Louisiana Kitchen

Sara Roahen‘s Gumbo Tales was thoughtfully gifted to me by my niece. Good choice. She always hits the nail on the head bookwise. I had read about it, can’t remember where, and thumbtacked a note to my memory.

Ms Roahen’s book opens with a bit on Liuzza’s Restaurant and Bar, a spot that was oozing juice all over my appetite thanks to dark, sensuous photos in the recent Gourmet. Under Gumbo A Higher Education, page 4, she writes, Not long after I moved to New Orleans, my younger sister, Stephanie, flew down from our home state of Wisconsin to evaluate the city as a prospective home. Exercising New Orleans most persuasive means of seduction – dinner – I took her to the great neighborhood restaurant Liuzza’s Restaurant & Bar and ordered like ma: Abita Amber beer in frosted schooners, fried green tomatoes with shrimp rémoulade, a stuffed artichoke, fried chicken, seafood gumbo.


The closest I could get to New Orleans on short notice was the Louisiana Kitchen. We did not, regrettably, sit in the kitchen. Had we been admitted to the land of the fryer we could have gone home with the scent of oysters in our hair. Crispy cornmeal fried oysters. Rub that on your pillow and dream of the bayou.