FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. -- In the shadow of the great Minnesota Get-Together is the signature food from a state far away.
"I'm from a small town called Houma, Louisiana," said Tim Glover, whose food truck sits in a yard along Snelling Avenue.
No lefse here, but there is a different kind of hot dish: Cajun cooking, with bread from New Orleans, shrimp from the gulf, and recipes straight from Tim Glover's childhood kitchen.
"They really bring back good solid memories," Glover said of the foods he grew up with. "Yes, they do."
Those aren't the only moments Glover recalls as he works, thinking often about how he landed here. A longtime airplane mechanic, Glover joined the military after 9/11, served in Iraq, and didn't know what to do next. That's when his wife--who grew up in Minnesota---asked the question that changed his life.
"She said, 'What else do you like to do? And I told her I'm passionate about cooking.'"
So with training at culinary school, the Glovers thought they'd start a food truck, and in three months, an old camper they had in their yard became Cajun 2 Geaux. Its spicy food is a taste of home for southern transplants like customer Sharece Ellington.
"It definitely brings me back," Ellington said as she ate. "I haven't been there in awhile, but it brings me back."
Glover also serves his food mild, often those from the north.
"I'll ask them do they like it Minnesotan or medium or maybe a little hot," he explained with a laugh.
Business is also heating up, but Tim hasn't forgotten his other kind of service, or about the fellow soldiers who have now become some of his best customers.
"You finally fulfill a dream in your life," he said, "And it's a great thing."
For more information on the food truck, go to the Cajun 2 Geaux website.
(Copyright 2012 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)