Gumbo Tales by Sara Roahen

Gumbo Tales

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

  1. Gumbo:

    1. Willie Mae’s Scotch House

    2. Liuzza’s Restaurant & Bar

    3. Antoine’s Restaurant

    4. Dooky Chase Restaurant

    5. 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