I'm Simone — I'll Take You Through the Tremé to Eat New Orleans the Way My Family Does

My name is Simone and I grew up in the Tremé. New Orleans has a food culture that is entirely its own — part African, part French, part Spanish, part Caribbean — and the version sold on Bourbon Street is the tourist version. The real thing is in the po'boy shops where the bread is specific to this city, the red beans and rice that every household in New Orleans makes on Monday (because Monday was historically laundry day and you needed something that could cook all day unattended), and the second-line Sunday culture where food and music exist together the way they have for 200 years. I take small groups through the Tremé and the Marigny across a morning: a po'boy shop, a plate lunch at a neighbourhood spot, and a brief walk through the history of the neighbourhood that gave America jazz.