Transcript and Bulletin.
In The
World on a Plate (2014), Mina Holland describes 40 world cuisines and the
“stories behind them.” Reading her book, you travel across Europe and down
through the Middle East, east to Asia and south to Africa. She ends the book
with the “melting pots” of the Americas: the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese
influences in South America and the French, Polish, Germany, African and Asian inspirations
to the north.
Of
these 40 world’s cuisines, only the regions of California and Louisiana are
included a mention in Holland’s book. A
California Salad is dressed with Asian ingredients. BBQ corn is smothered with
Cajun seasoning, accompanied by crawfish, and grits. Holland’s explanation is
that most of Europe left its mark on the Northeast and the Midwest. Spain,
through Mexico, impacted the South-Northwest. Yet, Louisiana cuisine is a
unique rich blend of French, Spanish, Caribbean and Native American cultures
and food.
We’ve
heard of Cajun Shrimp. Creole Gumbo. Yet, Cajun and Creole cooking can be
confused. They are very separate – and somewhat the same. A Louisiana travel
site simplifies the differences by explaining that Creole is “city food” and
Cajun is “country.” Another clarification is that Creole uses tomatoes and
Cajun never does. Think gumbo and jambalaya and this explanation can fit.
The
Cajuns were immigrants from French Canada – the Acadians. Acadia was a colony
of New France that included parts of Quebec, the Maritime provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince
Edward Island), and what we know now as the state of Maine. As early as
the mid-1700s, Acadians traveled south to Louisiana on the Mississippi River or
by ship along the Atlantic. In Louisiana, “Acadian” was shortened, very simply,
to Cajun. The Acadians brought their spices and foods with them to the Gulf
Coast.
Creole
in French means “a person not indigenous to the country or land.” The word in
Spanish is criollo. In Louisiana the meaning is more distinct with the Creole
culture sometimes described as a blend of the French, Spanish, African and
Native American.
I
was lucky enough to visit Louisiana, specifically New Orleans, during one of
the hottest weeks of this past June – the last full week before the Fourth of
July holiday. As I grew to understand (from Lyft drivers and bartenders), the tourists
vacate New Orleans after July 4. The tourist season officially ends then and
tired New Orleans hotel and restaurant and bar staff finally get a break from
the hectic, nearly year-round party in the Big Easy.
The
American Library Association knows its members well –librarians who are on lean
personal and professional budgets. For that reason, ALA’s conferences are held
in some of the hottest locales in the country in the summer (Anaheim,
Washington DC, and Las Vegas) and the coldest cities in the winter (Chicago,
Boston, and Indianapolis).
This
year was no exception, of course, when the NOLA (New Orleans, LA) humidity made
95 degree weather practically unbearable during the conference held June 21
through the 26 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center along the Mississippi
River.
My
conference week (spent mainly indoors in the kilometer-long air-conditioned convention
center) ended midweek and two of my hardy, best friends since 7th
grade arrived for a girls-only Louisiana adventure. The three of us moved into
a lovely hotel, complete with center garden, just steps from Bourbon Street. Together,
we braved the New Orleans heat, learned of its illustrious history, and ate out
way through its impossibly-delicious cuisine for five wonderful days.
I
had already discovered the best fresh, hot beignets, bowls of gumbo, chargrilled
oysters, and sippable drinks before my girlfriends arrived. So, we gobbled
oysters at Dragos and sipped Sazeracs at the Public Belt. We hopped on and off the tour bus and visited
the Garden District, Tremé, the French Market, and Canal and
Tchoupitoulis Streets. At the original Café du Monde we guzzled coffee accompanied
by beignets that were smothered in mounds of confectionary sugar (somewhat like
puffed fried dough).
We
braved a buggy ride behind a hairy mule (the mules fare much better than horses
in the heat) and learned oodles about the architecture of New Orleans,
including the restrictions for homes in the Historic District. We walked with
some trepidation along Bourbon Street with its rowdy crowds, crisscrossing the
French Quarter to our chosen nightly restaurants and cocktail bars. We tasted a
Pimm’s Cup, a French 75, and a Viuex Carre in a Nick and Nora finely-etched
glass.
There
were many highlights of our girls’ vacation but two are of the type none of us
will ever forget.
The
first was a swamp tour along the West Pearl River, reached by a 45-minute drive
north of New Orleans and over the eight-mile bridge spanning Lake Pontchartrain.
The bridge is new and it sits directly next to the ruins of the previous one
destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. Once on the bayou, our tour guide
commanded his pontoon boat for a little over 2 hours along the swamps lined
with Bald Cypress trees and filled with very visible alligators. He sidled up
to a luscious shrub and offered us a pungent bay leaf, different than we had
ever smelled before. He pulled up close to where a red fern grew from a lone
river log. We three women from California and Massachusetts, and our local tour
guide from the bayou, spent much of the time talking recipes and cuisine,
serenaded by afternoon cicadas and shaded by overhanging swamp growth.
The
second experience was a hands-on cooking class at the New Orleans Cooking
School. While it is a business that caters to the tourist, it was also an
adventure like no other. For 2-1/2 hours we three each had our own kitchen
island complete with induction stove and all the equipment and ingredients we
needed to make Cajun Gumbo, Beef Grillades with Grits, and Bananas Foster (complete
with flame and magic dust.) We drank spicy Bloody Marys, local craft beer, and
ate our own creation of three courses of deliciousness accompanied by our teacher/chef’s
stories of Cajun and Creole lore.
There
are many books in the throughout the libraries of the Minuteman Library System.
We have four of the best ones that will help you to navigate the Cajun and
Creole cuisines.
Ten
years after Hurricane Katrina, Cooking Up a Storm (2005) was re-published in
2015. The book was originally compiled as recipes “lost and found” by the
Times-Picayune and stories and recipes of New Orleans culinary heritage. George Graham’s Acadiana Table (2016) includes
traditional Louisiana recipes and some brand-new ones. John Besh’s Big Easy
(2016). The author of the bestselling cookbook My New Orleans (2009), owner of twelve restaurants
and host of two public television shows has written a fourth book about his
native Creole cuisine. Another television cooking celebrity and author of New
Orleans Cooking (2015), Kevin Belton has written New Orleans Kitchen published
this year in 2018. If you can’t make a trip to New Orleans, you can the good
times roll, Cajun or Creole-style in your own home.
