8 Crazy Foods You Can Only Find In New Orleans

"In New Orleans, we don't eat to live. We live to eat!" It's hard to get from the airport to your Airbnb without seeing or hearing this message a dozen times. And that's because it couldn't be more true.

Between classic Creole cuisine (fine French and Spanish dishes reimagined by generations of enslaved African-descended cooks using Mississippi Delta ingredients), rustic country cooking from the Cajuns, a spicy local twist on classic soul food, and the culinary stylings of waves of immigrants—Haitian, Irish, Sicilian, and more recently, Vietnamese and Latin American—New Orleans is a town where food is the common thread. It's not only a source of conversation and the centerpiece of every interaction or event, it's history—both past and present.

But for a newbie NOLA eater, it's hard to know where to start. (And you'll soon discover it's a bit of a challenge to know when to stop.) So consider this your bucket list. Dig in to the very best versions of eight iconic plates and the rest of your time in the bayou will be gravy.