Halliday's New Orleans Food Explorer

- An epicurean adventure in America's greatest food city, with the best of Big Easy eats--all about Creole and Cajun cooking, gator on a stick, Mardi Gras feasts, po'boys and other great discoveries for food lovers, from temples of Creole elegance in the French Quarter to Cajun cafes in the bayous.

- A tantalizing portrait of how Louisiana's diverse and sometimes unexpected cuisines have simmered together to create the rich culinary stew that has made the Big Easy one of America's great food cities.

- Visits to the French Market, Mardi Gras, Indian food festivals, Enola Prudhomme and the Evangeline Oak; with dinner at plantations worthy of Scarlett O'Hara.

- Written (with an infectious gusto that will have you packing to go in no time) by Fred Halliday, who has written on food, wine, and travel for the "New York Times and the "New York Daily News, as well as for the "New Yorker, Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, and other national magazines.

- Loaded with practicalities, including driving directions, addresses and phone numbers of restaurants and lodgings, city and regional orientation maps, and recipes and instructions for favorite local taste treats from gumbo to crawfish boil.

- 40 black-and-white illustrations