New Orleans, one of America’s most multicultural cities, has an interesting mix of food and drinks with stories going back several decades. Take, for instance, the Jambalaya. The mix of onion, celery, bellpepper, bay leaves, chicken, shrimp, chicken stock and rice, gets its name from the Provençal word ‘jambalaia’, which means mishmash. It borrows from African, Spanish and French cultures, which still thrive in the historic city by the mighty Mississippi River.
This multiplicity makes New Orleans one of the most interesting food hubs in the world. The city has a French bread it loves, a curry it can’t do without, an iconic banana dessert, and cocktails, laced with interesting origin stories, created in centuries-old establishments, which still stand.
What’s most interesting is that many of the dishes were invented because of scarcity or surplus during prohibition, World War II or other historic events, says Ben Wisdom who conducts food tours in New Orleans. Whether it’s the Gumbo or the cocktail Sazerac or Beignet, they all represent the city’s past of slavery, wars, and workers’ strikes, and how its varied people emerged out of it together.
Hence, the New Orleans experience is best savoured through its food, and here’s how you do it. Follow this guide to taste the best of the Big Chill, a moniker the city has earned for its relaxed lifestyle.
Beignets at Café Du Monde
The New Orleans food tour has to start with beignets, the French-style, deep-fried doughnut that’s generously dusted with sugar. They were introduced to New Orleans by French settlers in the 18th Century and have been the city’s favourite breakfast ever since.
The best place to enjoy Beignet is at the Café Du Monde near Jackson Square. It was established in 1862 and just serves beignets and café au lait made with chicory coffee.
You will find this place bustling with people any time of the day. What’s best is, there will always be street jazz players in front of the café, entertaining guests. Sometimes, their performance also turns into an impromptu street party.
Gumbo at Antoine’s Restaurant
Established in 1840, Antoine’s Restaurant does a rich, Creole-style gumbo, a thick stew, with gulf shrimps, oysters, crabmeat, shrimp stock, okra, filé and other ingredients. Gumbo itself has African, Spanish and French roots, dating back to the early 1700s. Its name is derived from the West African word for okra, ki ngombo, which was used as a thickening agent. Over time, different versions of the dish evolved, and now there is also a chicken and sausage gumbo.
Antonie’s Restaurant is regarded as one of the oldest family-run eateries in the US. French entrepreneur Antoine Alciatore was just 18 when he started the restaurant in New Orleans. After a few years, he also opened a hotel but left it all to his wife in 1874 to return to Marseille and spend his last days there.
Po’boys at Parkway Bakery and Tavern
A simple French bread sandwich with roast beef and gravy was how it started. In 1929, New Orleans’ streetcar drivers went on a strike for better pay and working conditions. Shop owner Bennie and Clovis Martins, also former streetcar drivers, fed many of the 1,800 drivers who lost their jobs. Legends have it that the Martins would say, ‘Here comes another poor boy,’ when a driver would walk in for a free sandwich. That’s how the sandwich got its name. Today, the Po’boys are made with many ingredients including shrimp, ham, crawfish, etc., and dressed with lettuce, tomatoes and sauces.
But what’s unchanged is the bread, made with less flour and more water than a traditional baguette, yielding wetter dough that makes lighter and fluffier bread. The recipe was developed in the 1700s in the Gulf South (the coastline of the southern United States that meets Mexico) because the humid climate there was not conducive to growing wheat, requiring wheat flour to be imported, and thus less available.
Parkway Bakery and Tavern was established in 1911. In solidarity with the Martins and the streetcar drivers, German Tim Henry Timothy, Sr., added a ‘Poor Boy’ shop to the tavern in 1929 and fed union members and conductors poor boys for free. Meanwhile, Parkway was also selling the recently invented ‘Poor Boy’ sandwich to the workers at the American Can Company. They operated twenty-four hours a day, and so did Parkway.
Jambalaya at Napolean House
Constructed in 1797, the Napolean House was the residence of Nicholas Girod, the then-mayor of New Orleans. It was offered as a refuge to Napolean Bonaparte in 1821 during his exile.
There is still a plank outside the restaurant that testifies to the open invitation to the conqueror. He, however, never took it up. In 1914, the property was converted into a restaurant and bar, and today, it is known to serve the best Jambalaya in New Orleans among other things.
Jambalaya is a rice-based dish that has African, French and Spanish roots.
Bananas Foster at Brennan’s
This simple banana dessert with banana liqueur and rum is quite a sensation. At the very posh Brennan’s, where the dessert was invented, it’s prepared live, in a very dramatic style, by the guest’s table.
In the early 1950s, Owen Brennan decided to name a dessert after his friend and fellow member of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, Richard Foster. The commission was a non-profit dedicated to exposing corruption in New Orleans.
At the time, Owen's younger brother, John was running Brennan's Processed Potato Company, which had a surplus of bananas. Owen asked his sister, Ella, and Chef Paul Blangé to come up with a new dessert using these bananas. What they came up with is now the world-famous Bananas Foster.
Brennan’s was established in 1946 as a quintessential fine-dining spot in the French Quarter. When Owen Brennan was teased by Count Arnaud that an Irishman's culinary skills ended with boiled potatoes, he was determined to prove him wrong. In 1946, he opened Owen Brennan's Vieux Carré Restaurant on Bourbon Street, which later moved to Royal Street, also in the French Quarters.
Apart from the food, one cannot not try these two cocktails when in New Orleans, which were first made here.
Sazerac at The Sazerac House
In 1838, Creole apothecary Antoine Peychaud invented the Sazerac in his shop at the Royal Street. Legends have it that he first served it to fellow masons. The name of the drink comes from Peychaud’s favourite French brandy, Sazerac-de-Forge et fils.
Somewhere along the line, American Rye-whiskey was substituted for the cognac and, in 1873, bartender Leon Lamothe added a dash of Absinthe. Called the Green Fairy for its colour and the Black Death for its liquorice flavour. Absinthe was banned in 1912 for allegedly causing hallucinations.
Soon after, Peychaud’s special bitters were substituted in its place.
Sazerac House is a place dedicated to the cocktails. It gives guests an experiential tour of how the cocktail has evolved over the years.
Hurricane at Pat O’Brien’s
This fruity, rum-based cocktail is a New Orleans’ favourite and was created in the 1940s. Due to difficulties importing scotch during World War II, liquor salesmen forced bar owners to buy up to 50 cases of rum, available in plenty.
That’s when the bartenders at Pat O'Brien's came up with this cocktail recipe to reduce their surplus of rum. “When they decided to serve it in a hurricane glass, shaped like a hurricane lamp, the hurricane was born,” says Wisdom.
Pat O’Brien’s Bar began operation as a legal liquor establishment on December 3, 1933. Before that, during Prohibition, the bar was known as Mr. O’Brien’s Club Tipperary. The password ‘storm's brewin’ was required to enter it.
The writer is an independent journalist who contributes to the BBC, The South China Morning Post, Forbes, Travel & Leisure, and Nat Geo Traveler, among other publications