🥖 Ultimate PoBoy Tour: https://youtu.be/P329TzJw3bA
🦃 Laura's II: https://goo.gl/maps/LyhV6mcdeVh46ZG98
🔔 SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/MarkWiensSubscribe Don’t miss new food videos!
LAFAYETTE: Welcome to Lafayette, Louisiana, and today we’re going to eat at Laura's II, what is easily one of the best Soul Creole food restaurants in the United States. They are famous for giant stuffed turkey wings which are about 2 pounds each, okra stew, and rice and gravy. Let’s see how the turkey wings are made and let’s eat!
I arrived to Laura’s II in Lafayette a little early in order to meet with Madonna. Madonna’s Grandmother, Laura, had a restaurant originally in a different location, and so that’s why the restaurant is called Laura’s II. They serve a variety of Creole Soul food, including a variety of rice dishes, stewed and smothered vegetables, bbq ribs, and the most famous of everything - giant stuffed turkey wings. The turkey wings are stuffed with a blend of spices including cayenne peppers, then seasoned fully with red pepper, and then boiled in a baking pan for 3.5 hours. The result is ultra tender turkey wings that are slightly crispy and gooey all at the same time. The sides dishes, including the rice and gravy and rice dressing (dirty rice), were outstanding, as was the smothered okra.
I can not emphasize this enough, it was probably one of the best Soul Food meals I’ve ever had in my life. Don’t miss Laura’s II when you’re in Lafayette, Louisiana!
🦃 Laura's II: https://goo.gl/maps/LyhV6mcdeVh46ZG98
🎵MUSIC:
https://goo.gl/HwVjdo
🍌100% Real Durian Chips - Order Here:
http://pixelfy.me/uY4K5z
👕Get t-shirts and caps:
https://migrationology.com/store/
📱FOLLOW:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/migrationology
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/migrationology

Hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day. It's mark wiens, i'm in lafayette, louisiana and today for lunch. We're gon na go eat at one of the best restaurants in lafayette. It's called laura's two and madonna.

She specializes in creole soul, food, we're gon na hang out with madonna we're gon na watch a little bit of how she cooks and especially how she prepares her giant. Stuffed turkey wings, two pounds in a single turkey wing. The food looks absolutely incredible and i cannot wait to share all of the food, the cooking and all of the eating with you coming up right now in this video. This is a plastic fork beautiful morning in lafayette and we've arrived early before she opens before laura's.

Two cafe is open and we've arranged to hang out with madonna who's, the owner who's, the chef and again she makes all sorts of creole soul, food, a full lineup of food, but her most famous dish are her: stuffed turkey wings. So let's go inside. Oh man, the turkey wings, look absolutely incredible. It smells so good.

I could smell the aroma outside already right now: oh okay, oh dirty, rice, wow, so dirty rice is a combination of rice and well. It's. This is a mix. Okay! It's mixed with rice, like we cook it from uh, roux water.

We season it and it's scissors, liver, wow, um like chicken, chicken, liver, okay and corn, okay and um. They cook it down so that darkness is coming from the the root. Okay. Roux is a combination of flour and fat.

Ah, okay and rue is one of the like foundational everything everything. So it's like a base a base for many dishes: okay, okay, these are the turkey wings, the legendary turkey wings they're huge. They are gigantic and you're just trimming those up right now. How many pounds are each of those turkey wings about i'd, say at least about a pound and a half pound and a half per wing per week, almost two, almost two pounds: yeah wow.

We made this. That's the stuffing yeah. We make a lot of this a lot right, yes, which is a cayenne pepper. We got a little secret ingredient in it: okay and minced garlic and garlic, cayenne, pepper garlic and some secret seasonings.

All secrets: yeah, oh yeah, so that's like a paste, a taste of flavor and it's hot too. Okay. This is our uh seasoning, okay, that we normally season it with. This is uh.

This is cajun chef, red peppers, okay, it's made in saint martinville, okay. This is all cajun chef, cayenne red and we mix with our own little special seasonings, so they're all washed and ready. We take our paste. Also, that's why she cut some slits into those wings right, just stuff it up with that paste, wow um, we just stuff about a million of these okay.

I imagine so there i mean you offer quite a few dishes, but really this is this is the main, the main dish right: okay, world renowned yep, so just stuffing those turkey wings and those turkey wings are gigantic. I mean even the the the drumstick wing part is way larger than a chicken drumstick and she's, taking a little little bit of that paste, that spice blend paste and just stuffing them into those slits within the turkey wings. Where, where did a lot of your recipes? Come from are they family recipes and okay. My grandmother started these okay um 1968 and this the same recipe for these stuffed turkey, wings, so cool everything insane cayenne, pepper, okay, and so now let all of that dry seasoning.
We would just say: red, pepper, red, pepper, red pepper that'd, be the local way to say that spicy, okay, the red pepper, will cause the skin to kind of do like a little pepper caramelized. Oh man, it definitely will burn your hands. Okay, you have to have some kind of coverage, all right, there's the giant, turkey wing and uh. Many of them are one and a half, almost two pounds in a single turkey wing, and i just love the amount of spice that you're adding to everything.

Usually, as mr bobby would say, we put a we try to put the water in where we're not really disturbing it, and it's all based upon really a guess: okay, the level of water, the amount of water fitting them in like a puzzle, so that they're, just It's like a they're nestled they're nestled within their within their spice and they're, just gon na bake into a sweet harmony of all that delicious flavor; okay, oil, oil, okay, clear oil: oh i'm back in here all right and then wait till they are golden brown golden Brown and will most of that liquid stay in stay in okay and it kind of absorbs into the turkey. Oh man, and they already have a whole batch already in the oven going so every now and then uh. She has to take them out, rehydrate them a little bit. Add some more liquid, keep on boiling keep on baking them.

You can already tell that all of that spice, all of that flavor is just gon na absorb into those massive turkey wings. Oh man, those are going to be just unbelievably tasty, raised in rice and gravy. I love it gravy here with, so that would be something common to eat with the turkey rice and gravy. Okay, oh wow.

That's our pork stew, pork, stew, okay! This is the gravy that we make every morning. This is just room: brew, water and cayenne, pepper seasonings that we use. Normally, we have just the gravy that goes say, for instance, if you're getting the rice and gravy which are turkey ween. So we make like a separate gravy for that, but today we have rice dressing all right, so this is kind of this is the kumbaya of all our plate.

Lunches, oh and i can already imagine how incredibly tasty that is over rice served with you can drink this. Yes, you're really good, i agree. So what is this madonna? This is our. This is seafood.

It's grown at a certain time of year. It starts about uh mid-may to sometimes september, but it's a it's a seasonal. It's a seasonal vegetable. It's a great creole, great creole staple.

This is uh smothered over putting our sauce on it. Ah, so the barbecue ribs is that just for the weekend, yeah okay. So this is a special for today: barbecue ribs, oh yeah, all right, okay, so we're heading back to the turkey wing station to the oven and he's gon na just check the liquid on them. Thank you again.
The turkey wings they bake for about three and a half hours, and we've got about one hour left until the restaurant opens they're. Putting the finishing touches on the turkey wings. Just checking the liquid situation, adding a little more liquid to keep on brewing and keep on boiling, and then i think about 45 minutes or so they're gon na be ready really quickly, while we're waiting until the turkey wings are almost done just a little bit of History about laura's, too um madonna's, your grandmother and your grandmother was laura laura and she started started originally 68 1968. location, a different location, but very close to here.

Yes, about cool a few blocks away from here, um in her house and um, then she was able to enlarge and make like a building. But then a fire took in 75 so that burned that that restaurant burned and then she started like in a a trailer like a mobile trailer, which was kind of the the hit all up until all, from like 70s to the 80s and in 2000 we closed It and my husband bought this building here, and this is where we've been ever since uh. So, that's that's why the name laura's laura's too yeah, okay, my grandparents, my mom, my dad um we're all a part of we're all a part of the our history and our foundation before this is my other grandfather who um he. He had cayenne pepper fields.

This is really why we are stuck on that same martinville, uh, cayenne cause. This is what my grandfather grew pepper and they would cultivate it, and then it would go to like a lot of the plants or tabasco plants places, and this was in the early. This was like in the early 80s, but that's what they did they. They grew pepper, 10, 30 right now, madonna's about to open the door they're about to open and the assembly line is about to come to life and those turkey wings are about to come out of the oven.

Yeah turkey wings are ready, they're beautiful golden slightly crispy. On the tops and then just dripping and boiling in their own juices, that flavor that spice and as soon as they open the door, just people pour in people make orders. This is the place to be for the greatest food in lafayette. So that's a big one.

Yeah, i'm okay, with whatever you think, yeah. Okay, so the ribs go go together, especially with the rice, the rice dressing, all right. They just serve up just massive boxes of food. It's you can either get the white rice or you can eat what they call rice dressing, rice dressing, which is also an another name for the dirty rice, but the rice mixed with the roux, oh man, and then you choose your protein.

You choose your sides, those gigantic turkey, wings and also the ribs are also very popular today and those are just like dripping with juices and barbecue sauce. Okay, so i've got three different boxes: let's just open them all up and check everything. I'll put a little piece of paper there to to protect your meal from the top. This one is the turkey wing with the rice and gravy and then the okra stew, oh man, it's just massive and you can tell how it's just gon na fall off the bone completely.
If you were to pick that up next box. What is this one? It's like opening a treasure chest: oh yes, all that steam okay, this one is another turkey wing with the the rice dressing, with a side of green beans with more okra stew, and then the final one here is. This must be the rib plate. Oh yeah! Oh, those are just so juicy just dripping with sauce that steam and the portion sizes are huge as well this one we also got with the rice dressing with ribs and with some sides.

I cannot emphasize this enough everything cooked with so much love, so much passion. Everyone here they're so incredibly nice from madonna to all of everyone. I have to begin with that. Stuffed turkey wing - i don't know if it's possible to pick it up, but i just have to madonna, was telling me, oh, that po cloud of steam just comes out when you lift that arm.

Madonna was telling me that they are done when the arm lifts away from the drumstick. Look at that. You just feel that skin, that's it, otherwise it would just fall apart. Can we pick it up? Oh yeah, it's hot wow, oh, but it's so hot.

You can just see the meat will just literally slide off the bone, and i think it would actually be easier, much easier to eat this with a fork on top of your rice, because it's so hot, but i just have to pick it up and bite. There's no other way: okay, let's go wow wow, the tenderness that pepper powder, the paste. I love, how all of the juices and the the fat of the skin has just melted into the bone, all the way to the bone wow and that flavor yeah that seasoning? That chili, all that's just oozing with delicious flavor and spice, look at how clean that bone is on the bottom. There i mean that skin it's slightly gooey, it's slightly caramelized.

All that spice has just completely uh caramelized and caked onto the skin of that wing. The different textures, let's fall off the bone, look at how clean the bone is. Look at that bone. You just need to lick it a little bit to get all the juice the rest of the flavor, but it's like that is the most effortless to chew wing that i've ever had in my life.

That is insane. Let me show you one more time how tender this is. I just have to emphasize it one more time. This is a plastic fork, just shreds it just falls off, you could shake this wing and the meat would fall off.

That's how tender it is scoop into that rice and gravy. The deep layering of flavor from that roux, the pork flavor, the oh, that's just like straight comfort, just absorbs into the rice, the hot fresh steamed rice, an ultimate perfect, comforting, combination, okay and then the last dish that i got on this plate is the okra. I got two sides of okra that okra is just too good. There's seafood in here, there's sausage and the other thing miss madonna mentioned.
Is that the way she cooks the okra and prepares it it takes out? It removes some of the really stickiness and you can even see that in the texture yeah, it's not not quite as sticky as some other okra dishes. Oh wow, that is sensational just a burst of flavor, got a little bit of stickiness all of those little balls in there. Those are all the seeds of the okra before we move over into the other wing. Let's try the ribs and this she said is a very popular sundae combination.

We've got the seasoned, the rice dressing on the bottom, and then we've got the just a pile, a stack of ribs on top try one of these ribs right from the top again look: how tender that is: barbecued and then baked and steamed inside a tray of Barbecue sauce, oh wow, again just insanely tender falls off the bone tender and then because they're baked again with that caramelizing barbecue sauce, it gives it a crunchy edge all around but just tender to the max. Whenever you have a hanging piece of meat, there's only one thing to do come from elevation: oh wow, those are spectacular too. Okay. Let's change that.

I can't wait to try the rice dressing. Okay and the rice dressing is again there's some roux as the base mixed into rice, i'm not sure if they added some meat into here, but you can see a little bit of seasoning some herbs in there as well. Oh yeah, that texture is a little bit sticky and then again you take that depth of flavor from that roux simmered down until it creates this rich depth of flavor a smokiness. So you can taste all the smokiness in that rice, the stickiness, the gooeyness outstanding got one more side, which is the green beans, the smokiness, the green beans just melt in your mouth now.

The food here is so everything so incredibly good family recipes and again like i cannot emphasize or tell you enough times how much care, how much passion and love is just put into everything that they make here and that's also a huge part of it. I'm moving back over to the bird and i'm gon na try to tackle the the drumstick look at this drumstick love the flavor. Oh, i got a bite of that stuffing for sure that garlic, that paste and because it's stuffed it just fills the entire wing. All the way to the bone with flavor there's so much meat.

This is like an entire flap of skin. I'm gon na mix some of that okra with the turkey with the rice, get it all in a medley, yeah perfect and i love all those little jelly bits and collagen and the knuckles all that cartilagey all those different characters. The joints of the turkey getting close to the to finishing off this box, you need to do a little stretching that was an insanely good meal, and that is so filling all we're left with is three clean bones. Oh man, wow, oh yeah.
That was just incredibly satisfying, so so good, the turkey wing, the ribs, the rice and gravy that okra, and that is a meal that again, if you did, have any plans for the day, you should just cancel them after this meal, you're gon na wan na just Lean back and relax for the rest of the day, oh man, that was so unbelievably good. I loved loved the stuffed turkey wings, the sides, the ribs, i loved everything about it and then just the kindness, the hospitality of madonna and her story. How the restaurant is dedicated to her grandmother, laura who started the restaurant originally in madonna and then her family that run the restaurant all of the staff they're, so incredibly cool. So, incredibly, nice, without a doubt when you are in lafayette, this is the restaurant to come to.

You have to come here. Come support. Laura's number two cafe for just unbelievable meal experience cooked with so much love and that's gon na be it for this video. I really hope you enjoyed it.

Please remember to give this video a thumbs up and also leave a comment, i'd love to hear from you and also remember to subscribe. So you don't miss the next food video thanks again for watching goodbye from lafayette louisiana, and i will see you on the next video.

By Mark

18 thoughts on “2 pound turkey wings!! giant soul food at laura’s ii – lafayette!”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Sonia Rodriguez says:

    "You just have to lick it a little bit, to get all the juice."‐Mark Wiens 2021

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mo Johnson says:

    Fantastic Video…WOW Im so hungry the food look so delicious!!! Thank You Mark I love these NOLA videos…

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jose A Torres says:

    In all honesty is the most I’ve ever seen you enjoy your meal I enjoyed watching you eat it and if I’m ever in that area I will certainly stop and eat at Laura’s II

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Helene Sovern says:

    Fast Forward 20 years……”mom, what did daddy do for a living?” Mom: “He ate massive amounts of food!”

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Gabriel Salom says:

    There's no way those turkey wings aren't full of hormones 😿

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars LanguageExpert 1111 says:

    Unpopular opinion but won't those wings literally taste like spiced up boiled meat? There's gallons and gallons of water there !

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Angel Abraham Castillo Guzman says:

    Waking up eating chicken wings 🤣

    What more could I ask for 🤗

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Izanagi No Okami says:

    I have just check in into my dorm, seeing this really miss my Mom's cooking

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Gitanjali Ramji says:

    Mark, lots of love to you,Ying and Mika from Mumbai India 💓💓💓💓💓

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ted Ellis says:

    Mark you are the top guy on YouTube!! Much love and respect!!!

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ladenna Young says:

    That turkey wing is about the size of a whole turkey. Lol.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ray , says:

    UK watching..loving the fact this girl knew her love on food..
    Much love from the UK 🇬🇧❤💙💛💕

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Adil Khan says:

    You are amazing mark wiens and this video reminded me of the videos you made in Pakistan! An awesome conten

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars lawrence Foster says:

    "world renound" you mean people like George Floyd's family who had twenty million dollars given to them order them from Minnesota. World renound.

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars lawrence Foster says:

    Those wing's weren't made for flying, they were they were made for eating.

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars The Go To Family says:

    First thing I did this morning is watch a Mark Wiens video. And now I'm hungry. 🤤😃👌

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars wpl says:

    Every single one of those dishes looked amazing. Kudos to Madonna and her krew. That is a restaurant I want to go to. Also a shout out to Ying and Micah. Without their willingness to travel around the country and the world, Mark wouldn't really be able to do this channel and have his family with him.

  18. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Helen Smith says:

    Cool family history you can see how much love is put into there food it all looks so delicious my mouth was watering on this video all my favorite foods so jealous.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.