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Where Y'Eat: Room for New Roux at Gumbo Fest

Ian McNulty
A dark roux, country style chicken and andouille gumbo from Brocato's Catering in New Orleans.

No dish in New Orleans is more Creole than gumbo. And, appropriately enough for that Creole identity, there’s no single answer to just how it should taste and what can go into the pot.

This has been on my mind because this weekend a veritable dream team of New Orleans Creole eateries will serve more than a dozen versions of gumbo at the Treme Creole Gumbo Festival (see full details below).

This is one of the neighborhood events put on throughout the year by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, the nonprofit behind Jazz Fest. 

It’s held in Armstrong Park and among vendors this year are some stalwarts of New Orleans food alongside others from the next generation. In one category, you’ve got Li’l Dizzy’s, Willie Mae’s, the Yaka Mein Lady and Dunbar’s. Across the aisle, there’s Neyow’s, the food truck Dirty Dishes, Café Dauphine down in Holy Cross and plenty more.  Just think about having all that gumbo in one place.

Asking for a dozen-plus riffs on one dish could be tricky, but it’s no problem when the dish in question is gumbo. Recipes differ from house to house in New Orleans, never mind just from restaurant to restaurant. We’re talking seafood gumbo, chicken and sausage gumbo, file gumbo and a range of roux that may well look like a catalog of earth tones.

As in the past, festival vendors will serve both full size servings of their gumbos (prices vary) and also small sample-size servings for $3, a smart bit of food festival engineering that truly enables a broad taste of the field. New this year is another good, practical consideration from festival planners: lids for take-away containers, so people can take their gumbo trove to go.

Some gumbo recipes are held tight within families or restaurant operations. But at this weekend’s festival you can watch some masters of the dish do their thing first hand. Gumbo cooking demonstrations are scheduled from Susan Spicer (Saturday at 1:30 p.m.) and Leah Chase (Saturday at 2:45 p.m.) and from Wayne Baquet of Li’l Dizzy’s Café (Sunday at 1:30 p.m.) and Tanya Dubuclet, of Neyow's Creole Café (Sunday, 2:45 p.m.)

Treme Creole Gumbo Festival

When: Nov. 12 and 13, 11 a.m.-7:30 p.m.

Where: Armstrong Park, 701 N. Rampart St., New Orleans

Schedules at www.jazzandheritage.org/treme-gumbo.

Ian covers food culture and dining in New Orleans through his weekly commentary series Where Y’Eat.

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