A taste of home
Louisiana native finds great Cajun food north of the border.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Crab boil. Crawfish pie. Roux mix. Remoulade.
Head just three hours to the south and you’ll find things in the grocery store you never knew existed. After moving here from Shreveport a few years ago, I started to wonder if I’d ever see those things again.
Many people associate dishes like gumbo and jambalaya with spice — and for those unaccustomed to the Cajun penchant for food hot enough to match the sweltering summers — this may be a bit overwhelming.
But just because it’s hot doesn’t mean it’s Cajun. More complex flavors created by seasonings like file, parsley, garlic and thyme are at work in most of the dishes.
Cajun dishes often are made from scratch and in huge, relatively inexpensive quantities. Their foundation comes not from gourmet ingredients but from cooks skilled at melding the many ingredients on hand into something fantastic. Louisianians often refer to these traditionally big-pot dishes as a good way to clean out the fridge.
And with a little sleuthing, I’ve discovered that three hours away from the Louisiana border, these dishes can be found in local restaurants if you know where to look.
Faded Rose
The best all-around Cajun taste I’ve found. The low-key and comfortable decor of the restaurant’s two Little Rock locations means Louisiana Hot Sauce looks right at home on the table.
The food: The gumbo was moderately priced at $4.25 for a cup and $5.75 for a bowl. The dish was soupy with flavorful sausage and shredded chicken, but it was light on the shrimp. I found myself sopping every last bit of broth up with French bread. The heat became apparent halfway through the cup.
Not normally a dish I seek out, I tried the crawfish etouffee ($8.25) and was glad I did. The sauce had a thick, gravy-like consistency with a visible amount of black pepper — and no skimping on the perfectly cooked crawfish. Everything about the dish tasted homemade.
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Vieux Carre
Named after New Orleans’ French Quarter, this Cajun eatery in Hillcrest is more upscale than the others on my list.
I tried the Jambalaya a la Jacey and balked at the $17 price tag. Unfortunately, I had to get this item to go and was surprised at the weight of the container. When I got home and opened the lid, my Arkie husband who spent five years of his life developing a taste for Cajun cuisine said, “I don’t believe in $17 jambalaya, but if there ever was such a thing, this is it.”
The dish featured a massive pile of tender scallops, huge shrimp, chunks of juicy chicken and plump sausage over a bed of rice with large pieces of okra and stewed tomatoes. All of these flavors melded seemingly without the use of many spices. This dish easily fed two and is probably more suited for special occasions than for a quick dinner on my deck.
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Oyster Bar
This Little Rock restaurant doesn’t look like much from the outside but is warm and inviting on the inside, with checkered table cloths and a waiter who says “shrimp” just like Bubba from Forrest Gump.
Though the overall focus is seafood, the daily specials — like shrimp Creole, chicken gumbo, and boiled shrimp served with spicy corn and potatoes — have a Cajun flair.
Food: The prices were more than reasonable for a small bowl of shrimp gumbo and shrimp Creole for $3.95. The dishes come with bread for sopping. The gumbo was brothy and chunky with fresh-tasting stewed tomatoes, okra and shrimp. The dish had a black pepper heat that was pleasingly palatable. The shrimp Creole had a spicy marinara-type sauce with shrimp and vegetables. The small servings were sizable enough for a hearty snack.
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Boudreaux’s Bar and Grill
This latest addition to the Cajun cuisine scene is on Maumelle Boulevard. The menu features overly Cajun vernacular like, “Boudreaux sez, dis the best dat you’ll find.” It’s kind of cute in that “Cajun Night Before Christmas” way.
Food: Husband and I tried the catfish beignets (pronounced ben-yay), which were marinated in Louisiana Hot Sauce ($6.95). The bits of fried fish were flaky, and biting into them released a wash of hot sauce flavor.
The menu says that the Cajun jambalaya ($6.95 for a small) was made from grandma’s family recipe — and grandma must’ve liked it hot. Large pieces of chicken and lots of sausage were mixed into a very tomato-based rice dish.
The chicken and sausage gumbo ($5.95 for a small) also was touted to be a family recipe and made from scratch daily. The soupy dish came with large, round cuts of sausage and white rice and was more herby than spicy.
Rating 4 out of 5.
Mike’s Place
The atmosphere of this Conway eatery seems to trend toward the fancy, though the prices are more than reasonable.
Food: The cup of homemade gumbo ($4.25) is made with shrimp and Andouille sausage piled with white rice in what looks to be a coffee mug. It had a distinctly seafood smell. The gumbo was thick, a bit on the salty side, but had a warm afterburn.
The only jambalaya on the menu came in pizza form with Bayou butter, sausage, chicken and a three-cheese blend. I decided to save that culinary exploration for another time and opted for the red beans and rice ($2.50). The dish had no real Cajun flair outside of the bits of sausage. I’d recommend putting Louisiana Hot Sauce on it.
Mike’s did have another New Orleans staple on the menu — The Hurricane — for $7.
Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Cajun’s Wharf
We’ve all been to Cajun’s for the fresh seafood, the view and the Play-De-Do. The bar menu seems to have just as many Cajun staples as the restaurant menu, so that’s where we headed.
Food: The seafood gumbo, ($5.25 for a cup) features Andouille sausage, shrimp, okra and other vegetables in a thick mixture. As expected, the shrimp tasted fresh, but the rest lacked a homemade taste. The dish had only minor heat but might be better with some hot sauce.
We also tried the Cajun Egg Roll — mostly because it looked interesting. The roll was stuffed with shrimp, crawfish, cabbage, scallions and onions and had a side of white wine dipping sauce, $7.25. The main flavor in these rolls was heat, which masked the taste of most anything else. Eating one left your lips on fire the way a good crawfish boil should. My only complaint was the excessive greasiness and general messiness.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Comments
Posted by opiespank_gmail.com (William Olmstead) on April 25, 2008 at 6:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Good article. I have been looking for some good Louisiana food since moving up here a year ago from West Monroe, LA.
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