"One of the best things you can put in your mouth, mon cher," Marie assured. "I have been in the business of gumbo since I was small. My parents owned a restaurant in the French Quarter. They made everything from scratch, and taught me their recipes. I remember I would go to the seafood market on the weekends, to pick up the fixins."
A few pounds of shrimp, a dozen crabs, a tub or two of claw meat. She could recall the shacks, side by side, with the day's catches displayed out front - it wasn't always fun for her as a small child, because as she trudged along those gravel roads she knew she'd be in store for a lot of peeling and de-veining.
"Gumbo is all about building flavors," she added. "The roux is important but so is the stock. It must be deep and rich." In fact, making gumbo was generally a two-day process - that was how she'd always done it.