New
Orleans is
a Mecca of culinary temptations and as a native I wouldn’t
want it any other way. Temptation and atonement are part of our
culture. With religious roots that are primarily Catholic, thanks
to our French founders, the church affects our calendar in a rather
unique way: we celebrate Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, the final
day of feasting before 40 days of Lent. The traditional abstinence
from meat during this time leading up to Easter means that we
have to “sacrifice” by enjoying the bounty from nearby
waters: fish, shrimp and oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, crabs
from Lake Pontchatrain, and crawfish from area swamplands.
New Orleans was founded by the French in 1718 and named after
the regent, the Duke d’Orleans. Passed to the Spanish for
a while, it went back to France long enough for Napoleon to sell
it to a fledgling United States of America in 1803.
In New Orleans, the French influence over local cooking was just
the beginning. Throughout the years African slaves were often
the cooks. Through one of the nation’s busiest ports have
come new citizens from Germany, Ireland, the French Caribbean
Islands, Italy, Greece, Croatia and more recently, Asia. The Choctaw
Indians were already living in this swampy mosquito-infested piece
of land, below sea level and shaped like a crescent on the Mississippi
River. They introduced powdered sassafras or file_ which they
called “kombo” to settlers as a staple for one of many
styles of the indigenous soup we call gumbo – from the African
word “kingumbo” meaning the vegetable okra. A gumbo
usually contains either file_ or okra as a thickener. Just as
gumbo is a blend of many cultures, so is the origin of the word.
However, the base of most gumbos is “roux” – flour
and fat with seasonings that is browned to provide an almost nutty
flavor.
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