Last week I made Chicken and Sausage Gumbo for dinner. Made the stock from chicken wing tips, chicken backbones (cut from whole chickens that were headed for the grill) and whatever was on the bottom of the vegetable drawer.  I stood and stirred the roux till it was a chestnut brown.  Added the stock and already-grill/smoked chicken, parsley from the garden and the ubiquitous bay leaf.  Cooked for a good two hours, thickened up just right.  Served over rice with some green onions.  That's it. 

But did I make real gumbo? Do you have to be raised in the food culture of the dish you are preparing for it to be authentic? I make a chicken soup that would be considered European Jewish that is as different from Campbell's as it is different from Pho Ga. But they are all chicken soup, even last night's gumbo. The basic ingredients are the same: chicken, water, celery plus whatever. The cooking techniques themselves (roux or not, dill or parsley or both) and the resulting taste(s) are culturally bounded, but anyone can partake of the dish and enjoy. So, I don't know if someone from Lafayette would call what I made "gumbo," but it sure tasted good to this transplanted Yankee.