Gumbo Tales by Sara Roahen
Summary
Celebrating New Orleans' food culture, one specialty at a time.
A cocktail is more than a segue to dinner when it's a Sazerac, an anise-laced drink of rye whiskey and bitters indigenous to New Orleans. For Wisconsin native Sara Roahen, a Sazerac is also a fine accompaniment to raw oysters, a looking glass into the cocktail culture of her own family and one more way to gain a foothold in her beloved adopted city. Roahen's stories of personal discovery introduce readers to New Orleans' well-known signatures: gumbo, po-boys, red beans and rice, and its lesser-known gems: the pho of its Vietnamese immigrants, the braciolone of its Sicilians, and the ya-ka-mein of its street culture. By eating and cooking her way through a place as unique and unexpected as its infamous turducken, Roahen finds a home. And then Katrina. With humor, poignancy, and hope, she conjures up a city that reveled in its food traditions before the storm – and in many ways has been saved by them since.
Book Setting: New Orleans
Gumbo:
Willie Mae’s Scotch House
Liuzza’s Restaurant & Bar
Antoine’s Restaurant
Dooky Chase Restaurant
Mena’s Place
Sazerac Cocktails:
6. Clancy’s Restaurant
7. Napoleon House
8. Port of Call
Sno-Balls:
9. Hansen’s Sno-Bliz
10. Plum Street Snowballs
Red Gravy:
11. St. Joseph Cathedral
12. Fausto’s Bistro
13. Mosca’s Restaurant
Stuffed Smothered Z’Herbes:
14. Ms Hyster’s Barbeque
15. Ye Olde College Inn
16. Irene’s
Po-Boys:
17. Guy’s Po-Boys
18. Parasol’s
19. Mother’s Restaurant
Crawfish & Oysters:
20. Hawk’s Restaurant
21. Perino’s Boiling Pot
27. Casamento’s Restaurant
Poisson Meunière Amandine:
22. Galatoire’s
Pho:
23. Tan Dinh
24. Pho Tau Bay Restaurant
Red Beans & Rice:
25. Crabby Jack’s
26. Smiley’s Grill New Orleans
Reviews
Informative, engaging, and amusing . . . Gumbo Tales has the not-surprising effect of leaving the readers mouth-watering.
--Jonathan Yardley
“Makes you want to spend a week—immediately—in New Orleans.”
—Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal