Revised Food Proposal - New Orleans: Experiencing Traditional and Cultural Food

Morgan Patrick

Professor Amy Li

October 17, 2016

Revised Food Proposal

New Orleans: Experiencing Traditional and Cultural Food

I want to create a blog that will address the history and cultural food immersion of New Orleans. I will be exploring the lives of local to the area and intertwining my own personal experiences to build a 360-degree view of New Orleans.  In this blog, my personal pictures along with other free-use pictures of different foods will be incorporated. Along with every picture I will be writing a historical description of the dish and the recipe. The history of each dish will help readers understand how the complexity of the dish came about. By understanding the different ethnic and cultural backgrounds of the people in New Orleans readers of my blog will be able to cohesively understand how Creole food and Cajun food obtained its name. My goal for this food blog is to provide the readers a way to enjoy and appreciate New Orleans cuisine. New Orleans cuisine is some of the best southern food that can be found in the south of the United States of America. By providing information about every dish I post to my blog my readers/ viewers will be able to bring southern cook straight to their own kitchens.

My purpose for tackling this topic is to share my experience of participating in a New Orleans service trip. On this trip I helped raise money for an orphanage and donated money to the School of Rock in New Orleans to help buy students new instruments. I was extremely excited for the trip and after working for an entire year on this project I got the opportunity to travel their myself. Upon arriving in New Orleans I immediately fell in love with this beautiful city. The culture and food were amazing. I enjoyed many home cooked traditional meals and learned the history of the city and every food dish. The issues I will address throughout my food blog pertain to how New Orleans culture and food were created and where it is heading. For example, in many countries the rise of industrialization eventually, erases much of the culture and traditions of the people who lived there. For me personally, I am curious about how New Orleans will be impacted. There is already a divide between uptown and downtown New Orleans. In the old New Orleans down by the French Market you have the traditional side with smaller rustic buildings, while the uptown side is composed of skyscrapers, and upper-class French detailed building. During my conversations with many of the locals they expressed their concerns about the impact of big companies like the Hilton planning to build new hotels and renovate the older sections of New Orleans. It would really sadden me if this happened because, New Orleans historically is a huge part of our American culture. I strongly believe my blog could be helpful in saving this area of New Orleans by educating people about New Orleans and their situation. Maybe I might even inspire one of my readers to help join the struggle to protect such a beautiful heritage and culture that has been established in New Orleans.

In regard to my research the databases I will be using are JSTOR, Google Scholar, Emory University Library, documentary films, cookbooks and any other scholarly articles I find. Since, I will be discussing the history of New Orleans Food and Culture, I will be incorporating my research into every post.  I will cite all sources used for that particular blog post on my resource page and I will cite the pertinent ones for each post at the bottom of each post.