Jazz Fest cuisine worth pining in line for

For two weekends of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the lines for the soft shell crab poboys is nothing short of ridiculous. While in ample supply at the Fairgrounds, soft shell crabs may be scarce from restaurant menus during Jazz Fest, as we’ve experienced in previous years.



Soft shell crab poboy, crawfish Monica, crawfish
enchiladas and the cochon de lait poboy.

With headliners like the Eagles, Jimmy Buffet, Tom Petty, Bruce Springstein, the Beach Boys and the Foo Fighters, you can expect hundreds of thousands of people—both locals and tourists alike—to pack the track for a chance to hear national artists that rarely play New Orleans otherwise.

 

But, let’s admit it—we come for the food. No doubt. The music is great, but secondary. We look forward to the smorgasbord of Prejean’s crawfish enchiladas, seafood stuffed mushrooms and the quail, pheasant and Andouille gumbo—no matter how scorching the sun.  The crawfish bread, the oyster patties, rose mint iced tea and let’s not forgot WWOZ’s Mango Freeze—topped with rum or vodka—is just the ticket. And that’s just the first day.

 

Cochon de Lait poboy’s are another hot item at Jazz Fest. We’ll stand in line for one of those too. With more than 70 restaurants and caterers serving everything from Ya Ka Mein to Cajun duck poboys, grilled chicken livers with pepper jelly and oyster Rockefellar bisque and Tagine of lamb and the renowned crawfish Monica, you may just think you’ve died and gone to food lovers’ heaven.

Oh wait, we just remembered the Natchitoches meat and crawfish pies. How could we forget? And the list goes on…