Cajun cuisine includes influence from the Acadia region in Canada. Rice, which could be used to stretch meals out to feed large families, became a major staple food. Today we still see that resourceful influence in many Cajun dishes which are served over a bed of rice. And again, stretchable corn was a major staple. In addition to the above listed foods, Acadian families were introduced to vegetables such as okra, which is a key ingredient in gumbos and étouffe as well as many other Cajun and Creole dishes. Many Southerners also enjoy deep-fried or pickled okra.
Seafood
Blue crab was cooked by American Indians on the east coast of America.
Saltwater fish eaten by the American Indians were cod, lemon sole, flounder, herring, halibut, sturgeon, smelt, drum on the East Coast, and olachen and salmon on the West Coast. Whale was hunted by American Indians off the Northwest coast, especially by the Makah, and used for their meat and oil
Seal and walrus were also utilized. Eel from New York's Finger Lakes region were eaten. Catfish seemed to be favored by tribes, including the Modocs. Crustacean included shrimp, lobster, crayfish, and dungeness crabs in the Northwest and blue crabs in the East. Other shellfish include abalone and geoduck on the California coast, while on the East Coast the surf clam, quahog, and the soft-shell clam. Oysters were eaten on both shores, as were mussels and periwinkles.
Town And Country Foods Store :American Indian cuisine
Southern American Indian culture is the "cornerstone" of Southern cuisine. From their culture came one of the main staples of the Southern diet: corn, either ground into meal or limed with an alkaline salt to make hominy, also called masa, in an American Indian technology known as nixtamalization. Corn was used to make dishes from the familiar cornbread and grits to liquors such as whiskey and moonshine, which were important trade items.
A lesser staple, potatoes were adopted from Native American cuisine and were used in similar ways as corn.
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