Family Style: April 2008

As New Orleanians, it's no secret that eating is a way of life. I don't mean simply food as sustenance, but more of how it is part of the fabric of who we are. The food we eat here is symbolic of our culture. It's over the top, over indulgent, but darn hard to resist. New Orleans is a unique in the sense that one could identify this city purely on taste. In one day you could have beignets at Cafe du Monde, a shrimp poboy at Domilise's and dinner at Antoine's, and walk away saying that's what New Orleans tastes like. There's not many places you can do this, anywhere. Yesterday I was walking through all that is the French Quarter Festival with 400,000 of my fellow neighbors when I realized how great is it that you have an opportunity at $4-5 a pop to tastes so many aspects of New Orleans cuisine, while listening to the best music this city has to offer on 18 different stages. Now of course the hordes of people undoubtedly can slow things down considerably, but what you are waiting for is unlike anything else you could find. Certainly it is easy to get discouraged at all the lines and waiting, but the truly good news is that all these people want to come out and celebrate what's great about our city, and the more people that do that, the better off we will be. Look out Jazz Fest, you're little brother is growing up.