- Carnival Foods: Rio Carnival, Brazil
- Carnival foods: Notting Hill Carnival, London
- Carnival Foods: Mardi Gras, New Orleans, USA
Carnivals are celebration of life, within the society of a particular place or group of people. In fact most of the carnivals are annual or seasonal in nature, but has the year long effect on culture, art, economy and sociology. And, religion, tradition, spirituality, cultural root and humanity play a major role behind the carnivals. But one thing that we often neglect to give focus, is – food. Rather to say, Carnival foods.
Foods, as well as beverages are an integral part of life; no doubt, it will be more than filler in any carnival. Let us have some appetising view of Carnival Foods.
MARDI GRAS, NEW ORLEANS, USA
Mardi Gras is a festival before Lanten season (Springtime), which means “Fat Tuesday” in French. In Ireland, Australia, Canada and Britain, it is known as “Pancake Tuesday”. As a traditional thin pancake sprinkled with castor sugar, dash of fresh lemon juice or drizzled Golden Syrup are Served in Festival. In Canada, objects liked Rings, Coins, tumbles, thread and other objects are added and hidden in baked pancake. Their tradition associate each with a meaning like, finder of the ring will get married soon, Finder of thread will be a tailor and the lucky one to get coins, will be rich. Other most sought foods are –
- King Cake – A must in celebration, which represents three kings, namely – Justice (Purple colour), Faith ( Green colour) and Power ( Gold colour) in forms of bright, glazed coloured sugars sprinkled on top of cinnamon flavoured ring cake.
- Dirty Rice – Dirty Rice gets it’s name from the appearance of the finished dish. This rice dish is also called Cajun Rice and Cajun Fried Rice.Traditional dish made from white rice which gets a ‘dirty’ look, as cooked with chicken liver, giblets, sausages, green bell peppers, celery & onion. Garnished with parsley.
- Funnel Cake – an interesting regional carnival food, made by thin cake batter into hot oil in a circular pattern, deep fried till golden brown. The batter is poured through a funnel, so it’s named.
- Gumbo – Though an all time thick soup made from Shrimp and sausage, thickened with okra. It gets popularity with lots of variations during Mardi Gras Carnival.
Mardi Gras would be empty with out “The Hurricane”. Its a fruity rum cocktail which must be served on the rocks, in a glass, shaped like a hurican lamp. Its started by a bar The Pat O’Brien, which is printed on the glass. The glass acts a souvenir in carnival.
Mardi Gras Carnival is celebrations of spring and fertility, honored the god of agriculture. The week long festival, as a celebration of life brought some foods and beverages as integral part, as we can see in this video.
