New Orleans is known for a few things, but somewhere at the top of the list is its food. Local cuisine is one of the most cited reasons for New Orleans’ booming tourism trade, and it boasts some of the most recognizable regional dishes in American cuisine. If you’re heading to Nola, you’re headed for gumbo, jambalaya, PO Boys, and beignets. With a Creole grandmother, this is the food I find myself most comfortable with, which is harder to come by here in Los Angeles.
But at the 2025 Festival of Culture, I discovered at least one surprising addition to the usual roundup of New Orleans local food after taking a chance on a recommendation from—where else?—TikTok. It was a reminder that sometimes the greatest magic can be found off the beaten path, away from the tourist traps of “must-try” and getting a local’s perspective on any destination city.
But first, I had to sample the offerings of the quintessential festival itself. After all, the festival was the entire reason for the trip, and there’s no easier way to catalog all the possibilities of New Orleans’ local food scene than by hitting the convention floor food court, where more than a dozen of the parish’s local vendors were set up to offer a variety of creole and Cajun cuisines that make the city tick.
Choosing from the variety of catfish, fried chicken, sausages, and sweets on offer proved challenging. After all, you only have so much room in your stomach, and when seafood made up the majority of the options, very little of any dish would have survived the heat and humidity of the 30-minute walk back to my hotel (or a night spent in the mini-fridge in the room).
Eventually, I settled on a place that served something of everything. A finger-licking combination platter of catfish, fried shrimp, and fried chicken was enough for lunch on the first day, accompanied by a hearty yum yum sauce, the sweet and spicy condiment that often accompanies the proliferating dishes of “hibachi,” several establishments that unfold. All three proteins were perfectly crispy and seasoned in the way only Southern cuisine can be—not too salty, yet with a zing that would keep anyone diving back for more.
And look, I could have gotten more adventurous—think catfish, eggrolls, or oxtail plates—but I’ve always believed that the best way to get a sense of what a restaurant or municipality does well in terms of food is to ask what else they do. If you’re in Texas, go for barbecue. If you’re trying a Thai place for the first time, it’s hard to go wrong with the PAD, see EW. And at the Essence Festival, this three-way dish was an absolute home run.
Não tenho evidências científicas para apoiar isso, mas tenho certeza de que esse sotaque de Nova Orleans faz com que os alimentos gostem de pelo menos 36% melhor. Se a pessoa que serve para você chama de “Baybeh”, pois lhe entrega o contêiner, ele vai chutar. Esse foi o caso no primeiro dia com a lamba de dedos de três vias e no segundo dia, quando optei por massas de lagostins da Nola Creole Cookery, uma combinação picante e cremosa que abriu meus seios com uma explosão de pimenta. Meu único arrependimento é que não havia como recuperá -lo à Califórnia.
Além do festival, a variedade inspiradora variou do Ícone Histórico Local Cafe du Monde por seus beignets e café mundialmente famosos e Café Au Lait em um bar de mergulho chamado Parasol para um garoto de pó de camarão que colocou um irmão em contato com os ancestrais. Um recanto peculiar de café da manhã chamado Ironworks se sentiu mais alinhado com um ponto quente de Silver Lake Hipster, mas serviu um crepe saboroso com presunto e geléia de damasco que só podiam ser descritos como divinos. Doce e salgado são sabores que sempre foram juntos, e aqui, ambos foram aparecidos ao máximo, com a geléia picante levando a borda.
Mas esse lugar que Tiktok me enviou foi o destaque da viagem. Agora, receber recomendações da Tiktok é uma proposta duvidosa, na melhor das hipóteses; Perdi a conta dos pontos da moda em que me acarretaram em Los Angeles, que variava de “meh” muito caro a “mal vale a pena”, delicioso, mas Acamaya, um ponto de luxo mexicano regional ao norte do bairro francês, provou ser tudo o que os influenciadores de aspirantes prometidos.
Built around coastal Mexican go-tos like roast octopus (soft and chewy without being rubbery as octopus can so often be) and aguachile (bright, tangy, addictive), its carne asada was probably one of the best steaks I’ve had in months, with a light, friendly atmosphere that clashed a bit with the homey casualness of the down-to-earth service I experienced elsewhere in New Orleans (I joked in my festival Recapitular que quase nenhum balcão foi bom durante todo o fim de semana, embora houvesse uma familiaridade familiar em todo o procedimento frustrante). Mas o Café de Olla de Acamaya (um pouco doce, com notas de canela, cardamomo e cebolinha) teriam feito a viagem valer o custo de um bilhete por si só.
The Essence Food and Wine Festival offerings included panels with well-known chefs and restaurateurs like Kevin Hart, Patty LaBelle, Marcus Samuelsson, Ghetto Gastro, and the like, and if you’re someone who loves Food Network and Netflix cooking shows, that programming looked interesting from the few times I popped my head in. But when it comes to food, I’m Kevin Garnett from Uncut Gems : “Why the f*ck would you show me something if I couldn’t have it then?” Luckily for me, New Orleans and The Essence Festival of Culture had plenty for me to see and eat. I left satisfied.
