The Boudin Capital Of The World Is Scott, Louisiana

The Louisiana Legislature has declared Scott, Louisiana, home of the legendary Best Stop, the Boudin Capital of the world.

The prairie art of grinding and stuffing hog guts casings with pork, rice and seasoning to create boudin, has numerous practitioners scattered all over the state of Louisiana, but Best Stop is, perhaps, the most famous.

I’ve been eating here for years. Walking in, you’d never realize this humble [looking] grocery is rolling through a full ton of boudin every day, but they are. The little storefront looks like any other country grocer you might run across, but there is a mammoth amount of goods being sold out of it.

I have an informal pact with several friends relating to Best Stop, and western Louisiana meat markets in general: If our paths take us through the area we call one another, and take phone orders for delivery back to Austin.

Most recently, a buddy called me from the parking lot to jot down an order.

I had a freezer filled with meat from Johnson’s Boucaniere in Lafayette but I did have one request. 2 dozen boudin balls, hot out of the old timey popcorn machine over in the corner. He laughed and repeated the order, somewhat incredulously, as that is a lot of boudin balls.

He quit laughing as soon as he ate one. He quickly realized 2 dozen was actually cutting it kind of close. They are insanely delicious.

While Best Stop is the most famous of the Scott, La boudin houses you’d be remiss if you skipped the others. We’re probably leaving some off, but there’s: Romero’s Grocery, Don’s Specialty Meats, Mike’s Country Corner, Early’s Food Store and Billy’s Boudin & Cracklins.

Nearby, you also have Johnson’s Boucaniere in Lafayette and NuNu’s in Youngsville, two of my personal favorites.

In keeping with the fine tradition of Louisana politics, the vote by the legislature was only taken after a contingent of politicos and businessmen from Scott showed up at the capitol with fifty pounds of boudin to make sure the vote ran smoothly.

Somewhere, Huey P. Long is smiling down on western Louisiana.