Local Cuisine

Of Beignets, Boudin, and 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 sausage, 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.