Artwork by Herb Roe
"Barq's, Zapp's, and a Shrimp Poboy"
This remarkable work from Acadiana artist Herb Roe is part of a collection titled Louisiana Food Still Lifes, for which Roe photographed his daily lunches at local eateries in Lafayette—focusing on the regional comfort food of South Louisiana: rice and gravy plates, boudin, gratons, and, of course shrimp poboys.
In a world ever-leaning toward efficiency, virality, and homogenization, people in this region have historically taken pride in the unique foodways that set our culture apart. We take part in these collective “meal memories” by purchasing a poboy made from fish caught by our neighbors, by practicing the ritual of preparing our mother’s stuffed artichoke recipe, or by visiting a neighborhood restaurant that still serves chicken just as it did when it opened forty years ago. There’s something spiritual about our relationship to food, here.
[Read more about this month's cover artist, Herb Roe, here.]
And like so many good things infused with nostalgia, the authenticity at the root of our food traditions is something to be protected—held up against the threat of inauthenticity, of the idea of something overshadowing the real, true thing. What is a Louisiana poboy without genuine Gulf shrimp? Who cares if okra belongs in gumbo if the okra we’re using has been shipped across the world? Can our Creole gardens be complete if we’ve forgotten the tomato varieties our grandmothers planted? Can our cookbooks be true if we don’t remember the traditional recipes? And can we name our food earnestly Louisianan without paying tribute to the half-dozen immigrant cultures that have influenced it? As Richard McCarthy, a New Orleanian and board member of Slow Food International put it: “If there’s anything that really runs counter to the Louisiana frame of mind, it’s that taste should be homogenous.”
