shirfleur 1's Journal, 15 Sep 19

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regional_dishes_of_the_United_States 

Out of all the places I have been to in the US, LA has the best food!!  

Boudin, Crawfish boil, crawfish pasta, the sauces!!!, whatever they do to the fish!!!, gumbo, jambalaya, king cake, I still need to get my red beans and rice to taste as good (hmm, I should ask for a LA-style recipe on that one)...one of the best things I cook is smothered turkey chops which I adapted from living with a roommate in college who was from LA....ummmm, oh the memories! 

We love seafood Gumbo. Gumbo used to be a poor man's meal. One would go to the docks and get a little of this and that and turn it into a wonderful meal. It's expensive to make these days with the price of crayfish, crab and shrimp so high. Chicken and sausage are reasonably priced and round out the dish nicely. I think I'm going to try it with the just the chicken and sausage. I like to use butter for fat when I make my roux. In my opinion it's not Gumbo without okra...  

ABT, don't forget sauce piquante and etoufee and courtbouillon and meatball stew. And bread pudding with whisky sauce. 💜💚💛 

Red beans and rice, a Creole dish; use the recipe on the back of the Camelia brand dried red beans package. 

I like roux that is 50 flour/50 fat ….perfect consistency- used to go lower on the oil but it was too thick! I usually don't go all the way dark though - never have the patience to wait that long. I use EVOO...but based on Shirfluer's suggestion - peanut oil sounds tasty.  

I don't like the sliminess of okra but my friend told me to roast it first. That always works.  

I don't think our grocery carries that brand ...but, I will google it. Thanks! 

Shirfluer...you are giving me more reasons to take another visit to LA - I haven't tried those you mentioned except bread pudding since that is Southern and my fam is originally from the South.  

Shirfleur, you had me at etoufee. ❤️  

John, you're correct about poor man's food. That actually applied to all Cajun food. The Acadians (Cajuns) were generally poor people who ate what was available from the land and often learned from the poor black people (gumbo) and the native Americans. That why our foods are plain and simple. In contrast to that, the French people of New Orleans were more aristocratic, and were influenced by the Spanish, so there you find the more complex Creole dishes. Thus, New Orleans gumbo is often quite different from Cajun gumbo.