Gumbo is the city's defining one-pot dish: a dark French roux base loaded with the holy trinity (onion, celery, bell pepper), seafood or chicken-and-andouille, finished with file or okra, served over rice.
Where to eat it: 4 restaurants across 1 city.
Gumbo descends from West African okra stews (the word gumbo itself comes from a Bantu word for okra), Choctaw file (powdered sassafras leaves) and the French roux. It coalesced into its modern form in 18th-century colonial Louisiana, where enslaved African cooks and French cooks worked in the same kitchens. By the 1830s it was on every New Orleans Creole menu, in seafood, chicken-andouille, and Lenten z'herbes (greens) variations. The Choctaw influence (file) and the African influence (okra) are still visible in the alternate thickening choices. Gumbo is rarely thickened with both. It is always served over rice, not noodles.
Common allergens: Shellfish, Gluten
Tip from the editors. The roux is the dish. Use a cast iron Dutch oven, never stop stirring, and aim for the colour of milk chocolate (not coffee, not peanut butter).
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Commander's Palace in New Orleans is the Garden District grande dame on Washington Avenue, with the canonical New Orleans Sunday jazz brunch, 25-cent martinis and eggs Sardou.
Order: Turtle soup with sherry, then eggs Sardou.
Tip: The 25-cent martini (3 max) is the brunch tradition; jacket suggested for the men in the upstairs Garden Room.
Brigtsen's in New Orleans is Frank and Marna Brigtsen's 1986 Victorian-cottage Creole Acadian room near the streetcar terminus, a Paul Prudhomme alumnus on file gumbo.
Liuzza's by the Track in New Orleans is the Bayou St John lunch counter near the Fair Grounds that invented the BBQ shrimp po-boy, $15 with butter-pepper sauce on Leidenheimer bread.
Try: BBQ shrimp po-boy
Tip: Cash only at peak; check the Jazz Fest schedule, the room turns into a circus on festival weekends.
Mandina's in New Orleans is the 1932 Mid-City Italian-Creole corner room on Canal Street, founded by Sicilian immigrant Sebastian Mandina and still serving trout amandine.
Signature: Trout amandine, Crawfish bisque
Order: The trout amandine. Add the spaghetti with red gravy and a side of bread.
Tip: Sit at the bar for the streetcar view; the kitchen runs faster off the bar pickup.
More cities are in research. Want gumbo covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.