Everyone loves to hate on Amazon, but it’s a great place to stock up on regional and hard-to-find groceries you might not be able to access at your local supermarket. This is especially handy when Mardi Gras rolls around and you’re craving a Hurricane, some beignets, and a plate of Creole red beans, but you live nowhere near New Orleans. While you’re running around town tracking down an assortment of purple, yellow, and green decorations for the festivities, the best foods for Mardi Gras are being delivered to your door. Brilliant. Here are seven must-haves from Amazon for your Mardi Gras party this year.
- Blue Runner Creole Cream Style Red Beans
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My colleague Jordan Myrick is a New Orleans native, and there’s one thing they make sure to stock up on every time they take a trip to Louisiana: Blue Runner Creole Cream Style Red Beans. They’re unbelievably creamy straight from the can and go perfectly with a heap of fluffy white rice. Jordan says these are the main component in one of their go-to depression meals (let the bad times roll, I guess), but they’re perfect for a Mardi Gras party, too.
- Café Du Monde Beignet Mix
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If you can’t simply pop out and pick up a dozen freshly fried beignets from Café Du Monde in New Orleans, buying a box of mix to make their iconic, ethereal fritters at home is the next best thing. Be sure to pile them with powdered sugar—but also be prepared to clean a lot of dusty residue off your furniture and floors if you serve these suckers at your Mardi Gras party.
- Mam Papaul’s King Cake Mix
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You can’t have a Mardi Gras party without a king cake—sorry, rules are rules—but they can be hard to find at local bakeries if you don’t live down south. That’s where this mix comes in. See, Mam Papaul’s mix comes with everything you need, from the praline filling to the little plastic baby you’re supposed to hide inside the ring-shaped kate. Which is ideal, because I have no idea where you’d get a small plastic baby otherwise, but if you have a baby dealer of your own, by all means go with another mix.
- Pat O’Brien’s Hurricane Mix
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If you like sweet, fruity drinks and you’ve never had a Hurricane, you’re really missing out. Although Sporked managing editor Gwynedd Stuart could only find two hurricane mixes to try for her taste test, Pat O’Brien’s was the winner by a hair. As Gwynedd put it, “It’s saccharine, it’s red, it tastes like something you’ll regret drinking tomorrow, but in a fun way.” In other words, it’s perfect for a Mardi Gras party.
Read the full ranking of the best Hurricane mix
- Mam Papaul’s Jambalaya Mix
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Yes, Mam Papaul’s gets another shoutout on this list of foods for Mardi Gras, who would you trust to cater your Mardi Gras festivities more than someone named “Mam Papaul?” It just so happens that this is Sporked’s favorite jambalaya mix, too. As Jordan pointed out, this stuff would be good with pretty much any mix of meat or seafood, but you can’t go wrong with some spicy andouille sausage.
Read the full ranking of the best Cajun rice dishes
- Tony Chachere’s Dirty Rice Mix
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Although Tony Chachere’s makes a number of rice dishes, this is the one that earned Jordan’s seal of approval, so you know it’s worth adding to the ol’ Amazon cart when you’re stocking up on Mardi Gras foods. According to Jordan, it’s nicely spiced and delicious in its own right, even though Tony Chachere’s does suggest adding ground meat to the mix. You could also mix in a can of Blue Runner’s creamy beans if you want to make your own version of beans and rice for the occasion.
Read the full ranking of the best Cajun rice dishes
- Zapp’s Variety Pack
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Go big for your Mardi Gras party and feed your gaggle of guests an assortment of Zapp’s chips, which happen to be from Louisiana and also happen to be some of the best kettle cooked potato chips you can buy. Pretty much all of their flavors slap, and this Zapp’s variety pack includes regular, Spicy Cajun Crawtators, Voodoo, and Hotter N’ Hot Jalapeño potato chips. Flavor aside, these chips are crunchy, peanut oily, and pleasantly earthy. Buy these for Mardi Gras and we’ll bet you’ll want to stock up for your lunches all year long.
Read the full ranking of the best Zapp’s potato chips
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!