A Taste of New Orleans

Boy, does this city love to eat. And boy, does it offer visitors a range of choices. Thanks to influences from French Provincial, Spanish, Italian, West Indian, African, and Native American cuisines, it covers the whole span from down-home Southern cooking to the most creative and artistic gourmet dishes. New Orleans is one of the few cities in America that can justify a visit solely for cooking and cuisine.

Many of the famous dishes here started out as provincial French recipes brought to the New World by early settlers. Native Americans introduced the settlers to native herbs and filé (ground sassafras leaves); the Spanish added saffron and peppers to the mix somewhat later. From the West Indies came new vegetables, spices, and sugar cane, and when slave boats arrived, landing many black women in the kitchens of white slave owners, an African influence was added. Out of all this came the distinctive Creole culinary style unique to New Orleans. Later, Italian immigrants added yet another dimension to the city's tables. In addition, many traditional Old South dishes remain on menus. Keep your eyes peeled for the now rare "Wop salad" (containing olives, shrimp, and asparagus, topped with anchovies), a contribution of the aforementioned Italian population, and a victim of political correctness, even though said Italians didn't mind the name (in this context) a bit.

From this international past, residents of New Orleans have inherited a love of exciting culinary combinations, and from the city's old-world traditions, they've retained an appreciation for fine service in elegant surroundings. There are lots of ironies here, too; you can get gourmet dishes served in the plainest of settings and plain meals (such as boiled crawfish or red beans and rice) in the fanciest of eateries. New Orleanians are voracious restaurantgoers and are notoriously strict in the qualities they expect from an eating establishment. If a place is below par, it probably won't last very long. And woe to any classic restaurant that dares to remove a beloved dish!

You Got Your Cajun in my Creole

Cajun and Creole are the two classic New Orleans cuisines. What's the difference? It lies chiefly in distance between city and countryside.

Cajun cooking came from country folk -- the Acadians who left France for Nova Scotia in the 1600s and, after being expelled from Canada by the British in the 1700s, made their way to the swamps and bayous of rural Louisiana. French dishes traveled with them, but along the way recipes were adapted to locally available ingredients. Their cuisine tends to be a lot like their music: spicy and robust. Etouffée, a classic dish, features sausage, duck, poultry, pork, and seafood prepared in a rich roux and served over rice, while jambalaya is rice with many of those same ingredients cooked in it. Both demonstrate how to turn a little into a lot, a necessity for an often-poor people. Creole dishes, on the other hand, were developed by French and Spanish city dwellers and feature delicate sauces and ingredients of fancier quality.

In practice, however, the two cuisines have discovered such a happy marriage in New Orleans that it's often difficult to distinguish between them. Because Creole is already such a hodgepodge -- there are so many different ways of defining it that two entirely different restaurants might correctly call themselves Creole -- it may soon swallow up Cajun food as just another influence. Paul Prudhomme of K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen calls the result of Cajun and Creole cross-fertilization "Louisiana food." He goes on to say, "Nowhere else have all the ethnic groups merged to combine all these different tastes, and the only way you'll know the difference, honey, is to live 'em!" No matter how a New Orleans restaurant classifies its culinary offerings, you're bound to find one or two examples of Cajun and Creole cooking on the menu.

Of Beignets, Boudin & Dirty Rice

Many of the foods in New Orleans are unique to the region and consequently may be unfamiliar to first-time visitors. Here's a list that will help you navigate any New Orleans menu:

andouille (ahn-doo-we): A spicy Cajun sausage made with pork.

bananas Foster: Bananas sautéed in liqueur, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter, then drenched in rum, set ablaze, and served over vanilla ice cream.

beignet (bin-yay): A big, puffy, deep-fried doughnut (don't look for the hole), liberally sprinkled with powdered sugar -- the more sugar, the better.

boudin (boo-dan): A type of Cajun sausage containing onion, spices, pork, and rice.

café brûlot (cah-fay brew-low): Coffee mixed with spices and liqueurs and served flaming.

chaurice (cho-reece): A hard sausage used chiefly for flavoring beans or soups.

crawfish: A tiny, lobsterlike creature plentiful in the waters around New Orleans and eaten in every conceivable way. When it's served whole and boiled, separate the head from the tail and then remove the first two sections of the tail shell. Squeeze the tail at its base, and the meat should pop right out -- you'll get the hang of it.

daube: Beef or sometimes veal.

dirty rice: A popular menu item, it looks dirty because of the spices and other ingredients in which it's cooked -- usually chicken livers and gizzards, onions, chopped celery, green bell pepper, cayenne, black and white peppers, and chicken stock.

dressed: Served with the works -- used when ordering a sandwich.

eggs hussarde: Poached eggs with hollandaise, marchand de vin sauce, tomatoes, and ham. Marchand de vin is a wine sauce flavored with onions, shallots, celery, carrots, garlic, red wine, beef broth, and herbs.

eggs Sardou: Legend has it that Antoine Alciatore created this dish especially for French playwright Victorien Sardou (author of La Tosca). It includes poached eggs, artichoke bottoms, anchovy filets, hollandaise, and truffles or ham as a garnish.

étouffée (ay-too-fay): A Cajun stew (usually containing crawfish) served with rice.

filé (fee-lay): A thickener made of ground sassafras leaves. Filé is frequently used to thicken gumbo.

grillades (gree-yads): Thin slices of beef or veal smothered in a tomato-and-beef-flavored gravy, often served with grits.

grits: Grains of dried corn that have been ground and hulled. A staple of the Southern breakfast table, grits are most frequently served with butter and salt (not maple syrup or brown sugar) or red-eye gravy.

gumbo: A thick, spicy soup always served with rice and usually containing crab, shrimp, sometimes oysters, and okra in a roux base.

hurricane: A local drink of rum and passion-fruit punch.

hush puppies: Fried balls of cornmeal, often served as a side dish with seafood.

jambalaya (jum-ba-lie-ya): A jumble of yellow rice, sausage, seafood, vegetables, and spices.

lagniappe (lan-yap): A little something extra you neither paid for nor deserve -- like the 13th doughnut when you order a dozen.

muffuletta: A mountainous sandwich made with Italian deli meats, one or two kinds of cheese, olive salad (pickled olives, celery, carrots, cauliflower, and capers), and oil and vinegar, piled onto a round loaf of Italian bread made specially for these incredible sandwiches.

oysters Rockefeller: Oysters on the half shell in a creamy sauce with spinach, so called because Rockefeller was the only name rich enough to match the taste.

pain perdu (pan pair-du): Literally "lost bread," this is New Orleans's version of French toast, made with French bread. You'll find a large variety of toppings on pain perdu as you make your way around New Orleans.

po' boy: A sandwich on French bread with different fillings (similar to submarine sandwiches and grinders). Most po' boys are filled with fried seafood, but they can be anything you want, from roast beef to fried eggs to french fries. Yes, french fries.

pralines (praw-leens): A very sweet confection made of brown sugar and pecans; they come in "original" and creamy styles.

rémoulade: A spicy sauce, usually over shrimp. The one at Commander's Palace is a concoction of homemade mayonnaise, boiled egg yolks, horseradish, Creole mustard, and lemon juice. But several New Orleans restaurants claim to have invented it, and who can say who is right at this point?

roux: A mixture of flour and fat that's slowly cooked over low heat, used to thicken stews, soups, and sauces.

Sazerac: A cocktail of bourbon or rye (Canadian whiskey) with bitters.

shrimp Creole: Shrimp in a tomato sauce seasoned with what's known around town as "the trinity": onions, garlic, and green bell pepper.

tasso: A local variety of ham. No weak little honey-baked version, this one's smoked and seasoned with red pepper.

Whole Lotta Muffuletta Goin' On

Muffulettas are sandwiches of (pardon the expression) heroic proportions, enormous concoctions of round Italian bread, Italian cold cuts and cheeses, and olive salad. One person cannot eat a whole one -- at least not in one sitting. (And if you can, don't complain to us about your stomachache.) Instead, share; a half makes a good meal, and a quarter is a filling snack. They may not sound like much on paper, but once you try one, you'll be hooked.

Several places in town claim to have invented the muffuletta and also claim to make the best one. (Some fancy restaurants have their own upscale versions -- they are often delicious but bear no resemblance to the real McCoy.) Popular opinion, shared by the author, awards the crown to Central Grocery. But why take our word for it? Muffuletta comparison-shopping can be a very rewarding pastime.

Judging from the line that forms at lunchtime, many others agree with us that Central Grocery, 923 Decatur St. (tel. 504/523-1620), makes the best muffuletta. There are a few seats at the back of this crowded, heavenly smelling Italian grocery, or you can order to go. Best of all, they ship, so once you're hooked -- and you will be -- you need not wait until your next trip for a muffuletta fix. Take your sandwich across the street and eat it on the banks of the Mississippi for an inexpensive romantic meal (about $14 for a whole sandwich, which feeds two). Central Grocery can make up their sandwiches early in the day, so they are ready to go as the rush hits. This means you can sometimes get a sandwich that is just a bit less fresh. Go early, to get them shortly after they are constructed, or later, if there has been a big rush, forcing production of more later in the day.

Then there are those who swear by the heated muffulettas served at the Napoleon House, 500 Chartres St. (tel. 504/524-9752). Others find them blasphemous. We recommend that you start with cold and work up to heated -- it's a different taste sensation. Feeling experimental? Go to Nor-Joe's Importing Co., 505 Friscoe, in Metairie (tel. 504/833-9240), where what many consider outstanding muffulettas are constructed with such iconoclastic ingredients as prosciutto and mortadella. Even bigger than the ones at Central Grocery, these are so good they have been known to make converts to the cult of Nor-Joe!

A Snoball's Chance

While towns across the U.S. enjoy ice cream (and New Orleans is no exception), New Orleans does have another iced dessert that is especially popular among the locals: the snoball. These mouthwatering concoctions are made with only the best-quality shaved ice, sometimes so fine that skiers envy the powder. And the flavors -- including exotic ones such as wedding cake (almond, mostly), nectar (think cream soda, only much better), and even orchid cream vanilla (bright purple and must be seen to be believed) -- are absolutely delectable. You can order them with condensed or evaporated milk if you prefer your refreshing drinks on the more creamy side. At any time of the day during the hot New Orleans summers, lines at local snoball establishments can be out the door. You should stop in at any snoball stand you see, but the following locations are tops and worth the drive uptown for, though you should call for hours because they vary, especially during the winter when they might be closed entirely. Go with a sweet tooth and get plenty of napkins.

Hansen's Sno-Bliz, 4801 Tchoupitoulas (tel. 504/891-9788), is a city tradition after decades of service, still provided with a smile by the third-generation owner Ashley Hansen, who officially took over after her grandparents died in the months after Katrina. Her grandparents invented the particular shaved-ice machine in use here and their own special syrups. Their snoballs come in a souvenir cup. Try the bubble-gum-flavored Sno-bliz. Plum St. Snoballs, 1300 Burdette (tel. 504/866-7996), has been cooling New Orleanians for over 70 years. Local favorites include the chocolate and cream vanilla-flavored snoballs. Served in a Chinese food container, the way it ought to be.