A bulk order of Louisiana crawfish. Photo: nola.agent, Flickr

Louisiana crawfish advocates have finally discovered -- after years of unsuccessfully appealing to economic interests -- that the quickest way to consumers' hearts is actually via their (unsettled) stomachs.

The state legislature this year enacted a law requiring restaurant owners to disclose whether their crawfish is Louisiana-raised. Bill sponsor Fred H. Mills, Jr. -- a pharmacist whose district includes Breaux Bridge, better known to Cajun gourmands as the "Crawfish Capital of the World" -- credits the law's passage to a major tactical shift.

"Everyone was upset that Chinese seafood was being disguised as Louisiana seafood, but the law just never could get any legs to it," Mills says. "The difference this time was we didn't talk about commerce. We talked about public safety."

The campaign against imported crawfish, after the jump.

• What's the perfect-sized crawfish? One writer ponders the question as the little buggers scurry into peak season.
  
• "Mixologist:" Trendy name to roll your eyes at, or a movement to return to the wonderful basics of bartending?
• One would think farmers' markets were all about featuring straight-from-the-farm foods. But these days they're also rife with events, including a couple with certain Top Chefs.
• Hopper's Wines & Spirits prepares for a big Burgundy tasting: Wines from all the villages in the Cote d'Or.
• Antoines, a 169-year-old French Quarter restaurant, has a new addition, The Hermes Bar.
• Dietician Molly Kimball offers a list of ways to make pizza a less hip-widening food experience, including thinner crust, extra sauce and more veggies.

It's a good weekend for attending a food festival if you:

a) are a hipster of the American Northwest
b) love wine
c) have never attended a crawfish boil
d) are hungry

If you, like me, find yourself nodding emphatically at these criteria, read on! This weekend offers food festivals sprinkled across the country, promising some of the most interesting and delicious foods I've seen in a while.

Our friends over at Blogging New Orleans hung out at the New Orleans Jazz Fest this week, and mixed in with the reports of concerts by people like Harry Connick, Jr. and Dottie Peoples and a wild-haired John Mayer are reports on what the food was like.

Pictured above is the Indian Taco that Kelly had, and that looks tasty. Meanwhile, Mike had the boiled crawfish and the soft-shell crab po-boy. Wow, that looks...interesting.

Kelly also had a plate full of this, which I probably wouldn't try in a million years, but then I'm not a seafood guy.

Red beans and rice doesn't sound like a very exciting dish, but the staple of Louisiana cuisine can actually be elegant as well as delicious, as long as you put as much care into making yours as BWJones did with his version of the dish. His recipe calls for rice, red beans, onion and a lot of spices, including sage, thyme, bay leaf, cayenne pepper, garlic, paprika and chipotle. His is topped off with crawfish, seasoned generously with Old Bay (not to be confused with Old Spice), although some would say that sausage (andouille, in particular) or ham sets the standard for the dish. The meat can be left off entirely for a less expensive or vegetarian version of the dish.

This is an easy recipe to master and an extremely versatile one. Not only can you play around with the spices, increasing and decreasing the heat, but it can work both as a side dish and as a main course.

The main feature of today's New York Times food section is a foray into the world of cultivated truffles. Apparently cultivated black truffles are more common than many consumers think and many restaurants care to admit.

Other stories:

• Eric Asimov sings the praises of white Bordeaux.
• Mark Bittman does Moroccan chicken with green olives.
• Nigella Lawson returns with chickpea curry and herbed millet.
• Kim Severson talks about Louisiana's crawfish shortage.
• Frank Bruni visits Del Posto.
• Marian Burros gives an update on the ongoing meat-and-carbon-monoxide issue.

[Photo: Tony Cenicola/NYT]

If you’re not familiar with New Orleans food terms, Mardi Gras can be a confusing time because their cuisine is in the spotlight. We’ve covered King Cake and Jambalaya, but there are so many others. NewOrleansRestaurants.com has put together a list of the local lingo, complete with definitions of anything you might encounter when dining down in the Big Easy. The pronunciation guide is especially helpful to anyone who will be traveling through the area. Examples include:

• Beignet (ben yay') - Lighter than a doughnut, and square (no holes), sprinkled with powdered sugar
• Crawfish (craw' fish) - Fresh water shellfish, also known as "mudbugs" from the bayous!
• Muffuletta (Muf' a lotta) - And a lotta it is! Super-large, round, fat sandwich filled with salami-type meats, mozzarella cheese, pickles, and olive salad.
• Praline (Praw leen') Brown sugar, pecan-filled, candy patty.

And if you’re looking for non-food terms that might help you out on your travels, ExperienceNewOrleans.com has plenty, and you’ll soon know your bayous from your Boogalees.