Thumping beats flowed over a sea of flowered shirts and sun hats that filled the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival over the weekend with tens of thousands roaming from stage to stage, as excited about the music as the food.
The 45-year-old Jazz Fest that started on Friday in the heart of the Crescent City is a celebration of the music that defines New Orleans as well as the local Cajun food that has developed a global following.
"Food and music are equally critical to the Jazz Fest experience," Boston resident Jason Dumont said as he polished off a cochon de lait po-boy - a roasted pork sandwich with creamy dressing.
Sampling as much local cuisine as possible is a common thread at the annual seven-day event known as Jazz Fest that stretches through May 4.
Food vendors have been fixtures at the event for decades, and their offerings are dishes, both simple and classic, that long ago put New Orleans and south Louisiana's Cajun Country on the map of international cuisine.
Fest-goers have been downing oyster Rockefeller bisque, crabmeat-stuffed shrimp, spicy Cajun jambalaya as well as red beans and rice.
"I always say that Jazz Fest is the best food festival in the world," said Quint Davis, the event's long-time producer.
Ticking off a handful of food-booth items - Cajun duck po-boys sandwiches, Cajun shrimp and duck pasta, boudin sausage, pheasant-quail-andouille gumbo - he lingers on crawfish strudel.
"That strudel is to die for," he said.
For many fest vendors, preparing the high-demand menu items involves weeks of worry and sweat.
Wayne Baquet, owner of Li'l Dizzy's Café in New Orleans, has labored over his Creole filé gumbo - a seafood stew usually with shrimp, oysters and andouille sausage - and trout baquet - buttery trout topped with crabmeat. But it is his crawfish bisque that demands the most attention.
The dark, rich stew of crawfish tail meat and seasonings takes extra time because of its distinguishing feature, stuffed crawfish shells that float in the roux-based gravy.
The meat is removed from the shell and sautéed into a dressing with onions, celery and spices. The stuffing then goes back into the empty shells. Baquet and his cooking team readied about 7,000 stuffed shells before the fest.
Retired fireman Michael Gowland for 12 years has run a Jazz Fest food booth called Fireman Mike's Kitchen, which has developed a fan following for its alligator sauce piquante.
In preparation for the fest, Gowland cooked 500 pounds of alligator meat, which he serves over rice in a sherry, tomato and brown sugar sauce.
"We'll probably serve close to 10,000 plates at the fest," he said.
Gowland said he learned the recipe years ago from - he insists - a one-armed alligator hunter.
Fest producer Davis believes that Jazz Fest is a unique reflection Louisiana's music and food culture, and both are magnets that draw as many as 400,000 people to the event.
At least one visitor seemed to agree. Michelle Issleib of San Antonio, Texas, licked her fingers after swallowing the last bite of her crawfish strudel.
"It's the best thing here," she said. "No kidding, that is the best thing I've ever put in my mouth."
