New Orleans is like Italy. If you ever ask someone what they enjoyed the most while visiting, their answer will probably be “the food.”
Well, that’s my answer. Since I moved to New Orleans in August of last year, I’ve come to respect the city’s restaurants, chefs, and cuisine much more than I had anywhere else before. Even while there are a number of culinary hotspots, I bet New Orleans cuisine would be hard-pressed to find a true rival in the entire nation that can match the originality, flavor, and history behind the food.
New Orleans Cuisine
Creole Jambalaya is a signature dish of New Orleans. (Photo Credit: Flickr)
Perhaps it’s from the mix of cultures. At Lilette, where I worked as a butcher and continue to fill in on weekend nights, one of my fellow cooks tells me that it’s because Louisiana is the only region in the U.S. that was originally colonized by the French, and then had a period of Spanish influence.
Since then, New Orleans became a port city, and with the wide diversity of its people, it’s natural that New Orleans cuisine would be something of a mix itself.
Cooking up Some Cajun Jambalaya
Last weekend, I made my first jambalaya, a delicious mix of meat, rice, vegetables, and spices. I chatted up my friend Julia’s mother, Miss Anne, to find out how she makes jambalaya, as she and her family are native to the region.
The holy trinity of Creole cuisine: Onion, Bell Pepper, and Celery. (Photo Credit: Flickr)
I would later learn that her style could be classified as slightly more Cajun than Creole, because of the lack of tomatoes, but it sounded like a great recipe to me, with chicken, Andouille sausage, trinity, and chopped water chestnuts. The last ingredient might sound strange, but it adds a great textural difference. The dish was a bit labor intensive—it took nearly five hours to complete and made a complete mess of my kitchen. But in the end, it’s a hearty, one-pot meal, one I was glad to share with Julia and see what she thought of it.
I even brought some to work and had a foodie co-worker of mine try it, and he told me an interesting perspective on jambalaya.
Creole vs. Cajun
Like I said before, there are two major kinds of jambalaya—brown and red, or Cajun and Creole, respectively. The only difference is the use of tomatoes. But my co-worker argued that since boxed jambalaya mixes have become available, most people have come to think it should be one way—like the kind you see on the Zatarain’s box. He thinks that instead, people should just make it as they like it, “a different jambalaya for each cook.”
I think that’s a great approach. The dish itself is a rich mix of influences, ranging from French stews to Spanish paella, with Creole spices that represent an entire world of flavors. Whether it’s shrimp, chicken, sausage, tomatoes, or all of the above, a homemade jambalaya can embody the diversity of New Orleans.
How do you like your jambalaya?
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