Author: Ernie Seals

This place reminds me of another that was nearby when I lived at 51 Rose Avenue in Venice, the old Castaneda apartments a block off the boardwalk at the Santa Monica end of the beach. Don’t remember the name, but it was on a corner right on the boardwalk and had ice cream and popcorn, shakes and malts and fountain drinks, hamburgers and hotdogs and broasted chicken and pizza by the slice, but no hoagies or tacos. It made me think at the time of carnival concession stands, or stadium concessions, or the little container building in middle school that sold blow pops and sweet tarts and frozen slushie drinks at recess. It also makes me think now of food courts in malls with independent kiosks serving limited menus from larger chains or local restaurants. All of the new bubble tea shops have that kind of feel to me. The inside looks like a tricked out ice cream parlor/study area with nothing really where you expect it to be except the booths. Exotic Sweets has sushi and hibachi on the sign, but no sushi bar or hibachi grill in sight. The menu has sushi rolls, but no nigiri or sashimi. There’s clear soup and miso soup and noodle soup but no ramen or pho. Dim sum and fried rice but no egg rolls. At least the food was okay. Supermarket quality instead of gas station. I suspect everything was instant or prepackaged or frozen but I couldn’t say for sure since I couldn’t actually see a place to prepare anything but bubble tea and rolled ice cream. I guess if you’re a fan of bubble tea and Cali rolls this would work for lunch if you’re in the area, but forty feet away is a good taco place and a half mile down the road is a great one. There’s a Whataburger across the street. China One in the same shopping center. Just not that into bubble tea bar food myself. The art fixtures were nice enough, and there were some interesting fish in the aquarium, but the water wasn’t clear enough to get a good shot.

Thanks to their Instagram account @courtstreetcafe I found out about this place and hopped across the river to check it out. It’s just off Hwy 1 in Port Allen with that vibe you find all over Louisiana of a diner crammed into an old house with ten tables in front of an eight stool bar with a kitchen window just behind the bar and more seating and bathrooms back down a hallway leading to the rear of the building. I’d say ubiquitous, but that’s a bit out of place in that space between city and country where almost everyone is wearing work boots and Dickies. I got there just before eleven thirty and the place was already half full of old timers and contractors with a server flitting between them with the first round of sweet tea and lunch time bourbon. As I sat I watched a lot of women come and go picking up carry out orders. Flat iron steak was the special of the day, but I wanted to check out their bona fides so I ordered the chicken and sausage gumbo and a blackened gator poboy. The gumbo was on the thin side but did not lack flavor. Very enjoyable in mid-December. I was intrigued by their decision to dress the blackened alligator and grilled onions with Zatarain’s creole mustard on a soft hoagie bun , but it didn’t really work for me. If I got it again I’d order it up with mayo or just the alligator and onions which would also be fine. I’m sure the blackened gator/creole mustard combo rocks some boats, just not mine. Besides, they gained enough of my confidence that I’d be more likely to try their crawfish étouffée or oyster poboy or maybe both next time. Maybe even the flat iron steak if it’s on special.

I have yet to make it all the way through the menu at Curbside or even try their chocolate shake because I am constantly distracted by their burger and shake specials. I am always interested in how the store reinterprets their inventory to come up with new dishes that might eventually find their way onto the main menu. I’ve had that responsibility/opportunity before, and it is exciting, kind of like posting a picture on Instagram looking for likes, except in this case, you are looking for purchases. I only wish that back then I had been social media savvy enough to post a picture of the double beef burger (regular burger topped with roast beef and gravy) or the surf and turf (all beef patty + one crab cake). It would also be nice to have pictures of some of those huge crawfish boils we use to cater for the valve companies in Baton Rouge. Five thousand pounds of crawfish, jambalaya for a thousand, and bars that started with a case of Crown Royal with our ex-Golden Girls turned Bud Girls bar tending. Maybe some of those are best kept as memories rather than photos–but I digress. I love the way Curbside digs deep into history like they did for the Oklahoma Onion burger a while back, or in this case deconstruct a French Onion poboy and remake it into the Naq Attaque, basically a French Onion burger with caramelized onions and lots of thick gooey Swiss cheese with a side of french onion soup for french dipping. And who could pass up a White Chocolate Peppermint shake this time of year?

There’s so many Serop’s Express buffets in town now that it’s easy to forget about Serop’s Cafe until the weather turns cold and windy and you get that Baton Rouge winter rain that feels like sleet even though it’s only forty degrees outside and your thoughts turn to lamb shank. Serop’s Cafe is the only place I know of in town that has lamb shank available night and day so that’s where I head. Everyone’s always nice at all the Serop’s locations, but the staff seems even more welcoming at the Cafe. With the recent demise of the last Arzi’s on Government (still don’t know the story, and we used to have such good times on Sundays at the one on Nicholson, ordering up the raw kibbi and downing bottles of Boutari Nemea) the Cafe jumps right in the mix with Roman’s. Really like Albasha too, so maybe I need to run over to Citiplace soon but this visit was all about the slow cooked lamb shank with brown gravy and a heap of rice pilaf with roasted green beans and of course Lebanese tea and hot pita and a feta salad with the garlic dialed all the way up. Some people will recommend honeyed tea with lemon or hot toddies or any number of treats to try to avoid the pitfalls of cold and flu season, but I say go with the lamb shank at Serop’s.

I’ve always had plenty of confidence in Jed’s, even before they opened, mostly because of my many visits to their other restaurant, Eliza, also on Jefferson, but a bit further down, between Essen and Drusilla. The owners know exactly what they want to accomplish and always execute top notch food. Doesn’t hurt that they knew enough to open up almost exactly where Joe D’s grocery once stood and served up the best poboys in Baton Rouge. On my very first visit a while back I noticed the grilled shrimp banh mi, the French fry poboy, and the Cuban on the menu and realized Jed’s definition of poboy was anything they could stuff inside a loaf of Leidenheimer French bread. That worked out well with this Reuben. A Reuben is kind of like a muffaletto in that with the sharpness of the sauerkraut and Russian dressing, you have to get the ratio of all the ingredients just right to make the sandwich work. Of course Jed’s pulls it off perfectly, and the French bread is an interesting twist on the rye bread most Reubens are made with. The pressed Reuben is not on the menu, though I suspect it might make it there in the future, but for now, it’s limited to the month of December. Also in December, Jed’s will be at the Mid City Maker’s Market on the 14th with their Grilled Shrimp Banh Mi and Eliza’s Gumbo Ya-Ya. More news, they’ve switched to table service at Jed’s which might alleviate some of the ups and downs of counter service when you go next time. And don’t forget to try the wings. Truly special.

Sometimes if you search the walls of a taqueria squeezed into an older, low rent Baton Rouge strip mall, you will find an image or two of who they wish they could be. Tables set outside on a cobbled alley overlooking the blue, blue sea, the slightly lighter shade of blue, blue sky, the wonderful greenery dripping from the whitewashed adobe storefronts with the owners living above their shops in a neighborhood of laughter and goodwill. Tacos lengua, carnitas, y camerone is fast becoming my new mantra and there is really no better place to say that to a server than La Tienda on Siegen Lane. Their tacos truly are a bridge between the sign outside with the sombrero’d chili pepper and the cactus and maraca emojis and the dreamy Baja village on the Pacific in the lovely painting on the wall within the taqueria. There are many among the it is what it is crowd who will insist that food is fuel, but I expect more than that when I visit a storefront offering breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Or high tea, or hot dogs, or someone invites me over to eat or I take the time to cook for someone. Food, human food, is meant to be a bridge between where we are and where we want to be. Always has been, always will be.

I’ve been meaning to get back here ever since the last time when I saw a woman doing the steak rollups out on the patio. Just steak and pita rolled and pressed with a choice of side and sauce but the steak was wonderful and the homemade tzatziki was very good as well. I liked the pasta salad, but really wished I’d followed up on my first impulse to do the tumeric rice again. No biggie. Next time for sure though.

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Love love love the Jarritos sodas. Wish they carried the grapefruit flavor as well. Real sugar makes a difference, just like with the Mexican coke at Gov’t Taco right across the dining space from Empanola. They really need Gov’t Taco to leave for their brick and mortar because the competition might be too much for them. Their empanadas take thirteen minutes to traverse the conveyor oven they bake in and I didn’t see a backup oven anywhere. Conveyors break down on a regular basis, and thirteen minutes is a long cook time for what essentially is a pumped up hot dog stand like the rest of the kiosks at White Star. Being right in the shadow of a good taco place isn’t really a good spot for these guys.

I’ve had five of the empanadas so far and tried the soup. I can see how some people would fall in love with the crust, which is a must for this place since it is the same for all the different fillings. The Chorizo Mexicana and the Crawfish were difficult to tell apart. They were both a bit watery with bits of either chorizo or chopped crawfish tails, but the seasoning profile was very similar. The Peruvian chicken had more meat and a better flavor and texture overall than the other two so next time I got the Argentina Beef (ground) and the Ham and Cheese. Both were pretty good so I’d recommend going meat over sauce stuffed empanadas. But also, while I waited for my order, I got a Texmas Taco from Gov’t Taco. Brisket and grilled serrano peppers with white onion and a cilantro jalapeno crema. Much, much better than the empanadas at Empanola. And they were some just-opened-the-store problems as well. The first visit, I’m pretty sure I could have walked off with my order without paying for it. I had to insist they ring me up. Second day was better, but too much stopping to train new workers at the expense of customers. Add that to waiting for someone else to scan the board and place an order, plus the thirteen minutes to actually cook your order after a worker slowly and lovingly brushes it with drawn butter and yeah, it ain’t quick at all. So make sure you settle down with your phone and a bottle of Jarrito soda, or a Mexican coke and a taco from Gov’t Taco while you wait for your Empanola empanadas.

I’m all good with the Thanksgiving get together, mainly seeing family, bringing a traditional dish to a tradition packed day and meal, but Black Friday is all about another sort of Thanksgiving to me, the thanks for being able to still be me all these many years later. We fight to be ourselves, to do what we want, believe what we want, and to act on those beliefs. We win, we lose, we wrestle to bloody draws, but we don’t quit, even if we suffer defeat. Perseverance is an important strength; it very much determines who we are, and who we want to become. And for me, there’s no better way to celebrate that than hanging out at the sushi bar and shooting the shit with Chef Cong or whoever else is working at Umami. Good place, good people, and an important part of my life. Wherever I’ve lived, I’ve always had a favorite sushi spot. The food, the feng shui, the chance to experiment can all lead to that sense of satisfaction/contemplation that make you totally present in the moment. Very liberating. Very tasty.

Had a great chat with Chef Cong about different foods and preparations and plant based options when you need to go meatless for a bit and how he’s going to take a trip or two to do more research on ceviche to maybe bring a fusion version home to Umami. I’m excited to hear that. I asked him which uni was more “oceany” the Hokkaido or the Santa Barbara and he pointed me to the Santa Barbara and said he liked both, that it depended entirely on his mood which one he preferred. He gets a lot of product from Japan and runs a constantly changing specials menu to go with the regular fare.

For me, doing sushi is a lot like going to a symphony or choral performance. You’re not exactly there for comfort, although it is comforting. You’re not exactly there because you want to experience the familiar, but that is exactly what you are doing. Your real motivation is to be there, to be all in, to feel inspired. Black Friday at Umami gets that done for me.

I normally don’t hit soft openings, but this is the third time for MJ’s, and it is quite charming. The place is as open and airy a space as you can make a non-patio with lots of nice wall art and plenty of green plants. The food is very nice as well.

Their were a couple of soft open issues. I had to ask what the soup choices were since I could see guests eating soup but none was listed on the soft open menu, but the staff seemed happy to be there and determined to do a good job. The roasted corn soup with homemade bread was very good, just a hint of the coconut milk that must have been used for a base, tahini thickened I’d imagine. And while the tall mug the soup was served in seems like it would be unwieldy, it really wasn’t, and near the end it was nice to be able to pick it up to finish off what remained of the soup. The veggie quiche was as light and airy as the room itself. You never know what you are going to get with a quiche, there’s such a range of possible density and intensity of flavors. This one fell on the light and pleasant end of the scale, and the sliced honeycrisp apples were a perfect compliment. I know MJ’s has bounced around a bit, but I suspect they will occupy this new space for quite a while to come.