"Even if you can't get to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, you can still be a long-distance part of the celebration with food and drink! Below are some ideas for a Cajun celebration in your own home."

Authentic Cajun recipes like the ones found in New Orleans restaurants. Great recipes, how-to's, and tips for using common everyday ingredients!

Excerpt from article by Food Critic J. Scott Wilson: "Like many restaurants this time of year, Razzoo's sells fried turkeys for takeout. Unlike most of the rest, they do theirs properly. I won't reveal their cooking process, but it's somewhat unconventional and yields the most tender fried bird I've ever set my teeth into." www.razzoos.com

Very cool story about how a small Cajun grocery/cafe got reviewed in the New York Times food section by Mr. "Johnny" Apple, food critic.

A new Creole/Southern style restaurant opened in Milwaukee. It is good, and one of the only places in Milwaukee you can find Cajun food.

Cajun cuisine originates from the French-speaking Acadian or "Cajun" immigrants "deported" by the English from Acadia in Canada to the Acadiana region of Louisiana, USA. It is what could be called a rustic cuisine — locally available ingredients predominate, and preparation is simple. An authentic Cajun meal is usually a three-pot affair, with one pot dedicated to the main dish, one dedicated to steamed rice, skillet cornbread, or some other grain dish, and the third containing whatever vegetable is plentiful or available.The aromatic vegetables bell pepper, onion, and celery are called by some chefs the holy trinity of Cajun cuisine. Finely diced and combined in cooking, the method is similar to the use of the mire poix in traditional French cuisine — which blends finely diced onion, celery, and carrot. Characteristic seasonings include parsley, bay leaf, "onion tops" or scallions, and dried cayenne pepper. The overall feel of the cuisine is more Mediterranean than North American.Cajun cuisine developed out of necessity. The Acadian refugees, farmers rendered destitute by the British expulsion, had to learn to live off the land and adapted their French rustic cuisine to local ingredients such as rice, crawfish, and sugar cane. Many households were large, consisting of eight to twelve people; thus, regardless what other vocations may have been followed by the head of household, most families also farmed. Feeding a large family, all of whose members did hard physical work every day, required a lot of food. Cajun cuisine grew out of supplementing rice with what meat, game or other proteins were available.