Inside 43215: Downtown Dish
PUT SOME SOUTH IN YOUR MOUTH
Lots of us can do an Aussie accent; or perhaps whip out a leetle somezing zat’s French sounding.
But can you do Cajun? That one’s tough.
Today is Fat Tuesday. In this country, that celebration is headquartered deep in the heart of Cajun Country, New Orleans (oopf, N’awlins). It’s high time to put a little south in your mouth, and downtown’s Pearl Market is just lucky enough to have its very own in-house expert. Patrons can find real New Orleans Pralines made by a real New Orleans Native: Chandra Noble.
Actually, Noble was born in Ohio – but she spent the first thirty years of her life down in The Big Easy. While her voice is usually velvety smooth, she can whip out that distinctive dialect from her roots in a heartbeat.
There is a RIGHT was to talk about her New Orleans Pralines. While we say pray-lines, back south they say prah-lines… or worse. Noble says, “Sometimes it’s like the L and the R are switched.” Then she pronounces it in a silky southern style that sounds like a cross between prah-reeeeen and plah-reeeeen.
“Or,” she continues, “We just call it pecan candy.” Only she does it with an accent again. Suddenly pecan has three syllables: peh-cah-wnnn.
Regardless of your accent, you can celebrate in Fat Tuesday-style every Friday with New Orleans Pralines in the Pearl Market. No worries about pronouncing the sweet confections: we all sound the same with a mouth-full.
Tags: columbus, Downtown, Downtown Columbus, Farmers' Market, food, Homemade, local, market, Merchants, Pearl Market, Retail