Making a seafood gumbo takes hours, even thought you don't cook the seafood for hours. There's a lotta cookin' goes on before the seafood goes in.
I'll never forget my first husband's uncle's wife saying, "Chop it fine, fine," and how her husband said, "Season it until it's got a little bite in it."
I've seen them make a lot of good things in Louisiana besides jambalaya, crawfish pie and file gumbo. There's dirty rice, sweet potato pie, greens and cornbread, red beans and rice, stewed okra and tomatoes. But I have never saw anyone using hot red pepper flakes, green chilies or jalapenos, as I see in some of these modern recipes.
I was a southern Illinois girl, raised under a bushel, my husband says, and I wouldn't have liked anything that burned my mouth. While the Cajun cooking I tasted was spicy and full of flavor, it was never hot (although they did provide Louisiana hot sauce on the side, if a person wanted it)
I guess hot is the new thing, but I'll take the old Cajun cooking over any of this new stuff.
Here is my opinion, for what it is worth...those who are unable to create the warm spicy flavor of the original Cajun cooking, try to make up for it by burning the taste buds to the point where they can't taste anything else.
IMHO.
Sure wish I could be down on the bayou again, with Kay and Silas. As I look back, I realize how kind they were to me.