Exotic Eats

Ordinarily everyone here at TestOut Continuing Education carries on the work of dispensing highly effective simulation-based IT training from our global HQ, which is located inside a pineapple under the sea. For some reason, in addition to preaching the gospel of certification far and wide, we spend a lot of time dealing with legal documents and formal complaints from a yellow guy in a white shirt with oddly-configured pants. Who knows what that's about?

No, really, who knows? And can you help us do something about it? This guy is way annoying, and it's not like the only thing anyone is expecting us to do is deal with his shenanigans. At any rate, from time to time we like to visit our TestOut CE customers in different parts of the world. We get to find out more about how they use our products, provide training and support in person for a day or two, and do some good old-fashioned relationship building.

Our assignment this week was to travel to Fort Polk in Louisiana and meet with personnel there who use TestOut CE training products. A U.S. Army training installation, Fort Polk encompasses about 198,000 acres, roughly one-third of which are also managed by the U.S. Forest Service. In addition to visiting Fort Polk, we also spent time at the Alexandria Zoological Park in nearby Alexandria. There's an amazing collection of animals there, if you're ever in town.

The real highlight of the trip, however, was sampling the local cuisine. You can't really say that you've traveled to a place until you've dined with the locals and eaten some of whatever food the area is known for. So we tried breaded catfish bites that were surprisingly delectable, and also enjoyed our first-ever taste of northern red snapper, a prized food fish that thrives in the Gulf Coast waters and is a regional delicacy. It's delicious!

The real prize culinary creation, however, was something called white chocolate bread pudding, photographic evidence of which is included above. We aren't sure whether white chocolate bread pudding has any special connection to Louisiana, but it now has a special connection to our hearts. You may not have to travel any further than the nearest highbrow chocolaterie to try some, and it's worth whatever they're charging.