Carolinas, Georgia & South Trips (Lonely Planet, 1st Edition) - Alex Leviton [3]
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“Southern food” is a vast category. While some elements remain constant – you can have fluffy biscuits and grits for breakfast almost anywhere in the South – others are micro-regional. Just try finding Frogmore Stew outside of South Carolina’s Lowcountry or locating barbecued spaghetti anywhere but Memphis.
Start your food trip by filling your belly by the bayou in New Orleans. Many books have been written about the Cajun and Creole cuisine of Southern Louisiana; you could happily spend weeks searching the alleys of the Big Easy and the back roads of swampy Cajun Country for the best andouille sausage and po’boys (po’boys, New Orleans’ indigenous fast food, are sublime French-bread sandwiches packed with anything from fried shrimp to duck meat). But even a day or two in the area is time enough for a sampling of this region’s marvelous cooking. If you’re wondering what the difference between Cajun and Creole food is, the jury is still out. While it’s agreed that Cajun food is somewhat more rustic, Creole food somewhat more refined, the subtleties are still a matter of raging debate.
Breakfast on beignets (delectable powdered sugar-coated donuts) at 24-hour Café Du Monde in the iconic French Quarter. Sit under the striped awning and watch the street vendors and crowds of tourists as you sip your café au lait. Bright yellow tins of its chicory-laced coffee make cool gifts – buy them in the gift shop across the street.
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TIME
1 week
DISTANCE
1170 miles
BEST TIME TO GO
Year-round
START
New Orleans, LA
END
Charleston, SC
ALSO GOOD FOR
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For lunch, don’t miss nearby Johnny’s Po-Boy on St Louis St. This bustling family-run joint has been around since 1950, serving up roast beef po’boys and ham po’boys, and fantastic hot sausage. Sit down at one of the checkered tablecloth–covered tables and watch the fry cooks work at warp speed. Alternatively, you could head over to Decatur St for a muffaletta at Central Grocery. This beloved ham, salami and olive-salad sandwich on round Italian bread was invented here by a Sicilian immigrant in 1906.
Spend happy hour with a lager and a heap of fresh-shucked oysters at noisy Felix’s Oyster Bar, also in the French Quarter. Tourists and locals have been piling in for nearly six decades to suck down raw, grilled and fried crustaceans. Try boiled crawfish, a seasonal Cajun specialty. Crawfish, aka crayfish (or crawdads or mudbugs), are freshwater crustaceans that look like the love child of a shrimp and a lobster. They star in crawfish étouffée, a classic Cajun dish of seafood in a spicy reddish sauce served over rice.
For upscale neo-Cajun dining, you can’t beat Cochon. Classics like catfish courtbouillon, and red beans and rice are terrific, but don’t shy away from offbeat dishes such as fried alligator with aioli or the grilled beet and pickled pork-tongue salad. James Beard award-winning chef Donald Link draws trendy crowds to this contemporary renovated warehouse; make reservations.
Want to get interactive with your food? Head over to the New Orleans School of Cooking, where spirited, wisecracking chefs like former pro-football player Kevin Belton will teach you how to make Big Easy classics such as shrimp remoulade, jambalaya and pecan pie. The price includes an open bar with wine and local Abita beer – careful with that butcher knife!
Spend the night at the Melrose Mansion, a restored Victorian home of wide verandas and graceful white columns. In the evening, guests nibble hors d’oeuvres and sip cocktails in the parlor; in the morning they dine on fresh pastries and quiche in the sunny dining room. Rooms have high ceilings and elegant antiques.
Head out of New Orleans and cut north through Mississippi. In Jackson, stop at Walker’s Drive-In, a 1940s diner serving sophisticated takes on down-home cooking. Try the Redfish Anna or the Mississippi