Buckwheat Zydeco & Turgay Yildizli

A little bit about Fat Tuesday:

First of all, the festival is called Fat Tuesday because every year it falls on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It is supposed to symbolize the last day in which a person can indulge before Lent starts. While Fat Tuesday is the official day of celebration, parades and other events such as debutante balls can start as early as the first week in January.

Each parade is organized and led by a “krewe,” which used to consist solely of older aristocratic men. Each krewe elects a king to reside over their parade, and in present day parades, elaborate beaded necklaces and colored coins, called doubloons, are thrown off decorated floats to throngs of cheering people.

The krewes also name “debutante queens,” who are young women of high aristocratic standing. Balls were created in the 19th century to formally present the young women to society. While the idea of debutantes and ‘presenting women to society’ seem outdated, these debutant balls are still held every year and are a way for New Orleans to turn back time and embrace its heritage.

The traditional colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold and stand for justice, faith and power, respectively. While typical dishes like seafood gumbo and jambalaya are abundant during this time, the true food of the carnival season is the King Cake. This sweet treat is a coffee cake type dough that is woven into an oval shape and decorated with icing and Mardi Gras colors. A plastic baby is hidden in each cake, and it symbolizes the difficult search the Three Kings endured to find baby Jesus. Bakeries have added twists to the traditional King Cake by having it filled with things like apple, cream cheese, praline, lemon, and strawberry.