Today was all about food! 

Today we went to the New Orleans Cooking school to learn about classic New Orleans food. It was super unique in that we went to farmers market to buy the ingredients for ourselves. The teams were: appetizer, salad, soup, entree, and dessert. I was head of the dessert team and we made calas. These are known as the predecessors of beignets. They are sweet rice patties deep fried with powdered sugar. We added strawberries from the farmers market to the rice patties and made a sweet strawberry sauce to the plate as well. Traditionally, these were made by slaves who used left over rice to make them. They sold them in front of parishes in an attempt to buy their freedom, but it hardly ever worked. All in all the food each team made was delicious and learning the history of each dish really made me appreciate the food and culture even more. I also got to try a piping hot fresh beignet which was something I really wanted to do while I was here.  But I have to say the most interesting food I ate today was an avocado sorbet Popsicle from the farmers market.