New Orleans Cuisine Analysis

For this section, I will be talking about cuisine from New Orleans specifically, as La Louisiane was a large area of land. The territory was broken into regions, which is seen in the differences of food preferences in the area. For this reason, only one city is being chosen for this analysis. New Orleans was, and continues to be, a major port city in the French colony of Louisiana, filled with people from all walks of life. Most of the people in the city were forced to go to New Orleans by the government, often for committing a crime of some sort. New Orleans was soon filled with slaves, forcat, native peoples, and free French subjects, making it a new world with less boundaries then the old one. Although social boundaries continued to …show more content…
This was not very different from their foodways in France, where the use of a variety of wild game is popular in rural areas. Some examples of wild game mentioned in textual evidence include ducks, turkeys, deer, bear, bison, and many types of waterfowl. In the city of New Orleans, evidence of venison and bear meat are missing in the archaeological record, even though they are reported to be staple foods in the diet. However it is possible that this is due to the prominence of trade within the city itself. Venison was one of the most important trade goods in the colony, so it is possible that deer populations in the area were low, leaving only enough to trade, not eat. The lack of bear remains might indicate that they received the bear meat through trade with the natives. If this were the case, then the French would not have the bones and other remains in their homes, because it would have been prepared before trade …show more content…
Both the Netherlands and France were very powerful nations that managed to gain a lot of land and trade partners. In the colony of New Amsterdam, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) was focused on trading manufactured goods with native peoples for furs, specifically beaver pelts. Louisiana, New Orleans especially, was set up for trade as well, with a great position at the Mississippi delta. This deep desire to trade for both countries led to complex, and mostly friendly, interactions with the surrounding native peoples. However, these two colonial ventures were also quite different. First, New Amsterdam seems to have been better supplied than New Orleans. The Dutch were very hands on with their colonies, making sure that it would flourish. This led to many ships pulling into harbor from the WIC during the early years of the colony to supply the colonists with food and other necessities. New Amsterdam was also provisioned by surrounding colonies, engaging in trade relations with the northern and southern English colonies. Comparatively, New Orleans was not closely located to many European colonies. The city was not permitted to trade with the British due to political tensions between the two countries, leading to a more limited flow of supplies. It is possible that the differences in continued outfitting of these colonial ventures had to do with the location of the colonies themselves. New Amsterdam is much