All things Cajun

[Daco Celtic]

Y’all don’t eat snake and gator in Cali?!

I've had rattle snake sausage in Cali but it isn't typical. We have "Desert Rats" though and their diet is probably like 25% rattlesnake. They are kind of a redneck-hippie combo and they live in remote parts of the Mojave desert. A lot of them still have mullets to this day. How often would they typical Cajun actually eat snake and gator?

[Celestia]

[Celestia]

Swamp lands

[lo_ovalle]

Interesting.

[Isleño]

You’re not going to like what I’m going to say, but I have to stress the facts. The fact here is, there is no such thing as Cajun cuisine. Full stop.

And why would I say that? Well I being born and raised in south Louisiana generations deep, I know our south Louisiana history very well. And the history is this… there were peoples in Louisiana before the arrival of the Acadians and they had a culture, cuisine, languages and language dialects. There were French, Spanish, Caribbeans, Germans, Africans and Native Americans. All of these peoples were considered to be creoles. Creoles are the native-born peoples of Louisiana regardless of race or ancestry, usually the colonial peoples of Louisiana and their descendants. The melding of the food cultures of all those early groups became the genesis of Louisiana cuisine and it was traditionally known as Louisiana Creole cuisine. When the Acadians arrived (ancestors of most Cajuns) they adopted the local food culture and added to it. Every ethnic group that arrived in Louisiana, did the same. Adopt and contribute. Adopt and contribute. Even the Native Americans in Louisiana did it. So being that Creole in Louisiana is the native-born people of Louisiana regardless of race, usually from colonial Louisiana and their descendants… that means Louisiana born Acadians (their descendants now known as Cajuns) are Creoles. In fact, Cajuns were called Creoles before being called Cajun.

So you see, Louisiana’s traditional cuisine is called Creole and Cajuns are also Creoles like others in Louisiana and adopted and contributed like others in Louisiana so they eat the same foods as their south Louisiana brethren of other ancestries and races. And that’s why I said there is no such thing as Cajun cuisine because Cajuns eat cook and Creole cuisine and are Creoles themselves like the rest of us in south Louisiana.

I’m a Louisiana Isleño and that means I’m a Louisiana Spanish Creole and my ancestors came to Louisiana from Canary Islands, Spain during Louisiana’s Spanish Colonial period and I grew up eating the same foods as Cajuns like gumbos, jambalaya, red beans and rice, etouffees etc. Why? Because

[SilverKnight]

Umm interesting

[NSXD60]

Isleno is of course correct about the cuisine being an amalgamation, but the Cajuns came in such numbers that most of the cultures they encountered were absorbed into theirs. We are known as Cajuns (i.e., Cadjeins), not the Canadian and local rich antiquarian attempted reimposition of 1700s "Acadiens", but most La. French before 1960 referred to themselves as Français or Créoles, sometimes interchangeably, less often Cadjeins, although quite aware that it was also interchangeable. Btw, Cajun singer/musician Joe Falcon had some Canary ancestry.

[Celestia]

Texas boi

[NSXD60]

Texas boi

Frère d'ain aute mère? (Brother from another mother?)

[Celestia]

What a legend