On the 4th of July, we headed into the French Quarter to explore the street festival atmosphere (although I'm sure quieter than usual due to Covid and the lack of tourism) and fireworks. It was an easy walk from Marigny and lots of people were out and about. All of the more well known restaurants in the area had queues outside (such as the Original French Market restaurant with people wanting their crawfish). A simpler and less busy place along the way was Coop's. For whatever reason the staff were keen to keep the tables empty and the central bar area full, and so there we sat.
Creole is the local cuisine of New Orleans, a mix of the flavours from the settlers of many regions in Europe, Africa and the West Indies. Coop's was one of the few I found online that was well rated, well priced and served jambalaya (thanks Seinfeld for introducing this word into my vocabulary).
Coop's Taste Plate had it all (cup of seafood gumbo, cajun fried chicken, shrimp Creole, red beans & rice, rabbit & sausage jambalaya) USD15.95.
Seafood gumbo (Creole stew served with rice, prepared using dark brown roux, French Market vegetables, ground sassafrass leaves, drum fillet, shrimp, oysters, crab claws) was tomato based with little crab and meat parts. Decent Southern fried chicken (not Nashville level though). Shrimp Creole was a disappointing tomato and prawns on watery unflavoured rice. Smoky beans were good though. Finally the dish I wanted most had arrived. I expected jambalaya to be a soup (from Seinfeld's Soup Nazi episode) but it was an actual rice dish (like paella). It had a smoky flavoured rice with pieces of sausage and was pretty good overall.
The food was fine without being anything mindblowing. Nonetheless good to try authentic Creole food at its origin.