so many moments that i was passing -- passing is seductive. it is easier to lay low, do your thing, not rock the boat. i did that for 12 years. so i think for me it was either someone was going to out me or i was going to out myself so i chose the latter. >> host: dear america is the name of the book. notes of an undocumented citizen. it is available in september. you are watching booktv on

c-span2. >> c-span is in new orleans. to learn about his history as featured literary community. up next we visit two jack's restaurant to learn about the history of new orleans cuisine. >> the food here takes a much larger piece than it does anywhere else. we live to eat in new orleans. you can stand on the street corner and you hear somebody talking about, what they are going to have for dinner, how they cook the ducks they just shot and we are a city obsessed with food. one of the greatest confusions is is a crayola or cajun, what is it? originally, they were two

completely different scenes. and it was done by the cajun people in southwest louisiana. crayola food, it means native. and the first native offspring of the french and spanish settlers and their food is city food. it is more refined. it is not as spicy as cajun food is but very well seasoned and we are situated across from the french market, there was an active market from 1718 from its earliest days and with the bounty of everything available in season, fresh and local using french and spanish

traditional preparation, this indigenous cuisine, that is creole cooking. thhamark of creole cooking, we have to say no matter what it is we are cooking it is almost invariably starts off, a combination of flour and oil, traditionally a french word, a french preparation originally and in france it is butter and flour and in new orleans better would burn before getting to the dark color we like it to be. once you have that, the dark thing that goes into everything is celery, bell pepper and onions. that is actually what i like to refer to, that traditional

french was onions, celery and carrots. when the first french people got here, undoubtedly they brought with them their seed. a lot of their ingredients intending to carry on the way they were in france and we are painfully aware being 7 feet under sealevel no matter where you are, how in the world are you going to grow a carrot? you can't grow a carrot in a place where you can't even dig a decent grave because the water table is too high. that is how i believe the carrot came out and the cover went in to what is really the creole, the crux of the flavor, the most important phase of everything is the dark creole rule with celery, bell pepper and onions added. creole food is typified by tomato. cajun food tend to be brown.

creole food is often red, often tomato-based. they love the color and the flavor and there is nothing as delicious as a creole tomato in season. tujacquesrestaurant, a culinary gem, the second boldest continuously operated restaurants, from 1856, and only 3 owners since the traditions have remained constant and authentic. gumbo is probably the most emblematic dish of new orleans, sometimes the word gumbo is used to describe who we are as a people. it is a personal thing.

we have a very typical gumbo, some of this beautiful thickening comes not just from the rule which gives it its combo color but also file powder and sassafras which was introduced to the original creole settlers by the choctaw indians. it is a very unusual side effect of being added to a hot liquid, it literally thickens the liquid it goes into. some will have okra. where does it get its name? the choctaw indians, that they used for the file powder that means thread, if you add too

much, you have an odd texture, the choctaws, sassafras leaves, combo, the african-american slaves, and the language there, the word for okra was gumbo. and it gets its name from that bantu word for okra. how can we ever tell with the choctaw and combo or the african slaves in team gumbo, this is a mystery, it is in new orleans, two different ways. the original sauce you still

find in france, and parsley in it but when it came across the atlantic ocean it changed, because of refrigeration or lack thereof, if you don't have that refrigeration. consequently instead othe deadly consequences, it drops dramatically changed in new orleans and it became a fiery kissing cousin with a base of creole mustard. creole mustard is dark brown, kindf like a german mustard which is spicy and delicious and that forms the basis, to

see those mustard seeds, the traditional new orleans, again and again we in new orleans we find dishes that came in a pure form from france, when it got he. it is a perfect example and conversely, we operate food museums, the older restaurants, and one's, you will see this magical french fry, invented in france in the 1800s, cooked twice and making delicious crispy bite of hot potato that

is like nothing else. i discovered in the 80s, french people forgot the soufflé. you couldn't find it in france. it continued along as it always did. we are real sticklers for tradition here. there are specific foods that center around our traditions. it is not carnival time in new orleans unless king cakes everywhere goes on throughout the entire 40 days of lent. the poor boy sandwich is one of the most iconic dishes created in 1929 during the streetcar strike. those strikers were originally the poor boys but one of the things that is most important, it is all about the bread. new orleans, french bread,

deeply different, crusty, soft and beautiful on the inside, so those were designed to have a sandwich big enough, with one sandwich. the poor boy sandwich was invented at the martin brothers grocers. two brothers originally streetcar conductors felt very sorry for those starving poor boys who were striking for a living wage, they set out with her french bread baker, an italian man to create a sandwich big enough to feed the whole family so they sketched out on a piece of brown paper, how long it has to be.

instead of being a traditional -- they blunted the end, whoever got the end sandwich with and get the short end of the deal. the poor boy sandwich gets its name from the streetcar strike but there is a poor boy lobe, we do know how to bell and annunciate here. the poor boy loaf was a result of that. this is an awesome menu, on the menu here, since 1914. the owners were partners. and she and her husband john have been involved with a place here before. that is where she learned special preparation of the

chicken, it was unique, the chicken was fried without any batter or coding, it is brown and fried. the potatoes are fried in the same, heavily sprinkled, with fresh garlic and fresh parsley dropped together. it is delicious but you have to order it because it takes almost an hour to prepare. we are standing at america's oldest standing bar at tujacques restaurant and the most famous cocktail that was invented here at tujacques is the grasshopper. the grasshopper was invented in 1918 on the eve of prohibition, do you -- we start off with an

equal 4 of white and dark cocoa and equal pours of white and green, a little bit of heavy cream. and over ice, we give it a good shake. to blend it well, frothy and beautiful and it is poured into a glass and a little brandy floater, beautiful. and the cocktail, cheers. hurricane katrina changed the whole game because basically for the first time since 1718,

a clean slate, it was messy after the flood. and consequently we h an opportunity for two things. the populace of the city realized how endangered our life here is. how endangered our food traditions, so suddenly whether it is a poor boy sandwich or a cocktail, it all seemed to matter more. it seemed to matter more that it was preserved and the tradition was being carried forward. at the same time hurricane katrina brought an enormous influx of bright people from across the country who lived here in droves and decided they

wanted to live here, and the food began to change. a greater die version in the foods served, the kinds of restaurants we have and an explosion in the restaurant business like nothing new orleans has ever seen before. 14 years after hurricane katrina, twice as many restaurants operating in new orleans as we did before. when visitors come here the most important thing is they have an authentic food experience. whether it is trying a poor boy sandwich or having a bowl of gumbo, trying to fix crawfish for the first time. it is all delicious and a delicious adventure.

and we want our visitors to experience, and with a special food memory they created in new orleans. >> twice a month c-span city stores take booktv in american history tv to explore the literary life of a selected city. and we visit various historic sites, and local civic leaders and historians. you can watch any of our past interviews and stores online to go to booktv.org and select c-span cities tour from the series drop-down at the top of the page or visit c-span.org/cities tour. you can follow the c-span cities tour for behind-the-scenes images and video for our visit. the handle