#3 Rice

No ingredient is more essential to Cajun cooking than rice. Cheap and abundant, impoverished Cajun settlers were able to feed their large families with this staple. But don’t start thinking of buttered rice or rice Pilaf…to hell with dat. We’re talking about rice and gravy son. Give us our crawfish étouffée, red beans and rice, jambalaya, gumbo, sauce piquant, and just about anything else we can cover it with. If there’s nothing heaped on top of it, bring it back…we don’t want it. And Cajuns don’t buy rice in those skinny 5 lb bags you see in the rest of the country. Give us the 20 lb sack of rice.

Rice is such a big part of Cajun culture that we have a yearly festival dedicated to the greatness of rice. Here’s a tip about Cajun people for future reference: If there’s a festival for it, we probably like it.