Cincy, have you had etouffee? Less soupy than gumbo....less all-over-the-place than jumbalaya. I love cajun/creole fare and prefer etouffee because it's a middle-ground dish.
I have, of course, had all of those. We spent three nights in NO and dined around, nothing impressed me at all. We were being taken places by a lady who claimed she knew the good places, she didn't, in my view.
I suppose I'm a French snob when it comes to food, I'd rather have French than some kind of quasi-pseudo-semi-kind of French something. Fish stew to me is just fish stew, it can certainly be decent and tasty but hardly elevating, to me.
I fix jambalaya on occasion at home when we have the fixin's and it's fine, I fix beef stew with leftover steak and it's often fairly good, but it's just food to me. I like okra a lot so I fix soup with it fairly often when it's chilly.
To me there is kind of fast food, then regular food, and then rarely memorable food. Regular food can be quite good, but not memorable.
Some of my memorable dinners was as a kid eating at my grandma's table because everything was just picked.
