Baton Rouge's Cajun and Creole Cuisines

By David Urmann

Baton Rouge is Louisiana States capital city. It is also the biggest city of the state and is situated in the southeastern part along the Mississippi River. Since the city is overlooking the Mississippi delta, tourists can journey on a riverboat or gaze at the romantic sunset. The mix traditions and cultures of the English, Spanish, and French have a strong influence over Baton Rouge.

This diverse city takes pride of its rich Cajun and Creole tradition. Its streets are packed with restaurants dishing out all of the important cuisines from the finest Cajun, spicy Bayou dishes to French, Caribbean and Southern gastronomy. Moreover, the significant university population succeeded in engrossing some of the state's Asian and healthy food cafes and restaurants.

From among many Baton Rouge cuisines, Cajun and Creole seem to stand out. So what's the difference between these two? Let us first take a glimpse at the origin. Equally of French beginning, the Cajuns and Creoles moved to Louisiana through diverse means and they lived differently as well. While the Cajuns were unsociable, the Creoles were the exact opposite.

The latter intermingled with the American, Italian, Spanish, and African community. Creoles are born in Southern Louisiana and are offspring to aristocrat parents who immigrated from Spain, France or Portugal. These Frenchmen took their traditional style of cooking and chefs along with them. The successors of the Creole are still living in the French Quarter these days.

Conversely, the Cajuns were exiled French speaking natives from Acadia, Nova Scotia in 1700s. This group dwelt in remoteness in southwest Louisiana. When the oil boom took place in Northern portion 1919, the Cajun people needed to struggle in order to stay alive. Fisher folks and farmers traded the finest of their harvests and managed to survive on the most horrible. This inevitability was what stirred Cajun gastronomy, creating a scrumptious dish from inferior ingredients.

Both groups blended their traditional cuisines with the style of cooking of Caribbean seamen and Africans to create the Cajun and Creole cuisines that we know today.

Cajun as against Creole Style of Cooking
Louisiana's country cooking is the authentic Cajun cuisine which customarily makes use of plain ingredients and pork oil. A Cajun meal is normally consists of chicken or seafood gumbos, andouille (a spicy smoked sausage and is pronounced as ahnd-wee), grain dish such as steamed rice or cornbread, jambalaya, and fried crawfish or catfish. Gumbos are created with brown roux and occasionally have okra and eggs in their shells floating in the broth. Cajun foods are well-seasoned and the brown roux are the basis of their flavor. The late seventies' blackening occurrence bestowed Cajun cuisine the repute of being spicy.

A Creole dish carries characteristics of Italian food and combines with French, American, Caribbean, Spanish, and African touches. It is a more urbane cuisine and generally uses costlier ingredients and butter. It is characterized by Shrimp Remoulade, Oysters Rockefeller, and Bananas Foster. Typically, Creole jambalaya has more tomato while Cajun jambalaya uses a little tomato, is brown and roux based.

Cajun and Creole dishes two have a couple of things in common: They both employ fresh onions, green peppers, and celery and use roux (pronounced as Roo) as the base. Used to add thickness, flavor, and color to the gumbos, a roux is a blend of flour and oil (butter or pork oil). Baton Rouge always has the great tasting dishes to gratify any incessant craving.

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