“Arcadiana” also known as Cajun area spreads over a vast area from the swamps in the bayous all the way up to the outskirts of New Orleans. Southerners say the most interesting and pungent Cajun cuisine comes from the quaint towns in south Louisiana.

As you go down the alligator infested wet lands of the Atchafalaya Basin and its bayous which is the land of crawfish, the food turns milder but no less delicious. Although Cajun dishes taste delicious it doesn’t always look tasty. It’s basically hearty old-style peasant cuisine. A good deal of it is one pot foos such as stew type meals. The fancy food that is in restaurants that is listed as Cajun goes against the grain of Cajun food traditionalists.

In cooking circles, in general terms Creole cuisine is “City” cooking based on French Traditions but influenced by the Spanish, African and also the other ethnic regions that make up Creole nationalities. Cajun cuisine is thought to be “Peasant” food of the Arcadians traditionally and later turning into Cajun. Cajun food developed as the Cajuns learned to live in the swamps of Southern Louisiana. By circumstance, creole cuisine is more delicate and subtler while Cajun food is more spicy and pungent.

One of the critical factors that makes the two types of food different is the fact that both groups took different paths once they arrived here in the new world. Cajuns isolated themselves in swamp lands and kept as such while Creoles were integrated into city life.

The french quarter in New Orleans eventually became the Creole Sector. What happened is many other Americans began to live in and construct their homes and businesses and Canal Street which was the main dividing line was the thoroughfare for the Creole French Quarters and the rest of the City and its citizens. Therefore Creole food became cosmopolitan and blended with the many cultures that settled in New Orleans. This lent a kind of sophistication to Creole cuisine that the Cajun cuisine did not have.

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