My friend, Stan Dry, a former editor at Food and Wine Magazine, shared some Louisiana food trivia with me. Some of his finds are quite interesting.

For instance:

Q: Rice is an integral part of Louisiana cooking, particularly in the southern half of the state where it is eaten daily. Gumbo and jambalaya are the two most famous Louisiana dishes that depend upon rice. When did rice become a staple of the south Louisiana diet?

A: Not until the early 20th century when rice became a commercial crop. Until that time, rice was a marginal crop and corn was the staple of the diet.

Q: Mark Twain claimed that a particular Gulf fish was “as delicious as the
less criminal forms of sin.” Of which fish was he speaking?

A: Pompano, still a delicacy in New Orleans restaurants.

Q: Name a popular French Quarter restaurant that has bulletproof glass in the windows of its private dining rooms.

A: The restaurant is NOLA, and the presence of bulletproof glass in the windows of its third floor dining rooms is strictly a fluke. The previous tenant had been a discotheque, and city inspectors had required the special glass—presumably to prevent patrons from falling through the windows.

Q: In Louisiana, what are shallots?

A: In Louisiana, shallots are green onions. This can be confusing because in ‘other parts of the world, shallots are, well, shallots, the little brown-skinned bulbs tasting mildly of both onion and garlic that are much used in French cooking. The chopped green part of the Louisiana shallot is often added to a dish, such as gumbo, before serving. “Onion tops” is another way of saying the same thing. Sometimes when the other shallots are called for in a recipe, they will be termed “French shallots.”

Filed Under: Culinary History