Cajun or Creole cuisine?
Behind these words, it is obviously all Louisiana which is drawn. They blend together to the point that one does not always know what they refer to. As for the cuisine, each style is originally quite distinct.
Cajun cuisine
comes from old country recipes imported by the Acadians. Taking refuge in the bayous, they cooked everything that was edible. It was an ingenious, creative cuisine that reflected their enormous capacity for adaptation, their instinct for survival and their immense joie de vivre. The Acadians took advantage of everything they found in the bayous and swamps. Always friendly towards the Indian tribes, the latter gave them in return the secrets of aromatic plants and spices. "We don't eat to live, we live to eat", they say among the Cajuns. Just like "A good cook must know how to cook everything, even the skunk". To survive in the bayous, the Cajuns had to eat what was there: squirrels, turtles, alligators, fish, shellfish... To this, they added what became the "Holy Trinity" of Cajun cuisine: chopped onions, chili and celery. There is a food trail to discover this type of cuisine: the Cajun Bayou Food Trail (lacajunbayou.com/foodtrail).Creole cuisine,
on the other hand, derives from the haute cuisine that was served in New Orleans restaurants, a great mix between various culinary traditions imported by chefs trained in Europe and Indian, West Indian, African know-how... The dishes concocted were perfectly suited to a class of wealthy planters who were fond of sophisticated dishes and to a city lifestyle of luxury and varied pleasures. Over the years, the Creole cuisine, known in New Orleans, blended with the Cajun cuisine, born in the bayous and popularized by Chef Paul Prudhomme. Today, it is the famous cuisine of South Louisiana. Louisiana cuisine has traveled the world, but no one cooks it better than in South Louisiana. In families, the best recipes are carefully passed down from generation to generation.Louisiana specialties
Alligator spicy sauce (spicy gator
). Chunks of alligator in a tomato and Tabasco based sauce.Andouille.
Spicy pork sausage.Fritters.
A specialty made with a mixture of wheat flour and yeast, flavored with lemon zest, brandy or rum and generously sprinkled with powdered sugar. They are served steaming with Creole coffee mixed with chicory. There's even a festival dedicated to the cause, Beignet Fest in New Orleans.Boudin. Pork casing stuffed with rice, onion and pork chunks. Very famous in Cajun country where the best dishes are often found in small street corner deli's and gas stations. Locals will tell you that the best way to enjoy it is on the go in the parking lot or in your car. There's a whole route to try the boudin, which is accompanied by the famous cracklins
: the Cajun Boudin Trail (cajunboudintrail.com), which includes the main tasting spots.Crawfishetouffee
. Peeled crawfish prepared in a thick, spicy sauce and served with rice. Crayfish(crawfish or mudbug) is mostly eaten steamed in season (winter and spring) and with all kinds of sauces. The little freshwater beast even has a few festivals dedicated to it, such as the Mudbug Madness Festival held in Shreveport in May, but especially the Crawfish Festival held in Breaux Bridge in May as well.Spun.
This is ground sassafras, widely used in gumbo but also in other Creole specialties to spice and thicken the sauce. An old superstition says that the green filé is in fact a magic gri-gri which, once consumed, will make you return regularly to Louisiana.Gumbo.
Some call it a soup, others a stew. That said, its main ingredient is okra - gumbo is the name of this African vegetable, which slaves considered sacred and whose seeds they hid in their hair so that they could replant it in Louisiana - to which are added, among other things, depending on the recipe, shellfish, chicken, pork sausage, tomatoes, onions, celery stalks, peppers, rice, various spices... Each family, each cook, each region of the state has its own gumbo recipe. So you will try many varieties and it will never taste the same! Beware of the very touristy restaurants where it is often disappointing.Oysters
. New Orleans, surrounded by fresh and salt water, Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico are famous for seafood, especially oysters. They are usually eaten raw, with a drizzle of lemon juice, hot sauce or ketchup. Oysters Rockefeller are stuffed with a mixture of spinach and onions, finely chopped parsley and celery, and baked. The stuffing is strongly spiced and flavored with pastis. The Bienville oysters are covered with a mixture of cream and shrimp and baked. Good tip: the gourmet Louisiana Oyster Trail (visitjeffersonparish.com/restaurants/oyster-trail/).Jambalaya.
The most typical dish of the Creole cuisine, a kind of paella made of rice, meats (chicken, pork, sausages...), shellfish (shrimps, crayfish...), vegetables and Cajun spices. Here again, the recipes vary.Muffuletta.
Large round sandwich of Italian origin filled with cold cuts, olives and other condiments, drizzled with olive oil.Po-boy. This typical Louisiana sandwich can vary from place to place and is found everywhere. Generally, it is the same type of bread that is called "French" here with meat, especially roasted beef, or fried seafood, lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. It's certainly not the lightest sandwich and you get it all over your face when you eat it, especially when you get the roast beef with gravy
, but it's so Louisiana. Originally, po-boys would be the sandwich of the less wealthy. One theory is that Benny and Clovis Martin's restaurant served free sandwiches to streetcar drivers during a strike and their nickname was the poor boys, so by extension, it became the sandwich they were served.Breadpudding
. Stale bread mixed with cream or milk, rum and often served with a whiskey sauce.Pralines.
A New Orleans specialty. It is said that this recipe comes from the city of Orleans in France and was brought here by the Ursulines. This small sweet cake is made with pecan nuts and cane sugar. A bit like the doucelettes in Martinique.Rice with red beans (red beans and rice
). Red beans cooked in a sauce with small pieces of sausage and mixed with rice.Tabasco.
The world-famous hot pepper sauce is made on Avery Island, near a salt mine, since salt is an essential component of this sauce. This pepper puree ferments for three years in white oak barrels. After this time, fine vinegar is added and the mixture is left to rest for a month. Finally, it is filtered and bottled. The finished product is exported to more than 100 countries and the packaging is translated into several languages.Drink local, a must!
The craft beer industry has been all the rage for the past decade, a trend that is not about to fade away. While there are large industrial companies dominating the market in the United States (Anheuser-Busch, Molson Coors Beverage Company...), microbreweries andcraft breweries are popping up all over the state. They often incorporate local ingredients in the brewing process to give a regional character to the various house beers. Breweries are also a great place to enjoy food made from local ingredients, and they often offer cultural and artistic programming that showcases the local scene.
Less numerous, but just as worth discovering, are Louisiana's distilleries, which produce excellent nectars, from rum made from local sugar cane to absinthe concocted in the traditional way. Consequently, cocktails are very popular in Louisiana. These include the Mint Julep (bourbon, mint leaves, sugar, water and crushed ice), the Sazerac (rye whiskey or cognac, aniseed liqueur, Peychaud's bitters, sugar and lemon peel garnish), the Absinthe Frappé (absinthe, simple syrup, sparkling water, mint leaves and crushed ice), the Pimm's Cup (Pimm's No. 1, lemonade, Seven Up and cucumber slice garnish) or the Hurricane (light rum, dark rum, passion fruit juice, orange juice, fresh lime juice, simple syrup, grenadine, and orange and cherry slice garnish). We also recommend the famous Café Brûlot Diabolique, offered in some of the great restaurants of New Orleans.
A few tips
Forget about diet in Louisiana! Everything is rich, in sauce, with garlic or fried, sometimes to excess.
Concerning the cooking of the meat, well done means "very cooked", medium "medium" and rare "blue".
Beware of the name seafood platter. It has nothing to do with the seafood platters you know, where everything is often fried. Try the etouffee or the grill instead.
Don't be surprised by the omnipresent influence of French cuisine.
Choose Cajun restaurants with live bands to fully experience the festive atmosphere for which these people are known.
