Essential Dishes to Try While Visiting New Orleans
New Orleans has always been a favorite destination for queer travelers. The Big Easy has always been a city that championed the arts and celebrated culture and thus has always fostered a lively gay social scene, attracting many LGBTQ artists and performers to the city.
However, not only is the city known as home to an array queer artists and culture enthusiasts, but it’s a very good place for foodies as well! New Orleans is definitely a place where we can eat, dance, and be merry! Did we mention EAT?
If you plan to visit New Orleans, then you definitely need a little NOLA food guide. Here is a list of all the essential foods you should try when visiting the city.
Gumbo
You can’t go to New Orleans and not have gumbo! Originating from the African word for Okra, gumbo saw its origins as a boiled or stewed okra dish with rice. Today gumbo is made with a Roux — a flour and fat used in many French dishes. Gumbo is loaded with chicken, sausage, seafood, and seasoned with salt and various Creole or Cajun spices.
Jambalaya
Right next to gumbo, jambalaya is another Big Easy staple. Jambalaya is a rice, seafood, and pork dish, eaten by Louisiana locals. The rice, seafood and pork are cooked with onion, celery, pepper, herbs, and spices to give it the bang you need! Some historians and food enthusiasts compare jambalaya to Spanish paella, suggesting that the dish may have been developed during the Spanish period of New Orleans’ history.
Po-Boy
Served on crusty New Orleans-style French bread and dressed with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise, these sandwiches are overflowing with fresh gulf seafood, smoked pork, meatballs, and pretty much any type of meat you want. But don’t call it a sub, a hoagie, or a hero. No one will know what you’re talking about! It was originally created to feed streetcar workers on strike, which is where the name “Po’Boy” comes from!
Étouffée
Étouffée means “smothered” in French. It’s a dish that combines seafood (usually crawfish) with roux and butter; and onions, green peppers, and celery into a rich, easy seafood-filled gravy that is served hot over rice. It’s delicious!
Crawfish
Crawfish are a traditional New Orleans seafood that is served boiled, sauteed, baked or fried in different varieties and dishes. From crawfish bread and crawfish etouffee to freshly boiled with unique seasoning, crawfish is loved in numerous forms. But to really enjoy crawfish the New Orlean way, you need to get to cracking. How do you peel your own crawfish? It’s easy.. Pinch the tail, suck the head!
Red Beans and Rice
This slow-cooked dish combining red kidney beans with rice, and spices is a legacy of the African and Caribbean arrivals to the city. The tasty combo might be served at Popeye’s, but you want to get the authentic thing right in the heart of the city. Nothing says a weekday evening like a pot of red beans and rice!
Muffulettas
Muffulettas are large, round sandwiches filled with Italian deli meats, cheeses, and homemade olive salad. Today, many restaurants serve muffulettas warm, rather than the deli-style sandwich that was originated by Salvador Lupo. They’re so large whole muffuletta will feed four people with an average appetite making it a great option for sharing. If you have a group lunch, a Muffuletta is the way to go!
Beignets
Beignet is the French word for “fritter”, and these tasty golden brown treats have been served in New Orleans since 1862. They are made with a yeast dough, rolled to the perfect thickness, cut into squares, fried and and covered in powdered sugar. They are absolutely delicious! We recommend trying the NOLA Underground Donut Tour to ensure you get the best beignets the city has to offer.
Pralines
Resembling fudge and containing pecans, the New Orleans praline has evolved from the French sugar-coated almond treat. Pralines are a perfect way to indulge in your love for sugar. It’s one of the best-tasting things you’ll ever put into your mouth!
Chicory Coffee
Coffee has a long tradition in New Orleans. Chicory, the ground root of the Belgian endive, was frequently served as a coffee substitute, as well as blended into the coffee before brewing. New Orleanians have truly nurtured this taste for chicory coffee. Once you taste it, you’ll understand why!
Bananas Foster
Bananas Foster was invented at New Orleans’ famous Brennan’s Restaurant in 1951. Brennan’s chef Paul Blangé and manager Ella Brennan created the dish as a way to help a relative selling fruit, including bananas. The dessert was then named after a well-known patron of the restaurant, Richard Foster.
King Cake
New Orleans King Cakes are sweet circular treats covered in colorful icing and are synonymous with the Mardi Gras season. King Cakes are baked with a little baby trinket inside, which is said to represent the Christ child. The person that gets the slice with the baby inside must purchase the next King Cake.
This article was originally published on our sister website Bear World Magazine.
