Food Cultcha as Noo Awlins' Religion

As I'm reading Gumbo Tales, I can't help but thinking about the movie Julie and Julia. Normally, I am very interested in food, but I think the reason I struggled to really delve into this book was because I'm not a food critic, I would much rather eat food than read about food, and nothing the author mentions holds a personal significance to me. Much like the movie, it seems the author of this book often tries to recreate legendary dishes and record her experiences doing so. Inher case, it is New Orleans dishes she attempts to make, rather than dishes from Julia Child's cookbook. But as Sara Roahen discusses various restaurants, and as I have never been to any of them nor know anything about them, all these restaurant names just kind of blend in and sound like jibberish to me. I now understand that the sazerac is an alcoholic drink unique to the Big Easy; the po-boy is a spin on a deli sandwich, as is a muffeletta; a sno-ball is a flavored ice form of air-conditioning for the stomach; gumbo is a melange of different Southern foods, just as it's characteristic sausage is; turkducken also is a combination food, actually of turkey, duck, and chicken; and vegetables, green foods, and seafood all have had the mark on this city. And each food speciality has its own ethnic origins, whether it be French, Italian, Spanish, West African, or Creole. As for the Italian influence, I had not previoulsy realised that Italian food in New Orleans is second only to Creole cuisine. I figured Cajun would have been up there with Creole before Italian food because New Orleans is not one of the first places in America that comes to mind for having a strong influence. Reading about the altars to St. Joseph definitely enlightened me about that Italian power in the Crescent City. I also learned about mirliton or chayote and the Latin American influence on Creole cuisine. Also new to me was the Vietnamese food power here, manifested in the Asian gumbo called pho.
All in all, I had to really motivate myself to read an entire book about food. The parts that most caught my eye were those in which the author discussed people or their accents, religious traditions, and the differentiation locals make between their lives before and after Hurricane Katrina. I think if a book were to focus more on those topics in regards to New Orleans, I would have more interested. I just resign myself to believe that Sara Roahen wrote Gumbo Tales for a specific, food-critical audience, and although I don't think I was part of her intended audience, I did learn some facts, I did find different perspectives on this city, and I did, in the end, gain a greater appreciation for what sets New Orleans apart from other Southern cities, other American cities, and other Creole cities.