2000 lightning strikes in one hour.

That was the news breaking out of Acadiana Sunday morning as we prepped up for the Li’l Buck Senegal show at Ace Hotel in New Orleans.

Time to assess the situation. With ink black clouds scooting toward the 9th Ward from Kenner we had to shelve our morning concert plans and instead make a break for St Bernard Parish where the 2016 Chalmette Tomato Fest was on its last day.

Catch Li’l Buck and surely the deluge would cancel the tomato party by the time we could get out to Our Lady Of Prompt Succor.

Since 1952 da Parish has been throwing one of the best food parties in all of Louisiana; a fete celebrating the humble tomato grown in the rich soil surrounding Chalmette, one of our favorite small towns in the state.

Tomatoes a la Chalmette is the signature dish of the party and with good reason. Green tomatoes are dipped in a slurry of flour and water before being crusted with bread crumbs and given a quick trip through a vat of hot, clear oil. Garnish is a velvety sauce studded with tiny baby shrimps.

This is some of the finest festival food in our great state.

Just as we finished our feast fat drops of rain began pelting the blacktop church parking lot. We made a mad dash to the truck just as all Hell broke loose. Gale force winds sent tents ripping through the air and torrents of rain whished the crowd running madly for cover.

We sped back to New Orleans praying that the NoizeFest would not be cancelled.

Scenes from last year’s party

More pictures to come on Chowpapi