bbbradk's Full Review: Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning 8oz
I am from Canada, a country not known for anything spicy, so visiting New Orleans for the first time was a pleasant taste experience, down there EVERYTHING had some spiciness to it, sometimes just enough to taste, and other times enough to burn your mouth.
I fell in love with the flavors down there and decided I needed to bring some of that taste home.
I remembered a swamp tour we had been on while we were shopping for souvenirs. On the tour, the guide was telling us how at night he would hunt nutria (a big rat looking creature that lives in the swamp) and sometimes he would eat what he caught. When the tour group looked a little disgusted he explained that if he threw the meat in a pan, and covered it with Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning it cooked up good enough to serve in a restaurant. Now I'm not sure how serious the guide was being, since they sold the seasoning in their gift shop it could have just been a come on, a gross one, but who knows?
Well I ran across a can of the Creole seasoning in a souvenir shop downtown and started thinking about the story again. I didn't imagine that rat meat tasted very good at all, so I surmised that what made the tour guides dish so tasty was the Creole seasoning.
I bought a can of it and headed back to Canada.
Luckily we do not have any nutria in Canada, so I was left wondering what I would try the seasoning with. I finally settled on trying it sprinkled over some soup. Man did it ever give the soup a shot of flavor. I was curious after that and tried the seasoning on anything I could think of, everything from fried eggs (yum) to bbq'd ribs (would make a great dry rub too). I would have to say that the dish that most benefits from a dash of this seasoning is Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. The taste is not a bad heat, just enough to bring up the flavor of a dish, there is a lot of salt in it, so that may be the most responsible for bringing out the flavors, but I couldn't say for sure.
Soon I was telling all my friends to sample the seasoning and they loved it too. Now the worst part was Tony Chachere's did not distribute the seasoning to Canada, so when I began running low on it I had to wait until we were headed to the USA for some shopping, then sneak into the grocery store to get some more (oh and not only more for me, people had placed orders too).
Not sure what the secret ingredient is, the label only tells you "salt, red pepper and other spices, garlic, silicon dioxide (to prevent caking) what the other spices are is anyone's guess, but they sure make everything taste better.
If you are a fan of spicy food I would suggest you give this seasoning a try, even if you don't like a lot of spice, you could use the seasoning sparingly just to enhance the flavor of almost any dish.
Pack of 12, 8-ounce shakers (total of 96 ounces) Blend of flavorful spices Enhances the flavor of meats, seafood, poultry, vegetables, eggs, soups, st...More at Amazon
When we say "The Original", this is it. Use it like salt. When it is salty enough, it's seasoned to perfection. Try it on eggs, meat, fish, vegetables...More at Amazon Marketplace
Pack of 12, 8-ounce shakers (total of 96 ounces) Blend of flavorful spices Enhances the flavor of meats, seafood, poultry, vegetables, eggs, soups, st...More at Amazon Marketplace
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.