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SPANISH
San Bernardo (now St. Bernard Parish) was
established downriver of New Orleans by the
Spanish after New Orleans and the lands west of
the Mississippi became Spanish in 1766. It is historically
important because of its role in the Battle of NewOrleans,
because those who settled here laid the foundation for the
sugar industry in Louisiana and because of the fishing
industry. All of this can be seen by traveling Louisiana
Highway 46 — the Scenic Byway including Yscloskey
and Delacroix Island.The story is preserved for everyone
at Los Isleños Heritage & Cultural Society and Museum
).
Spain used its colony off the coast of Africa, the Canary
Islands, as a launching point for its ships to cross the
Atlantic. People from all over Spain, who intended to
travel to America, would wait in the Canaries for a ship to
be ready. In the 18th century, that could be a year or more.
Spain settled thousands of immigrants from the
Canaries, Malga, one of the oldest cities in the world,
and Acadian refugees,inGalveztown near Baton Rouge;
Valenzuela on Bayou Lafourche; Barataria by Bayou des
Familles in Jefferson Parish; and La Concepcion along
Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs. La Concepcion was later
named San Bernardo.Today the descendants of those
settlers are known as Isleños, and they are the guardians
of the foods and traditions of those peoples, serving
caldo (a soup), flan, croquetas (ham and chicken), and
fabada, which is made with dried fava beans and pork.
I make the trip up and down St. Bernard Highway
almost every day. It always reminds me of how full
of the touchstones of history
the Parish is. And although
it may seem pastoral and
psychologically distant, it is
actually very close to the heart
of New Orleans. It is not
very far in miles either. I pass
Arabi, which was once part of
Orleans Parish. The Chalmette
Battlefield marker tells the tale
of how important this area is to
our collective history. And the
Isleños Museum is a constant
reminder of the wonderful
contributions to cuisine made
by Spanish immigrants in the
18th century.
Sweet on
St. Bernard
A rguably the largest sugar
refinery in the Western
Hemisphere, the Domino Sugar
Refinery in Arabi, Louisiana, has
been manufacturing sugar for
over 100 years. The refinery was
built over several years in the
early 20th century and opened in
1909. It was built by the American
Sugar Refining Company (ASR),
which then owned the brand —
Domino. The refinery was built
on the Mississippi River to take
advantage of river traffic, but
sugar distribution is a multi-modal
operation today.
The facility produces more than
7 million pounds of refined sugar
every day in a process that is
much the same today as it was
100 years ago. The sugar is used
by consumers, for commercial
production such as candy and
pharmaceuticals, and for other
commercial uses.
San Bernardoby Liz Williams
Jambalaya
Most rice-eating cultures have a dish
that combines precious leftover
rice with other leftover tidbits to create
a new dish. Fried rice is an example of
Asian repurposing. Using rice mixed with
tidbits to stuff into vegetables — whether
a green bell pepper boat or a cabbage leaf
— is another example. Early jambalaya
recipes often use leftover rice and suggest
a variety of small quantities of other things
that might be added and recooked to create
jambalaya. This dish of leftovers was once
not regularly found on restaurant menus
and never served to guests at your home
table. You wouldn’t want to insult guests by
serving them leftovers.
Gradually the dish has become a favorite
and standard recipes that involve cooking
raw rice and tidbits together have brought
together two different traditions and two
different types of jambalaya: brown and
red. In New Orleans, jambalaya is often
red because of the presence of tomatoes, a
regular ingredient in Creole cuisine. The
origin of New Orleans jambalaya is greatly
influenced by Jollof rice, a West African
dish. Many of the enslaved Africans that
lived and cooked in New Orleans were from
West Africa. Jollof rice was traditionally
made from whatever ingredients were
available, but tomatoes are the traditional
constant of the dish.
Another ancestor of jambalaya is Spanish
paella. Louisiana was under Spanish rule
from 1762-1802. During this time, a group
of Spaniards settled in what was called
Galveztown, near what is now Gonzalez,
self-proclaimed Jambalaya Capital of the
World.These Spaniards would have brought
with them the tradition of preparing paella,
a Spanish rice dish that is different in
different regions of Spain, but can include
seafood or chicken or meat.