Red beans and rice are linked to Mondays in New Orleans, because in the past, Mondays were ‘wash days’, where the majority of the day was spent washing clothes. Washing clothes in the past was a hassle, because people did not have the luxuries we do today. Washing clothes included many tasks such as soaking, washing with a washboard, rinsing, and dipping the clothes in starch. The whole day was dedicated to washing clothes so less time was spent on cooking food. Because of that, Mondays were the days where the family would eat red beans and rice. Red beans and rice is an easy dish that does not require a lot of attention. Red beans and rice is associated with New Orleans, because it is the most common dish here. It is very easy and cheap to make. When a person from Louisiana goes out of state, it is very hard to find the exact ingredients to make red beans and rice. Red beans and rice originated with the African American slaves that were brought here to work.
I do not really associate foods with particular days. I do know friends that do though. Fridays at Xavier are considered as “Catfish Friday” to them, since the catfish is the best there. However, I associate most foods with holidays. During Thanksgiving, I always expect to see turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, and corn on the dinner table. During Christmas, I know my mother is going to make glazed ham with pineapples. Every now and then, my family commemorates a deceased relative. During that time, I can always expect to eat sautéed lobsters, vegetables with meat, seafood soup, and eggrolls for dinner. I can also expect to eat fish on Fridays and crawfish on random Fridays during Lent season.
Originally from Louisiana, I love to eat red beans and rice, especially with cornbread and pork chops. It’s one of my favorite dishes. My mother puts pigtails in her red beans and rice. It is easy to purchase the beans and all of the ingredients down here in Louisiana, but when I moved to Texas three years ago it was really hard to find good beans and good ingredients. When my mother did buy the ingredients and beans it didn’t taste similar to the ingredients from Louisiana. So therefore, my heart goes out to those out of state people who cannot purchase good red beans and the good ingredients.
Red beans and rice is linked to Mondays in New Orleans because it used to be traditionally “wash days” of the week. Wash days were one of the hardest working days and families needed to create a meal that was easy to cook and that took little preparation. Women of the house would put on a pot of red beans to cook all day while they tended to the laundry. The entire day was dedicated to washing clothes and cooking. While Monday’s may not be laundry day anymore Red beans and rice is still cooked and usually accompanied with cornbread, sausage or pork chops.
I do not associate food with any days. Here at Xavier we have Red Beans and Rice Monday’s and Fish Friday’s. Fish Friday’s is extremely popular here at Xavier. The lines for the cat fish are always extremely long. The only time I associate food with days in on holidays. On Thanksgiving, my family and I eat ham, turkey, dressing, mustard greens, and baked goods. On Christmas, it’s a little similar, but gumbo is added.
Red beans and rice was originally linked to Mondays because housewives would usually wash clothes on Mondays. Because washing machines were not invented yet, washing clothes by hand was an all day ordeal, especially for large families. Housewives needed to cook something for dinner that did not require a lot of attention. With most red beans and rice dishes one can put all the ingredients in a pot together and let it simmer all afternoon with a little stirring every hour or so. This way most of the attention is on the laundry while dinner is being cooked. The dish also made good use of the previous day’s leftovers. On Sundays a large ham was usually cooked and the bone in the middle was leftover. Putting the hambone in the beans gave the dish flavor and let nothing go to waste. This tradition of ham on Sundays and red beans and rice on Mondays is not even native to New Orleans. It comes from a mix of many different cultures from imperialism from southwestern France, to the slave trade in West Africa. My family does not have a traditional food that we eat on a specific day besides roasted turkey on Thanksgiving Day and jambalaya on New Year’s Eve. However, whenever my mother buys shrimp or fish we always eat it in a Friday. In the cafeteria here at Xavier, red beans and rice is served for lunch on Mondays, catfish is served for lunch on Fridays, and ice cream is served for dessert at dinner on Fridays.
In New Orleans people usual meal on Mondays are red beans and rice. Many people might wonder why are red beans and rice such a popular meal on Mondays. This dish has some historical reference; many families had to wash clothes on Mondays, so they would have to create a meal that required a small amount of attention. The red beans and rice were easy and simple to cook leaving families’ main focus on washing their clothes for the week. These people also had ham on Sunday and would you the leftover bone to put in the red beans while they cooked. This tradition is still continued in New Orleans; Xavier University serves red beans and rice as a meal choice every Monday. There are also several restaurants in New Orleans that serves red beans and rice as a main dish on Mondays. The red beans and rice meal is not sectioned just to Mondays; they are also served during major events such as super bowl and Mardi Gras parties. Red beans and rice hold a high level of important to the city New Orleans so much so that it is often automatically associated with the city.
There are some foods that I associate with certain days. Since being at Xavier University I have learned to associate red beans and rice on Mondays and fish on Fridays. There are not many meals that associate with particular days. My family always has corn bread on Sundays, because during slavery my great great grandmother talked about how her slave master always request the families to cook corn bread on Sundays. He would always provide the families with enough ingredients for their families to eat corn bread just as his family did on Sundays. This is the only food tradition that is continued in my family and corn bread is the only food that I associate with a day.
The typical meal on Mondays in New Orleans are red beans and rice. The reason for this is because back in the day, Monday was considered a cleaning day for the housewives. With so many chores that need to be done, red beans and rice was the perfect meal to cook on that day. In order for the red beans and rice to be cooked, the beans had to be cooked in the pot for hours so that they can soften. While waiting for these beans to be completely ready for cooking, the housewives could go about doing their necessary chores for the day, such as washing clothes and other household chores that take a while to be done. This meal was very helpful for the housewives because they did not have to pay much attention to beans while they were cooking. All the beans needed was an occasional stir here and there. By the time the wives had finished majority of their work, or possibly all of their work, the beans were done. The tradition continues today in New Orleans. Growing up here in New Orleans, I have grown used to going to lunch at school and having red beans and rice on Mondays. Even in college, red beans and rice is still served every Monday.
Although I have grown up with the idea of red beans and rice being served every Monday as a meal, there is one other meal that I have grown accustomed to having on a weekday. That meal is fried catfish and macaroni and cheese. Every Friday the cafeteria serves fried catfish and macaroni and cheese to the students and faculty.
Chinedu Echebelem Red beans and rice are linked to Mondays, because Mondays were originally deemed as “washdays”. On Mondays women would have loads of clothing to wash, and after washing the clothes were to be dipped into starch and hung out to dry. Because this was an all-day process, these women would not have time to prepare a meal for their families. As a result these women decided to create the easy, quick and cheap meal of red beans and rice. The process of washing clothing was a weekly chore performed every Monday, for that reason red beans and rice are traditionally served as the family meal every Monday. With red beans and rice being so cheap, people could feed large crowds and families with this meal. In the article, it states that most of the time when red beans and rice are cooked they are cooked in a hug pot, you would rarely see it made for only a couple of individuals. Red beans and rice quickly became a staple for the city of New Orleans, and many famous New Orleanians, such as Louie Armstrong, can state that red beans and rice is in fact their favorite dish. Rice became such a staple, that it nearly took the place of bread. Here at Xavier we have the tradition of always serving catfish on Fridays. I, myself, have grown accustomed to associating fish with Fridays; especially since it is lent. My family does have certain meals associated with a particular day of the week. Back at home, my mother cooks a meal called “pepper soup” every Sunday after church. It is a Nigerian based dish, and contains many different kinds of meat mixed into a spicy soup. In high school, we also had Taco Tuesdays, where our cafeteria would serve different types of tacos, including fajitas, soft tacos, and taco salads, every Tuesday.
Years ago Mondays were considered as the washday for housewives. It was a chore that had to be done weekly. Today, we use washer and dryers, but then women washed the clothes manually and hung the clothes up to dry. This weekly chore was an all day function. Women were thought of as the cooks in the house, so it was also their job to have food ready for the family when they get home from school and work. Red beans and rice was a cheap dish that could be made and could also feed many. It takes a long time for the beans to actually cook, so women could leave it in their pot all day while washing. By the time the family was home, dinner was ready and the clothes were finished. Not only is the cheap dish full filling, but also can last the house hold for left overs through out the week. Red beans and rice on Monday became a tradition and also a well-favored famous dish known in New Orleans. In fact, Xavier University of Louisiana carries the tradition every Monday serving red beans and rice. I associate fish on Fridays because of lent, since I am not allowed to eat meat on that day. In some modern homes, having a cooked meal for dinner is not always the case. That’s why I associate Sunday as a traditional sit-down family dinner time because no one is in a rush to do some work, but instead the family can relax and enjoy each others company along with some tasty food.
Traditionally ham was cooked on Sundays and on Monday’s the ham bone was used to cook the red beans and rice. Monday was known as washday and red beans are a meal that could be cooked with little to no attention while the laundry was done. Fortunately for us today the laundry pretty much does itself so there isn’t a need to cook a meal that does not need constant attention. Red beans and rice is a food New Orleans is well known for in addition to crawfish, fried catfish, and gumbo. In addition to red beans and rice on Monday I now associate fried catfish with Fridays. All school year fried catfish, macaroni, and cabbage have been served in the Xavier cafeteria. Eating fried fish every Friday stems from the Catholic practice of abstinence from eating flesh on Fridays in honor of Jesus Christ. Meat is considered to be the flesh and organs of mammals and fowl. Also forbidden are soups or gravies made from them. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are permitted. Since freshwater fish such as catfish are not a forbidden food it is served as tradition every Friday. This very fitting for a Catholic university and helps Catholics keep the commitment made to their religion usually at an early age. There are a probably tons of other foods associated to days of week I have yet to discover because I do not look into food culture often, but it is very interesting.
Beans, whether they are red or white, have been the most nutrient food substance. Red beans and rice are linked to Mondays in New Orleans because Monday is a washday for the woman of the family, which is an activity that required continuous labor of soaking, scrubbing, rinsing, washing, and hanging of clothes. Washday was an all day process so it gave the women very little time to cook up a meal so the custom developed the cooking of red beans and rice since it was quick and easy. There is also another reason why red beans and rice are linked to Mondays. The reason why is because of the Sunday ham. Ham is a very common Sunday dish, so the bone of the ham made good use with the slow-cooked beans. I do not associate certain foods with other particular days. Recently, since it is Lent season and I cannot eat meat on Friday, every Friday so far since Lent season has started, I have been eating fish. My parents have been making catfish or seasoned fish with rice. On Sunday is only a very particular day for my family. My mother usually cooks a traditional Vietnamese soup every other Sunday for my family. The soup is called Pho and its a very popular and refreshing soup in our culture.
Cooking red beans specifically on Monday was a tradition for women. The tradition was that women had to wash clothes on Mondays. Today we have washers and dryers that can be done easily, but back they didn’t have that and women had to hand wash the clothes then hang them to dry. Mondays were considered as wash days. Since doing laundry took up most of there time, they didn’t have to time to cook food. So they need something that was easy and quick to cook which was red beans and rice. Another day that was linked to the tradition was Sunday. On Sunday the women would cook a ham. Then they would use the bone of the ham to cook the red beans and rice on Monday. I don’t associate certain foods on certain days. However, something that my aunt does is that she cooks whenever our relatives come in town to New Orleans. My relatives come over to visit on special occasions like weddings, funerals, or holidays, so not that often. Whenever they do come my aunt would cook lots of food. One food that she cooks a lot is pho. It’s a Vietnamese rice noodle soup. It’s something that everyone likes to eat.
Red beans and rice is associated with Mondays in New Orleans because of some certain history. Every Monday the women were in charge of doing a certain chore. This chore was to wash clothes. This is where the word “wash day” came from. Every Monday the women would go and wash the clothes for the family. Because this was an all day process, the women did not have any time to cook a dinner meal for their family. To ease this process, they decided to take the easy route out. When the women would wash the clothes, they would dip the clean wet clothes in starches and hang them to dry. Red beans and rice came out of this because it is an easy and quick way to serve food for the family. It is also a very cheap and easy food to make so that is what the women would cook for their families every Monday. Nowadays, red beans and rice is still a traditionally eaten food on Mondays. It is only in New Orleans that this tradition is used. Another food that I associate with a day is fried catfish on Fridays. I am not sure of the history behind it but I know that we do it. Another tradition is that we cook black-eyed peas and cabbage on New Years Day every year. We do this out of tradition because we, as a family, believes that it will give us good luck in the year to come.
Red beans and rice is traditionally eaten on Monday’s but in my family we eat them whenever we have a taste for them. We will cook them and eat them on any day of the week. Most of the time we ended up eating red beans and rice on Sunday because that just seems like a great day to eat them and they were delicious right after church. I never knew it was traditionally to eat them on Monday’s until I started school in New Orleans. I always went to visit my family that lived there but I never knew this wonderful fact. I just realized that during grade school we ate red beans and rice on Monday’s but I never knew it was a tradition. Red beans and rice are associated with Monday’s because Monday was usually known as wash day. It was a day that they women went washing. It was one of the hardest work days of the week for them so they wanted something that was simple and easy to cook after a hard day of work so they began to cook red beans and rice on those Mondays. The women would just put a pot of beans on the stove and let it slowly cook while they tended to the laundry. They would cook it with some sweet fluffy cornbread and a few tasty pieces sausage. Now that any day can be wash day you can cook red beans and rice on any day also like my family does. At the college that I attend Xavier University of Louisiana they continue the tradition of serving red beans and rice on Monday. They usually serve it with cornbread with either fried chicken or sausages. I would rather the sausages but the fried chicken is nice with it also.
Red beans and rice are linked to Mondays in New Orleans because Mondays were originally wash days. Before the washing machine, it would take all day for a woman to wash clothes. Therefore, the woman of the house needed something that would take long to cook while she washes clothes. It would take a long time because usually there was a big household. Most red beans and rice dishes consisted of an all-day preparation. I know that most people of Louisiana cook red beans and rice on Mondays because that is there culture. I know for a fact that the café cooks red beans and rice faithfully every Monday. I’m not from Louisiana but I know my grandmother would bake a ham and would save the bone for her red beans and rice that she would cook for a family meal. Our family meals would often be on a Sunday or Saturday. It would also make great left overs for the next day. I also noticed while being here in New Orleans that a lot of the restaurants cook red beans and rice on Mondays. This taught me that red beans and rice is an important part of the food culture in New Orleans. I personally associate fried chicken with Wednesdays. My high school would often have the chicken for us on that day that is why I associate it with Wednesday. I also like to think of Fridays as fish day. All of the restaurants where I am from fry, bake, or even grill fish on Fridays. While being away from home, I learned that different cultures like to cook different foods on certain days. I have become accustom to having red beans and rice on Mondays. I know when I go back home that thing will definitely change.
In New Orleans, red beans and rice are linked to Mondays because in ancient times Mondays were known as wash days. The people would wash all of there clothes which took all day since back then there were no washers and dryers. The clothes had to be hand washed and hung dry. Since red beans is an easy dish that requires little attention, it was nothing for the people to leave there red beans at home cooking while they were out the whole day washing clothes. When they returned home from there long day of washing, they enjoyed there red beans. During Easter, Fridays and known as Lenten Fridays. On Fridays Catholics were not allowed to eat meat. Even though this was a Catholic tradition, many other religions still took part in it. This is where the term "Catfish Fridays" at Xavier comes from. By Xavier being a catholic institution, every student that attends, who eats lunch in the cafe, participates and catfish Fridays, catholic or not.
Red beans and rice being eaten on Mondays is a tradition that started a long time ago. Before washers and dryers, Mondays was the day women would routinely wash clothes. The term “Wash Day” is derived from this old routine. Red beans and rice was a quick meal to put together for the family, seeing that most of the day was taken up due to laundry. Today in New Orleans, the tradition of red beans and rice, on Mondays, is still practiced. My family has a tradition of barbecue on the 4th of July. I’m not exactly sure why, but I always look forward to it. Other examples of traditions that my family and many others participate in would include: turkey on Thanksgiving, black-eyed peas on New Years, cake on birthdays, and sweet potato pie on Christmas.
Traditionally red beans and rice are linked to Mondays because it was originally considered to be a wash day for housewives and maids. Most of the time there would be a lot of clothes to wash on Mondays from the previous week. The process was extremely time consuming because after washing they also had to hang the clothes out to dry. SInce this took so much of the day to complete, many women would choose to cook red beans and rice on these days. This dish was not only affordable but easy to make and slow-cooking, allowing them to be away from the kitchen for extended periods of time. Once completed, a pot could feed a lot of people needing nothing else to accompany it besides something cool to drink. This dish’s ultimate convenience on washdays is the main reason it is served on Mondays. I usually associate seafood with Fridays. I can’t help but notice my fellow XULA students going a little crazy over Catfish Fridays. Even before attending this university, I associated Friday with seafood because I went to Catholic school from grades second to eighth. It is an extremely popular practice among New Orleanian Catholics. It can be seen on advertisements all over the city, on television commercials, and in menu changes of various restaurants. There are usually mini festivals at some high schools where families from surrounding neighborhoods all come out for seafood, music, and an all around great time. In contrast, large festivals that take place during Lent always feature countless booths of every different kind of seafood one could think of. Even natives discover something new each year they attend. Iconically accompanying these seafood dishes are red beans and rice cook so many different ways that each offers its own version of unique New Orleans cuisine.
Taylor Reuther Red beans and rice is definitely a New Orleans Monday night favorite. No matter where you are or whose house you are at, there will most likely be red beans and rice being served. This tradition goes all the way back to the older days when women used to have to have washdays. This consisted of women having an all day affair doing laundry basically, and they would not have time to prepare a meal for dinner. Therefore, they would do an easy dish of beans and rice. They could leave the beans on the stove all day while they washed and wait for the beans and everything else in the pot to cook. Then when dinnertime was up, they could pop the rice on the stove and be ready to eat with the beans in a couple of minutes. This dish was also pretty cheap to make, so the women would make a huge batch of it and feed whoever decided to come over to eat in their house that night. I do happen to associate red beans and rice with Mondays in my family as well. Every Monday my family and I go over to my aunt’s house and she makes red beans and rice for us. It happens every week without skipping unless there is a dire emergency. She usually has some type of breads and vegetable to go with the dish as well. Mondays are one of my favorite days of the week because I know I can count on my aunt to prepare a delicious meal for dinnertime.
Red beans and rice are linked to Mondays in New Orleans for the most common known reason that Monday was a washday, or laundry day. Laundry was an activity that required continuous labor; so many cooked a dish that required little attention such as red beans and rice. Since laundry took a long time, there wasn’t a lot of time left to cook, which started the custom of cooking red beans and rice on Mondays. In my life I do connect certain foods with particular days especially during the Lenten season. During lent, Catholics are not allowed to eat any type of meat on Fridays. Do to the fasting of meat; many Catholics eat fish or seafood on Fridays. The only other time I associate food with particular days would be for big holidays such as Thanksgiving, New years and Christmas. On these big holidays my family always has gumbo a very popular and traditional New Orleans dish.
Red bean and rice has been a dish linked to Mondays in New Orleans for a very long time. Being a native of New Orleans it was what I was raised on. I expected to go to my grandmother's house on Monday and have red beans and rice, cornbread, and greens. As a child I would ask my grandma why she always cooked red beans and rice on Monday, her response was just what I heard from other people. Traditionnaly red beans and rice were always cooked on Mondays because it was the wash day. Red beans and rice can be left unattended for a long period of time so it was the right meal to cook if you had to do work around the house and couldnt stand over the pot all day. So by the time they were done with their washing and any other house choir the beans would be ready for supper. My grandma kept that tradition going for a while. She also did as she said the tradiotion go. She would wash and clean up every Monday. Growing up in New Orleans there are plenty of other food traditions that take place on other days, but the one that stick out is fish on Fridays. Again, for as long as I can remember I had fish alot on Friday. My family wouldnt just do it around lent time but just as a family tradition, which most family do in New Orleans and some surrounding areas. Food is a way to bring people together.
Eating red beans and rice on Mondays was a tradition started in New Orleans. Mondays were wash days for everyone so many housewives would spend the majority of their time on that day doing laundry. This left them with barely any time to prepare food for dinner because during that time laundry was done by hand so washing was an all day process. This is how red beans and rice became related to Mondays. Red beans and rice was a meal that housewives could cook that did not require a lot of attention. The dish only requires that you place the ingredients in a pot and let them simmer. While the red beans and rice were cooking on the stove, housewives were able to do their laundry. Also on Sundays a ham would be cooked for dinner and the bone would be used in the red beans and rice to give it flavor. Prior to coming to Xavier I had never really linked days with certain foods; I have only connected eating certain types of foods together. Since I have been here at Xavier there are certain foods that I connect to certain days. On Mondays I can always expect to have red beans and rice and fried chicken. Before reading the article about red beans and rice, I thought that the dish was just your typical New Orleans meal that had no connections to anything whatsoever. I always link catfish to Fridays since being here as well. This tradition was not as unfamiliar to me as eating red beans and rice on Mondays because I had heard of that before. I did learn from being at this school with friends who are Catholic that fish is related to Fridays because people of the Catholic faith abstain from eating meat on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Red beans and rice, in New Orleans, are linked to Mondays. This is because, many years ago, housewives usually clean on this day and this meal is the perfect dish to prepare. Because you have to wait many hours for red beans and rice to soften as you cook, while it's cooking, housewives do the laundry and clean up around the house. Preparing red beans and rice does not take a lot of focus and attention. Also, because red beans and rice are cheap to prepare, it is essential to serve many people at a time.
Personally, I do not associate any foods with a particular day. However, I do eat rice every day. Rice is so important to me because it is in almost every meal that I eat. When my mom cooks food, she cooks meats, soups, and other foods to eat with rice. Rice just compliments every food well so I guess that's why a lot of Asian families eat it with everything. When I don't eat rice, it's probably because I'm eating food from an outside restaurant.
Nancy Pham
ReplyDeleteRed beans and rice are linked to Mondays in New Orleans, because in the past, Mondays were ‘wash days’, where the majority of the day was spent washing clothes. Washing clothes in the past was a hassle, because people did not have the luxuries we do today. Washing clothes included many tasks such as soaking, washing with a washboard, rinsing, and dipping the clothes in starch. The whole day was dedicated to washing clothes so less time was spent on cooking food. Because of that, Mondays were the days where the family would eat red beans and rice. Red beans and rice is an easy dish that does not require a lot of attention. Red beans and rice is associated with New Orleans, because it is the most common dish here. It is very easy and cheap to make. When a person from Louisiana goes out of state, it is very hard to find the exact ingredients to make red beans and rice. Red beans and rice originated with the African American slaves that were brought here to work.
I do not really associate foods with particular days. I do know friends that do though. Fridays at Xavier are considered as “Catfish Friday” to them, since the catfish is the best there. However, I associate most foods with holidays. During Thanksgiving, I always expect to see turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, and corn on the dinner table. During Christmas, I know my mother is going to make glazed ham with pineapples. Every now and then, my family commemorates a deceased relative. During that time, I can always expect to eat sautéed lobsters, vegetables with meat, seafood soup, and eggrolls for dinner. I can also expect to eat fish on Fridays and crawfish on random Fridays during Lent season.
Originally from Louisiana, I love to eat red beans and rice, especially with cornbread and pork chops. It’s one of my favorite dishes. My mother puts pigtails in her red beans and rice. It is easy to purchase the beans and all of the ingredients down here in Louisiana, but when I moved to Texas three years ago it was really hard to find good beans and good ingredients. When my mother did buy the ingredients and beans it didn’t taste similar to the ingredients from Louisiana. So therefore, my heart goes out to those out of state people who cannot purchase good red beans and the good ingredients.
ReplyDeleteRed beans and rice is linked to Mondays in New Orleans because it used to be traditionally “wash days” of the week. Wash days were one of the hardest working days and families needed to create a meal that was easy to cook and that took little preparation. Women of the house would put on a pot of red beans to cook all day while they tended to the laundry. The entire day was dedicated to washing clothes and cooking. While Monday’s may not be laundry day anymore Red beans and rice is still cooked and usually accompanied with cornbread, sausage or pork chops.
I do not associate food with any days. Here at Xavier we have Red Beans and Rice Monday’s and Fish Friday’s. Fish Friday’s is extremely popular here at Xavier. The lines for the cat fish are always extremely long. The only time I associate food with days in on holidays. On Thanksgiving, my family and I eat ham, turkey, dressing, mustard greens, and baked goods. On Christmas, it’s a little similar, but gumbo is added.
Mahalia Dees
ReplyDeleteRed beans and rice was originally linked to Mondays because housewives would usually wash clothes on Mondays. Because washing machines were not invented yet, washing clothes by hand was an all day ordeal, especially for large families. Housewives needed to cook something for dinner that did not require a lot of attention. With most red beans and rice dishes one can put all the ingredients in a pot together and let it simmer all afternoon with a little stirring every hour or so. This way most of the attention is on the laundry while dinner is being cooked. The dish also made good use of the previous day’s leftovers. On Sundays a large ham was usually cooked and the bone in the middle was leftover. Putting the hambone in the beans gave the dish flavor and let nothing go to waste. This tradition of ham on Sundays and red beans and rice on Mondays is not even native to New Orleans. It comes from a mix of many different cultures from imperialism from southwestern France, to the slave trade in West Africa.
My family does not have a traditional food that we eat on a specific day besides roasted turkey on Thanksgiving Day and jambalaya on New Year’s Eve. However, whenever my mother buys shrimp or fish we always eat it in a Friday. In the cafeteria here at Xavier, red beans and rice is served for lunch on Mondays, catfish is served for lunch on Fridays, and ice cream is served for dessert at dinner on Fridays.
In New Orleans people usual meal on Mondays are red beans and rice. Many people might wonder why are red beans and rice such a popular meal on Mondays. This dish has some historical reference; many families had to wash clothes on Mondays, so they would have to create a meal that required a small amount of attention. The red beans and rice were easy and simple to cook leaving families’ main focus on washing their clothes for the week. These people also had ham on Sunday and would you the leftover bone to put in the red beans while they cooked. This tradition is still continued in New Orleans; Xavier University serves red beans and rice as a meal choice every Monday. There are also several restaurants in New Orleans that serves red beans and rice as a main dish on Mondays. The red beans and rice meal is not sectioned just to Mondays; they are also served during major events such as super bowl and Mardi Gras parties. Red beans and rice hold a high level of important to the city New Orleans so much so that it is often automatically associated with the city.
ReplyDeleteThere are some foods that I associate with certain days. Since being at
Xavier University I have learned to associate red beans and rice on Mondays and fish on Fridays. There are not many meals that associate with particular days. My family always has corn bread on Sundays, because during slavery my great great grandmother talked about how her slave master always request the families to cook corn bread on Sundays. He would always provide the families with enough ingredients for their families to eat corn bread just as his family did on Sundays. This is the only food tradition that is continued in my family and corn bread is the only food that I associate with a day.
Charity Crain
ReplyDeleteThe typical meal on Mondays in New Orleans are red beans and rice. The reason for this is because back in the day, Monday was considered a cleaning day for the housewives. With so many chores that need to be done, red beans and rice was the perfect meal to cook on that day. In order for the red beans and rice to be cooked, the beans had to be cooked in the pot for hours so that they can soften. While waiting for these beans to be completely ready for cooking, the housewives could go about doing their necessary chores for the day, such as washing clothes and other household chores that take a while to be done. This meal was very helpful for the housewives because they did not have to pay much attention to beans while they were cooking. All the beans needed was an occasional stir here and there. By the time the wives had finished majority of their work, or possibly all of their work, the beans were done. The tradition continues today in New Orleans. Growing up here in New Orleans, I have grown used to going to lunch at school and having red beans and rice on Mondays. Even in college, red beans and rice is still served every Monday.
Although I have grown up with the idea of red beans and rice being served every Monday as a meal, there is one other meal that I have grown accustomed to having on a weekday. That meal is fried catfish and macaroni and cheese. Every Friday the cafeteria serves fried catfish and macaroni and cheese to the students and faculty.
Chinedu Echebelem
ReplyDeleteRed beans and rice are linked to Mondays, because Mondays were originally deemed as “washdays”. On Mondays women would have loads of clothing to wash, and after washing the clothes were to be dipped into starch and hung out to dry. Because this was an all-day process, these women would not have time to prepare a meal for their families. As a result these women decided to create the easy, quick and cheap meal of red beans and rice. The process of washing clothing was a weekly chore performed every Monday, for that reason red beans and rice are traditionally served as the family meal every Monday.
With red beans and rice being so cheap, people could feed large crowds and families with this meal. In the article, it states that most of the time when red beans and rice are cooked they are cooked in a hug pot, you would rarely see it made for only a couple of individuals. Red beans and rice quickly became a staple for the city of New Orleans, and many famous New Orleanians, such as Louie Armstrong, can state that red beans and rice is in fact their favorite dish. Rice became such a staple, that it nearly took the place of bread.
Here at Xavier we have the tradition of always serving catfish on Fridays. I, myself, have grown accustomed to associating fish with Fridays; especially since it is lent. My family does have certain meals associated with a particular day of the week. Back at home, my mother cooks a meal called “pepper soup” every Sunday after church. It is a Nigerian based dish, and contains many different kinds of meat mixed into a spicy soup. In high school, we also had Taco Tuesdays, where our cafeteria would serve different types of tacos, including fajitas, soft tacos, and taco salads, every Tuesday.
Years ago Mondays were considered as the washday for housewives. It was a chore that had to be done weekly. Today, we use washer and dryers, but then women washed the clothes manually and hung the clothes up to dry. This weekly chore was an all day function. Women were thought of as the cooks in the house, so it was also their job to have food ready for the family when they get home from school and work. Red beans and rice was a cheap dish that could be made and could also feed many. It takes a long time for the beans to actually cook, so women could leave it in their pot all day while washing. By the time the family was home, dinner was ready and the clothes were finished. Not only is the cheap dish full filling, but also can last the house hold for left overs through out the week. Red beans and rice on Monday became a tradition and also a well-favored famous dish known in New Orleans. In fact, Xavier University of Louisiana carries the tradition every Monday serving red beans and rice. I associate fish on Fridays because of lent, since I am not allowed to eat meat on that day. In some modern homes, having a cooked meal for dinner is not always the case. That’s why I associate Sunday as a traditional sit-down family dinner time because no one is in a rush to do some work, but instead the family can relax and enjoy each others company along with some tasty food.
ReplyDeleteTraditionally ham was cooked on Sundays and on Monday’s the ham bone was used to cook the red beans and rice. Monday was known as washday and red beans are a meal that could be cooked with little to no attention while the laundry was done. Fortunately for us today the laundry pretty much does itself so there isn’t a need to cook a meal that does not need constant attention. Red beans and rice is a food New Orleans is well known for in addition to crawfish, fried catfish, and gumbo. In addition to red beans and rice on Monday I now associate fried catfish with Fridays. All school year fried catfish, macaroni, and cabbage have been served in the Xavier cafeteria. Eating fried fish every Friday stems from the Catholic practice of abstinence from eating flesh on Fridays in honor of Jesus Christ. Meat is considered to be the flesh and organs of mammals and fowl. Also forbidden are soups or gravies made from them. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are permitted. Since freshwater fish such as catfish are not a forbidden food it is served as tradition every Friday. This very fitting for a Catholic university and helps Catholics keep the commitment made to their religion usually at an early age. There are a probably tons of other foods associated to days of week I have yet to discover because I do not look into food culture often, but it is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteAnh Phuong Dang
ReplyDeleteBeans, whether they are red or white, have been the most nutrient food substance. Red beans and rice are linked to Mondays in New Orleans because Monday is a washday for the woman of the family, which is an activity that required continuous labor of soaking, scrubbing, rinsing, washing, and hanging of clothes. Washday was an all day process so it gave the women very little time to cook up a meal so the custom developed the cooking of red beans and rice since it was quick and easy. There is also another reason why red beans and rice are linked to Mondays. The reason why is because of the Sunday ham. Ham is a very common Sunday dish, so the bone of the ham made good use with the slow-cooked beans.
I do not associate certain foods with other particular days. Recently, since it is Lent season and I cannot eat meat on Friday, every Friday so far since Lent season has started, I have been eating fish. My parents have been making catfish or seasoned fish with rice. On Sunday is only a very particular day for my family. My mother usually cooks a traditional Vietnamese soup every other Sunday for my family. The soup is called Pho and its a very popular and refreshing soup in our culture.
Peter Huynh
ReplyDeleteCooking red beans specifically on Monday was a tradition for women. The tradition was that women had to wash clothes on Mondays. Today we have washers and dryers that can be done easily, but back they didn’t have that and women had to hand wash the clothes then hang them to dry. Mondays were considered as wash days. Since doing laundry took up most of there time, they didn’t have to time to cook food. So they need something that was easy and quick to cook which was red beans and rice. Another day that was linked to the tradition was Sunday. On Sunday the women would cook a ham. Then they would use the bone of the ham to cook the red beans and rice on Monday. I don’t associate certain foods on certain days. However, something that my aunt does is that she cooks whenever our relatives come in town to New Orleans. My relatives come over to visit on special occasions like weddings, funerals, or holidays, so not that often. Whenever they do come my aunt would cook lots of food. One food that she cooks a lot is pho. It’s a Vietnamese rice noodle soup. It’s something that everyone likes to eat.
Red beans and rice is associated with Mondays in New Orleans because of some certain history. Every Monday the women were in charge of doing a certain chore. This chore was to wash clothes. This is where the word “wash day” came from. Every Monday the women would go and wash the clothes for the family. Because this was an all day process, the women did not have any time to cook a dinner meal for their family. To ease this process, they decided to take the easy route out. When the women would wash the clothes, they would dip the clean wet clothes in starches and hang them to dry. Red beans and rice came out of this because it is an easy and quick way to serve food for the family. It is also a very cheap and easy food to make so that is what the women would cook for their families every Monday. Nowadays, red beans and rice is still a traditionally eaten food on Mondays. It is only in New Orleans that this tradition is used. Another food that I associate with a day is fried catfish on Fridays. I am not sure of the history behind it but I know that we do it. Another tradition is that we cook black-eyed peas and cabbage on New Years Day every year. We do this out of tradition because we, as a family, believes that it will give us good luck in the year to come.
ReplyDeleteRed beans and rice is traditionally eaten on Monday’s but in my family we eat them whenever we have a taste for them. We will cook them and eat them on any day of the week. Most of the time we ended up eating red beans and rice on Sunday because that just seems like a great day to eat them and they were delicious right after church. I never knew it was traditionally to eat them on Monday’s until I started school in New Orleans. I always went to visit my family that lived there but I never knew this wonderful fact. I just realized that during grade school we ate red beans and rice on Monday’s but I never knew it was a tradition. Red beans and rice are associated with Monday’s because Monday was usually known as wash day. It was a day that they women went washing. It was one of the hardest work days of the week for them so they wanted something that was simple and easy to cook after a hard day of work so they began to cook red beans and rice on those Mondays. The women would just put a pot of beans on the stove and let it slowly cook while they tended to the laundry. They would cook it with some sweet fluffy cornbread and a few tasty pieces sausage. Now that any day can be wash day you can cook red beans and rice on any day also like my family does. At the college that I attend Xavier University of Louisiana they continue the tradition of serving red beans and rice on Monday. They usually serve it with cornbread with either fried chicken or sausages. I would rather the sausages but the fried chicken is nice with it also.
ReplyDeleteRed beans and rice are linked to Mondays in New Orleans because Mondays were originally wash days. Before the washing machine, it would take all day for a woman to wash clothes. Therefore, the woman of the house needed something that would take long to cook while she washes clothes. It would take a long time because usually there was a big household. Most red beans and rice dishes consisted of an all-day preparation. I know that most people of Louisiana cook red beans and rice on Mondays because that is there culture. I know for a fact that the café cooks red beans and rice faithfully every Monday. I’m not from Louisiana but I know my grandmother would bake a ham and would save the bone for her red beans and rice that she would cook for a family meal. Our family meals would often be on a Sunday or Saturday. It would also make great left overs for the next day. I also noticed while being here in New Orleans that a lot of the restaurants cook red beans and rice on Mondays. This taught me that red beans and rice is an important part of the food culture in New Orleans. I personally associate fried chicken with Wednesdays. My high school would often have the chicken for us on that day that is why I associate it with Wednesday. I also like to think of Fridays as fish day. All of the restaurants where I am from fry, bake, or even grill fish on Fridays. While being away from home, I learned that different cultures like to cook different foods on certain days. I have become accustom to having red beans and rice on Mondays. I know when I go back home that thing will definitely change.
ReplyDeleteIn New Orleans, red beans and rice are linked to Mondays because in ancient times Mondays were known as wash days. The people would wash all of there clothes which took all day since back then there were no washers and dryers. The clothes had to be hand washed and hung dry. Since red beans is an easy dish that requires little attention, it was nothing for the people to leave there red beans at home cooking while they were out the whole day washing clothes. When they returned home from there long day of washing, they enjoyed there red beans.
ReplyDeleteDuring Easter, Fridays and known as Lenten Fridays. On Fridays Catholics were not allowed to eat meat. Even though this was a Catholic tradition, many other religions still took part in it. This is where the term "Catfish Fridays" at Xavier comes from. By Xavier being a catholic institution, every student that attends, who eats lunch in the cafe, participates and catfish Fridays, catholic or not.
TaiRhe Turner
ReplyDeleteRed beans and rice being eaten on Mondays is a tradition that started a long time ago. Before washers and dryers, Mondays was the day women would routinely wash clothes. The term “Wash Day” is derived from this old routine. Red beans and rice was a quick meal to put together for the family, seeing that most of the day was taken up due to laundry. Today in New Orleans, the tradition of red beans and rice, on Mondays, is still practiced. My family has a tradition of barbecue on the 4th of July. I’m not exactly sure why, but I always look forward to it. Other examples of traditions that my family and many others participate in would include: turkey on Thanksgiving, black-eyed peas on New Years, cake on birthdays, and sweet potato pie on Christmas.
Anthony Poche
ReplyDeleteTraditionally red beans and rice are linked to Mondays because it was originally considered to be a wash day for housewives and maids. Most of the time there would be a lot of clothes to wash on Mondays from the previous week. The process was extremely time consuming because after washing they also had to hang the clothes out to dry. SInce this took so much of the day to complete, many women would choose to cook red beans and rice on these days. This dish was not only affordable but easy to make and slow-cooking, allowing them to be away from the kitchen for extended periods of time. Once completed, a pot could feed a lot of people needing nothing else to accompany it besides something cool to drink. This dish’s ultimate convenience on washdays is the main reason it is served on Mondays. I usually associate seafood with Fridays. I can’t help but notice my fellow XULA students going a little crazy over Catfish Fridays. Even before attending this university, I associated Friday with seafood because I went to Catholic school from grades second to eighth. It is an extremely popular practice among New Orleanian Catholics. It can be seen on advertisements all over the city, on television commercials, and in menu changes of various restaurants. There are usually mini festivals at some high schools where families from surrounding neighborhoods all come out for seafood, music, and an all around great time. In contrast, large festivals that take place during Lent always feature countless booths of every different kind of seafood one could think of. Even natives discover something new each year they attend. Iconically accompanying these seafood dishes are red beans and rice cook so many different ways that each offers its own version of unique New Orleans cuisine.
Taylor Reuther
ReplyDeleteRed beans and rice is definitely a New Orleans Monday night favorite. No matter where you are or whose house you are at, there will most likely be red beans and rice being served. This tradition goes all the way back to the older days when women used to have to have washdays. This consisted of women having an all day affair doing laundry basically, and they would not have time to prepare a meal for dinner. Therefore, they would do an easy dish of beans and rice. They could leave the beans on the stove all day while they washed and wait for the beans and everything else in the pot to cook. Then when dinnertime was up, they could pop the rice on the stove and be ready to eat with the beans in a couple of minutes. This dish was also pretty cheap to make, so the women would make a huge batch of it and feed whoever decided to come over to eat in their house that night.
I do happen to associate red beans and rice with Mondays in my family as well. Every Monday my family and I go over to my aunt’s house and she makes red beans and rice for us. It happens every week without skipping unless there is a dire emergency. She usually has some type of breads and vegetable to go with the dish as well. Mondays are one of my favorite days of the week because I know I can count on my aunt to prepare a delicious meal for dinnertime.
Kierra Hitchens
ReplyDeleteRed beans and rice are linked to Mondays in New Orleans for the most common known reason that Monday was a washday, or laundry day. Laundry was an activity that required continuous labor; so many cooked a dish that required little attention such as red beans and rice. Since laundry took a long time, there wasn’t a lot of time left to cook, which started the custom of cooking red beans and rice on Mondays. In my life I do connect certain foods with particular days especially during the Lenten season. During lent, Catholics are not allowed to eat any type of meat on Fridays. Do to the fasting of meat; many Catholics eat fish or seafood on Fridays. The only other time I associate food with particular days would be for big holidays such as Thanksgiving, New years and Christmas. On these big holidays my family always has gumbo a very popular and traditional New Orleans dish.
Red bean and rice has been a dish linked to Mondays in New Orleans for a very long time. Being a native of New Orleans it was what I was raised on. I expected to go to my grandmother's house on Monday and have red beans and rice, cornbread, and greens. As a child I would ask my grandma why she always cooked red beans and rice on Monday, her response was just what I heard from other people. Traditionnaly red beans and rice were always cooked on Mondays because it was the wash day. Red beans and rice can be left unattended for a long period of time so it was the right meal to cook if you had to do work around the house and couldnt stand over the pot all day. So by the time they were done with their washing and any other house choir the beans would be ready for supper. My grandma kept that tradition going for a while. She also did as she said the tradiotion go. She would wash and clean up every Monday. Growing up in New Orleans there are plenty of other food traditions that take place on other days, but the one that stick out is fish on Fridays. Again, for as long as I can remember I had fish alot on Friday. My family wouldnt just do it around lent time but just as a family tradition, which most family do in New Orleans and some surrounding areas. Food is a way to bring people together.
ReplyDeleteEating red beans and rice on Mondays was a tradition started in New Orleans. Mondays were wash days for everyone so many housewives would spend the majority of their time on that day doing laundry. This left them with barely any time to prepare food for dinner because during that time laundry was done by hand so washing was an all day process. This is how red beans and rice became related to Mondays. Red beans and rice was a meal that housewives could cook that did not require a lot of attention. The dish only requires that you place the ingredients in a pot and let them simmer. While the red beans and rice were cooking on the stove, housewives were able to do their laundry. Also on Sundays a ham would be cooked for dinner and the bone would be used in the red beans and rice to give it flavor.
ReplyDeletePrior to coming to Xavier I had never really linked days with certain foods; I have only connected eating certain types of foods together. Since I have been here at Xavier there are certain foods that I connect to certain days. On Mondays I can always expect to have red beans and rice and fried chicken. Before reading the article about red beans and rice, I thought that the dish was just your typical New Orleans meal that had no connections to anything whatsoever. I always link catfish to Fridays since being here as well. This tradition was not as unfamiliar to me as eating red beans and rice on Mondays because I had heard of that before. I did learn from being at this school with friends who are Catholic that fish is related to Fridays because people of the Catholic faith abstain from eating meat on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Red beans and rice, in New Orleans, are linked to Mondays. This is because, many years ago, housewives usually clean on this day and this meal is the perfect dish to prepare. Because you have to wait many hours for red beans and rice to soften as you cook, while it's cooking, housewives do the laundry and clean up around the house. Preparing red beans and rice does not take a lot of focus and attention. Also, because red beans and rice are cheap to prepare, it is essential to serve many people at a time.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I do not associate any foods with a particular day. However, I do eat rice every day. Rice is so important to me because it is in almost every meal that I eat. When my mom cooks food, she cooks meats, soups, and other foods to eat with rice. Rice just compliments every food well so I guess that's why a lot of Asian families eat it with everything. When I don't eat rice, it's probably because I'm eating food from an outside restaurant.