The Culinary Tour: a Gem in the Realm of Vacations
If you’re an avid traveller, you’re likely to have taken all the ‘usual’ vacations – from beach breaks and mountain retreats to spa getaways. And if you don’t get the opportunity to travel much, you’ll undoubtedly want your trips to be extraordinary and well-worth your time. The reality is that while there are countless types of fulfilling recreational pursuits out there, travellers are always looking for new and interesting ways to spend their vacations. After all, everyone wants to come away with a holiday experience that’s not only unique, but unforgettable.
A gem in the realm of vacations has long been the culinary tour. Yet this type of getaway has kept a perpetual sense of novelty, quite simply because there are so many ways to relish it. When you go to a beach, you can expect sun, sand and waves; but when you take a tour reflecting all the cultural and culinary influences upon the cuisine of a region, you might come away with much more than you bargained for. Simply put, if you love travelling, enjoy trying new things and can’t get your fill of good food, a culinary tour is the perfect type of vacation for you.
No matter where you go these days, there’s something delicious to eat. But there are certainly parts of the US which boast a rich culinary history. One of these is undoubtedly New Orleans, Louisiana. Sure, New Orleans is famous for its Mardi Gras celebration and Jazz Fest; but the city, known as “The Big Easy,” is also world-renowned for its culinary customs. New Orleans is noted for its mix of cultures, each of which has held on to its past traditions in some way – and food, like music, just happens to be one of the most prominent of these traditions.
Tour the city’s most famous kitchens and dining rooms – particularly in the French quarter and along Bourbon Street – and learn about the many ethnic influences that have helped shape its history and unique cuisine. Pick up on the culinary contributions of historic restaurants in the area, dating from 1840 to present, and learn the distinctions between Creole and Cajun foods! No matter how you go about it, you can’t go wrong with a culinary tour in New Orleans.
Alternatively, why not combine a culinary tour with a wine-tasting excursion? Napa Valley, California is undoubtedly the ideal destination if this idea strikes your fancy. Napa Valley is the American capital of food and wine, and a region which attracts countless visitors from around the world each year. By touring a winery, you can come to appreciate the various processes involved in producing an exquisite wine – from harvesting and fermentation to ageing. And aside from all the fantastic culinary treasures and premium wines, you can expect stunning, picturesque scenery. Whether you’re a novice or an accomplished wine connoisseur, a wine and culinary tour in Napa Valley is guaranteed to delight you. Moreover, Napa Valley is just 30 miles north of San Francisco, so you could easily make your way down to try the culinary treats of the “Golden Gate City” – which includes those in America’s largest Chinatown.
If you’re considering a culinary tour, rest assured that you’ll find a number of fantastic options for accommodation – regardless of whether you’re off to the east coast, west coast or deep south. A culinary tour is truly one of the best ways to become acquainted with a city’s culture and unique character – so why not book a culinary tour today and prepare to have your taste buds dazzled!
Martin Mcallister
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/the-culinary-tour-a-gem-in-the-realm-of-vacations-90949.html
What kind of drink with a Cajun dinner? (Alcohol!)?
We’re having a Cajun themed cook out and we can’t figure out what kind of alcohol to have with it. Mixed or shots or whatever, what goes?!
these people only drink beer, so any american bottled beer would be OK.
The way the beer is served is they get a big insulated plastic box called a "cool box". Then they fill this with crushed ice and place the beer in the ice. They have a "thing" about warm beer, they can only drink cold beer for some reason. -and they always wrap something round the bottle so their hands don’t get wet.
Cajun Cooking for your anniversary?
Cajun Cooking
I’d like to cook something special for my anniversary dinner. Each year I pick recipes from the world and I thought this year we could try Cajun Cooking. The one who gives me something like “family recipes” (I mean a recipe that is not taken from the internet) gets 10 pts.
Thank you and hugs from Italy 
Cajun Cooking
Traditional Cajun Cooking would include Turduckins (duck breast stuffed in a chicken stuffed in a turkey) & stuffed chickens. (Both are traditional French recipes long forgotten but rediscovered here in creole & cajun country)
With either, you would first de-bone the bird or ask your local butcher to do it for you(except for the wings), season the interior, then stuff with your choice of dressing. I like to stuff my birds with crayfish etoufee, Jambalaya(my favorite), dirty rice, Boudin, or something more “american” say Broccoli & Cheese rice casserole. Then I like to cook my bird in a clay pot.(I know that you can get your hands on a clay pot for sure in Italy!) Take root vegetables (potatoes, onions, shallots, carrots’ parsnips) & some mushrooms & place them on the bottom of the clay pot. Add a good full bodied red wine like Cabernet, merlot, sangiovese, granache or pinot noir (not chianti!) to the bottom to give a good flavor & add moisture. Place chicken on top of vegetables. Add fresh rosemary, garlic, sage & thyme then season appropriately with sea salt & fresh ground pepper. Cook at 375 for about 1 hour (get a meat thermometer)
DON’T FORGET TO SEASON THE INSIDE OF THE BIRD BEFORE STUFFING!!!!
Remove the bird onto a large cutting board & let cool for 10 minutes. Then with an extremely sharp knife slice the bird from side to side. This should create “Roulades” which should look like a meat circle filled with the stuffing. Season to taste & enjoy a true masterpiece!
For dessert make a white chocolate bread pudding complemented with a whiskey sauce.(recipe on the internet for bread pudding. Just add white chocolate!)
Or go for Bananas Foster
I am a manager at a Cajun Specialty Meat market & we sell about 1000 stuffed chickens every month. For more cooking instructions & ideas go to stuffedfoodstores.com
Because I think that you are in italy here are some leads on some prepackaged products that you can order; Zatatrains Jambalaya(the best), Tony Chaches creole seasonings. Paul Prudhommes seasonings (incredible)
Good Luck & happy anniversary.
Cajun Cooking
Coffee Contributes 31% Of Total Daily Antioxidants
“Coffee is the number one antioxidant molecule in the American diet,” claims expert on polyphenols at symposium of science writers
Dr. Vinson is Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. He spoke at a symposium, Nutrigenomics: The New Science of Genes, Nutrition, and Health. The educational event was held here to introduce science writers to nutrigenomics, the new study of how foods affect our genes and how individual genetic differences affect the way we respond to nutrients in foods.
The chemist said that chronic diseases cost our society over $200 billion per year in medical costs and lost productivity. He explained, “These diseases have a pathology that is initiated by free radicals. Recent epidemiology has shown that polyphenols consumed in foods may be the major agents responsible for their health benefits – not the antioxidant vitamins C and E as we’d all originally assumed. Unfortunately, measuring individual phenolic compounds is a difficult if not impossible task, due to the very large number – it’s 8000 and growing – of these compounds in plants. And that’s just one of the obstacles we encounter.
Dr. Vinson’s group accepted the challenge, “Our research group used market samples of common fruits, vegetables, spices, nuts, grains, oils and beverages to determine the total amount of phenols in foods and beverages using an analysis that measures the extract’s antioxidant activity. We also measured the quality of antioxidants in foods and beverages by means of an in vitro ‘heart disease in a test tube’ model.”
Dr. Vinson told the group that foods and beverages are better antioxidants than are antioxidant vitamins. He noted, “With the polyphenol content data and the USDA database of per capita food consumption, the contribution of each type of food to the average estimated intake of phenolic antioxidants was calculated for 2003. Total per capita phenolic antioxidants in the United States diet was 2.2 g. Polyphenols are the major antioxidants in foods and beverages, with the vitamins primarily being minor contributors. The beverage group produced the largest percentage of the total per capita intake of phenolic antioxidants – totaling 49%.”
Professor Vinson explained that “Coffee was the largest single contributor on a daily basis for the average American, contributing 31% of the total daily antioxidants. Coffee is high in phenolic acids and chlorogenic acid, and is the number one antioxidant molecule in the American diet.”
“But do high polyphenol foods and beverages act as antioxidants in the body?” he asked. “Coffee given to humans increases plasma antioxidant capacity, and the polyphenol metabolites act as antioxidants at the level of low density lipoprotein (LDL), decreasing its oxidizability, a possible benefit for slowing down the atherosclerosis process and lowering the risk of heart disease. Recent studies have shown that milk drunk in coffee does not inhibit the absorption of polyphenols in a cell and animal experiment, although recent research suggests that milk in tea interferes with biological effect and presumably antioxidant absorption. Other high polyphenol foods such as tea, chocolate and red wine have the same effects on plasma antioxidant capacity and LDL oxidation.”
Dr. Vinson said that polyphenols, including those in coffee, can also affect oxidative stress by acting both directly as antioxidants and indirectly by affecting cell signaling and gene expression. He concluded, “Polyphenols have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, anti-angiogenic, antithrombic and vasorelaxive properties, which can affect disease and its pathology.”
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Creole, griffe, quadroon, mulatto, or other? Whats my heritage?
I’ve been wondering this for quite sometime. My family was raised in Louisiana and I was even born in central Louisana but I am stilled confused exactly what I am classified. My mom’s family is creole by heritage and blood- her grandparents immigrants her mother and aunts spoke fluent subgroups of french up until the start of elementary. Although it is now lost on my generation. Her mom was mixed her mother a frenchwoman and her father some caribean. Although her father is mulatto by mom and black by his father. So my mom is a mixture of mulatto and creole I believe although they have something else to living close to the reservations they believe their is a mixture of indian blood somewhere along the line.
My father’s family is mestizo I think- he is half native american his mother of the reservation and his dad hispanic and black. He lived in hat part where they constantly married people of the same heritage so it was frowned upon when I was born because He and my mom were not the same nationality. His family is classified as strictly cajun and native american and look on creole’s as overly black.
I haven’t lived in Louisana for some years so Its still a bit murky to me. Unfortunately I have no idea what to classify myself though. My family is more drawn to Creole culture although we are raised by the standards of central Louisana rather than the south- not much for voodoo and french speaking. Excluding the community where my father lived I don’t think there are many french speaking people living in that parish although they still cook creole food like etouffe, red beans and rice, and sauce picante.
Physically I am red bone, I have very thick curly hair it falls in semi-tight little ringlets and is black- I have brown eyes although my sister has hazel and my father has green eyes. My body shape is thick which seems heriditary for all my sisters on my dad’s side have hour glass shape. I’m short 5’3 although my mother is 5’11 and she is concidered one of the shordest women on my mom’s side. My dad’s dainty though only near 5’8 or so and my sisters though grown are all barely at 5’0 even.
I hope someone can decipher this and I hope I didn’t drag on to long.
I would not bother.
Maybe you belong to the Human race.
Cajun Recipes for my anniversary?
I’d like to cook something special for my anniversary dinner. Each year I pick recipes from the world and I thought this year we could have a cajun menu. The one who gives me something like “family recipes” (I mean a recipe that is not taken from the internet) gets 10 pts.
Thank you and hugs from Italy
Traditional Cajun recipes would include Turduckins (duck breast stuffed in a chicken stuffed in a turkey) & stuffed chickens. (Both are traditional French recipes long forgotten but rediscovered here in creole & cajun country)
With either, you would first de-bone the bird or ask your local butcher to do it for you(except for the wings), season the interior, then stuff with your choice of dressing. I like to stuff my birds with crayfish etoufee, Jambalaya(my favorite), dirty rice, Boudin, or something more “american” say Broccoli & Cheese rice casserole. Then I like to cook my bird in a clay pot.(I know that you can get your hands on a clay pot for sure in Italy!) Take root vegetables (potatoes, onions, shallots, carrots’ parsnips) & some mushrooms & place them on the bottom of the clay pot. Add a good full bodied red wine like Cabernet, merlot, sangiovese, granache or pinot noir (not chianti!) to the bottom to give a good flavor & add moisture. Place chicken on top of vegetables. Add fresh rosemary, garlic, sage & thyme then season appropriately with sea salt & fresh ground pepper. Cook at 375 for about 1 hour (get a meat thermometer)
DON’T FORGET TO SEASON THE INSIDE OF THE BIRD BEFORE STUFFING!!!!
Remove the bird onto a large cutting board & let cool for 10 minutes. Then with an extremely sharp knife slice the bird from side to side. This should create “Roulades” which should look like a meat circle filled with the stuffing. Season to taste & enjoy a true masterpiece!
For dessert make a white chocolate bread pudding complemented with a whiskey sauce.(recipe on the internet for bread pudding. Just add white chocolate!)
Or go for Bananas Foster
I am a manager at a Cajun Specialty Meat market & we sell about 1000 stuffed chickens every month. For more cooking instructions & ideas go to stuffedfoodstores.com
Because I think that you are in italy here are some leads on some prepackaged products that you can order; Zatatrains Jambalaya(the best), Tony Chaches creole seasonings. Paul Prudhommes seasonings (incredible)
Good Luck & happy anniversary.
What to make for an All-American meal in France?
I’m spending my semester with a host family in France and they all really want me to cook an American meal. I want to, but I have no idea what to make. I need a main course, side dishes, and a dessert.
So what do you all think would be a unique, typical, American meal? (fyi: I’m from New York State, I know the region frequently matters on this. For example, though awesome, I’m not going to make creole food, that’s not something I would have back in the states.)
Any suggestions are welcome!
All of the people who answered have very creative answers, but fail to realize that some if not all there suggestions are impossible in France, they do sell the crap that is normal in the US, I would go for the apple pie, but use a selection of french apples, fried chicken is another idea, even a spaghetti with meat sauce, Europeans are not familiar with the US style meat sauce or meatballs.
I am a former chef from Canada and cooked in Hotels and was in France for awhile in the mid 1990′s, and try something that is easy and you can handle, if you could get you hands on some smoked deli meat to make a reuben sandwich there is another idea, but US style corned beef and pastrami is hard to come buy but french cooked ham would be a good substitute.
does anyone know where to eat Cajun food in London? I mean Southern American dishes like Jambalaya, etc…?
I am already aware of place like Big Easy in Chelsea or other Tex Mex restaurant but they don’t really make Cajun food
I haven’t tried anywhere yet myself – it’s on the list of things to do – but I generally use the Timeout website to help me find decent restaurants, among other things. I’ve included a web link to their section on Caribbean food. Hope it helps!
http://www.timeout.com/london/search/?tag_id=4256&date=&cuisine_vis=South+American+%26+Caribbean&cuisine=1224&area_vis=All+areas%2Fpostcodes&area=&keyword=Keyword+%28optional%29&postcode=&submit=1
Top 10 Cuisines?
1. Thai
2. Mexican
3. Malaysian
4. Chinese (Sichuan/Hunan)
5. Japanese
6. Spanish (Tapas)
7. French
8. Vietnamese
9. American (Cajun)
10. Peruvian
Honorable Mention – North African, Italian, American (Seafood), Chinese (Shanghai), Vietnamese, American (Steaks), Indian, Brazilian, Korean BBQ & Ethiopian
Thai food is heaven on a plate.