Final Blog Post

            In determining the most significant characteristics of New Orleans through a broader consideration of food and its ramifications, I would have to start with the Socioeconomic disparity within the population, and its reflection of its food culture.  Firstly, the picture of poverty in New Orleans isn’t starvation, but obesity, diabetes, and malnourishment, which is also indicative of the prodigal and indulgent food culture of New Orleans.  Food is one of the best lenses through which issues of social justice in New Orleans can be seen.  Even cooking, which should by definition be one of the things that most anyone can become skilled or at least proficient in, is exclusive here, an issue that institutions such as Liberty’s Kitchen, among others, are beginning to confront.

            -This issue isn’t helped at all by New Orleans’ Culinary traditions, which are defiantly antiquated, by which I mean that New Orleans’ unique cuisine is for the most part extremely unhealthy, and has defied the societal food standards our country has arrived at today.  New Orleans actively perpetuates and encourages learning to eat poorly, as the highest amounts of praise attributed to food here go to either, for the poor, fried foods, and for the wealthy, whatever restaurants are cooking with the most butter, fat and cholesterol.  Now don’t get me wrong here, because I probably love butter as much as anyone, but how are people going to pursue productive and long fulfilling lives when they are literally betraying their body by eating so poorly.  Never in my life had I ever encountered a school cafeteria that served fried food in close to half its meals until coming to New Orleans and experiencing the OR’s food. 

            Another area where the class disparity in this city is most blatantly visible is in the abundance of Food deserts in a city known for its culinary traditions.  Thousands of residents of the city really don’t have a place to shop for groceries, and consequentially fast food becomes a way of life for the lower class.  One of the most reliable markers for areas where food justice issues are contributing to the perpetuation of poverty, are the presence of Family Dollar stores, which many people look at as supermarkets because it’s the closest thing around to one. 

            Another major characteristic that makes New Orleans so unique is its Distinctive culinary traditions, which are renowned to say the least.  Obviously food means a lot to a place when its ideas of celebrities are chefs, and New Orleans, more than probably anywhere else in America, is responsible for celebrity chefs becoming a mainstream fixture of American culture.  One of the best examples of this is Paul Prudhomme.  How is it that the idea of the “Gourmet Creole Bistro” could have been created by such a morbidly obese man?  The very idea of the “Gourmet Creole Bistro” is misleading, because though it is supposed to stand for making good food more accessible to people with casual dress codes, its still high end dining, and a lot of the food is kind of unhealthy.  Chef Paul, the prototypical picture of upper echelon food innovators was morbidly obese until undergoing gastric bypass surgery, for eating the very food that he made famous and high end.  I would be hard pressed to think of any other place that clings so dearly to its culinary traditions, which is apparent when considering how insignificant ethnic food’s place in the New Orleans restaurant scene is.  Furthermore, ethnic restaurants’ lack of popularity in New Orleans is indicative of its social structure, as it, more than anything, reflects the developing middle class of the city.  To see this you need go no further than taking a walk down magazine street, as these ethnic restaurants are an indicator of gentrification of neighborhoods and the influx of young urban professionals (yuppies as most people call them).  Even within New Orleans, food establishments are indicative of the socioeconomic class of the people living around them, with clear and distinct diets for each. 

            Lastly, I would argue that another tremendously significant characteristic of New Orleans is its Bacchanal, corporeally indulgent culture.  Famous upper echelon culinary traditions and institutes contrast starkly with the decaying infrastructure of New Orleans, as well as the very geography of the city.  The fact that Antoine’s and Galitoire’s are still around and in great condition, yet the streets are full of holes is a strong indicator that New Orleans’ culture is the result of its existence being truly embodied outside of its physical characteristics.  The comforts of the body are the priorities of this culture, because they alter the state of human consciousness, and only in this altered state of mind can New Orleans truly be experienced and comprehended.  This is evident in New Orleans’ tradition of understatement in culinary institutions, (camellia grill, Uglesich’s, Willie Mae’s Scotch House [even after all the renovations the place still looks like its falling apart).  When satisfying these corporeal urges, it almost doesn’t matter what a place looks like, because the food and the drink and the atmosphere, which is part of why Music is so important to this city, is enough to make it special.  In its purest form, New Orleans is a state of mind in which the comforts of the body are indulged, such as food, sex, (look at all the strip clubs and “adult entertainment” stores) drinking and even music, and only when in this altered mind state does a person truly experience New Orleans.  The most perfect example of this that I’ve witnessed personally, and sums up this assertion that New Orleans is a state of mind, is seeing tourists on Saint Charles walking around drinking huge beers.  Though its true many of these people are just living it up in the land of open containers, their actions are indicative of a deep reality of New Orleans, in that ultimately people don’t come here to see the city, they come here to feel it.  You could say that food and booze is like a psychic medium through which people come to experience the uniquely elusive culture and mind state that New Orleans truly exists within.  The people who come here on vacation to ride the streetcar and look at the old mansions are missing the point, because this city isn’t like any other city where you can just walk around and look at stuff and get a sense of what’s really going on that makes that city unique.  No, experiencing New Orleans is a far more intimate experience than a walking tour and a museum visit, and only in eating the city’s food, drinking its water, listening to its music and, and indulging in its pleasures, do you truly begin to understand what makes this city so different than any other city I’ve been to.