This is one of the best little Chinese lunch buffets I’ve ever hit. Highly recommend. The salt and pepper fried shrimp were top notch, as were the fried chicken wings, the chicken on a stick, and the sesame chicken. I really liked the egg roll and the pork pot sticker dumplings as well. Nice fried rice, especially when combined with the roasted mushrooms and pork belly. Definitely something you don’t see every day. And dirt cheap, under 9 bucks with a fountain drink.
The interior’s been redone since I used to visit when the school day was done way back when I used to teach at Rosenwald in New Roads. I spent a lot of lunch periods in my classroom decompressing with a paperback so I could make it through the afternoon classes. I don’t think I shortchanged the students, but I lacked the patience and temperament to be a good middle school teacher. Hats off to all those who serve in the classroom. It is not an easy job. I would stop off at Morel’s on my way back to Baton Rouge for a meal and a beer and chill looking out over the water. Back then it was pretty much an old school bar with a few tables for old school bar food. Poboys and gumbo mostly. Now they’ve moved the bar out of the main room and dressed up the dining area a bit. Along with the menu. There’s blackened mahi and seafood salads and steaks. I was hoping to get a smoked sausage poboy, but at least they still had some very good onion rings and a New Orleans roast beef poboy with Swiss and caramelized onions and an excellent beef gravy on the side. And both came in half orders so it wasn’t stretching it to have a half a roast beef poboy, a half order of onion rings, and a side of fries. I couldn’t finish it all, of course, but that’s why they have to go boxes.
I headed over to Blue Corn to try their tamales and quickly fell prey to their tacos lengua, and carnitas, and baja shrimp. Seriously, I was powerless to resist.
My greatest weakness is the marvelous lengua. When I walk out of Taqueria Corona on Magazine in New Orleans, I swear to myself that theirs is the best lengua I’ve ever had. Until I make it back to Blue Corn and say the same thing. I’m really very happy that a side by side comparison isn’t feasible. It is perhaps the most satisfying debate I have ever had with myself. I’ve cooked beef tongue at the house, but, much like brisket, it is so time consuming to do it right, why wouldn’t you visit someone else who does it much better than you anyway? I’ve finally realized the only way to get past the lengua taco is to revisit the very next day to try something else. And I really want to explore this menu.
I might have to pull this same stunt at Jed’s Local to get past their wings, And I can tell I’m going to have trouble getting over the gin-cured salmon at Solera as well. But this trip I did get to dig into the Tamales Oaxaquenos. So glad I did. So much better with shredded pork in green sauce and shredded chicken in red than the Delta tamales that are barely better than canned chili. I will have these again. But first there will be another double trip of tacos followed by the house enchiladas the next day.
