Southern Food Heritage Day 2024 is on Friday, October 11, 2024: What is cajun heritage?

Friday, October 11, 2024 is Southern Food Heritage Day 2024. Mississippi Dinner Party‎ If you love real southern cooking, this is where you need to be.

Cajuns originate from French settlers and trappers that Moved to modern day Canada in the 17th century. The more correct term for these specific people is Acadian. The word Cajun comes from phonetically spelling Acadian as the Acadians say it. The "A" sound is almost non-existant the "ca" sounds like "kay" and "dian" sounds simalar to "jun." The pronunciations of french or french derived names have a much different pronunciation than french anywhere else. to say a word correctly, think of how it is supposed to be pronounced, then completely botch the pronunciation (think a few steps short of a Texan tourist in Paris). These people are descended from settlers of the Acadia colony of France. These people refused to kowtow to the British when France was defeated in the French and Indian war (a world war that was an offshoot of the Napoleonic wars, it spread to the new world colonies due to a blunder of George Washington himself). They were forcefully removed by the British overlords and settled in the bayous, lakes, and estuaries around the gulf coast. About from modern day Houston to Mobile. Many isolated themselves from established Forts and Settlements, while others eventually folded into surrounding and expanding settlements. The extent of the isolation was/is so great that almost all of the surviving communities remained isolated from much of the rest of the world until the 30's (when Huey P. Long built the bridges to them). Because these people have a completely different history that was greatly isolated from the surrounding world, they have a different set of customs, cooking, and culture than anyone anywhere else. These people mostly remain where they have been almost forever. There are still some in the swamps keeping there way of life perpetuating. Many have moved into the cities, but retain their cultural back story.

How does the Southern United States reflect its diverse cultural heritage?

Well I'm from southern Georgia, and I still live here, and you're right, there is plenty of cultural diversity down here! We express it (at least in my city) with festivals, parades, themed restaurants, and public artwork done by the local college art students. This past weekend my city held it's annual Greek Festival; we've been noted for having the largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the country; there's also a Tara Feis Irish festival downtown every March; a lot of the streets are named after African-American civil rights leaders; plenty of restaurants are culturally based or themed, serving soul food, authentic Asian cuisine (none of that cheap take-out stuff), Moroccan food, Indian food, Spanish/Mexican food, etc. Some of the art students take the liberty of creating a masterpiece out of a brick street wall, painting or spray painting images that do reflect the South's heritage collectively. :)

polls . what food is your heritage best known for , and ?

I am American Indian/Caucasian mix. (My mom, is Kiowa) (Dad is of German decent). We were raised in Oklahoma on what you may call southern cooking. Here is a typical Sunday dinner for me Chicken Fried Steak, mashed potatoes and country gravy, corn, rolls or corn bread and finally.....Iced Tea with sugar and lemon. My mom makes great pinto beans and Indian fry bread.....but.....it was not exactly the centerpiece of our diet. We were all meat and potato eaters. Fried chicken was another event in our house. Just good ol southern cooking! Salmon was considered exotic in our home, but now that I am grown, I would say Salmon is a staple in my diet. Grilled with butter, garlic, dill weed and lemon. Served on steamed rice.