Delicious

Cajun food

Onthose days when you’re craving flavor and spice and everything nice, Alligator Café should be at the top of your hit list. As you can probably guess from the name, Alligator Café is a Cajun food restaurant with some seriously N’awlins vibes, and lucky for us, it’s right in the heart of Casa Linda Plaza. On any given weekend, crowds from all over Dallas swarm to the White Rock area so they can sink their chompers into Alligator’s crawfish enchiladas, or the blackened catfish smothered with crawfish étou ée. Founder and owner Ivan Pugh has a theory about that: “I always say, ‘Start with the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.’ It’s all the little things that add up.” We, however, have a theory that Pugh’s impressive return rate might have something to do with his topsecret spice mix. The entire menu is a product of Pugh’s imagination, although he mostly has turned the actual execution over to his cooking sta . However, there’s one thing he’ll never share: “To this day, I still make all my own spices. I don’t trust anyone with my spice recipe. People ask me, ‘Why do you own a restaurant?’ and I say, ‘Because I have the best spice mix in town, and it can’t be duplicated.’” —

Alligator Caf

Alligator Café

9540 Garland Suite 362

214.821.6900

AMBIANCE:

SIT-DOWN CAJUN FOOD RESTAURANT

PRICE RANGE: $7.95 TO $20.95

HOURS:

TUE-WED: 11 A.M.–9 P.M.

Brittany Nunn

THU: 11 A.M.–10 P.M.

FRI-SAT: 11 A.M.–10:30 P.M.

SUN: 11:30 A.M.–9 P.M.

Blackened catfish smothered with crawfish étouffée: Mark Davis

| MORE RAGIN’ CAJUN |

1 Dodies Restaurant

The original Dodies Cajun Restaurant on Greenville and Richmond is a must-try to anyone seeking authentic Cajun food.

2129 Greenville 214.821.8890 dodiestexas.com

2 Aw/Big Shucks

You don’t need to go to the beach to enjoy a little seaside dive dining. Aw Shucks Oyster Bar and Big Shucks Oyster Bar offer an array of seafood options with a southern-soul twist. Their crawfish and po-boys give even the most Cajun places in East Dallas a run for their money. 8601 Greenville 214.821.9449 awshucksdallas.com

Big Shucks Oyster Bar 6232 Mockingbird 214.887.6353 awshucksdallas.com

3 Cajun Tailgators

There’s something about ordering grub from a food truck that lends itself to Cajun food. If you can catch Cajun Tailgators hanging around East Dallas — The Truck Yard, anyone? — it’s definitely worth it.

214.783.2385 cajuntailgators.com

Party wine

Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc-Viognier ($10) Califorina

One of the dilemmas during holiday wine season is trying to decide what to spend. It’s one thing if it’s just immediate family for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, but start adding guests and the wine bill goes up accordingly. And that takes a lot of fun out of the holidays, which should be about enjoyment and not spending money.

Fortunately, there is great wine no matter how much you want to spend:

• Not much money: Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc-Viognier ($10) is a white blend from California that is one of the best cheap wines in the world, with just a touch of sweetness and lots of white fruit. Planeta La Segreta Rosso ($10) is a red blend from Sicily that’s made for food — a little earthy and with some cherry fruit.

• A little more money, but still not a lot: Spy Valley Riesling ($18) is a New Zealand white that is about as close to a perfect turkey wine as possible — a dry wine with layers of flavor that range from petrol on the nose (a classic riesling characteristic) to citrus and tropical in the front and middle. Bonny Doon’s Clos de Gilroy ($18) is a dark and spicy red blend from California that still has enough red fruit to appeal to everyone.

• Not cheap: Hedges Red Mountain ($25), a Washington state red blend, is one of the best wines I’ve tasted this year, rich and deep and with lots of quality black fruit. Cornerstone Cellars Chardonnay ($35) is an Oregon wine made in more of a California style, rich and oaky with lots of green apple fruit.

—Jeff Siegel

Thanksgiving leftovers

Welcome to our fourth annual Thanksgiving leftovers extravaganza, because the world does not need yet another recipe for the holidays. Instead, let’s clean out that refrigerator:

• Turkey and dressing egg rolls. Who says egg rolls need to be Asian? Combine leftover turkey and dressing in grocery store egg roll wrappers and bake or deep fry according to package directions. Use leftover gravy for the dipping sauce.

• Turkey jambalaya. You can make this with leftover rice, which is even easier. Sauté some onions, celery and bell pepper in a little olive oil until the vegetables are tender. Add chopped garlic and, if you’re feeling adventurous, a finely diced jalapeño, and sauté briefly. Then add sliced smoked sausage and the leftover turkey. Mix carefully, add a couple of cups of cooked rice, mix again, and heat until warmed through.

• Turkey pot pie. The simple way is to buy two frozen pie shells, add a can of cream of mushroom soup along with leftover turkey and whatever other vegetables are in the refrigerator, and bake for 40 minutes in a 400-degree oven. Less simple, but not difficult, is Jacques Pepin’s chicken pot pie (substituting turkey, of course) in “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home.”

Ask the wine guy

What wine goes best with turkey?

—Jeff Siegel