I was just happy to be watching the parade, finally able to eat some fried chicken in the street. I got invited eventually and wasn't so impressed. The invited guests - usually teachers and professionals - would go in hats and gloves. One group put on a Mardi Gras Breakfast Dance that was very fancy. That's good to impose some kind of order where so many people are involved. Now Mardi Gras is so big that organized routes need to be followed. They wandered all over, passing households that paid them to go that way. The 'African King' would wear a huge crystal doorknob as a ring. The Zulu parade mocked the white parades. I thought it was a shame to get all fancy on Mardi Gras, instead of playing like the other maskers. They would wear violet corsages, and walk with canes with a celluloid feathered doll on top. But a lot of Creole ladies used the occasion to bring out their first spring suit.

I also thought it was so fun to dress in costume. My father never even let us eat candy outside normally. My favorite thing about Mardi Gras was that we could eat in the street. The street was full of booths, with blacks selling fried chicken, fried fish, and red beans. Some of the people held open houses on Claiborne, for their friends. Claiborne was lined with beautiful oaks then. We would go to see the Zulu parade, which was on Claiborne Avenue from Canal Street to St. Sometimes I could go, but usually my father wouldn't let us miss school.

There really wasn't any Mardi Gras in Madisonville - everybody left for New Orleans in hay trucks. I remember going to Mardi Gras parades and seeing fried chicken being sold on the street. Chase also shared some helpful tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from The Dooky Chase Cookbook by Leah Chase and are part of our story on Mardi Gras.

Classic dredge for chicken foodnetwork