A Culinary 'Trip' to Louisiana
About twice a year, my dining friends and I come together for a gala dinner. Each dinner is themed, usually around a time or place that has significantly shaped the way we eat. I'm currently exploring cuisines of the Americas, and the most recent dinner took us to the southern United States. The images in this post were taken at that dinner, and the content derives from my preparatory research. Southerners and Yankies alike will tell you the South is “different,” and it’s not just down to slavery, nostalgia or the accent. The French Crown established a port at the mouth of the Mississippi in 1718, a river that is navigable almost as far as modern Canada. Calling the port Nouvelle Orléans and their colony Acadie, they set about claiming land either side of the great river. At one point, French rule stretched in a huge crescent from the Gulf of Mexico to Quebec. That was not to last, though. The English colonists pushed them back, splitting the colony into its Louisiana and Quebec po