The 10 most essential New Orleans restaurants

What does it mean to be essential? There's a very vague, undefined meaning that is floating around the forum of late. It's clear that most people have no understanding of the meaning of essential. It's time for some edifying discourses.

Going back to the Greek, ousia, has often been thought of as "substance." The Church Fathers transferred this Latin understanding of ousia, usually in discussions about the Trinity: three distinct persons; one substance. Heidegger recently rejected this translation. He was as stuck on Being as I am on educating and entertaining the hoards, so he said ousia isn't about substance. It's not about stuff. It's about something far more basic and real than stuff. It is Being itself. Whether you fall in the traditional camp or Heidegger's camp, I will not judge. But a little background was needed, and now I think we can accurately list the 10 most essential New Orleans restaurants. These are the restaurants that shape what we understand by the term New Orleans dining.

As is always the case, my list, while informed and thoughtful, is not absolutely definitive. Your comments and your own list are warmly welcomed.

10) K Paul's Louisiana Kitchen - Cajun food is underrepresented in NOLA, but despite what some misinformed say, Cajun food has been present in the city for nearly two centuries. K Paul's represents that heritage and is the birthplace of the international exportation of Cajun cuisine.

9) Central Grocery - Catholic European immigration to NOLA peaked in the mid to late 1800s with the Italians. They followed the Germans and Irish, but the German and Irish culinary contribution to the city was minor. The Italian influence was and is great. The muffuletta has for a century been an important mark of that contribution, and no one has done it longer or better than Central Grocery.

8) Impastato's - The Italians not only invented the muffuletta. They also created a new cuisine, Creole Italian. The Impastato family was one of the founding Creole Italian families, and no one today is a better example of Creole Italian than Impastato's.

7) R & O's - Neighborhood seafood restaurants are a fundamental aspect of NOLA cuisine. It has been that way for nearly a century. While others like Kenner Seafood might be better and others like Mandina's and Liuzza's might be older, R & O's gets the nod because it is authentic - there are no tourists there - and it's a marker of the endangered Bucktown and Eastend era.

6) Dooky Chase - It became a fish bowl for black Creole cuisine before my time and it remains that - an entry point for tourists and others to see and taste black Creole food. It would be higher if today, it tasted better.

5) Crescent City Steakhouse - Again, not the best steakhouse in town, but without it, one cannot understand the steak culture in NOLA, which has gone underappreciated by critics. It seems as though from a bygone era, and it is, as the city loses an important part of NOLA cuisine with the rise of steaks served in any and every restaurant.

4) Parkway Bakery - Renovated and owned by people from Biloxi, somehow Parkway walks a fine line between becoming a parody and being authentic. So far, they've done a noteworthy job keeping it real and honoring the only American food that was born from a labor strike, the poboy. It isn't as old as Domilese's or as locals only as Radosta's; it doesn't need to be because Parkway has become a place I believe Bennie and Clovis would be happy patronizing.

3) Commanders Palace - It is hard to write about the substance of New Orleans dining without mentioning the Brennan family. They have played no small roll in developing, improving, and exporting white Creole food to the world. Commanders is the family's greatest gift to the city.

2) Lil Dizzy's - I see it as the torchbearer for black Creole cuisine. Watch this space. The Munch Factory may in a few decades take its spot.

1) Galatoire's - It is not a secret here that I do not like eating at Galatoire's. I find that it can represent a negative social structure, one that I believe has held back the city. Nonetheless, I think no other restaurant in town encapsulates what traditional white Creole cuisine is and what white Uptown culture has become than Galatoire's.