Difference between cajun and creole cooking?

We lived near New Orleans many years ago and occasionally drove into the city for dinner. I remember eating shrimp creole often. It was a tomato-based dish served over rice, but it was not spicy (as in hot). In other parts of the nation I see the words creole and cajun used interchangeably. Am I correct that cajun cooking is heavy in the use of hot pepper enhanced food and creole does not necessarily mean hot?

I am deathly allergic to hot peppers (as in my throat swells shut and I cannot breath). I am definately not in Emeril%26#39;s ';kick it up a notch'; category. Will servers be able to identify what dishes will be potentially dangerous to me? Has all food in New Orleans morphed into ';kick it up a notch'; super spicey?

Difference between cajun and creole cooking?

While many debate the differences between Cajun and Creole, your definition is basically correct. Cajun tends to be more like country cooking and is hearty fare. Creole has more delicate flavors.

Any decent server will understand the dishes at their restaurant and will be able to guide you in your selections. I have a friend who is allergic to garlic and he always asks to be sure there is no garlic or that the chef leave it out. Special requests are no problem at most restaurants. You can find a vairety of food in New Orleans. It is not all spicy.

Difference between cajun and creole cooking?

I always equate cajun to be more ';spice'; while creole is more ';sauce.'; Of course, many times those definitions don%26#39;t exactly fit the dish but more of than not it works!

The %26#39;creole%26#39; or %26#39;sauce%26#39; element was introduced from France etc...the eldest son would inherit the %26#39;riches%26#39; so the second or third sons in many cases left for the new world with of course their backgrounds in food and of course their %26#39;chefs%26#39; came with them. The introduction of the sauces, creams etc into the local foods created a mixture that became known as %26#39;creole%26#39;...anyway thats what I was told many years ago. Cajun is hearty one pot cooking in many cases with whatever was leftover from the household cooking of what could be salvaged in one manner or another. The flavorful spices were used to spark the flavor of what they had to cook with. Cajun does not necessarily mean %26#39;spicy hot%26#39; as many dishes are %26#39;seasoned%26#39; and not to overwhelm the tastes of the food. The Germans introduced sausage and brought pigs with them when they came over.

Both are good !!!!! Some restaurants can be in both categories. Brigtsen%26#39;s is both because you can get Paul Prudhomme type food (Frank B worked at K-Pauls, Cajun) and seafood dishes with sauces (Creole).

New Orleans food is influenced by many cultures which include Caribbean, African, Italian, Irish, French, Spanish and Vietnamese.

I believe the great food in New Orleans makes it such a popular vacation/convention destination.

Thank you so much for such interesting history. My southern relatives once told me that cajun spices were used to conceal meat and seafood that ';had gone bad';, but since eating that would make one ill I have always discounted that theory. The one you offer makes more sense.

It seems to be that the term ';blackened'; is used willy-nilly by all kinds of restaurants in an attempt to capture New Orleans cuisine when all they really do is burn heavily seasoned spices into the meat.

You are correct about ';blackened'; food. 99% of what is served as ';blackened'; around the country bears no resemblance to the very specific quick-cooking technique introduced by Paul Prudhomme. Of course, Prudhomme%26#39;s blackening technique is not something you find in traditional Cajun cooking. ignore the way the terms Creole and Cajun are applied to specific dishes outside New Orleans. Take the McDonald%26#39;s Cajun chicken sandwich....sheeeshe!

You could spend pages trying to explore the differences between Creole and Cajun cooking, but that would be a waste of time. The two cuisines are constantly evolving and there is a natural cross-pollination as tie goes on.

If your concern is that food in New Orleans will be too spicy for you, then Creole food is GENERALLY less spicy than Cajun food. However, there are very few restaurants in New Orleans that don%26#39;t have elements of both cuisines. Even the same dish can vary from place to place in it%26#39;s spice level. As another poster said, just speak with your server and be sure they understand your aversion to peppers. They can tell you how spicy the dish will be or what modifications can be made to keep you safe.

I am a Cajun from southwest of New Orleans and we look at Cajun food differently. The way my grandmother cooked it, it wasn%26#39;t hot at all unless you added your own hot sauce from a bottle of homemade and homegrown hot peppers and vingar. But usually this was added to blander items like white beans and rice, red beans and rice, fish, etc. We didn%26#39;t really recognize Creole cooking down here except to speak of creole people (ancestry) or language.

When Prudumme and Emeril started tv shows and promoted our cooking and burned and added really hot spices, we cringed some as blackened anything was not a usual thing but burned food to us.

If you come to eat Cajun Food down the bayou say in Houma (or anywhere in Terrebonne Parish) or Lafourche Parish, you won%26#39;t find the heavily seasoned hot pepper taste to food as a norm.

You will have to ask your waiter about the peppers used if any, but in New Orleans, you will more than likely find them to cook cajun food hot and possibly even creole food. I have eaten some pretty hot creole foods in New Orleans before. If they season it with hot pepper sauce, you won%26#39;t see the peppers but the oils and peppery vingar or water sauce will still be there.

I personally love Shrimp Creole. To me its really a cajun dish though...lol. I make the absolute best. I cannot find it like mine in any restaurant yet. Sometimes I%26#39;ll order it when we are out and am so disappointed.

Good Luck!

I%26#39;m in Lafayette, and I%26#39;ve ordered gumbo outside of Acadiana, and it will sometimes have tomatoes in it. Cajun gumbo does not have tomatoes. I find Creole food uses tomatoes more often than Cajun food.

Here in Acadiana, they don%26#39;t call food %26#39;spicy%26#39; but %26#39;seasoned%26#39;, lol.