A Cajun dictionary
Here are a few words and phrases you may hear in Cajun country.
| Andouille (ahn-do-ee) | A spicy country sausage used in gumbo and other Cajun dishes. |
| Bayou (bi-yoo) | The streams crisscrossing Louisiana. |
| Beignet (ben-yea) | Sweet square doughnuts, minus the hole, lavishly sprinkled with powdered sugar. Often served with café au lait. |
| Bisque (bis-k) | A thick cream- or milk-based shellfish soup, usually made with crawfish, shrimp or oysters. |
| Bon appétit (bon a-pet-tee) | Good appetite, or “Enjoy!” |
| Boucherie (boo-shuh-ree) | A community butchering, where several families share the work of processing a pig into sausage, ham, boudin, chops and head cheese, and each takes home a share. Done in late fall to provide meat through the cold months. |
| Boudin (boo-dan) | Hot, spicy pork mixed with onions, cooked rice and herbs, stuffed in sausage casing. |
| Bourré (boo-ray) | French for “stuffed.” A Cajun card game where the loser of a hand has to stuff the pot. |
| Café au lait (kah-fay-oh-lay) | Coffee with steamed milk. |
| Cajun (cay-jun) | From “Acadian,” the French-speaking people who came to south Louisiana from Nova Scotia in the eighteenth century and preferred a rustic life along the bayous. Now it means the people, the culture and the cooking. |
| Cayenne (ki-yan) | A hot pepper, dried and used to season many Louisiana dishes. |
| Chicory (chick-ory) | An herb whose roots are dried, roasted, ground and used to flavor coffee. |
| Couche-couche (koosh-koosh) | A breakfast of fried cornmeal topped with milk or cane syrup. |
| Courtbouillon (coo-boo-yon) | A rich, spicy tomato-based stew made with fish fillets, onions and sometimes vegetables. |
| Crawfish (craw-fish) | Like small lobsters, also called “mudbugs” because they live in the mud of freshwater bayous. Served in étouffée, jambalaya and gumbo, or simply boiled. |
| Creole (cree-ol) | Originally people of mixed French and Spanish descent who lived as city or plantation dwellers in southeast Louisiana. Now also a style of cooking and of architecture. |
| Dirty rice | Leftover rice sautéed with green peppers, onion, celery, stock, liver, giblets and more. |
| Étouffée (ay-too-fay) | A smothered dish, usually crawfish or shrimp, in a rich, tangy sauce. |
| Fais do-do (fay-doe-doe) | A Cajun dance party. It literally means “go to sleep,” but there’s nothing sleepy about the food, music and dancing. |
| Filé (fee-lay) | Ground sassafras leaves, used to season gumbo. |
| Fricassée (free-kay-say) | A stew made by browning meat, making a roux with the drippings, and simmering the meat in the thick gravy. |
| Gumbo (gum-boe) | A thick, roux-based soup, sometimes thickened with okra or filé, with thousands of variations: shrimp, seafood, chicken, duck. |
| Jambalaya (jum-bo-lie-yah) | A rice dish with just about everything in the kitchen: any mix of beef, pork, fowl, smoked sausage, ham or seafood, with celery, green peppers and often tomatoes. |
| Joie de vivre (zhwa-d-veev) | An attitude towards life. |
| King cake | A ring-shaped Mardi Gras pastry in purple, green and gold, with a small plastic baby hidden inside. Whoever finds the baby brings the next king cake. |
| Lagniappe (lan-yap) | Something extra, like the extra doughnut in a baker’s dozen. A nice surprise. |
| Laissez les bons temps rouler (lay-zay lay bon ton rule-ay) | Let the good times roll! |
| Levee (le-vee) | An embankment that keeps a river from overflowing; also a landing place on the river. |
| Maque choux (mock-shoo) | Young corn scraped off the cob and smothered with tomatoes, onion and spices. |
| Mardi Gras (mardi graw) | Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Also the biggest party on earth. |
| Pain perdu (pan-pear-doo) | “Lost bread”: stale bread soaked in egg batter, fried, and topped with cane syrup or powdered sugar. |
| Pirogue (pee-row) | A Cajun canoe. |
| Po-boy | A sandwich on French bread that began as a five-cent lunch for “poor boys,” stuffed with fried oysters, shrimp, fish, crawfish, meatballs, smoked sausage and more. |
| Praline (praw-leen) | The sweetest of sweets: a candy patty of sugar, cream and pecans. |
| Red beans and rice | The traditional Monday meal in New Orleans: red beans cooked with ham or sausage, served over rice. |
| Roux (rue) | Flour browned in oil, the base of gumbos and stews. |
| Sauce piquante (saws-pee-kawnt) | A spicy stew. |
| Tasso (tah-soh) | Strips of spiced, smoked pork or beef used to flavor many dishes: a sort of Cajun pepperoni. |
| Vieux Carré (voo ca-ray) | “Old quarter”: the French Quarter. |
| Zydeco (zi-de-co) | Dance music that blends Cajun music, R&B and African-American blues. |
A Cajun blessing
May a bourré game be waiting, May there be crawfish in your nets And gumbo in your pot. May the sac-au-lait be biting At your favorite fishing spot. May God's sun be shining brightly When you need its cheerful rays. May the oak tree shade you gently On those lazy bayou days. When all your work is through, May the fais do-do bring pretty girls To toss a wink at you. And when your time is over, And your place on earth is gone, May you waltz right into heaven To the tune of "Jolie Blonde."