Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table

Did you ever have a book that made you just want to put it down and run into the kitchen to make a dish? Or in some cases to go trotting to the telephone and call for take out? This is that book. It made me go and make a gumbo immediately after finishing it. I suppose if I were super wealthy I could just make a reservation to go down to New Orleans for a weekend. Sounds like fun to me. A trip to just eat! How decadent!

Sara Roahen has a way with words, food and the people who make it. Her book, Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table is perfect for anyone who is interested in the food culture of New Orleans. And she is a Midwestern raised gal - an outsider to the town - and she admits it. She was there for several years during her husband's time in medical school and she wrote a food column for a local paper. This allowed her to look at their food culture from a different perspective.

Each chapter takes us on a unique trip to look at gumbo, crawfish, pho (there are a lot of Vietnamese fishermen in the area), chicory, and Monday red beans and rice among other classic and traditional ethnic dishes. She brings us the story of the wonderful characters and cooks who are carrying on the traditions of the food. For example, the section she devotes to the family who has a huge neighborhood St. Joseph's Day table is just touching. And she makes the reader care and worry about this family when they can not be found after Hurricane Katrina.

I guess that is what is also special about this book. Roahen gives us a before and after Hurricane Katrina view of this food culture. We find out what restaurants have rebuilt and what cooks have been lost to New Orleans' memories. She's a very good writer and this is another great book that I discovered from a excerpt that was in the Best Food Writing of 2008. A very fun read, but don't forget the red beans and rice, or gumbo or ...

Death Swatch

Death Swatch is the newest book in Laura Childs' scrapbooking series. It has a great setting - Mardi Gras time in New Orleans - and some great characters in Carmela and her girlfriend Ava. It even has a great mystery - a float designer who has connections to some of the highest crewes that parade, is killed at a Mardi Gras party. (A dark humorous scene is everyone coming to the funeral when they are all hung over from their various Mardi Gras parties from the night before.) He also was an amateur historian interested in maps and Jean Lafitte's treasure. Who has the map and who killed him for it? And is there a treasure? Carmela gets more than she planned for in this hectic and fast paced adventure.

I was actually thrilled that this series finally seems to have hit it's stride. The story is strong and the characters are too. I loved the part where Carmela and her women friends have created their own female crewe. I just wish the author would move the interpersonal relationships forward. Carmela and her ex have been hanging on too long and it seems to be dragging the series and the character development down. I hope this gets taken care of in the next book. A fun read.

One Drop

Anatole Broyard - a New York Times book critic- was dying of cancer. He told his children his secret. He was black. He had been "passing" for white for decades. How do you handle this kind of family secret? Does it destroy you? Do you put the information away in the recesses of you mind - never to bring it out again? Or do you explore your family's background and your father's decision? In the book, One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life - A Story of Race and Family Secrets, Bliss Broyard, Anatole's daughter, starts looking at her father's Creole origins in New Orleans.

This is a book about discovery. Bliss discovers more about her father and herself in the process of her search for answers. She delves deeply into the history of Creoles in New Orleans and how their story and lives changed throughout the centuries. And she reveals how New Orleans and its culture was a very unique place in America before the Civil War.

Although it may be a bit slow in places, the story of the Creoles of New Orleans is fascinating. And this book makes you think about the question of race and what would you do if faced with the same situation : to pass or not? A good read.

More about Food and New Orleans...

Did I mention I like Cajun cooking? Here are some more mysteries set in New Orleans in the Pre-Katrina era, for this particular book in their series.

In Crime Brûlée - Nancy Fairbanks features an amateur detective named Carolyn Blue who is the wife of a academic and who in this book is trying to get a foodie writing career off of the ground. She is in New Orleans for a science conference that her husband is attending. She has wonderful dinners and lunches but a somewhat horrible experience in the city - muggings, being threatened, having to view a dead body, etc. If she wasn't trying to track down her best friend who suddenly disappeared after an fight with her husband in front of their group of fellow alums, I think she would have (I know I would have) gone home! She tries to balance her sleuthing with seeking out food experiences and being a good faculty wife at the conference. This is the first of this series and I would be definitely be interested in reading more!

The book, Roux the Day : a gourmet detective mystery by Peter King is a great way to experience his series. The gourmet detective - whose name is never mentioned - since the stories are in the first person, has an unusual career. He looks for rare foods, lost recipes, or food subsitutions for a recipe - he is a all around foodie. He is asked to come to New Orleans to determine if a book up for auction is a famous local restaurant family's chefs' book. The chef's book has the family's famous recipes from their now shuttered restaurant. And he soon finds out that there are many others who want this lost cookbook. And they will kill to get it. He, too, rounds out his visit with dining at New Olreans' finest restaurants. This is a well written, lively book, and I would be curious to see what "case" this detective has next!

Red Beans and Vice

I'm reading some mysteries that are set in New Orleans for a particular project and came across the Lou Jane Temple book called Red Beans and Vice. Temple's main sleuth is Heaven Lee and she is a former lawyer turned chef in Kansas City. She comes to New Orleans to help cook at a charity dinner shindig, and to stay with a former classmate. Then of course there are threats, a bit of violence and a murder! And then there are recipes! And a mini tour of some of the highlights of the once vibrant city.

Temple has some fun characters and she involves you with the secondary characters left behind in Kansas City pretty easily. I would recommend this for a fast read, and it looks like a series that would be enjoyable to get into!