For locals from New Orleans, what are the most common foods/traditonal fare?!
Answers: What foods would you say are distinctly New Orleanian? If you wanted a friend to 'eat local' or have a meal that best represented cuisine from New Orleans, what (not where) would you suggest they eat? I looked up New Orleans food online, but it didn't give me a good idea of what locals consider 'normal' or 'traditional' food. I figured it would be best to get my info from people who actually live or have lived in that area. Be as specific/detailed as you want--dessert, appetizers, ingredients, etc. Thanks!
There is nothing better than an old fashioned crawfish boil. Heat the water up season it, boil some garlic, potatoes, onions, and anything else you want. Take those out and store in a huge cooler (it will keep it hot for ages and people can help themselves to it). Season the water again, and boil some crawfish. Take it out and throw it on the center of the table that has been lined with TONS of newspaper. Season the water again, and boil more crawfish repeating this until all the crawfish is done. As each person's part of the table gets full of crawfish shells, you just roll up the newspaper there and throw it away, then you have a fresh clean surface to start all over again.
The last boil I went to, they had 200 lbs of crawfish, it was an all day affair.
Make sure you have TONS of beer to wash it down, because it
Gets a little bit spicey, now dontcha know!
fish
beignets, gumbo, jambalaya, dirty rice & crawfish!
http://neworleanscuisine.blogspot.com/
Gumbo, cracklings, dirty rice, fried crawfish and fried fish. Frog legs
First off you should eat some boiled crawfish they are a staple here also no food screams new Orleans like gumbo. Another thing I believe are local are po-boys basically just a sub only probably worse for you. And if your taking a trip here you have to try some fresh local seafood its amazing the difference in taste of a store bought shrimp and a fresh shrimp, or fish, or any seafood for that matter
Oh yeah you gotta have some beignets for dessert
Shrimp Creole, Crayfish Etouffe, Jambalaya, Gumbo (seafood, chicken, or rabbit), Red Beans and Rice, Po'boys (especially fried shrimp or fried oyster), muffeletta, grillades,
pain perdu, fried green tomatoes with shrimp & remoulade,
macque choux, oysters on the half shell, barbecue shrimp, grilled oysters, crayfish boil, dirty rice, okra, deep-fried dill pickles, deep-fried okra, hushpuppies, grits, Red Velvet Cake, Oyster & Artichoke soup, cornbread, collard greens, mustard greens, and beignets.
Ingredients: Tasso, Andouille sausage, file gumbo
(sassafras), Tabasco, Old Bay Seasoning, cayenne, salt pork.
I'm sure there is more if I thought about it. It makes me long to move back there!
The Napoleon House (corner of Saint Louis and Chartres Streets, in the French Quarter) has "normal" New Orleans food, which includes Creole and Italian dishes:
This website has a link to their menu(s):
http://www.napoleonhouse.com/menu1.html