Beignets from Cafe du Monde

It’s simply named Beignets by cacml29, and I found it among many at Photobucket. Beignets are what you might call French doughnuts. They’re deep-fried, but sprinkled with confectioners’ or powdered sugar. The French version found in New Orleans is of the choux variety, related to those cooked in Italy and Germany.

Beignets can also be for breakfast and for lunch and dinner, filled with fruit or jam, or shrimp and crayfish, respectively. It is the state donut of Louisiana, and to have beignets at Cafe du Monde while visiting New Orleans is considered one of those tourist activities you have to experience. Even if you look up beignets on the Web, invariably you’ll find the name Cafe du Monde linked to it. They’ve got the franchise, as well as the mix.

However, I remember the old cafe The Morning Call, which was a lot smaller than the Cafe du Monde, and quieter and more French. French tourists in the know went there, to speak their language with the Creoles, and get some good coffee. A French teacher at Fortier High School in New Orleans (before it was integrated) took some of us summer junior high school kids to the Morning Call as part of a field trip to learn about what the French Quarter was actually like and to appreciate French culture. We sat on the round stools and sang “Alouette” in French, and marveled at the old fixtures and coat hooks as we were passed hot coffee (more milk than chicory in the coffee) and beignets. Then the waiters, I remember, sang back a French Creole song.

I have a feeling that going to summer school at Fortier and coming to The Morning Call was part of an experiment, because things were beginning to change. The Morning Call left the French Quarter in 1974 and is now in Metairie, Jefferson Parish—David Duke territory. And Fortier, like most New Orleans schools, is now predominantly black.