Founded in 1718 and named for the Duke of Orleans, from the start La Nouvelle-Orléans viewed itself as a city apart from, even superior to, other New World settlements. Proud of its French pedigree even after France cut the ties and sold Louisiana to America, New Orleans maintains a slew of French-influenced cultural and gastronomic traditions.BackgroundThe French were Catholic, not Protestant like the founders of most other New World settlements. A world of differences separated the French from their Puritanical brethren, who tended to an unremittingly severe, sober view of life. While religious, the French Catholics also enjoyed good food and sensual pleasures. Mardi Gras, the most famous and raucous of New Orleans festivals, is a Catholic holiday after all. And in French, Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” – a time of indulgence before the self-imposed austerity of Lent. The tension between the sacred and profane, the joyous and the mournful (as with jazz funerals, for example), has lon...
