Cajun And Creole Food In New Orleans - New Orleans & Company (2024)

FAQs

What is the most famous Creole dish in New Orleans? ›

The iconic dish of New Orleans

Gumbo is rich in flavor and history. With roots in Western Europe, Africa, The Caribbean and Native American culture, the strongly-flavored stew is quite literally a melting pot of cultures. It consists of the Cajun holy trinity of vegetables - celery, bell peppers and onions.

Creole cooking is typically more refined, while Cajun food is a rustic affair. Locals often refer to the two as “city food” and “country food.” Because Creoles were more affluent, they tended to use a higher number of ingredients—remoulade sauce contains nearly a dozen—along with a generous amount of butter and cream.

For Cajuns were—and are—a subset of Louisiana Creoles. Today, common understanding holds that Cajuns are white and Creoles are Black or mixed race; Creoles are from New Orleans, while Cajuns populate the rural parts of South Louisiana.

That's not bragging; the food here is just that good. Gumbo, boudin, beignets, and pralines — the Pelican State has plenty of homegrown culinary creations you may have heard of, and a few more you probably haven't.

Gumbo is perhaps the signature dish of both cuisines. Creole gumbo has a tomato base and is more of a soup, while Cajun gumbo has a roux base and is more of a stew.

So What Makes Them Different? The main difference between Cajun and Creole cuisine is that Cajun cuisine is typically spicier than Creole cuisine. This is because Cajun cuisine uses more spices, such as cayenne pepper and paprika. Creole cuisine, on the other hand, is typically milder.

Cajun cuisine uses a variety of spice for flavor and incorporates a lot of seafood and wild game. Although many Cajun dishes contain high-fat, high-sodium ingredients, almost all of them can be made with less fat and salt. For a healthier Cajun option, consider: Boiled or grilled crawfish or shrimp.

Red beans and rice—Red beans and rice is one of the most common dishes found in New Orleans, cooked in homes and restaurants throughout the New Orleans area. Red beans arrived with white French Creoles from Haiti who escaped Haiti during the slave uprising, settling in New Orleans.

Cajun Food

Think of meals with lots of smoked meats as well as meat-heavy, one-pot dishes like jambalaya or the rice-filled, spicy pork sausage known as boudin. The backyard crawfish boil is also another byproduct of Cajun culture.

Two main categories of jambalaya exist: Creole (or red) jambalaya, which is associated with the city of New Orleans and contains tomato, and Cajun (or brown) jambalaya, which contains no tomato and is more common in other parts of Louisiana.

Why do Cajuns say Sha? ›

Sha: Louisiana Cajun and Creole slang, derived from the French cher. Term of affection meaning darling, dear, or sweetheart. It could also be a reference to something that is cute.

In present Louisiana, Creole generally means a person or people of mixed colonial French, African American and Native American ancestry. The term Black Creole refers to freed slaves from Haiti and their descendants.

With a base diet of coconut milk/oil, rice, beans, chicken, fish and other game meats, such as “gibnut” (agouti paca), the Creole culture includes bits and pieces of other cultures making the taste a unique one. “Kriol” was originally considered a mixture of the British settlers and African settler.

Red beans and rice—Red beans and rice is one of the most common dishes found in New Orleans, cooked in homes and restaurants throughout the New Orleans area. Red beans arrived with white French Creoles from Haiti who escaped Haiti during the slave uprising, settling in New Orleans.