Destination: New Orleans : Jazz Food : South’s most famous music festival is a feast for the ears, but don’t forget to get a bellyful of crawfish, gumbo and po-boys

NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival is a feast for all the senses. Music--the main draw--satisfies one; food takes care of all the others.

And so it was that while jazz, blues, soul, rock, country, gospel and Dixie floated through the air around me, it was lip-burning crawfish, aromatic seafood gumbo, plump oyster po-boys, nutty pralines and heaping platters of smoky barbecue that fulfilled my soul.

It was luck that took me there. I was touring the Southern states doing research for a book on African influences on cooking in the Americas. I happened to be in New Orleans on a weekend in late April last year (the 1995 Jazz Festival runs April 28-May 7) when the famous festival was in full swing at the Fair Grounds, a 10-minute drive from the French Quarter. Friends had recommended the food. Not only are restaurants and local chefs represented, they said, but small churches, community organizations and private cooks also come out to serve some of the best Cajun and Creole food in the South.

Almost a mile before entering, I could feel the vibrations. The first faint notes of music beckoned from the 11 stages on the grounds. Most people come to the Jazz Fest by bus and the crowds stream in early to catch the first show at 11 a.m. By arriving at 11 (and, perhaps, by being lucky), I was able to find a parking place for my rental car in the lot nearest the gate.

After paying the $15 admission ($10, if ordered in advance), I picked up a program to see who was playing and what was on the menu. The admission price includes the entire day’s music, cooking classes, videos on South Louisiana heritage, cultural lectures, plays, puppet shows and craft displays and sales--all emphasizing the region’s Creole, Native American and Cajun heritage. The food, unfortunately, costs extra. But even that is reasonable: an average $3-$6, with dishes often sold in two-portion sizes.

Since I was alone, I wondered if I would miss the company of friends and if being with strangers (attendance ranges from 30,000-77,000 a day) would be overwhelming. But my fears were soon allayed as I was absorbed by the events.

Stages, tents and food booths dot the infield of the 30-acre Fair Grounds, and it’s easy to move from one stage performance to the next.

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Local and national celebrities perform during the 10-day event, with some performing during the week at different venues around New Orleans. There are thousands of talented but little-known performers, but there are also big names including, from year to year, Wynton and Branford Marsalis and their father, Ellis, a professor of music at the University of New Orleans; Bob Dylan; Jimmy Buffet; Clarence “Frogman” Henry; Indigo Girls; the Allman Brothers, and Nina Simon. Patti LaBelle and Fats Domino were there the day I was. This year there will be about 4,000 musicians--thousands from Louisiana--including Branford Marsalis, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, the Neville Brothers, B.B. King, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Peter, Paul and Mary.

I headed first for the food.

About 60 food booths are sprinkled throughout two spacious areas separated by a contemporary and folk crafts exhibit and fair. Another dozen or so vendors--with everything from drinks to peanuts, pralines to pies--are tucked between the artists’ tents, a crafts area, the kids’ activities tent and the music stages.

It was perfect weather for a picnic on the grass with my first dish: a pile of crawfish boiled in garlic and cayenne-spiked broth, served with a boiled potato and washed down with a cold beer ($3 for crawfish, $1.50 for beer).

While slurping crawfish tails, I created an itinerary for the day: I would eat as much as I could, take in a few cooking classes and, when there was a moment to spare, listen to some of the best jazz on the planet. In addition to musical venues on the infield, stages inside the Grandstand Tent (which replaces the grandstand that burned down in December, ‘93, and is being rebuilt) are dedicated to African American art and local food and folk heritages. There is also a video theater featuring historical vignettes of New Orleans and the jazz legacy.

I had a half an hour before the scheduled cooking class in the grandstand, so I followed an excited group of blues fans to hear the Baton Rouge singer Kenny Neal. On the way I passed a stage where the White Eagles were entertaining a spirited crowd with black Native American music and chants. Next to the stage was Omar’s Pie booth. I bought three small pies--coconut, sweet potato and pecan--ostensibly to eat later, and ate half of the coconut right away (about $2.75 each).

I couldn’t sit still for long at the blues stage, knowing that there was more music and food waiting to be experienced. With minutes to spare before the cooking class began, I stopped in to hear jazz clarinetist Michael White, but not before succumbing to the aroma of freshly roasted peanuts. I purchased a small bag outside the tent and strolled inside to shuck shells and swing with the audience.

At 2 p.m., the class was under way inside the Grandstand Tent. Arthur Wardsworth, chef at Southshore Restaurant in nearby Kenner, La., demonstrated recipes for jambalaya and shrimp Creole. Best of all, he passed out samples.

There are free cooking classes on each of the festival’s seven days at the Fair Grounds, regularly from noon until 5 p.m. Demos are by Louisiana chefs, radio personalities and cooking teachers and have included Frank Brigtsen from Brigtsen’s restaurant, Alex Patout and Enola Prudhomme, Paul’s sister, a famous chef and author in her own right. Adjacent to the demonstration kitchen, the colorful bounty of Gulf of Mexico seafood was displayed. Another vendor, Loretta Harrison, was preparing Loretta’s pecan and coconut pralines to order. These keep well and can be nibbled for days, I justified the purchase to myself as Loretta wrapped one of each.

An international section in the grandstand area featured food from around the world. Among the selections: German bratwurst, potato pancakes and apple strudel; Spanish flautas and empanadas . In 1995 there will also be Japanese sushi, as well as Greek dishes and more African and vegetarian entrees.

When I returned to the outdoor food area, which early in the morning had short lines, I was engulfed by casually dressed crowds streaming out of shows and lining up to eat. Enticing smells of barbecue smoke, crawfish stuffed in freshly baked bread and garlicky pots of gumbo rose with the beats of the music.

I headed for the two vendors I was told have been among the favorites for nearly 20 years of the 26-year-old event. They are the fried catfish and soft shell crab po-boys made by Dennis and Vicky Patania of Galley Seafood Restaurant in Metairie (catfish $3 and $5; soft-shell crab $3 and $6) and crawfish pie by Mrs. Wheat’s Fabulous Foods in New Orleans ($2.50).

The longest line was for platters of barbecued pork ribs, baked beans and potato salad from the Barbeque Ranch in New Orleans ($3 and $5). People in the line assured me it was worth the wait, but I opted for the slightly shorter line at the Crawfish Monica stand for the namesake dish of pasta piled with crawfish in a cream sauce ($3 and $5). The rumor that Pete Hills, who created this spicy dish for the Jazz Fest and named it for his wife, always runs out kept me waiting. I was rewarded by being able to buy a sample.

Feeling as stuffed as a po-boy sandwich I moseyed over to the other of the two large food areas to see what was cooking. I found a cup of freshly squeezed lemonade by Joyce Brossett of New Orleans ($2) and it was rejuvenating.

I also found okra gumbo ($3 and $5) from Eddie’s Famous Creole Restaurant in New Orleans, alligator pie ($3 and $4.50) and fried green tomatoes (three slices for $3) by Arthur and Betty Douglass of Douglass Catering in Metairie, and Cajun jambalaya ($3 and $5) by Arthur Humphrey of N’Awlin’s Cajun and Creole Spices.

Two of the most popular places, I was told, are Lawrence Armour’s catfish Mardi Gras ($3 and $5) and Creole stuffed crab ($3) and the Second Mt. Triumph Missionary Baptist Church’s fried chicken with potato salad ($3-$5); the chicken a staple at the festival since 1976.

Just as I was deciding which stage to head for, I was swept up in dancing that carried me like a slow but insistent current from one end of the Fair Grounds to the other. The Treme Brass Band with Ladies Zulu lead the march (there are two such marches a day lead by varying groups) that is the Jazz Festival at its best.

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The musicians and accompanying dancers, some of whom were visitors like me, sang and high-stepped our way from the grandstand to one end of the Fair Grounds and back. The only requirement was to keep up and not get in the way of the solo performers who, during the parade, would pause momentarily to do some fancy footwork. The parade was a mirror image of New Orleans jazz funeral parades that invite uninvolved bystanders to join in on the way to the cemetery. Nearly an hour after we began our march, we arrived at the Grandstand Tent, where the group did a finale and my heartbeat finally began to slow.

For the record, I made one final purchase. I can never go to New Orleans without eating a muffuletta. This is a French roll sandwich stuffed with sliced meats and cheeses. The name comes from the pickled chopped green olives and vegetable mixture that seasons the sandwich, which is sold in grocery stores in the French Quarter. I ordered mine ($3 and $5) wrapped tightly so I’d have a souvenir for sustenance on my drive the following day.

My only regret in going alone to the Jazz Festival turned out to be the limitation on how much food I could ingest.

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GUIDEBOOK

Festival Food

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; for information send name and address to: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, P.O. Box 53407, New Orleans, LA 70153-3407, or call (504) 522-4786; for tickets, call Ticketmaster (800) 488-5252.

For more information: Louisiana Office of Tourism, P.O. Box 94291, Baton Rouge 70804-9291, (800) 633-6970 or (504) 342-8100.