With summer comes the prospect of the great American pastime. No, not baseball—road trips. Unfortunately, hitting the road often means hitting the drive-thru, and Whoppers and fries eaten on the go lose their appeal after a few days. If you plan on trekking anywhere in the South this summer, you can forgo the usual fast-food fare in favor of local spots brimming with history, thanks to the Southern Foodways Alliance. The group's interactive oral history map provides a fascinating look at food traditions all over the South, and the best places to find authentic Southern cuisine while you're on the road. From mom-and-pop barbeque joints to roadside tamale stands, the places on the map that most intrigue you can be worked right into your itinerary. Using the site's helpful trip planner, you'll be able to eat like a local wherever you go while learning fascinating stories behind every eatery covered. Check out the site by clicking here.

Last year 225 readers voted Louisiana Lagniappe the runner-up for best Cajun restaurant in the city, signaling the Perkins Road eatery as highly regarded yet somehow not overexposed. Ask some locals about their favorite place for local dishes, and the relatively young Louisiana Lagniappe may come up only after they've rattled off other longstanding purveyors of Cajun cuisine. But judging by 2009's Best of 225 survey, those who have been to Louisiana Lagniappe became instant and devoted fans. Looking at executive chef Joseph Caton's menu, it is not difficult to see why. From New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp to fried catfish and crabmeat-topped beef tournedos, Caton's cuisine runs the table of Creole and south Louisiana favorites, and is served in a "y'all come" kind of place that is open "till"—till everyone has been welcomed and served. Click here to find out what our secret diners thought about Louisiana Lagniappe.

With hundreds of varieties and experts devoted to its different varieties and tastes, cheese can be tricky food to figure out. A trip to Whole Foods' cheese section alone can leave you feeling overwhelmed by all the choices; but with the Fromage app in your pocket, you'll be able to tell moulis from manchego in no time. Fromage lists 750 varieties of cheese in its database, searchable by country of origin, milk type, flavor notes and more—and recommends the best wines to complement each cheese's unique taste. It also enables you to add cheeses to your personal database, along with photos, so you can more easily remember the names and flavors of the artisanal cheeses you've tried. You can also make wish lists—cheeses you'd like to buy and try—or a handy list of your favorites. You don't have to be a chef or a fromager to appreciate cheese: Just grab your phone, your favorite bottle of wine, and go! $2.99 at the iTunes store.

Years ago, as a young, upstart nanny working for an American couple in France, Julie Powell says she used to provoke her stiff employers by ordering offal and other shocking menu items. What she didn't know was how much she'd enjoy it. "I love liver," says Powell, whose latest work, Cleaving, documents her recent journey into butchery. "If done right, the texture is amazing. It's like custard in the center. The trick is to get a high-quality cut, and not to overcook it like you so often see in something like liver and onions." Powell is best known for cooking all 524 recipes from Julia Child's 1961 Mastering the Art of French Cooking and chronicling her year-long antics in one of the nation's earliest confessional food blogs. The project led to a bestseller and a movie, and now she's back with a book that weaves her troubled marriage and tumultuous personal life with her experience as a butcher's apprentice in upstate New York. Julie Powell, author of Julie and Julia and Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession, will speak this weekend in Baton Rouge at a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood of Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta. Click here to read the whole story.—Maggie Heyn Richardson

To read previous Du Jour features on local chefs and other culinary experts, click here.     

“I love Bistro Byronz. I love the atmosphere and the neighborhood appeal of it—it’s a really cool spot to hang out. I always get the blue cheese chips, because they’re phenomenal, along with their steak frites, and a Byronz bomber sandwich.”

Find out who else in Baton Rouge has food obsessions by clicking here.    

Cajun style: Saturday, join celebrity political commentator James Carville and wife Mary Matalin at the Boys Hope/Girls Hope of Baton Rouge's "Sweet Sixteen" party. The event marks the 16th anniversary of the program, which helps gifted children from disadvantaged backgrounds become successful adults. Tickets are $200. 7 p.m. at Juban's. To register online, visit bhghbr.org.

Creative Creole: Head out to the Manship Theatre Saturday, May 1, for an evening of enticing cuisine and libations when Artistic Culinary Infusions hosts its latest fundraiser for Community Association for the Welfare of School Children. Between the wine and the great food, giving back has never tasted so good! Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Visit manshiptheatre.org for more information.

Know your teas: Culinary herbalist Sarah Liberta will hold a tea party/seminar on edible teas and flowers at the Baton Rouge Garden Center on Wednesday, May 12, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Guest speaker Margaret Ganier, former president of the New Orleans Old Garden Rose Society, will discuss the essentials of rose gardening. The tea party will include a rose-flavored lunch, and each participant will take home a rose plant of her or his own. $50. Call 298-8008 or e-mail herbsbysarah@cox.net for reservations.

"As popular as cooking is today, scads of working people approach mealtime not with anticipation or enthusiasm, but with dread," writes 225 food blogger Maggie Heyn Richardson. "Indeed, it's understandable. On top of daytime drudgery, cross-town soccer practice, the care of aging parents and so on, we still have to come up with something decent to throw on a plate. What should be fun withers under stress and distraction." Click here to read this week's Spatula Diaries, where Maggie reveals her cure for the kitchen doldrums.