Travel from New Orleans to San Antonio on a week-long food excursion. Photo / Getty Images
Travel from New Orleans to San Antonio on a week-long food excursion. Photo / Getty Images
Amtrak’s Sunset Limited route connects New Orleans with San Antonio; two exceptional food destinations. Yvette Cook investigates how one train journey can offer travellers two different experiences during a week-long holiday.
“Keep up or you’ll miss the po-boys,” shouts one member of my tour group above the trumpet’s melody.
I’m eating my way through New Orleans on a food walking tour, but keep getting delayed by the jazz music playing on street corners. While I absorb the music’s vibrations in my ribs, the spring sunshine is warming my back and savoury aromas swirl around me from nearby restaurants. It’s an ordinary Thursday afternoon for New Orleans, but it feels extraordinary to me.
As someone who normally enters a city with a list of sights to visit, I’m taking a new approach to experiencing a city through its food.
New Orleans has long drawn visitors for its exceptional Cajun and Creole cuisine, while San Antonio in Texas is home to Tex-Mex. With only a 15-hour train journey separating them, I’m discovering their offerings on a one-week holiday.
Cajun and Creole cuisines in New Orleans have French, Spanish, and African roots.
Starting in New Orleans with Dr Gumbo’s walking food tour is a masterstroke, an efficient introduction to its streets and its food.
In a swanky restaurant, I start with a bowl of gumbo, which resembles a stew. Delving my spoon in, my tastebuds are awoken by the pleasant tingling of Cajun seasoning. I enjoy the complementary smoky flavour of the Louisiana sausage and the calming balance of the potato.
Our passionate tour guide Beth explains how this Cajun recipe, the chef’s grandmother’s, shares its foundations with Creole recipes. The city’s food has evolved through waves of immigrants who have made New Orleans their home.
Creole is considered more cosmopolitan through its French and Spanish influences, whereas Cajun cuisine originated from French Canadians who introduced countryside foods, such as game. Both are influenced by West African ingredients, including okra, and Native American foods such as beans and shellfish.
Beth takes our tastebuds on a tour of New Orleans’ flavours, from shopping for hot salsas, to tasting sweet and salty bacon pecan brittle - think sea salt chocolate.
At NOLA Po’Boys cafe, we munch into soft Sicilian muffuletta sandwiches of Italian meats, cheeses and olives, yet it’s the crispy outer on the rival po’boy sandwich that gives it the edge.
Created for the “poor boys” during the 1929 streetcar strike, it’s stuffed with anything from beef to crawfish, dressed with salad, and slathered with mayonnaise. Rounding off the tour with Banana Foster and its sweet, buttery rum sauce, I realise that I won’t need to eat again for the rest of the day.
The beignet, a staple of New Orleans, is a deep-fried pastry dusted with sugar. Photo / Unsplash
The following morning, after a walk along the Mississippi River, my eyes feast on the rich colours of Creole townhouses with wrought-iron balconies, framed by blue skies and swaying palm trees.
Despite the early hour, I’m drawn to the sound of a double bass entertaining a queue outside Cafe du Monde. It’s not long before I sink my teeth into what this cafe is famous for, a beignet, a pillowy, deep-fried pastry with a generous dusting of icing sugar. A tastier version of a doughnut that sets me up for my cooking class.
The beautiful Mississippi River. Photo / Unsplash
At the Mardi Gras School of Cooking, chef Raymond teaches my group how to cook Louisiana classics from barbecue shrimp to bread pudding.
While we chop the holy trinity of onion, celery, and bell pepper, he explains how jambalaya was born from the Spanish having to swap in local ingredients to make paella.
Our class enjoys experimenting with these, like spicy tasso ham, to create our own masterpiece. The perfect jambalaya, but a long way off paella.
At the Mardi Gras School of Cooking, the class makes barbecue shrimp and grits. Photo / Yvette Cook
The evenings are spent sipping Sazerac cocktails in jazz clubs, though it’s the spontaneity of music on Frenchmen Street that excites me most. Thinking about how jazz breaks conventions, evolves and unveils its rawness, I realise that it is emblematic of this incredible city’s spirit too.
While leaving New Orleans is a drag, boarding the beastly Amtrak train with its booming horn is nothing short of exciting.
The Sunset Limited service departs New Orleans at 9am three times a week, to the edge of the continent, arriving 47 hours later in Los Angeles. As such, some passengers are laden with supplies and head towards the sleeping cars, but as I am only travelling 15-hours to San Antonio I sit in coach class.
One of New Orleans' many jazz bands performs in front of Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans. Photo / 123RF
Taking my reclining seat in the spacious top deck, I meet Mickey, who like many aboard, is travelling to experience Texas’ solar eclipse. She shares my love of train travel and on spotting an alligator amongst the mangroves, she gloats that she is “seeing a side of America not seen by flying”.
The adjacent lounge car has a sociable atmosphere with passengers eating, playing cards or watching the scenery change through its vast wraparound windows. Sitting in a swivel seat, I watch the train cut through rice paddies and start a conversation with Frank, visiting his grandchildren in Tucson, Arizona.
He isn’t fazed by the 35-hour journey, he likes the time to think, and listen to stories of interesting people he meets. He’s pleased that the Biden Administration is investing in America’s train routes and that the Sunset Limited will soon run daily.
As the sun sets over Houston, I am served a surprisingly tasty three-course Italian meal in the dining car and wonder why most Americans choose to fly as much as they do. Time flies and before I know it I’m in San Antonio.
Amtrak trains travel the length and breadth of the United States. Photo / Aris on Unsplash
As the birthplace of the breakfast taco, I start my visit to San Antonio in the quiet neighbourhood cafe, Kapej.
The rain shower provides a steady drum beat on the wooden porch, while mockingbirds and cardinals take part in a singing competition.
My tacos are filled with bacon and scrambled eggs alongside a fiery ranchero sauce and cafe de olla, a Mexican spiced coffee. It feels like I’ve arrived into a new country, not the state next door, but being only 200km from Mexico, this shouldn’t be a surprise.
What is a surprise is that San Antonio is the US’ seventh largest city. Its colonial history stretches back to the Spanish Missions established in 1718 and today holds accolades including Unesco’s ‘Creative City of Gastronomy’.
To orientate myself, I walk along the 25km river walk that weaves through the city and its history. It’s refreshing to be at the heart of an American city surrounded by lush vegetation designed to attract both people and wildlife.
While cyclists and kayakers glide by, a nonchalant turtle bathes on a rock. A twin cypress tree marks the spot where Mexican snipers are thought to have waited for Texan cowboys attracted to the river for water. Today, it marks the start of the ‘River Bend’ where tourist boats pass a buzzing restaurant scene.
I’m keen to try the famous guacamole at Boudro’s that’s prepared in front of customers’ eyes. Just as I’m on the cusp of ordering, my waiter Richard describes other specialities and I’m converted to the blackened Texan prime rib. I’m not disappointed, it’s tender and juicy, with Cajun spices that complement the rich beefy flavour, and perfectly matched with a light-bodied Texan red wine.
The river walk in San Antonio stretches for 25km. Photo / Unsplash
Continuing along the river walk, I amble by artisan shops in historic La Villita, towards the 229m-high Tower of the Americas which pays tribute to the “Confluence of Civilisations” that built America. In San Antonio, this confluence of Native American and Mexican food, combined with wheat and livestock imported by Spanish missionaries, formed Tex-Mex.
I visit Poblano’s in Downtown, an informal eatery that’s popular with locals. Over crispy tacos, cheesy enchiladas and nachos, served with a spicy salsa that I’m warned to try before pouring, I become captivated by stories of the legendary “Chili Queens”.
During the Wild West days, a group of women became a beloved feature of the city’s nightlife in the Plaza de Armas. They set up night-time stalls and served chilli con carne, along with other specialities, attracting visitors, locals and soldiers, and helping grow Tex-Mex’s popularity.
The following day, I follow the walk northwards towards the Pearl, a former German brewery site, to enjoy its weekend farmers’ market and restaurants. I discover how places such as Botika, an Asian-Peruvian restaurant, push boundaries, while still rooting themselves in Texas through dishes such as short rib with yakisoba noodles.
Botika creates innovative Asian-Peruvian dishes including short rib with yakisoba noodles. Photo / Yvette Cook
Yet, at La Gloria, a Mexican street food restaurant, its mission is to preserve traditional food. Colourful skeletons welcome me onto a vibrant terrace overlooking the river.
I enjoy contrasting flavours of delicate raw fish and green tomatoes in the ceviche verde, against rich spices of mole sauce smothering the enchiladas. It’s little wonder that La Gloria is renowned for its authenticity and the best margaritas in town.
As I leave the Pearl during golden hour, I am distracted by a soulful beat emanating from deep inside the Jazz TX Club, transporting me back to the streets of New Orleans.
A one week adventure from hearty Cajun to spicy Tex-Mex, courtesy of the Sunset Limited. Having followed my tastebuds, instead of my guidebook, I’ve gained a deeper understanding of how history and culture intertwines to create two remarkable cuisines.
CHECKLIST
Getting there
Air New Zealand flies direct from Auckland to Houston five times a week with one-hour connecting flights to New Orleans and San Antonio.
