Food

Beignets are doughnut-like. Very good. You want to buy them where they will be freshly made.

Gumbo is a chunky soup-like dish whose essential ingredient is okra. The classic version probably includes sausage, but seafood gumbo is popular. I do not know whether the seafood version might also include sausage; I don't like okra and steer clear of gumbo in any form.

A po'-boy is a sandwich on an elongated roll. The traditional one has oysters (probably fried??). It's possible you will encounter other sandwiches called po'-boys, but the major ingredient should be included in the name. Whether any of those might also include oysters, I do not know.

For those who don't know, all three of these are classic New Orleans foods. Beignets are probably originally from France. Actually, I think the plural form is probably the same as the singular, "beignet".

Thank you they sound very interesting, will give them a try.enjoy your day.

Sounds like you're headed to New Orleans. :O)

Great city, NOLA. Music, food, architecture, history...that one has it ALL. Yup, beignets need to be fresh and warm, and don't wear black if intending to have them. I made that mistake once and wore powdered sugar all day. HA! Shrimp or oyster po'boys, absolutely, and give gumbo a try. I've eaten (and liked) fried 'gator as well but like some seafood, it can be tough/rubbery if overcooked. Shaved ice is really good when it's hot as are frozen daiquiris, if up for a little alcohol. Yum.

I'll give history a special mention as New Orleans has a diverse and fascinating background so do some reading up before you go!!

I enjoy gumbo. It is a stew-like dish, as noted. It is thickened, so that it is not a broth, but thickened with a substance called filé powder. That is again part of the French heritage.

Beignets are, as mentioned, donut like. In New Orleans (where you will find all 3 of these) beignets are squares of yeast raised dough deep fried and then covered with powdered sugar. Sometimes it seems you get more sugar than dough. Great at Cafe Du Monde along with their chicory coffee. Served hot and fresh all day long.

A po'boy is a sandwich served on crusty long loves of bread that had their start as French baguettes. Fried oyster is a common variety. Fried shrimp is my favorite. These are usually "dressed" with shredded lettuce, Louisiana hot sauce, ketchup, and pickles. Other varieties can include almost any type of meat or seafood, however most of the better ones stay with a single meat for each po'boy. Roast beef is also very good dunked into the beef gravy.

Gumbo is another dish that has infinite varieties. It is a thick soup that can have a hot spicy kick to it. It always contains okra, tomato, celery, bell pepper, onion, and cayenne pepper. Common additions to the base is sausage and chicken. Shrimp and sausage. Seafood (whatever the catch was that day). Or whatever the cook finds available.

Now you made me hungry! :-)

Oh and with your beignet please do try a cup of coffee with chicory!

Don't forget to try the jambalaya as well while down there! On our last visit I had some made with rabbit meat, a first for me. You can also enjoy a Hurricane at Pat O'Briens and if lucky enough, Bananas Foster at Brennan's

Just to add more vocabulary words, a hush puppy is fried ball of corn bread dough. It will show up along fried fish at a nice cheap establishment. Other dessrts to look forward to are key lime pie and bread pudding

Then there are grits. It is cornmeal mush often served as a side dish. Sometimes with shrimp. Not a favourite for me. Now, I can manage it for breakfast treating it like a porridge but not as a carb 'on the side' or main course. Shudder.
But better are true Southern prailines....a caramelized pecan candy. Yum.
Unrelated, for true classic old jazz, Preservation Hall. Just about the music. Starts early. Often only standing room. Small so sound is good.

We have just got back from Italy. Hubby put on 10 kgs,and i 5kgs.We normally eat healthy, but not on holidays 🤔
I'm getting excited just thinking about all the yummy food that you eat.Thank you all for explaining about your food ❤.enjoy your day.

For beignets have them at Cafe Du Monde on Decatur St. Another New Orleans favorite is a sandwich known as the Muffuletta. Try it at Central Grocery which is also on Decatur St. They are huge, so you and hubby can probably split a half sandwich.

Oh, almost forgot. If you are interested in hearing authentic, traditional New Orleans jazz, check out a place called Preservation Hall on Peters street just a block off Bourbon St. No food or drink, and you may have to sit on the floor, but it's music like no other. First set at eight p.m., but best to get in line about seven. Google it and see if it holds any interest.

I second the vote for muffaletta. "Muffaletta" can refer to the bread, which is like focaccia, or the sandwich, which is made with muffaletta bread filled with salami, etc and an olive salad. I like it with the olive salad minus the cold cuts -- delicious!

In North Carolina, and I imagine also in Tennessee, hush puppies are often served with barbecue. And in that part of the US the BBQ is usually pork rather than beef. Memphis is known for its BBQ.

My go-to restaurants in New Orleans are Mr. B's and Irene's. It's hard to get a bad meal in New Orleans.

http://www.mrbsbistro.com/menus.php

http://irenesnola.com

Crawfish Étouffée is my go-to N'Orleans dish.
http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/cuisine/traditionalfoods/etouffee.html

Hello there
Morning Call in the City park has the best beignets in my opinion. They are never just on the "edge of fresh". They are hot and fresh or you wait. They have a lovely park there and you can take the trolley there I believe. Not sure which one though, we took a cab.
If you want a Hurricane cocktail that is more authentic go to Lafayettes Blacksmith bar, oldest in the city on Bourbon street. Pat O'Briens while a great tourist haunt has stopped mixing drinks and uses mostly premade mixes. If you do go there, make sure you get your Hurricane in the glass...and you don't HAVE to purchase the glass..though they will assume you want to carry a huge glass around you during your visit. Acme Oysters is the best place for charcoal grilled oysters and any oyster. They have all the regular foods of the area to. Les bon temps rouler!

There's a good book about the food of New Orleans. It's not a cookbook. but devotes different chapters to gumbo, beignets, po'boys, etouffee, red beans and rice, and more. Some of the recommendations may be out of date but you'll have a lot of info.

Gumbo Tales

A short list of my faves- Johnny's Po'Boys for lunch or breakfast, Napoleon House has a great muffaletta, among other things, Irene's Cuisine. Don't stand in line for Cafe du Monde in the afternoon when the lines are long. Come back earlier in the morning- before 10, or late at night. Beignets are a great dessert after dinner.

As someone who has been a number of times, and plan many more, I would respectfully submit my thoughts:

• Beignets: Cafe du Monde is certainly the famous option, I would only go there very early in the morning though when they are slow and the beignets are fresh...if you go when they are packed, you stand in line for crappy service and worse beignets. A better option would be Cafe Beignet, not the new one on Decatur, not the "outpost" on Bourbon, but the original spot, a little hole in the wall (literally) on Royal next to the Police station. A bonus there is you can get other breakfast items as well.
• Po Boys: There are endless varieties, I would argue that the roast beef version, using "debris" (bits and pieces left over from a roast, with gravy) is more original, but the fired seafood ones are more popular. As someone noted, they will ask if you want it dressed (lettuce, tomato, pickles and Mayo), it is perfectly OK to go without, or get it on the side. For French Quarter and Downtown, Johnny's Po Boys on St Louis is my go to spot, divey in the right way, bit crowded most of the time, but great. Another good spot is Mother's Restaurant on Poydras. Good Po Boys, but also a wider variety of great southern food (fried chicken, greens, red beans and rice)
• Soul and Southern: If you want a bigger jolt of soul and southern food, then catch a cab to Willie Mae's Scotch House or nearby Dooky Chase's (Dooky's has more of a Creole flavor)
• Seafood: Too many places to pick. Do have Chargrilled Oysters, if in season, do a couple pounds of crawfish. Soft shell crabs are a treat. Acme is solid, but I would not stand in line for a couple hours to get in. Dean's Seafood, several locations, is a basic local spot. Many other places have good dishes, it can be hard to go too wrong.

Aside from that, there are dozens and dozens of great restaurants, new ones all the time, venerable old ones, just dig through "best of" articles online, Yelp, Tripadvisor, and other reviews. If something sounds good, it likely is.

...do try a cup of coffee with chicory..... It is not coffee with chicory. It is a hot beverage made from the chicory root that resembles coffee and commonly called chicory coffee. It is strong, dark, and a somewhat unique flavor. I like it. If you are a dark coffee, espresso, drinker, then you will probably like it. If a latte drinker, not so much.

Also the World War II national museum is fantastic and could suck up your whole day. Obviously, US focus but the Aussies get their credit. The Pacific theater building recently opened. Have not seen that one.

Cafe du Monde has several locations other than the flagship one on Decatur Street. Probably the only other one of interest to a tourist is in the outlet mall on Riverwalk - the others are all farther out. Shorter lines, the same beignets, not quite as much atmosphere, but still pretty good. Unlike the original, they are not, however, open 24 hours a day.

It is not coffee with chicory. It is a hot beverage made from the chicory root that resembles coffee and commonly called chicory coffee.

Other places might do it differently, but at Cafe du Monde, it's definitely real coffee blended with chicory. It's commonly served au lait (hot, iced, or frozen), so I don't know why it wouldn't be to the taste of a latte drinker.

Yes, the Café Du Monde version is coffee with chicory. You can buy it in many grocery stores now. The label lists coffee as the primary ingredient. The chicory is an acquired taste. And technically since it contains chicory it actually can't be called just coffee, the chicory must be mentioned. So yeah, it is a coffee beverage, :-)

Maria, if you don't like grits, then you never had good grits. I used to hate them because it seemed everytime I had grits they were, well, gritty. Finally had some that very perfect and it changed my mind completely. Especially with grilled shrimp. Grits are nothing but poor man's polenta. :-)

Thank you all for the incredible information about food in New Orleans. I think l will be putting on a few kgs(pounds)
What are grits, biscuits come up alot for breakfast .l normally have cereal for breakfast.

hey pattycake
you'll have a great fun time. wear elastic pants (like sweat) lol. the food is yummy, the people are wonderful and the music. we did a cocktail tour, different bars had different drinks what is their specialty. learned about pimms, southern comfort, the hurricane, history of the city, different colored bottles in store fronts for illness, voo doo, mardi gras, lake pontchartrain, garden district, cemetaries, ride the carousel at the bar at monteleone hotel, the st charles streetcar, etc. have a fun time.
aloha

The best food in the USA is in Louisiana.

I will get in trouble for saying this...but grits are a blander version of Polenta, basically a processed ground corn, which is boiled into a paste or porridge. Classic is to just serve it with butter or seasonings at breakfast or lunch, later in the day you will see it mixed with cheese or other items as a side dish. I would suggest going for good Shrimp and Grits as an evening entree. All that said, I love grits, and take that as an option over hash browns or potatoes.

Biscuits in the South should be light puffy pillows of quick bread, which is flour, buttermilk, and baking soda or powder as a leavening...no yeast. Sort of along the lines of Irish Soda Bread or a plain Scone. Some are just drop biscuits, others lightly rolled and cut. Best served warm with butter and honey or molasses.

For all of the above, for breakfast, you will also see white gravy, sometimes with sausage. When my daughter waited tables, people would get bowls of it as a side and put on everything. No need to follow that example though.

A southern breakfast (in the vein of an English Fry Up) would be eggs, country sausage, biscuits, gravy, grits and maybe potatoes.

All this is classic Southern. The neat thing about New Orleans, is it is a mash up of Southern, Soul, Cajun, Creole, Classic French, Seafood, and Nouveau cuisine. It is a rich environment for a foodie.