NEW ORLEANS | This morning at work my boss brought in a delicious King cake as is customary in New Orleans during the Carnival Season from Haydel’s Bakery. Apparently I haven’t had a king cake from Haydel’s in a while or just never noticed the small porcelain dolls that come with the tasty treats.
Each inch-and-a-half tall doll comes in a plastic bag. They also each include a historical piece about what each doll represents.
I must interject here to say that I love anything historical related to New Orleans because our city is full of interesting historical morsels. I feel grateful and proud to live in such a unique city.
Anyway, the porcelain doll we got today was the calas lady (vendor of the rice cakes). According to the historical insert the figurine came with, the calas lady was a woman of African or Creole descent who arose early in the morning to peddle her hot rice cakes through the French Quarter streets in the mid to late 1800’s. Most of these women who supported themselves with this skill were trying to save enough money to buy freedom either for herself or her family.
Calas are deep fried rice cakes made of flour, eggs, butter, milk sugar and left over rice and yeast mixed into a batter and then dropped in hot oil to deep fry. Traditionally, the rice cakes were sprinkled with powdered sugar and enjoyed with Café au Lait. These rice cakes can only be found in New Orleans/Creole cuisine recipe books, just another item that is historically ours like po-boys, muffalettas and king cakes.
The word calas (a rice cake or fritter) comes from the African word for rice. It’s just another indicator of how much influence the African culture has had on, and continues to have, on our city to this day. The word was first printed in 1880 but had been in use many years before.
I can almost hear the calas lady’s chant as she walks through the cobbled streets on the French Quarter with her rice cake basket on top of her head, calling out “Belle calas, tout chaud!” (Beautiful calas, still hot!).
I found this piece of history very amusing and will think about it next time I enjoy a piece of Haydel’s king cake with some café au lait.
“Creole is New Orleans city food. Communities were created by the people who wanted to stay and not go back to Spain or France.” --
Paul Prudhomme
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I really enjoyed the way that you wrote this! Enjoying the history of any town, especially one that is rich with it is important
ReplyDelete