They didn’t skimp when they set up Rouj Creole. Lots of nice lavish touches that would be wasted if they couldn’t cook. They can cook. My main reason for checking the place out was a menued paella, rare in BR. I hope to do my own version for the first home game at my favorite tailgate, but more on the lines of a ham and shrimp Spanish jambalaya. The sliding scale between paella and jambalaya is broad. I suspect the divergence began many, many years ago because saffron is expensive and doesn’t grow well in Louisiana (otherwise we would definitely see it in our farmers market) and while saffron still isn’t cheap, it’s a lot more accessible now than it was then. Rouj Creole has dedicated their menu to “walking back” some dishes in our cuisine to be closer to their origins, but that definitely takes some imagination and a very loose sense of authenticity. For example, the Pescado + Paella I got would have represented a remarkable feat of fishing and gathering in Spanish Louisiana. How you would put together a dish with mahi and mussels, shrimp, crab, crawfish and chorizo without refrigeration is beyond me.
Now they aren’t giving this dish away, but there’s a reason for that. There is a whole lot of seafood in this dish. It is packed with shrimp and crawfish tails and I really couldn’t believe just how much backfin crabmeat was included. It was very good, and luckily for your budget concerns, very easy to share with one other if you spring for one of the many appetizers as well. Normally I wouldn’t have jumped to the World Fare portion of their menu without giving one of the basics like their crawfish étouffée a try first, but I definitely wanted to research a live paella to get ideas for my Spanish jambalaya project. With any luck, Solera will open soon and I’ll be able to check theirs out as well. I really liked this version, and it was done well enough that I will certainly be back to try some of their other reconstructed Louisiana fare. Now researching paella was only part of my plan for that day, and luckily when the barkeep asked what was up and I shared that I was on my way to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (no spoilers) we dove deep into Tarentino and the Cohen brothers along with Marvel, DC, the new Star Trek movies (which she hadn’t seen and I encouraged her to check out) and her dissertation on her perceived shortcomings of the current Star Wars cycle (she thought it mirrored the original arc too closely and wondered why they couldn’t bring themselves to kill off an already dead Leia) all in the short time it took my food to arrive. Very enjoyable. And it is way too early to say anything at all about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood without spewing spoilers so all I can say about the film is that it is very, very Tarentino and that the cinematography doesn’t demand a big screen, but you might want to get out of the house and check it out before others do spoil it for you. There’s only so far lalalalalalala will go for this one.
Rouj Creole has an abundance of nice small touches of decor that make it a very comfortable and uplifting bar and dining room. Mostly that is achieved by the myriad of different light fixtures, but also the french striped linens, some of the table and bar ware, and the Steely Dan playing over the sound system when I sat down to peruse the menu. Nice place, nice staff, and, most importantly, they can cook.
