New Orleans Cooking Experience: Cajun And Creole Cuisines

The New Orleans cooking experience is largely centered on Cajun and Creole cuisines, which denote the states French origins. The term Cajun was derived from Acadia, which was a 1630s French colony established in territories of Louisiana. Creole, meanwhile, translates to a child born in the colony. And it refers to descendants of the early French settlers, who intermingled with Spanish missionaries and New World pilgrims.

Cajun is mainly rustic French cookery that makes use of locally available ingredients and is identified by its heavy application of ground cayenne and fresh black pepper. It is typically a three-pot affair one for the main dish, the other for the steamed rice (often mixed with sausages or seafood) and the third containing vegetable viands. Creole is different in the sense that it incorporates other cultures inhabiting the state, adding in a little Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Native American and African taste and culinary technique into the mix. As such, you can expect for it to make use of less common ingredients. Regardless, both Cajun and Creole dishes are similarly committed to the incorporation of aromatics like bell pepper, onion and celery, and sometimes parsley, bay leaf, green onions and carrots.

As you delve deeper into the New Orleans cooking experience, you will discover that Cajun cooking is heavily reliant on game meats, is often flavorful and spicy, and makes use of rice or corn. They also apply several cooking techniques, including barbecuing, boiling, deep frying, smoking, grilling and braising, and are not heavily beef-based. They may incorporate frogs, alligators, rabbit and snake into their standard fares. But seldom will you see a Southern Louisiana dish that is made of ground beef. The same goes for Creole cooking. Its main difference from that of Cajun is that it is more refined, adapting European approaches and sometimes even including foreign ingredients. With Creole dishes, youll be able to encounter okra from the Africans, tomatoes and garlic from the Italians, mustard from the Germans and file powder from the Indians. Dairy is also prominent in Creole cooking, as opposed to that of Cajun.

Choosing which is better among the two is pretty much the same as asking a person to identify who is more beautiful between a set of identical twins. Cajun and Creole cuisines pretty much stems\ from the same source. Thus, they offer the same quality and taste, with slight variations. If you are an American, it is important that you orient yourself to this local cuisine first before you explore others as they reflect a lot about the American Southern heritage and the history of a huge part of the country.

The New Orleans cooking experience may seem intimidating at first, given its reputation. But it is actually quite an interesting discovery. And if you welcome its savory and intense rations, your mind and palette will be opened up to a new set of flavors, which should help you relate more to international cuisines. There are certainly interesting food finds in Americas backyard so dont miss out on the chance to attend a class or two when you have the time.