New Orleans is a culinary mecca. Louisiana’s most populous city is a monument to excess in many ways, but the path it carves on the road to gluttony is both unique and epic. There are several foods whose very mention conjures up images of the Crescent City, including po-boys, gumbo, etouffee jambalaya and king cake.
We don’t know where newly signed New Orleans Saints running back Jamaal Williams stands on those other local staples, but we know how he feels about beignets. 2022’s rushing touchdown leader had the chance to try the city’s gloriously fluffed pillows of fried dough dusted with powdered sugar.
He doesn’t understand the fuss.
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“I’m not impressed. It’s just a funnel cake. … the beignets [pronounced, wonderfully incorrectly as ‘ben-yaat-ees’] is just a funnel cake,” Williams told the media after a training camp practice.
“I’m sorry, I just got here. I respect y’all, your beignets [pronounced ben-yetis this time] and all that. but in California we just call them funnel cakes … I tasted it, tastes just like a funnel cake. So that’s all, but it’s good though. If you like funnel cake.”
Williams grew up in California, played his college ball in Provo, Utah at BYU, then spent his first six seasons in the league with the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions. Suffice to say, his exposure to southern cuisine has been limited.
At the same time, he’s got a point. Beignets are great but there’s only so much you can do with fried dough and powdered sugar. A beignet (or ben-yaat-ee, or ben-yeti) isn’t a funnel cake by any stretch, but the end result is at least similar. So while his bold stance on the limits of fried dough may not be appreciated in his new hometown, he might as well have been saying the same thing about zeppoles or doughboys or elephant ears. Sure, they’re all different … but they’re also kinda the same.