Cultural variants of fried dough are as prevalent as cultural variants of pancakes. In New Mexico alone, there are three variations: sopaipillas, Native American fry bread, and churros. The New Orleans twist on fried dough, is of course the beignet. Beignets are pockets of fried dough, powdered with sugar and served with cafe au lait. Therefore, no trip to New Orleans is complete without a visit to Cafe Du Monde for coffee and an order of beignets. The cafe au lait here is one part coffee mixed with one part milk.
The coffee in the cafe au lait is mixed with chicory root. Chicory root adds body to the coffee. It is in the same family as raddicchio and endive. 
Below are some random tinted photos from my trip to New Orleans.
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| Ceiling Fans at Cafe Du Monde |
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| Break Area for Cafe Du Monde Staff |
Is adding chicory to coffee typical of the south in general, or more a New Orleans tradition? My Dad's Texan relatives used to add chicory, but I think that might have been a leftover from WW II, when coffee wasn't easy to get and they had to make it stretch.
ReplyDelete@Stacy, I think chicory has been added to stretch coffee and as a coffee substitute. The chicory makes the coffee bolder and some people find it a little bitter. I don't recall seeing coffee with chicory outside of Louisiana, but am not certain.
ReplyDeleteI love the chairs in the break area.
ReplyDelete@Patricia, thanks I think I'm attracted to symmetry.
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