Some places you know you’re eating well. Some places you know you’re eating healthy. Some places you’re just refueling, or grabbing a quick bite, or getting some down home goodness, or the chef is excellent, the food exquisite, the lighting, the music, the wine are all superb. But every now and then you find a place where you just want to chow down. Where you wish you would never get full so you could eat everything the kitchen has to offer. That’s the way I feel about Blue Corn. I want everything on the menu, right here, right now. And I’ve accepted the fact that whatever I order, I also have to get a taco lengua, almost like an obligatory appetizer to go with whatever else I want to try. Today I went with the house enchiladas that came with carne asada and roasted carrots and potatoes. The steak was like a side of bacon with an omelet. The enchiladas were wonderful, and the roasted carrots and potatoes with onion and queso fresco were incredible. There’s so much more to explore here. Can’t wait to return.
If you don’t know where this place is, you could easily drive right by it. They’ve been around a long time, part of that older generation of seafood restaurants that includes Mike Anderson’s and Ralph & Kacoo’s. Way, way back they had a seafood market next to the restaurant and, at the time, they served up the best boiled crawfish in the city by far. Now there’s no signage, no advertising, no billboards–not gone, not quite forgotten, but sometimes hard to remember it’s a place you need to stop by.
The interior is not run down at all, but it still suffers a bit from that old school generic feel, kind of like the inside of a McMansion where they hired an interior decorator looking for their home to make it into a local magazine or newspaper. There are some nice pieces on the walls, but the quality and originality isn’t consistent, and the good pieces seem lost in a sea of so-so pieces. The staff, however, has been there and done that, and you know right away you’re in a real seafood restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and that you’ve come to the right place, darlin’. But I’m pretty sure the place wouldn’t still be around if the food didn’t continue to carry the show. Water and hushpuppies from the backwaiter hitting the table as soon as you’ve placed your order definitely reinforces the old school practice of taking care of guests and making them feel at home.
I was almost diverted from my purpose when I saw the stuffed flounder on the special board (Drusilla still has that stuffing that has a hint of herbs like sage and tarragon which most stores have abandoned over the years for Tony’s and black pepper) but I stuck with my decision to go get a shrimp remoulade from Drusilla Seafood as the heat fell from 95 to 85. When summer finally starts to let go I do want to cook gumbo, but I also think of everything I should have ordered this summer and didn’t, thus, shrimp remoulade. I don’t think there will ever be a remoulade as good as the one that didn’t make it back onto the menu at Pinetta’s when they reopened. The sliced green olives and red onions and jumbo boiled shrimp sliced in half lengthwise and the marvelous dressing garnished with horseradish sauce will always be there in my dreams, but somehow wasn’t included when they brought back most of the old menu. This one was good though, fresh boiled 70/90 shrimp, mixed greens with romain, purple cabbage, and carrots, and a milder non-mustard sauce that went well with the greens as well as the shrimp. Often a problem with remoulade sauces, they work well with the shrimp but not the salad. This one worked, like everything else at Drusilla. If the place felt a bit haunted, that’s probably just me, or the proximity to All Saints Day.
When you do pancakes and grilled sausage for breakfast on game day, you’ve got a lot of options come Monday. Large order of Popeye’s red beans (with or without chicken) is one of the quickest ways to utilize the leftovers. Also you can add green onions at the house. The two things that are always missing when you do red beans at Popeye’s–sausage and green onions. Nice to have everything the way you want it.
Made it over to Mid City for their first ever brunch opening. They had some nice breakfast-y things on a special brunch menu, but the regular menu was available as well. Hard to beat a brat and an Urban South Oktoberfest at a beer garden in early October. It would have been a bit nicer if the weather was right to light up the outdoor fire box, but I’ll take what I can get, whenever I can get it.
I could go on and on all day about this place. I’m really happy with it, but ambiance in words isn’t easy to accomplish if you’re not talking about a shared experience. The only reason we can even follow Wordsworth is that we’ve seen enough movies and read enough books to at least imagine what he’s describing in his poems. Suffice to say, if you visit, you’ll get it. Here’s a pic of the star of Sunday’s show.
When I’m trying to lose a few pounds, or five, or fifteen–I like to plan when I’m going to fall of the wagon of healthy eating. We all know avoiding rice and sugar and bread and potatoes isn’t going to last forever, so I try to extend the number of good meals I eat in a row by planning on jumping off the wagon for something I love. That could be bread pudding, a huge bowl of pasta, or, in this instance, a pair of chili cheese dogs. The onions and the cheese aren’t all that bad, but processed meat, canned chili, and white bread hot dog buns are all bad actors. I did use Nathan’s Franks. So good. But I believe that if I plan a nice reward for chasing down a salad or two with dressing on the side, I’ll be less likely to fall for other traps. Cheers to chili cheese dogs!
There’s nothing more iconic in Baton Rouge than this pizza, with or without the anchovies. Easily the best pizza pie in town. And they have 6oz bottles of Coke. Great lunch outing. Every time.
I went there hoping to get the Ants Climbing Trees that I’ve been looking at for awhile now and just never got around to ordering before it left the menu. I thought the house made noodles would really provide some separation, but I didn’t stay disappointed. I got the Crispy Beef and was amazed that the honey/soy/sesame glaze actually did crisp up in the wok and add some crunch to the otherwise very tender beef. The bok choy, the pickled veggies and basmati all worked very well together. Every dish at Soji is an excellent surprise. (Beware the abundant chiles in this one though. They can be very challenging.)
Finally made it down the road to Cafe Mimi on Florida. Super friendly and enthusiastic staff. Counter service, then they bring everything out to your table and keep coming around to check on you. Nice to order and pay then settle in, but not be forgotten about just because they’ve already got the money. The menu isn’t extensive, but it does cover the basics. Pho and spring rolls and vermicelli bowls, plus they’re open for breakfast downtown, and they run a jambalaya and some Louisiana style poboys. I was actually thinking won ton soup and banh mi, but they had neither, so I went with the Shaking Beef and (of course) an iced Vietnamese tea. Very sharp flavors. Really nice.
I think what I like the most about the place though was how open and airy it was. I’m pretty sure the place used to be a bank lobby. Very high ceilings with drop fans and columns and they didn’t pack the place with tables. Also had some nice, light wall art, and a buddha shrine in the corner. I’m pretty sure I’ll hit it again, but I also saw another place on the way there, the T&T Cafe with milk teas, sushi, and poke that I’ll have to check out as well. Here’s a couple of interior shots.
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.
