On wheels for meals with a kick
A culinary trail marked by signs that say 'stop' and food that won't let you
LAKE ARTHUR - It's our third day on the trail, and we are definitely feeling the weight of the challenge. It is just after noon and we are plowing through our third meal of the day. Or maybe it's the fourth, if you count that piece of pecan pie we had before breakfast.
Right now, we're scarfing down massive fried shrimp and crawfish tail sandwiches called po-boys at a restaurant known as Nott's Corner.
It could easily escape notice in this little lakeside town, except for the giant red crawfish perched on a pole out front.
Serious bloat is setting in. But we are determined to make as many stops as we can in Cajun country along the Seafood Sensation Culinary Trail, one of seven in a new guide designed to entice visitors to sample the world-famous cuisine of Louisiana. What we also find along the trail are plenty of hospitable people eager to explain how the food they serve is the essence of their lives and of their state.
"Hospitality is a gift the Cajun people have, like some people are blessed with the gift of music," says David Bertrand, co-owner of Shucks! seafood restaurant in Abbeville. Bertrand backs up his belief by greeting most of the lunchtime crowd at the always-busy dining spot.
"Food is our culture; it's who we are," says Jill Kidder, co-executive director of the Louisiana Travel Promotion Association, one of the creators of the culinary trails project. The three-year campaign was launched this year and is financed with more than $620,000 raised from the state, convention and visitor bureaus, and corporate sponsors, including Tabasco, the local hot-sauce giant. The developers hired a team of freelance writers to divide the state into seven segments, select the stops on the trails in each area, and write the guide. "We wanted to allow people to design their own trips and to make it easy to do in two, two-and-a-half days," says Kidder.
That's just what we are doing, as we drive more than 350 miles along back roads across bayous and rice fields between Interstate 10 and the Gulf of Mexico from a Thursday afternoon to a Sunday morning. In that time, we manage to squeeze in nearly a dozen meals - a few of them mediocre, but many truly memorable.
Day 1
5 p.m.: We arrive in Rayne, a.k.a. the Frog Capital of the World, where we have found a great bed-and-breakfast, Maison D'Memoire. This unique lodging consists of four small cottages that were moved to the former horse farm and refurbished by owners Lyn and Ken Guidry. Our Country Garden Cottage is decorated with family portraits and a large number of antique women's hats. The cottages are surrounded by acres of beautifully maintained grounds, including a small pond.
8 p.m.: We decide to try the dinner package that Maison D'Memoire offers at Chef Roy's Frog City Café, which is a stop on the trail. We feel obliged to try the frog's legs, which are offered fried and in an étouffée (from the French for "to smother"). The frog is tasty (like chicken), but the thick stew, served over rice, is more glutinous than flavorful. Back at our cottage, we find tiny, colorful frogs hanging around our porch light, looking for a late-night insect snack. This town has earned its title.
Day 2
8:30 a.m.: Our morning gets off to a great start with a hot breakfast in a wicker basket delivered by Lyn Guidry. Inside are baked chili eggs, cheesy hash browns, and delicious slices of blueberry almond coffeecake. We enjoy it with fresh-brewed Community Coffee on our little side porch.
10 a.m.: Drive south to one of the trail's few non-food-related stops. The Rip Van Winkle Gardens include 20 semitropical acres and the winter home of Joseph Jefferson, a 19th-century actor who achieved popularity portraying the endurance sleeper. President Cleveland was a visitor and one of the enormous live oaks on the property bears his name. Part of the estate disappeared spectacularly in 1980 when neighboring Lake Peigneur was sucked into a giant underground salt dome.
Noon: Head west to Abbeville and one of the highlights of the trip, lunch at Shucks! Bertrand and co-owner Bert J. Istre have updated Cajun classics with spectacular results. Bertrand shows us how to properly slurp a raw oyster and insists we try the seafood gumbo, smoked duck and andouille gumbo, creamy oyster stew, and crawfish étouffée. Each is a taste sensation. So is the bread pudding, its rum sauce sweetened with white chocolate and an extra shot. On the way out of town, we stop at Steen's, makers of pure sugar cane syrup for almost 100 years. No tours, but a tiny shop-office where we buy molasses and a bottle of cane vinegar.
2:30 p.m.: Finally find Suire's Grocery and Restaurant, three miles south of Kaplan. A 2002 New York Times article by R.W. Apple Jr. praising the restaurant's turtle sauce picante is hanging on the wall next to a half-dozen tables made from old grocery shelves. Joan Suire (rhymes with beer) is at the cash register. She is "married to the store," she sighs, while her married sister, Lisa Frederick, is the cook and baker. We try the shrimp and egg stew and the turtle; both are dark, earthy, and delicious. We leave with a piece of pecan pie and a CD of Cajun ballads.
5 p.m.: After driving past rice fields on a sunny afternoon with the top down and accordion music blaring, we arrive at the Holiday Inn in Jennings. It is passable, as is the dinner we have this evening at Frey's Seafood Restaurant. The only standout is the cinnamon roll for dessert. We shut down early.
Day 3
8 a.m.: We eat the leftover piece of pecan pie. It has retained an awesome super-sweetness.
10. a.m.: We wander off the trail to L/G & K Southern Kitchen in Jennings for one of their breakfast biscuits, which are highly touted by locals. We can't disagree.
11 a.m.: Insatiable in our quest for Cajun classics, we pull into the Boudin King Restaurant. For the ridiculously low price of $1.74, we get a half-pound of the spicy sausage-like boudin (pronounced BOO-dan), wrapped in heavy paper and served with a plastic knife. We squeeze the boudin out of its synthetic casing and consume it ravenously with our fingers. This savory mixture of pork, rice, and spice is an irresistible combination of the region's signature flavors.
12:30 p.m.: We are eating again, this time at Nott's Corner. Crawfish are clearly the draw and waitresses wear T-shirts touting "the best tail in town." The freshwater crustaceans are offered in étouffée, as fried tails on a platter or in a po-boy sandwich, and in crawfish pie. They are also offered boiled during crawfish season, which runs from mid-December into April. Our po-boys leave no room for dessert.
5 p.m.: Check into L'Auberge du Lac Casino Resort in Lake Charles, a little taste of Las Vegas in Louisiana. Our room is comfortable, with dark woods and a king bed, and the riverboat casino is rocking. So are the people in the room next to ours.
8 p.m.: Dine at the Pujo Street Café in downtown Lake Charles. This is the sophisticated restaurant on our trail, and it doesn't disappoint. Two appetizers - the pecan-dusted fried Oysters Pujo and the crab and avocado salad - are worth the price of admission. The white tablecloths, the friendly, efficient service, and the romantic setting add to a memorable evening.
1:35 a.m.: Back at the casino hotel, the people next door are still partying. Loudly. They settle down after a call to the front desk.
Day 4
9 a.m.: An early start, but we have a long drive home. The hotel room has
Doug Warren can be reached at dwarren003@austin.rr.com. 