of unique programming, exploring our nation's past. your schedule and archive of all our programs visit c-span3/ history. 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 will hear somebody walking down the street talking about what they had to eat yesterday. what they're going to have for dinner. how they cook the duck they just shot at the hunting camp. we are a city obsessed with food. one of the greatest confusions about the food of new orleans as a creole or is it cajun? what is it? well, originally you see creole and cajun food were two

completely different kinds of cuisine. cajun food big pot cooking done by cajun people in southwest louisiana. creole food, the word creole itself comes from hispanic word which means native. so the first creole where the first native offspring of the french and spanish settlers. their food is really city food. it's more refined. it is not as spicy as perhaps cajun food is. but it is very well season. we are situated right across from the french market at the side of the old french market. there was an active market here in the city from 1718, very earliest day. with the bounty of everything that was available in season fresh and local using french and spanish traditional preparations. this true

indigenous cuisine developed and that is creole cooking. the hallmark of creole cooking, first of all we have to say no matter what it is we're cooking it almost invariably starts off first you make a roux. it is a combination of flour and oil. traditionally a french word, french preparation. originally, in france it is butter and flour. here in new orleans butter woodburn before the roux gets to the dark color that we like it to be. once you have that dark roux the other thing that goes into everything is celery, bell pepper and onions. that is actually what i refer to as the creole. the traditional french was onions,

celery and carrots. when those first french people got here, undoubtedly they with them. here in the city where we are painfully aware at least 7 feet under sea level. no matter where you are how in the world you going to grow a carrot? you can't 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. so that's how i believe the carrots came out and the pepper went in to what is really the creole. the crux of our flavor. the most important basis of everything is that dark creole roux with celery, bell pepper and onions added. creole food is also typified by tomato. cajun food tends to be brown. cajun food is often read

, often tomato base . i just love the color in the flavor. and of course nothing as delicious as a creole tomato in season. so that is another very important element. one of new orleans great culinary gems. this restaurant is a second oldest continuously operated restaurant in new orleans. it date back to 1856. 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 this restaurant we have a very typical gumbo. some of this beautiful thickening comes from not just from the roux which gives the gumbo its color but also from powder, sassafras roots. which was introduced to the original creole settlers by the choctaw indians. had a very unusual side effect of being added to a hot liquid and thickened, literally thickens the liquid that it goes into. some gumbo's will have this powder as a thickener besides the roux. some will have ocher. the most fascinating thing about gumbo to me is where does it get its name? the choctaw indians, the word they use for the powder, if you had too much you can give it a

odd texture. the choctaw indians called the sassafras roots kombo. the african-american slaves many come from west africa. they spoke the bantu language there. the were there for okra was gumbo. lots of people truly believe the gumbo gets his name from that how can we ever tell choctaw's or african slaves this is a mystery i don't think we will ever solve. this is combination remoulade. new orleans remoulade two different ways. the original remoulade sauce is

a saw she still find in france, mayonnaise-based that has capers, pickles and in it. remoulade came across the atlantic ocean. it changed. of course it probably changed because of refrigeration or lack there of. very dicey issue if you don't have that refrigeration. so consequently. the remoulade sauce drastically changed it became a base of creole mustard here in louisiana. this is more like a german mustard, spicy and delicious and that is what forms the base and you can see of the

traditional new orleans remoulade. again and again, here in new orleans, we will find dishes that perhaps came in a very pure form from france that got tweak a little bit when i got here. the remoulade sauce is a perfect example of that. conversely, we here in new orleans have what we almost call food museums. and some of the older restaurants like antoine's you will see this magical french fry called a pump souffli, this was invented by france an accident in the 1800s, it's like a french fry but is cooked twice so it puffs up making a delicious, airy, crispy white of hot potato like nothing else.

much to my surprise, i discovered back in the 80s that french people had forgotten the pump souffli, it wasn't on the menu. but here in new orleans, it continued along exactly as it always did because we are sticklers for tradition here. there are specific foods that center around some of our tradition. it's not carnival time in new orleans unless there is king cakes everywhere and that goes on throughout the entire 40 days of lent. the poor boy sandwich is one of our most iconic dishes and was created in 1929 during a streetcar strike. it was the strikers who were originally the poor boys but one of the things that is most important to understand is this is really all about the bread.

new orleans french bread is distinctly different. it's crusty, it's soft and beautiful on the inside, so this original poor boy loaves were designed to be a sandwich, big enough to feed an entire family with one sandwich. the poor boy sandwich was invented at the martin brothers grocers. two brothers who were originally streetcar conductors felt very sorry for those starving for boys who were striking for a living wage. so, they set out with their french bread maker, 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 that loaf would have to be and they did one other renovation to it, instead of being slightly pointed as a traditional

baguette would be, they wanted the end so that whoever got the end of the sandwich wouldn't get the short end of the deal. so, the poor boy sandwich really gets its name from the streetcar strike and, there is a poor boy loaf was a result of that. >> this is an off the menu special meal. it has been on the menu here since about 1914. the second owners were partners and the madam and her husband, john had been working for the madam his place with you before it was to jack's. that's where she learned the special preparation of chicken

von son. its unique engine nisha's because the chicken is fried without any batter or coding, it's browned and fried the potatoes are fried in the same oil and the whole thing is heavily sprinkled with the percy ott of fresh garlic and fresh parsley drop together. it's delicious. you do have to order it in advance because it takes an hour to prepare . >> we are standing at the oldest and a bar near to jack's restaurant. the famous cocktail invented here is the grasshopper, the famous dessert cocktail invented in 1918 on the eve of prohibition. we will show you exactly how to make it. are you ready? >> we start off with an equal

poor of light and dark crumb to cocoa and equal cores of white in green cleaned amends. you had a little heavy cream and the whole thing is poured over ice, give it a good shake and blend it well and make it frothy and beautiful. then, it's poured into a stemmed glass and topped with a little brandy floater. beautiful. here it is, that perfect grasshopper cocktail. >> hurricane katrina change the whole game because basically for the first time since 1718,

they had a completely clean slate, sort of, it was kind of messy after the flood but the plate was clean and consequently we had some opportunity to do two things. number one, the populace of the city realized how endangered life he really is and, consequently, how endangered our food traditions are. so, suddenly, whether it was a poor boy sandwich or a cocktail, it all seemed to matter more. it seemed to matter more that it was preserved and that the tradition was being carried forward. however, at the same time, hurricane katrina brought an enormous influx of very bright people will from all across the country who moved here in droves and decided they wanted to live here. based on that change of

population, food began to change. we saw greater diversion and the kinds of foods are served, the kinds of restaurants we have and an explosion in the restaurant business, nothing like we'd seen before. here today, 14 years after hurricanes katrina, we have over twice as many restaurants operating in new orleans as we did before. when visitors come here , the most important thing for me is that they have an authentic food experience. whether it's trying a poor boy sandwich or having a bowl of gumbo, trying to pick crawfish for the first time, it's all delicious and it's a delicious adventure, that is what i want our visitors to experience and

then, go home with a really special food memory that they've created here in new orleans. >> you can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at c-span.org, cities tour. this is american history tv on cspan-3 . american history tv is on cspan-3 every weekend featuring the museum tours, archival films and programs on the presidency. the civil war and more, here's a clip from a recent program . >> on april 15, 1961, two days before the invasion, the first wave of air attack by 6b 26 us, fewer than plan for damaged many cuban planes on the ground and failed to destroy them all.

the attacks alerted the cubans that it's coming, got the attention of the united nations where the un ambassador found himself to be lying about un noninvolvement in this operation. kennedy had ordered the first airstrike smaller than plan for and he canceled the second planned airstrike. he was afraid to recommend that the invasion be canceled, even though everyone knew that without command of the air, the invasion was doomed. they were afraid to give that kind of bad news, which, if you think about it, is and care touristed. intelligences in the bad news business but this is the case where they call it falling in love with your operation and not willing to end it at that point .

>> watch this another american history programs on our website where all of our video is archived. that c-span.org/history . >> each week american artifacts takes fears and archives, museums and historic sites around the country, the smith story and national portrait gallery opened its doors in 1968, next, the director shows 12 painting set of told the american story over the last half-century . >> welcome, i'm the director of the national portrait gallery at the smithsonian institute here in washington d.c. i'm going to take you on a tour of 12 remarkable americans because that was given to us by congress when we were founded in 1962. we are standing in the old patent off