thank you. [applause] watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. highlights include today at 6 p.m. eastern on the civil war, the constitution and secession. and at 8 p.m. on lectures in history. p.m., on railamerica at 4 salute to the canadian army. then white house art. watch american history tv on c-span3. >> we are outside cafe dumond in the french quarter where we are learning about the cities french history.

there is one ingredient in the city's culinary culture. we learn about the history's and slavers -- and flavors of new orleans food. >> food here takes a much larger piece than it does anywhere else. we live to eat in new orleans. you will hear summary walking down the street talking about what they had to eat yesterday, what they are going to have for they are going to cook those docs they just shot. we are a city obsessed with food. one of the greatest confusion about the food of new orleans, is it creole or is it cajun? originally creole and cajun food work two different kinds of cuisine. cajun food would do hot cooking.

it was done by the cajun people and southwest louisiana. creole food comes from the hispanic word, which means native. the first creole were the first native offspring of the french and spanish settlers. their food is more city food. it is more refined. it's not as spicy as cajun food is but very well seasoned. we are situated right across from the french market the site of the old french market, which there was an active market here in the city from 1718, from the earliest days. and with the bounty of everything that was available in season fresh and local, using french and spanish traditional preparation this cuisine developed and that is creole cooking.

a hallmark of creole cooking first of all we have to say no matter what it is we are cooking it is almost invariably starting first you make a rue. it is a combination of flour and oil. it frswas a french preparation and in france it is butter and flour but here butter would burn before it gets to the dark color. once you have that dark rue the other thing that goes in is celery, bell pepper and onions. that is actually what i like to refer to as the creole mir pois. the french is onions, celery and carrots. when those first french people got here undoubtedly they brought with them their seeds, a

lot of ingredients intending to carry on the way they had in france. but here in the city where we are pafrl painfully aware of being seven feet under sea level how do you grow a care rotdrotcarrot. you can't grow a carrot where you can't dig a decent grave because the water table is too high. i think that is how the carrot came out and pepper went in to what is the creole flavor. the most important basis of everything is that radar creole rue with celery, bell pepper and onions. it is typified by tomato. cajun food tends to be brown. creole food is often red, often tomato based. they love the color and they love the flavor.

and, of course, there is nothing as delicious as a creole tomato in season. that's another very important element. there are two restaurants. it is the second oldest continuously operated restaurant in new orleans back to 1856 and there have only been three owners so the traditions have remained constant and authentic here. gumbo is probably the most emblematic dish of new orleans. sometimes the word gumbo is used to describe even who we are as a people. a gumbo is a very personal thing. here at tujaque's we have a typical gumbo that some of this beautiful thickening comes not just from the rue which gives

the gumbo its color but from f filet powder of sassafras that was introduced to the original settleers by the clockhocktaw independence and if it is added to a hot liquid it thickens the liquid. some gumbos will have the powder as the thickener and some will have okra. most fascinating thing about gumbo to me is where does it get its name? the chocktaw indians word they used for filet powder which means thread because if you add too much it gives it a thready

text clear. the chocktaw called the sass terrace -- sassafras leaves c kombo. many slaves came from west africa and spoke the bantu along and the word for okra was keen gumbo so lots of people believe that gumbo gets its name from the bantu name keen gumbo for okra. but was it the chocktaws an kombo or african slaves and keen gumbo? this is a mystery i don't think we will solve. this is a combination. it is ramilade. the original sauce is one you find in france. it is mayonnaise based sauce that has pickles and parsley in it.

when the sauce came across the the atlantic ocean it changed. it probably changed because of refrigeration or lack thereof. mayonnaise is a very dicey issue if you don't have that refrigeration. consequently, instead of possible deadly consequence of mayonnaise based ramilade it became a fiery kissing cousin with a what's of creole mustard. creole mustard is a coarse grain, dark brown, kind of like a german mustard that is spicy and delicious and that is what forms the basis. you can even see the little mustard seeds of that traditional new orleans red ramilade. again and again in new orleans we will find dishes that perhaps

came in a very pure form from france that got tweaked a little bit when it got here. the ramilade sauce is a perfect example of that. conversely, we also here in new orleans operate what a almost food museums. in some of the older restaurants places like antoine's, arno's, you will see this magical french tpraoeufry fry. it is invented in france by accident in the 1800's and it is like a french fry but is cooked twice and it puffs up making this delicious airy crispy bite of hot potato like nothing else. were it my surprise, i discovered become in the 1980's the french people had forgotten in.

you couldn't find it in france but here in new orleans it continued exactly as it always did because we were sticklers for tradition here. there are specific foods that center around some of our traditions. king cake is not carnival team in new orleans unless there is king cakes everywhere. that goes opbn throughout the entire 40 days of lent. the poor boy sandwich is one of our most iconic dishes. it was created in 1929 during street car strikes. it was the strikers who were originally the poor boys. but one thing that is most important to understand is it is really all about the bread. new orleans french bread is distinctly different. it is crusty and soft and beautiful on the inside.

him and so the original poor bow -- boy whoevers were designed to be a sandwich big enough to feed an entire family. the poor boy sandwich was invented at the martin brothers grocers. they felt sorry for the starving poor boys so they set out with their french bread baker and italian man to create a sandwich big enough to feed a whole family. so they sketched out on a piece of brown paper how long it would be and instead of being slightly pointed as a traditional baggett they blunted the ends so that whoever got the end cut wouldn't get the short end of the deal.

the poor boy sandwich gets its name from the street consider strike and there is a poor boy loaf and that is p-o-o-r-b-o-y. we do know how to spell and enunciate. that was the result of that. this is an awesome menu, special meal at tujaque's. it has been on the menu since about 1914. second owners were partners. the woman and husband were involved working for madam biguet whose place was her before it was tujaque. that is where she learned the preparation of chicken bonbon. chicken is fried without any batter, any coating.

it is just background and fried. the potatoes are fried in the same oil. and then the whole thing is heavily sprinkled with a fresh garlic and parsley chopped together. it is delicious. but you have to order it in advance because it takes almost an hour to prepare. we are standing at america's oldest stand-up bar at tujaque's restaurant and it is the most famous contact tail here is the grass hopper. it was invented in 1918 on the eve of prohibition and we will show you exactly how to make it. are you ready? we start off with an equal pour of white and dark cream decocoa then equal pours of whites and cream cream d efrpbe mint.

the whole thing is over ice and we give it a good shake to blend it well and make it all frothy and beautiful. then it is poured into a stem glass and topped with a little brandy floater. beautiful. here it is. that perfect grass hopper cocktail. cheers! hurricane katrina changed the whole game because for the first time since 1718 we had a completely clean slate -- well, sort of. it was kind of messy after the flood but the slate was clean. consequently we had an opportunity to do two things.

number one, the populace of the city realized how endangered our life here really is. consequently how endangered the food traditions are. so whether it was a poor boy sandwich or cocktail it all seemed to matter more. it seemed to matter more that it was preserved and that the tradition was being carried forward. at the same time, hurricane katrina brought an enormous influx of very bright people from all across the country who moved here in droves and decided they wanted to live here. based on that change of population for one thing, the food began to change. we had seen a tkwaeurt diversion

in -- greater diversion in the food serve and kinds of restaurants we have and an explosion in the restaurant business that nothing new orleans had ever seen before. here today on the 14 years after hurricane katrina we have over twice as many restaurants operating in new orleans as we did before the storm. when visitors come here the most important thing to me is that they have an authentic food experience experience. whether it is trying a poor boy sandwich, or having a bowl of gumbo, trying crawfish for the first time, it is all delicious and it is a delicious adventure. that is what i want our visitors to experience and then go home with a really special food memory they created here in new orleans.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] learn more about new orleans and other stops on our tour on c-span.org/cities tour. you are watching american history tv, all weekend every weekend on c-span3. sunday night on afterwards, detailing her efforts to prove that children in flint, michigan leadbeing exposed to poisoning. in her book, "what the eyes story of: a resistance, crisis and hope in an american city." actions talk about her -- about your actions. you talk about blood in the

water. when did that happen? i realized there was led in water wasn't until the end of august 2015. it wasn't from seeing patients. it happened to be at my house with a high school girlfriend who happened to be a water expert, formally with the epa and washington dc when d.c. went through a similar crisis. with a glass in hand, she said, have you heard about the lottery echo -- the water? not being treated properly, and because it's not being treated properly there is going to be led in the water. i try to get children's blood lead levels, because that is something the county has surveillance programs for. track this, let we track the flu and hiv and the epidemics. get that government data, so i did my own research

to see what was happening to our children's blood levels. what we saw was alarming. >> watch afterwards, sunday night at 9 p.m. eastern >> american history tv, constitutional scholar linda explains the bill of rights, detailing each of the 10 amendments and how they were ratified. she also describes how these rights are used by citizens and determined by the supreme court. -- the smithsonian associates hosted this event. to welcome back linda monk, a graduate of harvard law school, who twice received the