Not to be bragging or anything, but I once met a big name person associated with the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (Jazz Fest). There are many well knowns who walk the turf of the Fair Grounds each year whose names cause excitement – such as two years ago when “Mick” and “Irma” performed together. And to Springsteen fans there is only one “Bruce.” But while most make only occasional appearances (except Irma who is often there), the person I met has been there every year since 1983 and lines always form. Her name is “Monica.”
Though the Jazz Fest is know globally for its music, nothing is as interactive as its other great offering – food. To its credit, the fest has never been a burger, pizza and cotton candy purveyor but an event at which even the chefs have to audition by providing dishes that are indigenous yet creative. In 1983, Peter Hilzim, a local chef who ran a business called Kajun Kettle Foods, created a dish that combined crawfish and pasta along with cream, wine, butter and seasonings. He named it after his wife, Monica Davidson, who for eternity would be respectfully be linked to a pasts type – rotini. (When I first met her she introduced herself as “Crawfish Monica.”)
In the pantheon of Louisiana seafood favorites, Crawfish Monica is a fairly recent creation, yet history sometimes embellishes the facts. On the internet there is even reference to it as a ‘traditional” Louisiana dish. That would only be true if traditional began in 1983. Gumbos and etouffees are from the distant past, Monica belongs to the present.
Not that there is anything wrong with the old creations. Another dish that the Jazz Fest has made famous traces back to the early days along the Cajun prairies where pork is more popular than even crawfish. And from there, “cochon de lait” – the meat of a roasted young suckling pig – has sizzled.
In the central Louisiana town of Mansura, there is an annual Cochon de Lait Festival where the meat is served along with traditional Cajun side dishes such as dirty rice. A native entrepreneur had the idea of talking the language of New Orleans and serving the meat as part of a cochon de lait poor boy. It is a great sandwich (especially if you don’t think too hard about the young pig.) It and Crawfish Monica are examples of the old and the relatively new. (Whomever first thought of preparing this Cajun country pork preparation as a New Orleans-style poor boy combined the best of two worlds). It and the Monica are always always among the Jazz Fest’s top selling foods.
For dessert, here’s a suggestion for blending Louisiana food specialties. How about a serving of Bananas Foster topped with the few splashes of Tabasco!
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To contact Errol, email elabordenola@gmail.com!
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS: Errol’s Laborde’s new book, “When Rex Met Zulu: And Other Chronicles of the New Orleans Experience,” (Pelican Publishing Company, 2024) is now available at local bookstores and websites.
Laborde’s other recent publications: “New Orleans: The First 300 Years” and “Mardi Gras: Chronicles of the New Orleans Carnival” (Pelican Publishing Company, 2017 and 2013), are available at the same locations.
WATCH INFORMED SOURCES, FRIDAYS AT 7 P.M., REPEATED AT 9:30 A.M. Sundays. WYES-TV, CH. 12.
