New Orleans Jazz Fest A-Z for Foodies, New Orleans, Louisiana

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is held annually over two weekends (seven days) at the end of April and beginning of May. This event rivals Mardi Gras for its commercial impact on the city, an estimated $300million (2012).

Undoubtedly fans are attracted to the Jazz Fest for the range of music genres from blues and bluegrass to rock, rap and zydeco (and much more) on 12 stages throughout the fairgrounds. However, as the guy checking tickets and his co-worker confirmed the other reason to get yourself to the “Fest” is to sample the alphabet of food options.

Alligator pie is a puff pastry filled with a creamy sauce; it is a little hard to distinguish the taste from chicken.

Beignets are French for donuts, or it seems anything deep-fried and best consumed warm before the dough gets too chewy.

Crawfish are also called crayfish, the tiny fresh-water cousin of the lobster. Often crawfish are boiled and served as is, so be prepared to get messy as you navigate removing the tasty meat from these tiny crustaceans. There are several popular crawfish dishes including Crawfish Monica (a pasta dish).

Étouffée is a method of cooking, which mean smothered or suffocated. Typical dishes include seafood or shellfish simmered in a light roux and served over rice. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).