Eating a Reveillon dinner might be one yummy way to fight the flu. During December, New Orleans restaurants host these prix fixe feasts, featuring Creole and seasonal foods.

The multi-course Reveillon dinners (ranging in price from $27 - $65 a person) are bound to have some of the flu-fighting foods prescribed by John La Puma, M.D., author of Chef MD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine.

Epicurious.com Senior Editor Megan O. Steintrager interviewed La Puma for an excellent article she wrote detailing the foods that should help boost your immune system. These include:

Apples, onions, broccoli, tomatoes
Chicken soup
Green tea
Salmon, light tuna, milk, cereal
Yogurt, kim-chi, sauerkraut, miso
Chiles such as jalapenos, poblanos, serranos; also red bell peppers

You'll find many of these flu-fighting foods in these Reveillon dishes:

• Field greens with brandy braised apples at 5 Fifty 5
• Venison tournedos with lentil and roasted red pepper sauce at 7 on Fulton
• Sliced tomatoes with onion vinaigrette at Antoine’s
• Apple, endive and hazelnut salad with comté cheese at Bayona
• Citrus poached Gulf shrimp salad, served on winter greens with grapefruit and satumsas at Bourbon House
• Buttermilk gelato, served with strawberry-cranberry gâteau and satsuma marmalade at Bourbon House
• Celeriac and apple salad with chive dressing at Broussard’s
• Smoked pork loin, bratwurst and fresh bacon on Bavarian cabbage at Broussard’s
• Gulf fish grilled over roasted tomatoes with red onion, olives and fresh basil at Galatoire’s
• Chicken andouille gumbo at the Gumbo Shop
• Smoked Muscovy duck breast with celeriac, apple and walnut salad with port/ginger gastrique at Hunt Room Grill
• Roasted goose and braised red cabbage and apples, with caraway sauce at Hunt Room Grill
• French onion gratinée at Martinique Bistro
• Seared Atlantic salmon with mulled spiced buerre rouge at Martinique Bistro
• Louisiana citrus salad with local red grapefruit, satsumas and Meyer lemons over baby greens and red onion tossed in yogurt-honey dressing at Muriel’s Jackson Square
• Tarte Tatin with cinnamon ice cream and vanilla caramel, Palace Café
• Mache salad with blood orange, pistachios and pomegranate at the Rib Room

Anne’s lagniappe:  “Reveillon” comes from the French word for “awakening”. The Reveillon began as a Creole dinner enjoyed in private homes after midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.
In the 1990s, French Quarter Festivals Inc. revived the custom of Reveillon, when they asked New Orleans restaurants to create special holiday menus.

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For more:
Read Steintrager’s full article here. She explains the science behind the food advice, and gives other stay-healthy tips for the flu season.

Buy La Puma's Chef MD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine here.

A full list of New Orleans restaurants’ Reveillon menus are at neworleansonline.com.

5 Fifty 5 at the New Orleans Marriott, 555 Canal St. (504) 553.5585
7 on Fulton at the Wyndham Riverfront New Orleans Hotel, 701 Convention Center Blvd. (504) 525.7555
Antoine’s, 713 St. Louis St. (504) 581.4422
Bayona, 430 Dauphine St. (504) 525.4455
Bourbon House, 144 Bourbon St. (504) 522.0111
Broussard’s, 819 Rue Conti (504) 581.3866
Galatoire’s, 209 Bourbon St. (504) 525.2021
Gumbo Shop, 630 St. Peter St. (504) 899.2460
Hunt Room Grill at the Hotel Monteleone, 214 Royal St. (504) 523.3341
Martinique Bistro, 5908 Magazine St. (504) 891.8495
Muriel’s Jackson Square, 801 Chartres St. (504) 568.1885
Palace Café, 605 Canal St. (504) 523.1661
Rib Room at the Omni Royal Orleans, 621 St. Louis St. (504) 529.7046