A primer on New Orleans seafood, tracing the Gulf’s oysters, shrimp, fish, crab, crawfish and alligator from old oyster bars and neighborhood fish frys to markets, po’boy shops and white-tablecloth restaurants.

An Irish Channel institution since 1952, Parasol’s Bar and Restaurant nearly closed for good in 2019. Today, the beloved New Orleans watering hole lives on with roast beef po’ boys, neighborhood regulars, and one of the city’s most storied St. Patrick’s Day traditions.

In New Orleans, everything is rich… the soil, the architecture, the music, the revelry, as well as the food. Ignatius J. Reilly, the city’s great fictitious antihero in John Kennedy Toole’s novel A Confederacy of Dunces, reflected, “When I go to lunch, I must have something substantial. This business of having a light lunch is a thoroughly alien concept to me. My being recoils at the thought of a salad or any other such abomination. I am a medievalist, not a Calvinist. Lunch must be rich, satisfying, and caloric to sustain me through the afternoon.” When we went out for a New Orleans meal over this past year, we heeded the words of Ignatius. It's best you do the same. - Lev Thibodeaux