Food writer's tales from Crescent City

When Sara Roahen first visited New Orleans, she felt an immediate connection: "It was at e same time the most exotic place and immediately comfortable," she says.

Roahen moved to the Crescent City a few years later, when her husband started medical school at Tulane. Not long afterward, she landed a job as a weekly restaurant reviewer, and for the following 41/2 years she devoured oyster po'boys; mastered the art of making a roux; and most important, discovered the traditions, the people, and the history that make the New Orleans community indefinably unique.

Roahen's experiences inspired her just-released debut book,

Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table

(Norton).

"I decided to write a book that I would consider the backstory of what was going on while I was discovering New Orleans, the people and quirky little stories behind the food," she says.

It's filled with amusing anecdotes of personal discovery as she tastes her way through the city and learns the tale behind each bite.

While her initial idea was to write a thank-you to New Orleans, her approach broadened after Hurricane Katrina: "My focus at that point sort of turned towards the rest of the world," she says. "I was driven by trying to explain to other people why anyone would want to live there or move back."

While she acknowledges the storm's blow to the city and its rich culinary culture, Roahen makes sure to celebrate the small victories bringing hope each day, like the reopening of legendary fried-chicken joint Willie Mae's or the Italian-American institution Mosca's.

After a tearful farewell in January 2007, Roahen and her husband moved to Center City Philadelphia, where he is pursuing his medical career and she is obsessing over her new passion, tomato pies from Gaeta's in North Philly. And while she misses her old home and laments the lack of fresh crawfish in Philadelphia, Roahen has found that she's brought some of New Orleans with her.

"For the anniversary of Katrina I invited all our new neighbors over for red beans and rice," she says. "I was all sweaty and I didn't clean my house. That was really liberating."