The Windy City is about as far away from the ocean as you can get, although it does have Lake Michigan near by. Sadly though, it isn’t enough for the 22-year-old who misses the seafood she had in Baton Rouge with the LSU Tigers.
“Missing the seafood in baton rouge & baltimore rn,” Reese posted onto X.com, formerly known as Twitter. “All i’ve been eating is soul food since i been in Chicago.”
Louisiana’s seafood culture is a vibrant blend of natural bounty, culinary ingenuity, and social tradition, making it a cornerstone of the state’s identity. Seafood is more than simply food in Louisiana; it’s a component of the social fabric. Seafood events, including the Louisiana Seafood Festival and the New Orleans Oyster Festival, celebrate this vital component of the local culture.
Among the most recognized are crawfish, shrimp, abundant in the Gulf, are adaptable and figure heavily in gumbo, jambalaya, and shrimp po’ boys, and oysters from the brackish seas are eaten raw, grilled, or in dishes like oysters Rockefeller.
Blue crabs, famed for their sweet meat, are widely consumed in crab boils, crab cakes, and as an ingredient to seafood gumbos. Additionally, fish such as redfish, catfish, and speckled trout are staples, typically grilled, blackened, or fried.
Fans help Reese find her heart
Influenced by Creole, Cajun, and Native American culinary traditions, Louisiana’s wide coastline along the Gulf of Mexico, combined with its numerous rivers, bayous, and marshes, provides an enormous and diversified source of seafood.
That means the state’s foods are particularly unique and unable to be mastered or copied elsewhere, but some members of Chicago have tried to and had their eyes dialled in as the fans advised Reese where to go if she wants her fix.
One admirer remarked, “Oh sis, go to Madison Crab House in the West Loop. … you can’t go wrong with the mad sauce seafood boils.”
Whilst a second commented, “As someone that’s spent time in NO and Silver Springs MD gonna tell ya str8 up you’ll NEVER get what you were used to but holla at the old local church ladies there, and they’ll get you right.”
And a third fan joked, “‘ll mail you some straight from New Orleans.”
