I make my own Jazz Fest food mash ups. Here are the best DIY dishes to try, if you dare

The Muse moves in mysterious ways, I just follow her lead. This year at Jazz Fest, she led me back to a series of DIY fest food mash-ups.

I toyed around with this idea a few years back, combining different dishes from various food vendors for new creations. In practice, this started with me adding cracklin’ to anything that would hold still long enough to take it, evolving to include the versatile boudin ball.

I’ve since talked with others and watched and learned and the repertoire has evolved.

To be clear, the original dishes are perfectly good. But a defining aspect of Jazz Fest is the way people make the event their own, bringing their own style and rituals to the experience. That’s the spirit guiding these food frolics.

Some vendors are now even doing their own mash-ups; see the “crazy Clesi,” a combo of most of the menu from Clesi’s Seafood (Food Area 1) into one bowl.

The experiments have turned up a few dishes that I would recommend any day, and new additions to the fest menu was my cue to revisit.

See also my top picks for all-star Jazz Fest classic dishes, my “sleeper” hits of lesser-known favorites, my take on all the new dishes for 2025 and all our Jazz Fest food coverage here.

Here’s the best of the Jazz Fest mash-ups to date:

Cochon de cracklin’ po-boy

This is where all the mash-ups began for me. The cracklin’ comes from Chris’ Specialty Foods at Food Area 2; the cochon de lait po-boy is from Love at First Bite at Food Area 1 (just look for the longest line).

Together, the cracklin’ adds an intense, audible crunch to the creamy crunch of the po-boy’s slaw, and brings a dense meaty savor to the tender strands of cochon de lait. Caveat: it is very heavy. Split this hybrid sandwich with a friend or be prepared for a nap.

The Asian Cajun soft shell crab po-boy

This all-star mash-up sandwich combines a traditional soft shell crab po-boy and a crabstick and cucumber salad.

Galley Seafood serves the soft shell crabs a few booths down in Food Area 2 from Ajun Cajun, with its crabstick salad. Stuff some crabstick alongside the real crab and it’s like a po-boy after a trip through a sushi bar. The salad’s marinated, thin-sliced cucumber and green onions add cool crunch and variation, along with the tiny pop of tobiko roe.

Spicy sambal sauce from Ajun Cajun self-serve condiments is the crucial finale, bringing garlicky, chile-fired heat. The result is highly flavorful, with different tastes and textures in each bite.

Cracklin’ gumbo, a.k.a. the Stanton Special 

It was at a post-Fest crawfish boil that drummer and Galactic band member Stanton Moore told me of his favorite mash-up. The gumbo from Prejean’s is cast iron-dark and velvety smooth, the andouille sausage is smoky, and the bits of bird add more rustic flavor. 

Add cracklin’ and they’re like crunchy meat croutons clung with roux. I’ve also heard crumbling the cracklin’ into the gumbo is a good move; trials continue.

Cajun French dip, a.k.a Louisiana birria

This one was easy. At the stand for Mrs. Wheat meat pies you get a whiff of the gumbo next door at the Prejean’s Restaurant (both Food Area 2).

Just give that meat pie a dunk in the gumbo, and the flaky crust picks up the dark roux like it was meant to be there. It reminded me of a French dip, Cajun style, or maybe event an Acadiana meat pie birria.

Chicken tasso rice with cracklin’

When new vendor Chris’ Specialty Foods (Food Area 2) restored cracklin’ to the fest last year, they also brought chicken cracklin’. They’re back again and both pork and chicken are on target. The pork is a crunchy meaty nugget, the chicken is a tad softer inside, but still crisp.

With new tools at my disposal, I went to work. How would chicken crackin’ play in this game?

The best pairing I found is the scatter over the Cajun chicken and tasso with Creole rice. This in itself is a very good dish, especially for the price ($11), the sauce is tangy and rich like a country sauce piquant, and the smokehouse taste of tasso (a Cajun ham) really comes through. The crackin’ does exactly what it should, adding another layer of texture and decadence.

Textbook Cajun boudin grilled cheese

Get an order of boudin balls at Food Area 1 from Papa Ninety. These are spicy and moist and well seasoned under crunchy outer shells. Enjoy one as is. Then walk over a few stands to where Joyce’s Lemonade serves a good old-fashioned grilled cheese sandwich (this stand used to be in the Kid’s Area and still serves the same niche).

Peel back the white bread, mash a boudin ball down into the gooey yellow American cheese, press it back together. Now dig in to an Acadiana-Americana original.

Headcheese hot sausage super Creole po-boy

This one is different as it’s own in-house mash-up.

Vaucresson, the oldest vendor at the fest, added hogshead cheese to its list of sausage po-boys last year. Of course, this is not cheese, but a chilled mold of pork, gelatin and vegetable seasonings, derived from the “use-everything-but-the-oink” ethos of the old days. The Vaucresson version shows what this is all about, rich, cool, spicy, a tad sour and very flavorful.

Pack a few planks of headcheese into the Creole hot sausage po-boy. In a cradle of crinkly-crisp Leidenheimer bread, you have a Creole super po-boy of fatty flavor and balanced spice, a bit like the pâté in a good banh mi.