"For some people, the way they eat boudin is to bite off the first bite and squeeze out the filling the rest of the way," explains event organizer Bob Carriker, who created the web site The Boudin Link to chronicle his ardor for the spicy, rice-y, pork-based snack. "And some people like to eat the casing as they go."

Carriker polled attendees at last year's cookoff, the first edition of the festival, and discovered the crowd was almost evenly split: Discarding the casing was favored by 117 voters, while 86 boudin fans claimed they liked their casing on.

"This is a raging debate in South Louisiana," Carriker says. "Health care, schmealth care."

As Carriker's lingo suggests, he's not a Louisiana native. He moved there from Washington for a job, and immediately set about acquainting himself with the state's cuisine.
"Boudin was one of those foods everyone said I had to try," Carriker explains. He began bringing boudin links to work, provoking displeasure from colleagues who were certain he'd patronized the wrong boudinier. If he showed up with boudin from Don's, someone would steer him toward Shawn's. When he produced boudin from Shawn's, someone else would recommend Early's. Embarking on an exhaustive boudin tour of Louisiana seemed like the natural next step.

"My parents are very proud of me," Carriker laughs.

Carriker designed the cookoff so other boudin lovers wouldn't have to replicate his trips. "We're bringing all these boudin people here," Carriker says.

The cookoff is very much a community event, with boudin samples sold for 50 cents each.

As for the always-contentious casing question, Carriker sidesteps it: "The important thing is the casing's texture," he says.

How do you eat your boudin, with the casing or without? Tell us in the comments.