Culinary Trail Signature Dish: Meat Pies
The city of Natchitoches made these savory pies famous.
In Natchitoches, it’s all about the meat pie, a fried pie filled with beef, pork and seasonings. Lasyone’s Meat Pie Restaurant is one place to go to get your fix. James Lasyone didn’t invent the dish, but he sure helped make it famous. After painstakingly working on his recipe in the 1950s, he opened his Meat Pie Kitchen in 1967. Today, his daughters Angela Lasyone and Tina Lasyone-Smith run the family restaurant, where they hand make between 400 and 1,000 pies each day. If you don’t fill up on the pies, they also have terrific hand-battered chicken strips and crawfish pie.
The delicious pastry is the signature dish of Natchitoches and one of Louisiana's official state foods. This tasty treat is so beloved that it's celebrated in September of each year at the Natchitoches Meat Pie Festival.
If you're road-tripping through the Bayou State, these tasty treats are conveniently available in roadside stores and eateries just off the interstate.
Can't make it to Louisiana to get these delicious hand pies? Check out this Natchitoches Meat Pie recipe from Emeril Lagasse!
