T-Boy's Slaughterhouse

2228 Pine Point Rd., Ville Platte, LA - (337) 468-3333

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Posted By Michael Stern on 10/28/2009 6:14:00 AM

The most colorful source of great boudin we know is a small place on a two-lane road north of Opelousas just outside Mamou, the epicenter of Cajun culture and self-proclaimed home of the mardi gras. Simply getting to T-Boy's Slaughterhouse is a joy, up from the swamplands of the south into the vast prairies of Evangeline Parish where cattle and horses graze and native zydeco music sets the cultural beat. Once you arrive, you are in for a true taste of country life.

Paul "T-Boy" Berzas, owner and butcher at T-Boy's Slaughterhouse, apologized when he showed us around the work area in back one day at noon because he hadn't yet had time to hose viscera off the floor. Up front, the little grocery is blood-free and clean, its cases filled with sausages and meats from the smokehouse - including paunce (stuffed stomach) and tasso ham - its walls festooned with signs advertising such T-Boy deals as the "100 lb. Special" of beef, pork, sausage, rice and boudin for $154.99 and two bags of smoked pork bones for $2.50.

T-Boy, who got his name because he was the youngest of nine, hence "Petite Boy," eventually shortened to T-Boy, puts a full measure of liver in his boudin, which is so damp and dripping-good that it cries out for contrasting crunch. That need is perfectly filled by a brown paper bag full of hot cracklin's – pop-in-the-mouth squiggles of deep-fried pig skin.

(T-Boy's has a second location in Eunice.)

Scorecard

Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace

Boudin	Cracklin's

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Reviewers Photos [Upload Your Photos]

"Boudin sausage: a melange of cooked pork, rice, onions, and spice packed into a chewy casing that calls for a sharp knife to sever. Unlike a firm Texas hot link or chorizo sausage, the filling tumbles out once it is cut. T-Boy's is glistening-moist with a perfect measure of al dente rice, the pork gently seasoned but hugely piggy."
Michael Stern

"Cracklin's are common snack food in Cajun country, nowhere better than at T-Boy's Slaughterhouse, where the pieces range from crunchy-chewy-crisp nuggets to featherweight wisps that melt into spicy flavor at the slightest tooth pressure."
Michael Stern

"Paunce - stuffed pig stomach - is a slaughterhouse specialty which calls for a kitchen and dinner table to enjoy. Traveling through in a rental car, all we could do was to admire it and imagine how good it is."
Michael Stern

"T-Boy. In addition to running his butcher shop, he makes several Cajun spice blends sold in local grocery stores as well as on his website. They are unusual in that they are brightly spiced but NOT searingly hot."
Michael Stern

"A view inside T-Boy's smokehouse."
Michael Stern

"What traveling carnivore could resist stopping in a place with this sign on its wall?"
Michael Stern

"Where the locals shop."
Michael Stern