GUMBO TALES and over 360,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
48 used & new from $5.52
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Start reading GUMBO TALES on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: food show, meunière amandine, red gravy, New Orleans, Gumbo Tales, New Orleanians (more...)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
List Price: $24.95
Price: $16.47 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $8.48 (34%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Only 5 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want it delivered Monday, November 23? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
28 new from $11.78 18 used from $5.52 2 collectible from $15.00

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Kindle Edition, January 5, 2009 $8.68 -- --
  Hardcover, February 16, 2008 $16.47 $11.78 $5.52
  Paperback, April 19, 2009 $10.85 $9.42 $6.81

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story (P.S.) by Julia Reed

Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table + The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story (P.S.)
Price For Both: $26.54

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table by Sara Roahen

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story (P.S.) by Julia Reed

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

New Orleans Noir (Akashic Noir)

New Orleans Noir (Akashic Noir)

by Julie Smith
4.4 out of 5 stars (8)  $10.85
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?

Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?

by Toni McGee Causey
4.9 out of 5 stars (7)  $12.58
The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story (P.S.)

The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story (P.S.)

by Julia Reed
3.8 out of 5 stars (63)  $10.07
Why New Orleans Matters

Why New Orleans Matters

by Tom Piazza
4.0 out of 5 stars (36) 
Crescent City Cooking: Unforgettable Recipes from Susan Spicer's New Orleans

Crescent City Cooking: Unforgettable Recipes from Susan Spicer's New Orleans

by Susan Spicer
5.0 out of 5 stars (14)  $23.10
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this gratifying love letter to her adopted home, food writer Roahen takes the French idea of terroir-the effect of a region's climate and geography on its wine grapes-as a jumping-off point, locating New Orlean's "emotional terroir" in its food. Though it's a nebulous concept, this culinary tour succeeds repeatedly in defining the indefinable with grace, wit and passion-especially in regards to the city's alluring, complex flavors and aromas. Beginning with gumbo, Roahen examines the Crescent City's signature dishes, offering a history of the cuisine, the people who shaped it and those who keep it alive. Readers will meet Ernest and Mary Hansen, crafters of "artisan" shaved-ice sno-balls; take a seat at Luizza's by the Track for transcendental BBQ shrimp po-boys; sample Miss Lovie's phenomenal Big Mama's Seafood Gumbo; and marvel at the ravenous characters populating Hawk's crawfish boil. An accomplished cook herself, Roahan periodically ushers readers into her kitchen for experiments like the daunting, superindulgent Turducken: a chicken stuffed inside a duck that is then stuffed inside a turkey. Hurricane Katrina is treated as a kind of recurring character, dogging the city and its inhabitants, and Roahen honors their struggle and loss. Those familiar with the city will smile and nod along; readers who've never had the pleasure may find themselves making travel arrangements long before the last page.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Review

Readers who've never had the pleasure of visiting [New Orleans] may find themselves making travel plans before the last page. -- Publishers Weekly

Roahen poignantly addresses the unwelcome diner at the table but finds the soul of the city in its many cooks. -- Booklist, Elliot Mandel
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (February 17, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0393061671
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393061673
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #303,401 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #31 in  Books > Travel > United States > States > Louisiana > New Orleans
    #62 in  Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional > Cajun & Creole
    #79 in  Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Travel > United States > South

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Sara Roahen
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Sara Roahen Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
food show, meunière amandine, red gravy, king cake, boiled crawfish, crawfish bisque, live crawfish, shrimp rémoulade, duck blood, crawfish boils
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Orleans, Gumbo Tales, New Orleanians, Mardi Gras, Chef Paul, French Quarter, Saint Joseph, Joseph's Day, New York, Café du Monde, Bourbon Street, Miss Linda, Paul Prudhomme, Central Grocery, Miss Dot, West Bank, Ashley Hansen, Magazine Street, Morning Call, Gambit Weekly, Leah Chase, Miss Foto, Charles Avenue, French Market, Fat Tuesday
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table
89% buy the item featured on this page:
Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table 4.5 out of 5 stars (20)
$16.47
The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story (P.S.)
4% buy
The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story (P.S.) 3.8 out of 5 stars (63)
$10.07
Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans
3% buy
Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans 4.7 out of 5 stars (74)
$17.16
Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans
2% buy
Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans 4.7 out of 5 stars (21)
$16.47
Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(7)
(5)
(5)
(5)
(4)
(3)
(3)
(2)
(2)
(1)
Agree with these tags?
See all 11 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

20 Reviews
5 star:
 (13)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes nobody captures the essence of a place like an outsider, February 25, 2008
As a long-since transplanted--and not particularly "foodie"--native New Orleanian, "Gumbo Tales" reads like vivid, technicolor personal history to me: snowballs, Stage Planks, mirliton dressing, crawfish boil escapees... and how they all tie together a very specific, food-centered community. Since the hurricane, I've felt wierdly like part of my past was obliterated. (Yes, that's maudlin and self-indulgent considering what happened to those who lived in and around the city at the time of the storm, but there it is). This book can't bring back that missing part, but it certainly reminds me, all the more sharply, of what we've all lost.

A note about a previous reviewer's complaint of poor copy-editing: I can get pretty outraged about others' crimes against the language (while forgiving myself similar sins, of course). I spotted a few misdemeanors--and maybe a felony or two--in this book, as in a lot of published material. They didn't overwhelm my ability to enjoy it. You can best judge whether they'll overwhelm yours.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Gumbo Tales, February 18, 2008
Sara Roahen has written a kind, sweet, humble, and humorous book on New Orleans food culture. Its full of wonderfully human stories about food passion and connection, the region and its people. One dreams of getting down there, and I could taste the food. Its a scrumptious book, and a great read. Each chapter is beautifully finished with the lines of its last sentence. Pass the red beans and rice, please.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Pass the Tabasco!, March 27, 2008
By i4abuy (Accomac, Va.) - See all my reviews
I learned of this book from Jonathan Yardley's review in the Washington Post. We were out of ideas for our son's Spring Break and we hit on New Orleans: an eating vacation with Sara Roahen as our guide. I studied the book on a stationery bicycle as I tried to lose 15 pounds to get into shape for six great meals at Commander's Palace, Herbsaint, Bayona, Palace Cafe, Antoine's, and Galatoire's (listed in order, from greatest to merely great). Plus a few po' boys, lesser meals, and snacks, constrained only by our appetites.

This is a delightful and worthy book. It is organized around New Orleans' principal food groups with chapters on gumbo, red beans and rice, po' boys, etc. For each Roahen researched vintage cookbooks to trace origins, variations, and controversies. She uses this framework to interweave stories of her life in New Orleans and her experiences with the food and the people who make it, eat it, and live by it. She is a good writer, and her book served my purpose well. Every meal tasted better because of the context she provided.

That said her "menu-item framework" is awkward for the story she is telling. The book needs introductory chapters to describe New Orleans cuisine today, its evolution, and why it is unique (and superior!)

The introduction should follow easily from her careful research, but she doesn't even take up the fundamental distinction between Cajun and Creole until a chapter about poisson meuniere amandine, 159 pages into the book. The introduction should lay out the basic taxonomy of New Orleans food purveyors from the traditional five star restaurants, through contemporary innovators, to cafes and po' boy shops and street vendors. It would be a logical place for some of the personal vignettes of people who influenced her life in New Orleans which are awkwardly shoe-horned into chapters about food (e.g., the restaurant critic, Tom Fitzmorris in le boeuf gras) with which they have only a passing association.

Finally, I question her choice of menu items. There is a boring chapter on Vietnamese cuisine and another on a Mardi Gras coconut-trinket that I would gladly have traded for some missing chapters on traditional New Orleans cuisine: jambalaya, bread pudding, hot sauce. What is New Orleans without Tabasco?
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Tasty but not entirely substantial
Each chapter in this book described a different New Orleans food - gumbo, oysters, sno-ball, etc - interspersed with some personal stories of the author, often relating to the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Godon

4.0 out of 5 stars I loved a book about food?!
In Gumbo Tales, Sara Roahen attempts to bring the reader in to New Orleans food, including the mix of cultures, weird ingredients, neighborhoods etc. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book to date on New Orleans cuisine? Maybe so.
As a native New Orleanian obsessed with all things local, Roahen's book has an honored place on my shelf. So many questions I've always had are answered. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Zachary LeBlanc

4.0 out of 5 stars A love letter to New Orleans
Gumbo Tales is Sara Roahen's attempt to identify and dissect the culinary history of New Orleans. First arriving in New Orleans with her now-husband, then a medical student, she... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mary G. Longorio

5.0 out of 5 stars A veritable feast
This proved the most insightful -- and unexpectedly useful -- book I read prior to going to New Orleans. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Kay A. Douglas

4.0 out of 5 stars Food and Culture Experience
Even before you open Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table, a new book by Sara Roahen, you might get a sense of the place. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Kaye

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent foodie tribute to one of the best cities for eating!
Like the author, Sara, I was also a non-native who had moved to New Orleans for my first ten years out of college, from 1987 to 1996. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Bond... James Bond

4.0 out of 5 stars Succulent as the Crawdads and Oysters!
Wisconsin native Sara Roahen writes of her adopted home with a passion that jumps off of every page. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Story Circle Book Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars She caught the magic of the food, the city, and the people...
What a fun book. I live in Houston, and know New Orleans from several over-eating visits. Sara really brought you right back there and so far beyond in the history and fun... Read more
Published 18 months ago by K. Molitor

5.0 out of 5 stars If you read nothing else . . .
If you read only one book about New Orleans, it should be this one. Sara Roahen's love of the the city's food is exceeded only by her love of the people who make it and their... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Robert Holland

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:
























i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.