What must they bring home from New Orleans?

I'm a CH from Southern California and have never been to New Orleans before- I have two friends leaving this afternoon to visit family there for a week and I'd love some of your regional food. What should I tell them to bring me??? They're taking an ice chest on the plane so cold things are okay. Thanx so much!!!

[Guy Caballero]

Great thread. Have to echo the Creole Mustard and Community coffee w/ chicory. I live in N.O. and bring these items to just about anyone I stay with out of town as gifts.

Zapp's is a great idea too.

Other ideas.. jar of Italian Olive Salad, available at central grocery or any supermarket around town. some folks swear by our Blue Plate Mayonnaise too, believe it or not.

And of course there's the box of cafe du monde beignet mix. this is probably the same thing as a box of pancake batter, but the box does look kind of cool.

Community coffee if you like coffee
and like someone else said some of our cajun seasonings like Tonys

Community Coffee with chicory.

Creole Country sausage. 'Nuff said. Details in my 5/3 post - down the page.

Some good reccomendations so far; I'd add a bag of Ellis Stansel's rice. It's a basmati variety that I really, really like. http://www.stanselrice.com/gourmetpopcornrice.html

Link: http://www.appetites.us

You've got some good recs so far. The one thing that I would add would be Tabasco Spicy Soy Sauce. It is wonderful with sushi. It might be available in CA, but I've never been able to find it in AZ - tons of other Tabasco products, but not the Spicy Soy. I'll pick up a case of it, when there and order on-line if I will not be going for a while. Best soy sauce I've ever had.

Hunt

A muffaletta from Central Grocery on Decatur. If they pick it up the day of the flight, it will transport well in the ice chest and eat it that night when they arrive home.

I always bring 3 or 4 home from NOLA and invite friends over to share!

Enjoy!

[chocolatetartguy]

Agreed on the muffaletta. On my last trip to NO in 1996, I carried a po-boy from Streetcar Sandwiches onto the plane and ate it enroute.

Another poster already suggested a Creole seasoning but we like Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning, which I thought was mass-marketed (I can buy in in FL) until I visited my sister in NJ over Memorial Day, and our brother from New Orleans was also there...he and I couldn't believe there was NO Creole seasoning to be found anywhere except for Paul Prudhomme's, which can be pricey due to the name. I'm sending her some this week because it's so great on grilled chicken. Well, and whenever I visit NOLA to see my brother, I have to pick up some great bib aprons from the farmer's market...I LOVE them.

Just a few suggestions:
--Andouille from Bailey's or Jacob's in LaPlace, if they're up for a short road trip
--fresh shrimp or frozen softshell crabs
--Zapp's potato chips (esp the cajun crawtator flavor)
--frozen, peeled Louisiana crawfish tails (make sure they're not chinese imports)
--ground file powder
--zatarain's liquid crab boil
--jumbo lump crabmeat, but they'd better purchase it just before their flight and you'd need to use it quickly after receiving it

Great list.

I would add creole mustard (we like Rex...better value than
the bigger names) and tasso.

WHen traveling, I bring Andy Roos spices, purchased at the French Market... esp. the ALL PURPOSE CREOLE.

Best stuff on the nmarket since demise of FOLTZ Spices

http://www.andyroos.com/site/shopping...

don't forget Cajun Power Garlic Sauce & some Rex Remoulade...marinate your ribs in the first then grill...sauce your boiled shrimp in the second