I am going to tell you about the differences between various species of bisque and gumbo I have known. This may take awhile for me to get to the point. It is a complicated topic.
I get paid by the word.
For those who do not know this, I am from Connecticut originally, cranky yankee to the core. I have transplanted to New Orleans, where, as the Connecticut state motto says, “Qui transtulit sustinet.” These are merely first-hand observations. What people call bisque and gumbo in New England are different from what they call bisque and gumbo in Louisiana.
What I am saying, since I am getting paid by the word, is that what is bisque in New Orleans, LA is nothing like bisque in New London, CT. Likewise, what is gumbo in Newport, RI is nothing like the gumbo in New Orleans.
I would give anything for a bowl of clam chowder. There is no clam chowder in New Orleans. There are no clams.
I have learned of the most horrid thing I could possibly imagine. It involves clam chowder. More on that later.
It is dark in here so I am sitting under the light in the corner. I am facing the wall. I expect less distractions than usual. It is nice and quiet today. It should be. It is January. Christmas is over and we are still early into Carnival.
Happy Carnival.
This is about bisque and gumbo.
I wrote that for SEO purposes, not because I was daydreaming and I had to remind myself what I am supposed to be doing.
Let us start with the bisque, move to the gumbo, and, then, I will tell you about the most horrific thing I can imagine. It is so disgusting that I cannot stop thinking about it. By the time I am done, you won’t be able to stop thinking about it either. You have been warned.
Bisque in the Land of Steady Habits is rich, cream soup made with lobster and topped with a dash of sherry. It is an elegant soup, something refined, something special, the perfect way to start a white tablecloth affair. It is the same in the Land of the Cod and the Bean. It is the same in the lands that encircle Narragansett Bay.
There is no lobster worth talking about in New Orleans, hence, there is no lobster bisque. Where I come from, there is only one bisque.
Bisque in the City That Care Forgot is soup made of vegetables pureed in chicken stock. This is not my opinion. As I write this, I am enjoying a bowl of butternut squash bisque at Club She-She’s.
Club She-She’s is not the kind of place that keeps sherry in stock, but, even in places that do have sherry, like at Commander’s Palace, where the butternut squash bisque is just as good as here, only a crazy person would ask for sherry in bisque.
To this cranky Yankee, only a crazy person would call butternut squash soup bisque.
In New Orleans, sherry is reserved for turtle soup and Ladies’ Opera Guild socials.
Bisque in New Orleans is just soup that they call something else in fancier restaurants. This bisque at Club She-She’s sure is tasty, but, really it is just soup with a tarted up name.
It sure is dark in here.
I should pull the curtain before I start to talk about the difference between gumbos in New England and New Orleans, and, then, I will tell you about the most horrific thing I cannot get out of my mind.