New Orleans Filter: What foods and such go well with luggage?

April 12, 2018 1:08 PM

My parents are travelling to New Orleans next week, and asked what they could get me. I'm looking for suggestions for things that I can't get in the Pacific Northwest and that can travel back in a suitcase. Details beyond the jump:

My dad grew up in Metairie, so while I expect they'll dip their toe into the French Quarter, it's not the focus of their visit-- they'll be ranging hither and yon in that area. My usual allowance of their luggage volume is around the size of a fifth of liquor or smaller. But let that be your guide only in size; I've got a liquor surplus at home... unless there's something I can't miss (local whisky?).

I would welcome ingredients for cooking or baking, but not deep-frying (I hate the cleanup, so no beignet kits, please, delicious as they are). I'm trying and failing to recall some ingredient I heard about that was a sandwich condiment/spread in a jar which sounded good but can't be had for thousands of miles from Seattle. Is tasso something that can be shipped in luggage? How about boudin?

So far, the only idea I have is a jarred gumbo base. Having to use that up would compel me to make the stuff more often. So, what are my options on gumbo base, and where should I start?

What I don't like: anything that's primarily based on olives or onions.

Alternately, toys for a grown nerd-man, gadgets, something that supports my vague interests in words and maps.

Budget: open-- if it's worth getting let them know and have them bill me for the difference, as is our standing arrangement. Ballpark it at $20, but if you've got something really special in mind, do tell!

Thanks in advance!

posted by Sunburnt to Shopping (18 answers total)

I think the sandwich spread is (olive) muffaletta dressing from Central Grocery. Have them bring you some Camellia red beans!
posted by 2soxy4mypuppet at 1:17 PM on April 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

Plain caramel sea salt tortues from Southern CandyMakers.

even, if they don't make the cut to bring to you, they should visit the shop and get some freshly made ones. divine
posted by domino at 1:26 PM on April 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

Central Grocery sells muffuletta dressing in jars, although the bread is an important enough part of the sandwich we just got a whole muffuletta and carried it on the plane. The dressing is, as noted, olive based, although it's only one layer in the finished sandwich (which also contains cheese and several kinds of preserved meat, and we weren't timid about keeping it unrefrigerated for several hours). We also carried a whole king cake, but we were there at the start of Mardi Gras season so that was timely and not weird.

There's a spirit called Ojen that is most readily available in New Orleans, although it may be distributed where you are. I'd check first before having them bring you a bottle.
posted by fedward at 1:29 PM on April 12, 2018

The sandwich spread is indeed muffaletta and is good stuff, though you can get it mail order if they don't want to risk it cracking open in transit and ruining clothing. And it fails to meet your not mostly olive requirement.

If you like baked goods and will be seeing them soon enough after they get back, you can get King Cake year round from some bakeries.

There are interesting flavors in Zapp's chips. There's pralines. Fresh roasted whole bean chicory coffee.
posted by Candleman at 1:37 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Blue Runner products.
posted by brujita at 2:03 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: OMG tortues. Or pralines.

(You're not going to like muffaletta spread if you don't like olives)
posted by radioamy at 3:22 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Steen's cane syrup and Camellia red beans.
posted by mostly vowels at 4:34 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Cafe du Monde vacuum packed ground coffee. Coffee with chicory is a quintessential NOLA taste and will bring on delicious reminiscence on a cold and wet PNW day. Also pralines!
posted by citygirl at 5:31 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm betting that any of these goodies is available at Wegmans supermarket:
Zatarain's Dirty Rice.
Zararain's Mustard.
Andouille sausage.

(This is a fun thread -- it reminds me of the years in the '70s and the '80s when my dad's mother and aunt would send care packages to Maine from, respectively, Lacombe, Louisiana, and the New Orleans neighborhood of Algiers. Yum.)
posted by virago at 5:55 PM on April 12, 2018

Correction: Seems I was directing Sunburnt's parents toward the iconic N.O. grocery chain Schwegmann's, which closed in the 1990s. My father, who has lived north of the Mason-Dixon Line since the Kennedy administration, still recalls the place fondly.

Modern-day seekers of Zatarain's products, andouille and the like are directed to seek out Rouses. I can't personally vouch for it, but it's a small Gulf Coast chain that gets a lot of love online.
posted by virago at 6:13 PM on April 12, 2018

I've never seen boudin preserved in a way that I would want it in my luggage, let alone after the trip.

Canned boiled peanuts are available and pretty much like homemade boiled peanuts. If you haven't tried them and think you might like to, go for it. I saw them in gas stations (they sell them, heated, as well), but I never sought them out in groceries.
posted by momus_window at 7:41 PM on April 12, 2018

I’ve never seen boiled peanuts here in Seattle, but have seen all the other things noted at various grocers (ok, except the olive stuff but I’m guessing it doesn’t count for your purposes and I am so checking metropolitan market for it next time I’m there). So, boiled peanuts is my vote, or local baked goods since the water makes a big difference in cooking! All your responses have made me super hungry for New Orleans food mmm
posted by zinful at 8:19 PM on April 12, 2018

Pralines are a good call. Plenty of places make them on the spot there. Also, my wife likes rum, so I brought her some Bayou rum. She likes it; says it’s not a rum and coke type of rum, but it’s good.
posted by azpenguin at 10:12 PM on April 12, 2018

They should be able to find Gingeroo at a nice-ish grocery around town. That and a few pralines is always my request when friends from New Orleans come to visit.
posted by jaksemas at 11:16 PM on April 12, 2018

Best answer: For the sandwich condiment, maybe you were thinking of remoulade?

They could pick up a shaker of Tony Chachere's (Creole seasoning).

I don't really like coffee with chicory, but I second that suggestion if you do. You can sometimes find chicory sold separately. And New Orleans has many independent coffee shops (like PJ's, CC's etc.) that sell bags in their shops and sometimes in local grocers.
posted by Leontine at 11:17 AM on April 13, 2018

Best answer: The grocery store you want is Dorignac's or in a pinch Rouse's, rather than Schwegmann's (RIP, sniff). Here's what I load up on when I go back home:

Olive salad (doesn't need to be Central Grocery brand, which is a bit overpriced)

Community Coffee and Chicory

Blue Runner canned red beans and white beans

Camellia dry red beans and black-eyed peas

Oak Grove jambalaya mix

Leidenheimer's french bread (worth bringing back same-day on the plane, will not keep!!) It's made of equal parts nanoparticles of white flour and angel farts. Poboys simply do not exist without this bread. Period.

Cookies from Brocato's

Alcohol: Benedictine, Sazerac Rye, Herbsaint, Peychaud's bitters
The booze section of Dorignac's is the best liquor store you've ever been in in your life.
Dang, now I'm super homesick.
posted by SinAesthetic at 12:27 PM on April 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Hi! I'm Cajun and grew up about two hours' drive from New Orleans. "Gumbo base" is just roux made from equal parts flour and oil and cooked till it's very dark; you can get some in a jar easily but it's not going to be very different from the kind you could make at home. Muffaletta spread, which may be the sandwich condiment you mentioned, is entirely olive-based and you said you don't like olives, so that's out.

Community Coffee or Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning are both classic Louisiana flavors, but Tony's can be found in supermarkets nationwide these days in my experience, and Community is easy enough to order online. So is Camellia red beans. (In general, check cajungrocer.com to see if you can order Louisiana foods you want.)

Boudin is the #1 food from home that I crave, but it does need to be refrigerated and I really don't know if there's a good way for you to transport it.

I'd go with pralines, I think.
posted by waffleriot at 9:18 PM on April 13, 2018

Response by poster: I got a jar of dark roux, a bag of Camellia dried red beans, a can of Chachere's Original, two cans (which turned out to be 25ish ounces, pretty large) of Blue Runner gumbo base (one seafood, one chicken/sausage), and some vac-packed tasso ham, which they picked up on the way to the airport, so it spent only a short time at room temperature before getting from the airport to my fridge.

They also looked into pralines, but weren't confident that they'd survive the trip, whether because of my dad's sweet-tooth or the flight itself I don't know.

Thanks all for the suggestion. I'll be picking up some shrimp this week to try out the gumbo base.
posted by Sunburnt at 12:42 PM on May 13, 2018