The story
Natchitoches Meat Pie Festival in Natchitoches
The Natchitoches Meat Pie Festival celebrates the town's signature fried, crescent-shaped meat pie with a cooking contest, an eating contest, live music and food vendors along the historic riverbank. Held in September in the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase territory, it draws visitors eager to sample the dish in its hometown.
Natchitoches, founded in 1714 along the Cane River, holds the distinction of being the oldest permanent settlement in the territory that would become the Louisiana Purchase, and its long colonial history, shaped by French, Spanish and Native American influences, left a distinct culinary legacy in the form of the Natchitoches meat pie, a crescent-shaped pastry deep fried and filled with seasoned ground beef and pork.