Cajun used to mean exotic. Twenty-five years ago, before Chef Paul Prudhomme foisted his blackened redfish on gustatory history--giving lesser cooks license to char stuff to an ebony crisp and call it Southern cuisine--we could find really fine Cajun cooking, and its New Orleans cousin, Creole, only down in the Louisiana swamps where they invented it. Now it's everywhere. Luby's serves a passable Lu Ann platter of shrimp Creole. Popeyes sells "Cajun-inspired" fast food that includes a remarkably decent bowl of red beans and rice (satisfying when you're, say, in the middle of Manhattan and... More >>>