celebrations in Madrid."
Photo: Paul White / Associated Press




"Everyone must get slimed: Crazed carnival celebrants abduct the unsoiled into their cult of muck during the Bloco da Lama, or Mud Block, parade in Parati, Brazil."
Photo: Felipe Dana / Associated Press




"Don't flip your wigs, gentlemen: The hair is fake, the beards are fake, but who cares? No one attending the parade of the Gavioes da Fiel samba school in Sao Paulo is watching the band."
Photo: Andre Penner / Associated Press




"A flamingo dancer by the name of Logan Walker, 2, walks in the Children's Parade at Mardi Gras! Galveston in Galveston, Texas."
Photo: James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle

I made pancakes following advice on the radio, beat the mixture a lot when still stiff to release the gluten, then leave for an hour. We had them with Cornish ice cream and Vermont maple syrup.