| Andouille (ahn-do-ee) |
A spicy country sausage used in Gumbo and other Cajun dishes. |
| Bayou (bi-yoo) |
The streams crisscrossing Louisiana. |
| Beignet (ben-yea) |
Delicious sweet doughnuts, square-shaped and minus the hole, lavishly sprinkled with powdered sugar. Sometimes served with cafŽ au lait (coffee with chicory and milk). |
| Bon Appetite! (bon a-pet-tite') |
Good appetite - or "Enjoy!" |
| Boudin (boo-dan) |
Hot, spicy pork mixed with onions, cooked rice, herbs, and stuffed in sausage casing. |
| Cajun (cay-jun) |
Slang for Acadians, the French-speaking people who migrated to South Louisiana from Nova Scotia in the eighteenth century. Cajuns were happily removed from city life preferring a rustic life along the bayous. The term now applies to the people, the culture, and the cooking. |
| Cayenne (ki-yan) |
A hot pepper that is dried and used to season many Louisiana dishes. |
| Chicory (chick-ory) |
An herb, the roots of which are dried, ground; roasted and used to flavor coffee. |
| Courtbouillon (coo-boo-yon) |
A rich, spicy soup, or stew, made with fish fillets, tomatoes, onions, and sometimes mixed vegetables. |
| Crawfish (craw-fish) |
Crawfish, sometimes spelled "crayfish," resemble lobsters, but are much smaller. Locally, they are known as "mudbugs," because they live and grow in the mud of freshwater bayous. They can be served many ways: in etouffees, jambalaya, gumbos or, simply boiled. |
| Creole (cree-ol) |
The word originally described those people of mixed French and Spanish blood who migrated from Europe or were born in Southeast Louisiana and lived as sophisticated city or plantation dwellers. The term has expanded and now embraces a type of cuisine and a style of architecture. |
| Dirty Rice |
Pan-fried leftover cooked rice sauteed with green peppers, onion, celery, stock, liver, giblets and many other ingredients. |
| Etoufee (ay-too-fay) |
A succulent, tangy tomato-based sauce. A smothered dish usually made with crawfish or shrimp. Crawfish and Shrimp etouffees are New Orleans and Cajun country specialties. |
| Fais do do (fay-doe-doe) |
The name for a party where traditional Cajun dance is performed. This phrase literally means "to make sleep," although the parties are the liveliest of occasions with food, music, and dancing.. |
| File (fee-lay) |
Ground sassafras leaves used to season, among other things, gumbo. |
| Gumbo (gum-boe) |
A thick, robust soup sometimes thickened with okra or file'. There are thousands of variations, such as shrimp or seafood gumbo, chicken or duck gumbo, okra and file' gumbo. |
| Jambalaya (jum-bo-lie-yah) |
Louisiana chefs "sweep up the kitchen" and toss just about everything into the pot. A rice dish with any combination of beef, pork, fowl, smoked sausage, ham, or seafood, as well as celery, green peppers and often tomatoes. |
| joie de vivre (zhwa-d-veev) |
An attitude towards life |
| King Cake |
A ring shaped oval pastry, decorated with colored sugar in the traditional Mardi Gras colors, purple, green, and gold, which represent justice, faith, and power. A small plastic baby is hidden inside the cake. Tradition requires that the person who gets the baby in their piece must provide the next King Cake. |
| Lagniappe (lan-yap) |
This word is Cajun for "something extra," like the extra donut in a baker's dozen. An unexpected nice surprise. |
Laissez les bon temps rouler
(lay-zay lay bon ton rule-ay) |
Let the good times roll! |
| Levee (le-vee) |
An embankment built to keep a river from overflowing; a landing place on the river. |
| Mardi Gras (mardi graw) |
Commonly known as Fat Tuesday, it is the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Roman Catholic season of Lent. It's also the day of the Biggest Party on Earth! |
| Pirogue (pee-row) |
A Cajun canoe. |
| Po-Boy |
A sandwich extravaganza that began as a five-cent lunch for poor boys. Always made with French bread, po-boys can be filled with fried oysters, shrimp, fish, crawfish, meatballs, smoked susage and more. |
| Praline (praw-leen) |
The sweetest of sweets, this New Orleans tradition is a candy patty made of sugar, cream and pecans. |
| Red Beans & Rice |
The traditional Monday meal in New Orleans, red beans are cooked with ham or sausage and seasonings, and served over rice. |
| Roux (rue) |
Flour and oil mixture used to start almost all Louisiana dishes. |
| Vieux Carre (voo ca-ray) |
French, meaning "old quarter," and referring to the French Quarter. |
| Zydeco (zi-de-co) |
A relatively new kind of Cajun dance music that is a combination of traditional Cajun dance music, R&B, and African blues. |
