Sometimes it Really is in the Water

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

You've heard the saying, "It must be in the water" in reference to local anomalies. Well, for gumbo, jambalaya and anything else made with water in New Orleans, that may well be true.

If you've been to NOLA, chances are you've gone home and tried to recreate a recipe for something fabulous you dined on while visiting. You may have headed to a local restaurant serving up NOLA favorites in search of that elusive flavor. It probably wasn't "just quite right", though and you were left feeling unfulfilled and trying to figure out what was missing.

It might be the water. If you don't live in or near NOLA, there's one way to find out if the water is the missing ingredient; visit Kitchen Witch Cookbooks and buy a gallon of authentic New Orleans water and have it delivered to your home. Then, try that recipe for gumbo again and see if the flavor isn't reminiscent of your trip.

Kitchen Witch Cookbooks is a bookshop in the French Quarter of New Orleans that specializes in "rare, hard to find, out of print and pre-owned books on food and cooking" - exactly my kind of shop! Please visit their website and read about them - their tag line is "Rebuilding New Orleans, One Book at a Time" - worth a look, for sure.

I made some of my own gumbo yesterday (chicken and sausage), and although it was better than usual, I bet it would have been fantastic with a gallon of that water.