If you had to choose four kinds of food to represent your country, which one would you choose?

At least two quora users wrote answers for the United States, but I want to write an answer for the place where I was born ... Technically, it is part of the United States, but it is still unique in culture. Of course, I mean South Louisiana! For those who don't know about American states, Louisiana is a "boot-shaped state". Of course, South Louisiana is the only and soul of Boots. By the way, I now live in "Square State in the north of that shoe state". )

Food in southern Louisiana is deeply rooted in French country cooking, which started with the French who founded New Orleans in 17 18. In fact, there are two French-speaking groups in southern Louisiana: colonists directly from France settled near New Orleans. They often interbred with Africans and aborigines and were called Creoles. In the west of this land, French colonists settled down and lived in Nova Scotia for several generations (married with micmac and Bernacchi, and got along well at ordinary times) until 1765 was expelled by the British. They call their home Acadia; When they settled in Louisiana, they still called themselves Acadians, but later they were not so called Cartesians, and later they were called Cajun.

But everyone who settled there brought some supplements. Native Americans eat corn and beans, hunt deer and crocodiles, and also season stews with yellow leaf powder. Africans brought their native vegetable-okra. Legend has it that for the slave trade, Africans were caught and deprived of everything they owned, and managed to smuggle okra seeds to the New World by hiding them in their ears. I don't know if this is true, but someone told me that the thick soup we make with okra is called okra soup, which is the name ki ngombo given to okra by Bantu people. German immigrants brought their own tradition of sausage making, as well as baking and beer making; Many people become small farmers selling milk and fresh vegetables in New Orleans.

China immigrants' food turned into rich beef with boiled egg soup and noodles, which is a good medicine for New Orleans' hangover. They are called Yakamai noodles, Yakamai stew, or just Fu Yunru or York. Italian immigrants in New Orleans invented Muffaletta sandwiches-cooked cold dishes such as ham, salami, mozzarella cheese, Borovolo cheese, etc., sprinkled with olive seasoning, and placed on round Sicilian rolls. What else!

Honey, what are we going to eat?

Appetizer: stone sausage. This is a light-colored sausage, which is traditionally cooked when killing pigs. The fillings include pork, pork liver, rice and a lot of seasonings. There is also a kind of "black shroud", which contains pig blood, but it is difficult to find it unless you make it yourself. You steam, stew, or bake-the inside is not hard enough to really cut like this, so many people will spread it on soda cookies or Ritz cookies like pies. There is a local joke: What is a 7-course Cajun meal? Six packs of ABS and a pound of pudding meat! It's also true.

Side dishes: red bean rice. This is the favorite of New Orleans people. Traditionally, cooking is done on Monday, because Monday is laundry day-if you have to add wood to the stove and steam the kitchen with a boiling bathtub and kettle, you can save some work and cook dinner at the same time. Soak dried red kidney beans in water overnight, drain if there is any, and cook in water if there is no. Add some chopped onions, salt, lots of herbs and spices (I like bay leaves and thyme), and maybe add a little vinegar or Worcester sauce to add flavor.

Add a piece of bacon or fat to add flavor. Bonus: Add smoked salted pork shoulder cut into cubes or dices, which is a bit like ham, but better. ) Boil the beans to a paste. Some people add more liquids to make them more like soup; Mine is sticky. Add roast sausage or other spicy pork sausage to rice, or directly add sliced stew or tasso to red beans. Although I like pork and sausage, you can make it vegetarian if you like. )

Main course: crayfish soup. Make flour paste-mix fat and flour, heat and stir carefully until it turns brown, but don't burn it. Things are not as simple as they seem. Add chopped onion, bell pepper and celery and cook for a while. Then add a small amount of water or broth and simmer with low fire; Then add the crayfish tail (or shrimp, if you can't find the "mud bug"), cover and stew for a while. Season with chopped onion, chopped parsley, red pepper, black pepper and salt. Rice.

Dessert: praline. This is a kind of candy similar to soft candy, made of brown sugar, butter and cream. Stir and heat until it becomes sticky. Then you pour a spoonful of biscuits on a baking tray or wax paper and let them cool. In Louisiana, we joined pecans in the southeastern United States.