Rouses Magazine - Spring 2024 by Rouses Markets

SPRING 2024

The Seafood Issue

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“ As a local, independent grocery store, supporting local is at our core. When you buy from local farmers, fishermen and suppliers who — just like us — are locally owned, you’re not just making a purchase, you’re making a direct impact in your own community. ”

ARROW-CIRCLE-LEFT Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome presents Donny Rouse with a

proclamation highlighting the important role Rouses Markets played in increasing access to quality fresh nutritional food in North Baton Rouge.

I am thrilled to share the exciting news that Rouses Markets has been named one of the top independent grocery stores in the country by Progressive Grocer. Progressive Grocer has been a voice of the retail food industry since 1922. Before my grandfather, Anthony J. Rouse, Sr., opened his first store, he was in the produce shipping business. He and my great-grandfather, J.P. Rouse, who founded City Produce Company, would buy produce from local farmers in the area — some would be sold in the French Market, but most would be packed up on railcars and shipped out to other parts of the country. My grandfather and great-uncle Ciro took over City Produce in 1954 when J.P. Rouse died. They opened our family’s first grocery store in 1960. Named Ciro’s after my great-uncle, it was a 7,000-square-foot store in Houma, Louisiana. Fifteen years later, Ciro retired, sold his share of the business to my dad, Donald, and the store was renamed Rouses. Today we are one of the largest employers on the Gulf Coast, operating 64 stores across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, with over 7,000 dedicated team members. Leading this company is an honor. As a local, independent grocery store, supporting local is at our core. When you buy from local farmers, fishermen and suppliers who — just like us — are locally owned, you’re not just making a purchase, you’re making

a direct impact in your own community. Working with local people and businesses means we’re contributing to local job creation and giving a boost to the local economy. This commitment to local has allowed us to make a profound impact on the communities we serve. We recently opened a store in North Baton Rouge, addressing concerns about food deserts in Louisiana and filling a critical need in the community. The residents previously had to navigate substantial distances to access a supermarket. As a local, independent grocery store, we can respond to local needs and preferences, and that is very important to us. Big thanks to our incredible team! Your hard work and dedication are why we earned the Outstanding Independent title from Progressive Grocer and continue to be voted the Best Supermarket across Gulf Coast cities. It’s not just about our stores or products; it’s about your outstanding effort that helps make it all possible. Thanks to our loyal customers, too. This recognition as one of the top independents in the country is not just our personal achievement; it's a nod to the Gulf Coast communities we’re proud to serve. Your support is what makes it all matter, and we’re grateful for it.

CEO, 3rd Generation

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Creative Director & Editor Marcy Nathan Art Director & Design Eliza Schulze

Contributors MARCELLE BIENVENU

Illustrator Kacie Galtier Designer Mary Ann Florey Marketing Coordinator Harley Breaux Copy Editor Patti Stallard

Marcelle Bienvenu is a cookbook author and food writer. A native of St. Martinville, in the heart of Cajun country, Bienvenu wrote Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic and Can You Make a Roux? and Stir the Pot: The History of Cajun Cuisine with Eula Mae Dora, and other books and cookbooks. She also coauthored five cookbooks with Emeril Lagasse.

DAVID W. BROWN David W. Brown is a freelance writer whose work appears in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Scientific American and The New Yorker. His most recent book, The Mission: A True Story, a rollicking adventure about a motley band of explorers on a quest to find oceans on Europa, is in bookstores now. Brown lives in New Orleans.

LIZ THORPE Advertising & Marketing ron bonacci Tim Acosta Amanda Kennedy Stephanie Hopkins Nancy Besson Taryn Clement

Liz Thorpe is a world-class cheese expert. A Yale graduate, she left a “normal” job in 2002 to work the counter at New York’s famed Murray’s Cheese. She is the founder of The People’s Cheese, and author of The Book of Cheese: The Essential Guide to Discovering Cheeses You’ll Love and The Cheese Chronicles.

POPPY TOOKER Poppy Tooker is a native New Orleanian who has spent her life immersed in the vibrant colors and flavors of her state. Poppy spreads her message statewide and beyond via her NPR-affiliated radio show and podcast, Louisiana Eats!

GUIDRY’S CATFISH ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Guidry’s Catfish, Inc., located in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, had its origins

Cover photo by Romney Caruso 2

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in 1975, when Bobby and Debbie Guidry first placed catfish traps in the delta wetlands of the Atchafalaya Basin to earn extra income. In 1976, after doing thorough research on the catfish industry, Bobby Guidry began processing U.S. farm-raised catfish. Processing out of a 20' x 20' building, the Guidrys, along with a handful of family members and several close neighborhood friends, would work all day and into the night to process the 4,000 or so pounds of farm-raised catfish they had trucked in each day. A lot has changed since those days: Guidry’s now employs over 230 people and operates out of a 100,000-squarefoot, state-of-the-art facility. They process over 1.2 million pounds of fresh catfish a week. Bobby and Debbie’s children, the family business’s second generation, are now involved in the day-to-day operations and management of the company, and are helping to drive the company into the future.

Photo by Romney Caruso

Table of Contents In Every Issue 1 Letter from Donny Rouse 7 Letter from the Editor by Marcy Nathan 9 Cookin’ on Hwy. 1 with Tim Acosta 13 Just Roll with It by Ali Rouse Royster

Show & Tail 16 In a Pinch by David W. Brown 18 Folk Tails by David W. Brown 22 Sacks and the City by David W. Brown 26 Trap to Tray by David W. Brown 29 Queso con Seafood by Liz Thorpe

50 Fryday, Saturday, Sunday by David W. Brown 54 Shrimply Irresistible

Seafood for Thought 9 Hwy. 1 Boiled Crabs 31 Frank Brigtsen’s Queso Sauce 33 Seafood Dipping Sauce Smothered Grits with Crawfish 41 Poppy’s Crabmeat Ravigote Poppy’s Remoulade Sauce Poppy’s Trout Pecan Meunière Trout Meunière Amandine 55 Steamed Royal Reds 61 Barbecue Shrimp Poppy’s Barbeque Shrimp

33 Crawfish & Grits by Marcelle Bienvenu

62 Beanie’s BBQ Shrimp

36 Here, There & Meunière

63 Mai Tai

39 Pecan-Mandine by Poppy Tooker 40 Louisiana Eats with Poppy Tooker 46 The World Is Your Chargrilled Oyster

Crab Rangoon Dip with Wonton Chips 64 Shrimp Constantine 65 Coconut Shrimp

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START YOUR DAY the New Orleans way! Find us on the coffee aisle!

NEWORLEANSROAST.COM PJSCOFFEE.COM 6

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Letter from the Editor by Marcy Nathan, Rouses Markets Creative Director

THE CRAB HOUSE

When I was a child, my family rented the same house in Pensacola for one week every summer. The house sits right on the Santa Rosa Sound, surrounded by dunes covered in sea oats and switchgrass. You know how some people see a face in the façade of a house? It’s a phenomenon called pareidolia; it’s why you think the faucet in the tub is staring at you when you take a bath. We thought our beach house looked like a giant crab, with a covered porch for the mouth, windows for eyes, and a staircase and stilts for claws and legs. There is a round Futuro “UFO House” on Panferio Drive near the crab house. It actually looks like a spaceship. My grandfather set a crab trap 10 feet from the shore first thing every morning. He used chicken necks and turkey butts for bait, and secured it with a rope to a buoy. At breakfast he’d start a pool. Each of us got to pick a number out of a hat predicting how many crabs he’d trap that day. We couldn’t wait to see who won when he pulled the trap each afternoon. He made it a game. Instead of dumping the crabs into a bushel basket like most people did, he’d pour them out on the concrete under the house. The crabs would go scuttling, and we kids had to quickly collect them — and count them, of course, to determine which of us had won the pool. He’d taught us to step on them, then lift them from under their back legs to keep from getting pinched. Most days, my sisters and I and all our cousins swam in the sound while the adults sunbathed a shell’s throw away. Pensacola sand is sugar-fine, and we built elaborate sandcastles for

the conchs that washed up on shore at low tide, complete with underwater tunnels and moats. At least once a day we’d walk the stretch of beach around to the cove, filling baskets with shells of all shapes and sizes — including the occasional whole empty conch shell — or we’d walk the other way, down to the point by the tall condominiums. Some days my grandfather would take us to the gulf, where we’d spend hours dodging undertows and jellyfish and, once, a stingray. We rarely wore anything other than bathing suits, even when we went to the Pak-a-Sak within walking distance of the crab house, where we bought SweeTarts and candy necklaces and giant gemstone sucker rings. We occasionally went to the water park or a souvenir shop for tacky T-shirts. One year we even rented a motorcycle! We finished a steady stream of puzzles, and spent our evenings playing cards. Gin rummy, mostly. Gin was also the adult’s drink of choice; my mother mixed hers with Fresca. On the weekend we had a card tournament, with matches spread out across days of play and a grand prize of $5 — plus a silver medal, which was back up for grabs the next summer. As I got older we stopped going to Pensacola. I guess everyone just got too busy, or had other commitments, but my sisters and I have never forgotten those lazy summer days at the beach. They say you can’t go home again but that doesn’t keep us from trying. A few years ago, my sister Courtney and I went back to Pensacola. She and her family vacation there often, but nowadays I’m more likely to go to Destin or Orange Beach. As we walked the strip of beach from our hotel to the crab house we’d once thought of as our own, we talked about our mom and dad, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, gin rummy and gin and Fresca. The house had been partially rebuilt after Hurricane Ivan, which hit Pensacola as a category 3 storm. I was relieved to see the owners had kept the same design, but disappointed to see that the house looked like, well, a house — just a house. But one still filled with memories. W W W. R O U S E S . C O M

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Photo by Romney Caruso

Cookin’ on Hwy. 1

by Tim Acosta, Rouses Markets Advertising & Marketing Director

The beautiful thing about a stovetop shrimp boil is that you don’t have to go through the fuss of a full-scale crawfish boil. Here’s how I make a traditional Louisiana shrimp boil on my outdoor burner — or you can do it on a stovetop in your kitchen. Get five pounds of wild-caught local Gulf shrimp from the ice table display in our Rouses Seafood Department. We sell more wild-caught local Gulf shrimp than anyone else on the Gulf Coast, and they are always beautiful. I recommend cooking the shrimp in the shell, which adds flavor. Get a small container of fresh button mushrooms, a bag of small red potatoes, a couple of yellow onions, at least two whole heads of garlic (I like garlic), and a couple of lemons in the Produce Department. You can get fresh corn on the cob, too, but I usually use frozen. I also add Rouses Green Onion Smoked Sausage — except on a Friday during Lent. Now, you are going to need a large stockpot, not a crawfish boil pot. I have a 16-quart stockpot that I use for shrimp; I also use it for lobsters. It’s the right size for gumbo, too. Fill the pot no more than halfway with water (for a 16-quart pot, that’s 8 quarts) and turn burner to high. Add Rouses Down the Bayou Seafood Boil. This is where most of the flavor for the shrimp boil comes from. It’s a kind of dump-it-in magic that transforms the water into a flavorful broth. You can add a couple of bay leaves (just because that’s how we cook on the Gulf Coast), some hot sauce and a couple of tablespoons of Cajun Power Garlic Sauce for more flavor — this is optional, but it’s how I like my seafood: cooked and spiced. With shrimp, I always add about half a cup of Italian dressing. You could use oil instead, but the dressing adds a little more flavor; the dressing (or oil) will also make the peeling process easier. The vinegar in the hot sauce helps too. Halve the lemons and onions, slice into the garlic halfway from the side to expose more of the cloves, and cut the smoked sausage (if using) into 1½- to 2-inch pieces. You can leave the potatoes whole if they are small. Otherwise, cut them into chunks.

Add the lemon, onions, garlic, smoked sausage and potatoes to the pot, and bring the water to a boil. Let it boil for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and add the shrimp, mushrooms and frozen corn. Replace the lid. Once you see steam coming out it means the water is approaching a boil. Start your timer. Two minutes later, kill the heat and toss in some ice. You may have to go an extra 30 seconds to a minute more for larger shrimp. You’ll know the shrimp are ready when they are separating from their shells. Let the shrimp soak for 10 minutes before removing from the water or draining. Serve with a traditional dipping sauce — a simple yet addictive accompaniment that is also great with fried fish. And, yes, with crawfish too. We have a Rouses Markets Bayou Dipping Sauce, specifically designed for seafood. If you prefer to make the sauce at home, there is a recipe on page 33.

HWY. 1 BOILED CRABS Serves 12-24

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 3-4 dozen fresh Gulf blue crabs 1 4.5-pound container Rouses Seafood Boil 1 8-ounce bottle Zatarain’s Concentrated Shrimp and Crab Boil 1 16-ounce bottle hot sauce 1 bag small red potatoes, about 3 pounds 3 pounds yellow onions, halved 1 stalk celery, root removed, cut into quarters 6 lemons, halved 8 ears frozen mini corn on the cob or 3 fresh ears corn, cut into thirds 1½ pounds Rouses Green Onion Smoked Sausage, cut in chunks 1-2 large bags ice 80-quart boiling pot HOW TO PREP: Fill boiling pot halfway with water. Fill boiling pot halfway with water. Add the seafood boil, shrimp and crab boil, and the hot sauce. Place lid on the pot and set propane burner on high. Bring water to a rolling boil. Continue boiling 8 minutes. Remove lid and add the crabs, vegetables (except the corn), lemon and sausage. Replace the lid and bring water back to a rolling boil. Remove the lid and add the corn. Replace the lid and continue cooking for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and shut off the flame. Add ice to the pot to stop the crabs from cooking. Crack a beer and wait while the crabs soak for 10 minutes to absorb the seasoning. Pull the basket out of the water, let drain, and serve. W W W. R O U S E S . C O M

! d e i f i t r e c y u b

Buy Local certifiedlouisiana.org

PA R T M E N T

F O R E S T RY

ELEVATE EVERY DAY WITH CERTIFIED PRODUCTS. Look for the Certified logos in Rouses Markets to support Louisiana businesses and families, and celebrate our state!

R I C U LT U R

MIKE STRAIN, DVM COMMISSIONER

DAIRY-FREE GARLICKY GRILLED CHEESE PREP TIME: 10 MIN

PORTIONS: 1

INGREDIENTS • 2 Violife Just Like Cheddar Slices • 2 tbsp Country Crock® Plant Butter with Avocado Oil • 1–2 tbsp olive oil

• • • •

1 garlic clove, sliced 2 slices sourdough bread 1 tomato, sliced Your favorite garlic aioli sauce, to serve

DIRECTIONS 1. Heat a large griddle pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil and the Country Crock® Plant Butter with Avocado Oil along with the sliced garlic. 2. Add the bread slices and grill for 2–4 minutes on each side until nice and golden, and then turn down the heat. 3. Start assembling your sandwich in the pan! Top both slices of bread with one Violife Just Like Cheddar Slice. Then add a slice of tomato on top of the cheese. Cover with a pan to brown the bread and let the cheese steam. © 2024 Upfield

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4. Once bread is browned to your liking, place one half of the sandwich on top of the other to make a handheld sandwich. Cover with a lid and let steam in the pan for 1–2 minutes so cheese can continue to melt on low heat. 5. When the slices have melted nicely, remove sandwich from the pan and serve with garlic aioli sauce on the side.

Visit Violifefoods.com for more recipe inspiration

INDULGE IN THE SMOOTH

PICK-ME-UP YOU CRAVE. AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL ROUSES

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Jazz up the party with Red Beans & Rice!

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Just Roll with It By Ali Rouse Royster, 3rd Generation

Picture it: Summer 2020. You all know what was going on back then. My children, who were then three, four and five years old, had been home since mid-March. My boys were sporting unfortunate home haircuts. We’ve watched all of the streaming. We have cooked 10,000 homemade meals. So when my five-yearold adventurous eater asks, “Mom, can we have sushi for dinner?” (to him that means a very tame California roll, which I know is not technically sushi), I say: “Absolutely.” We are game for anything to mix up our dinner routine at this point! And then I say: “We’ve got nothing but time; why don’t we try making sushi?! What could go wrong?” (Cut to a montage of all our upcoming mishaps in the kitchen.) We googled. Realizing we needed just one special tool, a sushi rolling mat, we ordered. We found all our ingredients at our local Rouses. We made our own rice. We mixed our own crab-with-a-k. And then the fun part: Let’s put it on seaweed paper and roll it all up and enjoy! We sharpened our best knife, and wet it before using. (I have since invested in new knives.) Well, wouldn’t you know. There’s an art to rolling and cutting sushi that I decidedly did not pick up from the two YouTube videos I watched as my “training.” I have always appreciated the culinary expertise of chefs, but have a newfound deep appreciation for the finger-muscle strength and knife skills of our sushi chefs at all our favorite local sushi joints, including the fine folks at the sushi counters at Rouses. So when my oldest asks me, now that he’s nine, “Mom, how about sushi?” — the answer may still be “Absolutely,” and it will be fresh-made and hand-rolled that same day, but we are going to know our role and make a little Rouses run for that California roll. W W W. R O U S E S . C O M

Available in 20 oz., 32 oz. and 64 oz. sizes

@2024 Evamor Products, LLC

In a Pinch By David W. Brown As you probably know by now, this has been a tough season for crawfish. The bottom line, however, is that while the season is unusual, it is not canceled. The crawfish industry is made up of small family businesses, and Rouses has been working closely with many of them for decades. This year, we are partnered with more than 20 different crawfish vendors to make sure that as the yields increase, our shoppers are the first to benefit.

“W

hat Rouses customers can depend on is that we always get the very best of what’s out there,” said Denise Englade, the director of seafood for Rouses Markets, “and just like every crawfish season, we are the place to come for the best price and quality.”

One word that describes the situation, however, is “unprecedented,” she said. “It’s just something no one’s ever seen before. The kind of drought and then heat and then freeze that we went through in 2023 and into 2024, it all just continued to pile up and snowball, one negative impact after another on the crawfish industry. We’ve never really seen anything like this, so no one really knew what to expect.” So how did we get here? You probably recall the AC-slaying drought this past summer, during which time the sun roasted our lush state into a scorched, arid tableau. It was a summer so severe it bordered on the theatrical. Remember the salt wedge? It was a bizarre, typically New Orleans crisis. The drought caused the Mississippi River to fall to perilously low levels, allowing saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico to intrude upstream — far enough to threaten the city’s drinking

CRAWFISH AND RICE ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT What does rice have in common with crawfish? More than

it does with étouffée! Both rice and crawfish thrive in soils with sufficient clay content, which is crucial for water retention. The crawfish actively contribute to the water quality of rice fields, stirring up sediments and enhancing oxygenation, fostering a healthier ecosystem for both rice and crawfish. In this integrated system, rice is planted in March. When it reaches a height of about six inches, water is pumped in. Live crawfish are introduced in May. The crawfish mate in the open waters of the rice field before burrowing beneath the rice. This helps them to weather the summer heat and also ensures their safety during the rice harvest. The rice fields remain flooded until mid-summer, when they are drained, preceding the rice harvest in late July or August. The fields 16

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water supply. To combat this, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reinforced an underwater barrier to halt the saltwater’s progression, and rain did come — eventually. In the end, the worst was averted…for us. But while we muddled through on snowballs and triple-digit electric bills, the crawfish in the basins and rice farms became unwitting actors in a drama of survival. First, the dry ground caused underground burrows, where crawfish usually spend the summer reproducing, to crack open, harming their habitats. Second, the lack of rain increased the salt levels in water sources used to flood crawfish ponds. (Farmers generally depend on surface water for irrigation.) This was understandably hard on the crawfish, especially the smaller ones. Additionally, there were concerns about the health of rice, grasses and other forages that crawfish feed on during the winter, as these too were affected by the hot, dry conditions. It was bad all around, and we are still feeling the effects. In the end, about 45,000 acres of crawfish ponds were directly affected, and another 43,000 acres became inaccessible for fishing due to dry ponds or saltwater intrusion. Farmers did the best they could, flushing fields with water to reduce

are then reflooded to draw the crawfish out of their holes. The crawfish feed on the recently cut rice stubble, which is the vegetative part of the rice plant that remains after the harvest. DID YOU KNOW? ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Louisiana is among the top three rice-producing

states in the country, behind Arkansas and California (Mississippi is the sixth-largest rice-producing state). Jefferson Davis and Acadia parishes in Southwest Louisiana are particularly well-suited for rice production. Recognized as the “Rice Capital of the World,” Crowley, in Acadia Parish, hosts the International Rice Festival.

cracking and maintain moisture, but these efforts came with their own challenges. The situation led to a later-than-normal season for crawfish, with reduced yields, and at great economic cost. From Denise’s desk, it was a hard thing to watch. “We heard early on that the drought meant the salt level was too high in the canals that farmers draw from to flood the fields. When I would talk to the vendors about supplies coming back up, every week they would tell me, ‘Maybe next week,’” she explained. “Thankfully, recovery will come, but it’s a longer timeline than anyone wants. It’s very disheartening for the season, but it’s just this season. There have just been a lot of bad things happening at once.” As a result, there are simply fewer crawfish than usual, which means they cost more than ever. “One farmer sent me a message with a picture of a little tiny crawfish in his hand, and another picture with a normal-sized one,” she said. “He told me they’re seeing a lot of the one and not enough of the other, and it’s really cost-prohibitive for them to send a team out for 12 hours and only get two sacks.”

"What Rouses customers can depend on is that we always get the very best of what’s out there, and just like every crawfish season, we are the place to come for the best price and quality.” – Denise Englade, Director of Seafood for Rouses Markets Rouses is still in the crawfish business, though. "We’re still selling crawfish as they arrive, at the best prices, and still boiling them in stores as they become available," she told me. "The season started much later than expected, but we’re hoping to see a good amount of crawfish this year." Because crawfish are the heart of so many family traditions, and the center of the Louisiana culinary scene, we’re all a little impatient. “Normally by December, crawfish are abundant enough that they’re starting to fill Rouses locations in the bayou area. That didn’t happen this time, and that was kind of the first, ‘Oh my,’” Denise says. “Then we went through December and it was like, okay, we’re going to have some by the end of December. Then the first of January. Then mid-January. And so on — everyone was learning the extent of the season’s troubles as we went. No one really knew what to

expect because it had never happened before. In the crawfish business, you don’t know how a season will go until farmers and fishermen start to harvest product.” What’s bad for crawfish is good for other seafood, however. “The saltwater has been great for oysters this year,” says Denise. “The higher salt content means oysters are really tasting better than ever. That’s a positive, I guess you could say. And shrimp, which are caught in the Gulf of Mexico, have been in abundance this year, at a better cost than we have seen in a while.” As for crawfish, we are going to look back on this year as an oddity. “This is not the new normal,” Denise says. “Next year crawfish will be back to business as usual.”

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Photo by Romney Caruso

Folk Tails By David W. Brown

ou might be surprised to learn that the Cajuns were not the first to look

at a crawfish and think: “Hmm, that looks tasty. I think I will eat 200

of them for dinner.” Still, crawfish proved the perfect food for the Cajuns when they got to Louisiana, in that it was cheap, nutritious and an ideal canvas for the application of French culinary techniques. But if the Cajuns didn’t eat them first, who did? And anyway, where did all these Cajuns, with their strange appetites and great recipes, come from anyway? And why do people associate all this with the city of New Orleans? The answers are a little more complicated than you might expect, and involve three big journeys.

STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND The Cajuns came to Louisiana when the British kicked them out of the Acadia colony of New France in 1755. That is a bigger deal than it might seem. Acadia wasn’t a colony in the way Jamestown was a colony — a few buildings, a blacksmith, a church and some walls to keep out invaders. Rather, it was a colony the way Virginia was a colony, and was about the same size. Meanwhile, New France wasn’t some tiny fly-by-night patch of ground, or little island, claimed by some guy with a boat and a flag. At the time, New France was the largest empire in the history of North America by contiguous geography, by far, clocking in at 3,000,000 square miles — about the size of the continental United States today. So, what happened? Claiming land isn’t the same as controlling land. Particularly in the New World in the 18th century, territory was aspirational and, in reality, you only owned as much as your last war revealed. (George Washington taught the British this lesson in 1783, for example.) So even though the empire of New France was large geographically, its population was very small. Depending on alliances in Europe and wars in the New World, anyone at any time could claim or chip away at anyone else’s holdings. And the British really, really wanted the strategically located Acadia (today, Nova Scotia in Canada). Before the British expelled the Acadians, the feisty French fought with them for 45 years. Finally, during the French and Indian War, the British gained the upper hand. The land was thus seized. When the dust settled, the Brits gave the Acadians a chance to sign oaths of allegiance to King George II. The Acadians refused (better dead than redcoat), and the British banished them in what was called “Le Grand Dérangement.” It was a pretty traumatic affair. As they left their homes, thousands of French colonists died from disease, in firefights, and on board sinking ships. Though the Acadians went all over the place, the best of them ended up in modern-day Louisiana.

The name “Houma” is a Choctaw word meaning “red,” and the tribe’s symbol was — you guessed it — a crawfish. It represented bravery. The Houma, who had been doing it for centuries in the South, excelled at harvesting crawfish and other seafood. MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE BAYOUS Speaking of having your land stolen, the Acadians were not the first to set foot here. Before Europeans arrived in the New World, several American Indian tribes owned Louisiana, including the Chitimacha, Atakapa, Caddo, Choctaw, Natchez, Tunica and Houma. The Houma migrated to modern-day Baton Rouge from Mississippi and Alabama, and had a rough go of it overall, fighting with other tribes, and eventually having to deal with the Europeans steadily encroaching as well. (The Houma and the Bayagoula tribes marked the border of their hunting grounds with red poles — those rouge batons would later give the city its name.) In the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Houma had moved almost entirely to remote areas that today are part of Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, in the southernmost part of the state. Eventually, the Houma established Ouiski Bayou, a settlement near what is now Downtown Houma. The Spanish at this time claimed to own the land, but “gave” it to the Houma, and when French settlers — most notably, the Acadians — came to the region, they even called the community Houma. (I should note that this is the simple version, W W W. R O U S E S . C O M

and all this happened over the course of a hundred years.) The Houma and the Acadians were all pioneers — they came in small groups and had to subdue some seriously hostile lands amid multiple wars being waged all around them. I don’t need to tell you that things didn’t go great for the tribes. Spanish Louisiana territory returned to the French in 1803, who then sold it to the United States, who did not honor the Spanish agreement with the Houma people. How does this relate to crawfish? The name “Houma” is a Choctaw word meaning “red,” and the tribe’s symbol was — you guessed it — a crawfish. It represented bravery. The Houma, who had been doing it for centuries in the South, excelled at harvesting crawfish and other seafood. It was a pretty useful skill that their new Acadian neighbors learned as well. By all accounts I could find, the Acadians and the Houma had cordial relations. This was a tough, sparsely populated place, and cooperation, cultural exchange and intermarriage were common behaviors for generations. (That is one reason why your grandmother insists that you are ¹⁄16 Choctaw, regardless of what 23andMe says.) There are other crawfish origin stories as well. According to Cajun folklore, crawfish were not waiting for the Acadians when they got here. Rather, they brought the beloved bug with them, though in a different form. As the fairytale goes, when the British kicked out the Acadians, the lobsters went with them. (I mean, it’s not like the British know how to cook anything, and if you’re going to be boiled and eaten, at least die to become magnificent cuisine.) As the lobsters journeyed to Louisiana, leaving behind the cold Atlantic waters, they began transforming magically, and by the time they reached the warm bayous of Louisiana, they were well-adapted to their new environment, much as the Acadians had likewise transformed. Regardless of whether crawfish were magic lobsters or already here, the point is, when the Acadians arrived, they weren’t the first to eat them. What they likely were first to do, however, is prepare crawfish with French panache. It didn’t take long for the Acadians to apply what they knew about cooking lobsters to cooking crawfish. 2 0 R O U S E S S P R I N G 20 24

The Houma’s war emblem, the crawfish (Image from LSU Library) To clear up one more thing: No one likely called the Acadians “Cajuns” for another hundred years. That word came along during the Civil War, when northern soldiers came to town. Historians found one of the first recorded uses of the word in a letter from a Union lieutenant, who described a typical Cajun as a “half-savage creature, of mixed French and Indian blood, lives in swamps and subsists by cultivating small patches of corn and sweet potatoes. The wants of the Cajun are few, and his habits are simple...” This remains pretty accurate overall. During all this, there was one more big journey in store for the crawfish. The Houma had already mastered the humble crustacean, and the Acadians had given it the French culinary razzle-dazzle, but it took New Orleans to launch the creature into the stratosphere. THE CRESCENT CITY Just as it’s hard to imagine the scale of Acadia or New France, it is almost impossible to understate the importance of the city of New Orleans to the United States of America. Before the Civil War, it was the wealthiest city in the nation, and the third-most populous. It was a vital port for the country with a strategic location crucial for both national and international trade,

particularly with respect to goods like cotton and sugar from the Southern states and grain from the Midwest. The port of New Orleans was one of the busiest on Earth, and the cotton exchange here was likewise one of the largest. The city, quite simply, was the major financial center for the South and the Midwest, and one of the USA’s key interfaces with the world. It probably even had good roads back then. Things have changed quite a bit. Though the Civil War proved ruinous for much of the South, by the mid 1900s, the economy of New Orleans yet again seemed unstoppable, largely due to its port. Moreover, the discovery of oil in the Gulf of Mexico during that time further boosted the city’s economic prospects. New Orleans became a key player in the oil industry, with companies establishing bases here, creating jobs and fueling growth. The city was seen by many scholars as a burgeoning hub of prosperity, with the chance of one day surpassing in all aspects nearly any city in America, and most cities in the world. Then the oil bust came. The collapse of oil prices led to a severe, immediate economic collapse. It is hard to imagine a more significant setback. It wasn’t just the oil companies. In the government sector, the subsequent end of the Space Shuttle program meant NASA would likewise no longer be an anchor in the area. Then a series of catastrophes, the

Chief William Thomas Dion United Houma Nation magazine would be twice as long if I did.)

Image from United Houma Nation. worst of which was Hurricane Katrina, just proved too much for New Orleans to endure. The city never had a chance to diversify its economy or politics sufficiently to recover from the myriad disasters, whether economic or ecologic. And yet so great is the cultural import of New Orleans that decades of consecutive calamities have not diminished its status as a true “world city” with the most distinct, specific and potent culture in North America. And that is most obvious in the culinary sphere. From its humble Houma and Cajun origins, crawfish over the centuries found its way organically into the kitchens of the best chefs in New Orleans. Because we are a vital hub of national and international trade, the centuries have seen a mélange of cultures, ethnicities, culinary palates and strange ingredients converge in this single place on America’s map. The lowly crawfish

gradually became a cornerstone of the city’s burgeoning, and eventually dominant, Creole style of cooking — itself a sophisticated blend of French, Spanish, African, Caribbean and Native American influences. The integration of crawfish into Creole cooking gained unstoppable momentum with the city’s economic ascent. The food landscape here over the centuries evolved specifically to celebrate local ingredients. By the 20th century, crawfish was the undisputed king of culinary New Orleans. Crawfish by then was not merely a peasant’s food for the provincial Cajuns, but rather, cosmopolitan cuisine worthy of a global audience. Today, the crustacean is intrinsic to Louisiana’s cultural identity. Let’s face it: The four seasons in Louisiana are crawfish, hurricane, football and summer — the latter lasting 12 months, with varying degrees of intensity. (I had intended to list all the crawfish festivals in the state, but the

A few things helped really intensify the crawfish phenomenon. First, the cold supply chain — things like refrigerated trucks — got better at moving around a living product from a few towns in South Louisiana to the entire region. Second, people like Chef Paul Prudhomme popularized Cajun cuisine internationally like few others before, and quite frequently his star ingredient was indeed crawfish. Lastly, because New Orleans remains an important world city, people travel from around the globe and experience our favorite native insect during such events as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and, of course, Mardi Gras. In the end, the crawfish phenomenon speaks to the best part of Louisiana culture: that we are all in it together. To make crawfish what it is today, it took nations from here and around the world; the rural and the urban; the rich and the downtrodden; and the oppressed and the wealthy. And today, we likewise all celebrate it the same way: in cardboard trays on sunny days, with friends and family and cold drinks and good spirits. Perhaps, then, the legends were right. Maybe crawfish is a magical creature after all.

“My grandpa, William Thomas Dion, left an indelible mark as a devoted member of the Houmas Indian tribe and a staunch advocate for Houma Indian education rights during the 1970s. A man of genuine care and profound passion, Grandpa Tom had a deep commitment to the betterment of our community, and a vision for us on many platforms. We continue to draw inspiration from him.” — Tiffany Parfait Reed, Rouses Markets Human Resources, and member, United Houma Nation W W W. R O U S E S . C O M

Sacks and the City By David W. Brown It is almost impossible to imagine a time when crawfish was not as ubiquitous in New Orleans as fleurs-de-lis or Louis Armstrong. Until the 1950s, however, if you wanted crawfish in this town, you first had to drive out to the swamps, find a fisherman, buy a sack, bring it home, figure out how to cook it, and — most daunting of all — figure out how to eat it. In truth, however, it likely never would have occurred to you to do any of this in the first place, because crawfish was considered peasant food and had no place in the world of cosmopolitan cuisine. All that changed, in large part, because of the work of one man, who not only popularized the Cajun staple in the city, but in doing so changed the New Orleans cultural and culinary scene forever. His name is Alfred Scramuzza — the selfproclaimed “emperor of crawfish” — and the visionary founder of the iconic Seafood City.

ccording to Scramuzza family lore, the whole thing began as an accident. Before Al got into the crawfish business, he sold produce and other seafoods. One day, a wholesaler came by with sacks in the back of his truck. He offered Al the chance to sell the crawfish — and Al almost turned him down. Who would buy such a thing? The wholesaler, a little desperate, said something like: “Well, how ’bout we do it on consignment, cher? Ya don’t pay me nothin’ ’less ya manage to sell ’ em. Dey prob’ly just gonna go to waste anyhow.”

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What the Cajun didn’t realize was that he was dealing with a world-class operator. “My grandfather was a big-time hustler and real good salesman,” said Tony Scramuzza, Al’s grandson and the owner of Scramuzza’s Seafood in Kenner. “He still has that great big personality. He wasn’t ever afraid to go through with an idea he had, even if people thought it was ‘out there’ and crazy — he’d just go full speed with it, and never let other people’s doubts affect it. He went full force.” Al was a first-rate showman. To entice buyers, he paid kids to dangle crawfish from fishing poles over the sidewalk as people

walked by. At the end of the day, that first batch of crawfish was sold, Al paid the fisherman, and the next day bought more. It ramped up from there. In part, that salesman’s mentality was a result of Al’s upbringing. “He grew up poor in the French Quarter,” said Tony of his grandfather. A child of the Great Depression, Al’s family’s situation was made worse when his father took off in the early 1930s. His mom tried to keep the family together, but food was scarce and the situation became increasingly dire by the day. They’d steal scraps of food when

they could — okra, peppers, potatoes — but one by one, he and his siblings were sent elsewhere. His sister became a nun, and he and his brothers ended up in Hope Haven, an orphanage in Marrero on Barataria Boulevard. Around this time is also when Al first learned to boil crawfish. It was a poor man’s food — a trash food — and the young Scramuzza was indeed a poor man. But crawfish was ideal for the circumstances because, if you were an enterprising boy, you or your neighbors could go out and catch the crawfish yourselves, and pilfer scraps from produce stands, and ply the boil with seasonings until it resembled something like food. It could turn into a neighborhood event, and the hungry could get a good meal.

in deep, deep Cajun country; French was the dominant language in almost every household. When Al got there, he started striking up deals to buy up as much crawfish from the local fishermen as he could afford, to bring back to the city. In those days, the price of crawfish was something like three cents per pound. After that, Al was off to the races. It doesn’t take Morgus the Magnificent to know that, for Louisianans of a certain age, there are a few jingles that trigger Pavlovian responses. If I sing, “Rosenberg’s, Rosenberg’s…” you’ll respond: “1825 Tulane.” If I say, “You’ll have to see the Special Man!” you will say: “Let her have it.”

And if I say, “Seafood City, very pretty,” you will say: “1826 North Broad.” As it turned out, simply bringing crawfish to the city wasn’t enough. Al Scramuzza could sell dozens of sacks a day, but he was thinking bigger; and for that, he had to teach the city that crawfish was more than a weird food eaten by backward Cajuns. Let’s face it: They’re not the most appetizing creatures before they go into the pot. So to get the city on board, Al had to get creative. He moved the company to a building on Broad Street at the corner of St. Bernard, and eventually called it Seafood City. The fishing poles were a mainstay, as were a kind of rolling master class in how to cook the

“That may have been part of what started his drive as he matured,” said Tony. “Part of growing up that way and having to learn how to hustle and make something out of nothing — that’s what he did.” The drive — and also the ability to teach New Orleanians how to boil crawfish — helped Al find fast success selling them by the sack. Soon, he was outpacing his Cajun supplier and decided to go straight to the source: The fishermen at the docks. Bayou Pigeon is culturally about as far from New Orleans in 1950 as you can get without a passport. Adjacent to the Atchafalaya Basin in the southernmost tip of Iberville Parish, it was (and remains today) a fishing village

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At its height, Seafood City could sell 50,000 pounds of crawfish on a Saturday, not even counting the myriad other creatures of the local sea it carried.

things, with Al explaining times and temperatures and ingredients and seasonings. To eyes in 2024, this seems unbelievable, when crawfish suffuses the New Orleans culinary landscape and we just pick up the basics by cultural osmosis; but in a pre-Internet world, where everyone’s uncle didn’t own a crawfish pot, how would you even begin to know where to start? Look, anyone can sell a product. But the salesman became a veritable ambassador for the lowly crawfish hole. And over time, his empire grew to take up the entire block. Scramuzza had something that comes along rarely, but when it does, burns white hot: He was a showman of, by and for the city of New Orleans. In the broader landscape, Seafood City wasn’t just a place to buy seafood; it became a cultural hub: a place where the community’s love for food and festivity converged. Scramuzza understood the soul of the city — our love of celebration and family gatherings, and our city’s deeprooted culinary traditions and its openness to new experiences. To fully create the crawfish culture in the city and then transform the culinary landscape, Scramuzza turned to television. It’s worth noting that crawfish wasn’t the only business that he went full bore into. Over the years, said his grandson, he started a record label (Scram Records). He painted Christmas trees. He founded a production company (Muzza Productions). He even ran for the state legislature. (“Don’t be a looza, vote for Scramuzza.”) So making commercials was right up his alley. He wrote them, starred in them, and sang in them. As New Orleans blogger Chuck Taggart once transcribed the famous jingle: Seeeafoood City is-a verrry pretty,

crawfish, saying to the creature in full-blown Yat-speak: “Yoo arrrite…” and then brushing its teeth. “Force of nature” is an overused expression, but I’m not sure how else to describe the man or what he was doing. As Seafood City grew in the ’60s and early ’70s, Al was like a one-man band suddenly leading an orchestra. And he wasn’t just writing commercials and making deals. Behind the scenes, he was doing the job of a small businessman — even boiling the crawfish. “Once you get big in the seafood industry, it kind of consumes you,” said Tony. “You’ve got to really go 100% to get where he got.” Al would frequently be there alone, boiling all night, thanks to Seafood City’s unique setup in the back. “He set up his boiling room and — look, it was a crazy situation back there, man. They had all kinds of conveyor belts, where basically one person could boil a lot of seafood. It was almost like a mini factory of a boiler room. There were hoists and such where one person could lift the big baskets of seafood and dump them on the tables to get it all sorted and ready for the next day.” At its height, Seafood City could sell 50,000 pounds of crawfish on a Saturday, not even counting the myriad other creatures of the local sea it carried.

At the end, a crowd of people would sing the kicker: 1826 North Broad!

“We did a humongous business there,” Al told The Times-Picayune in 2017. “We sold seafood. We shipped seafood. We were wading in seafood; that’s how much we used to handle. We sold billions of pounds of crawfish every season. Not millions. Billions.”

The marketing was both ahead of its time and strangely perfect for the city. The commercials were more than mere advertisements: they were mini-events, full of humor, local flair, catchy tunes, slogans and jingles. You’ve got disco music playing in the background, a distinct local dressed as a doctor and holding a stethoscope to a

At the same time, Scramuzza was shaping the nature of the crawfish market. It was essentially an entirely new product. People didn’t know how to buy them, sell them, cook them, peel them or serve them. There were no expectations of price because they weren’t really being sold anywhere else. Today we live in a world that he helped create.

Down at Broad ‘n St. B’nawd, Stay with Al Scramuzza and you’ll nevuh be a loosuh…

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In 2017, at Al’s 90th birthday celebration, Billy Nungesser (then-lieutenant governor of Louisiana) presented Al with the Louisiana Seafood Ambassador award. In response, Al declared that there are too many “crawfish kings” out there, and that he is the “Crawfish Emperor.” Who could argue with that? In Louisiana, seafood is almost always a family business. Al and his future wife, Sarah, met as teenagers in the French Quarter, where they both grew up, in the 1940s. They later had four children. Though none of the kids took over the Seafood City empire, and Al closed its doors in 1994, the Scramuzza family wasn’t finished with crawfish just yet. “My grandfather had closed the business when I was real young,” Tony told me in an interview. “I was never interested in it, and never thought I would get into it. In fact, I always thought the opposite.” Though the Scramuzza family represents one of the great cultural success stories of the city and they were hard workers, they weren’t loaded, and there was no empire to hand to anyone after Seafood City closed. And anyway, Tony wanted to find his own path in life. His background is as varied as his grandfather’s. He worked construction. He was a mechanic. He did valet. He worked in EMS. He was a bartender.

for too long, either, because then it goes to waste. There’s a real fine balance that you have to have in a crawfish business.” His grandfather was obviously an important mentor. “I’ve been doing this maybe six or seven years now, and those first few years he really helped me a lot. Some things I was hardheaded about — maybe I didn’t listen and I should have! But a lot of things, I listened to as much as I could, and he’s really guided me and helped me learn a lot of little details that I wouldn’t have known, and [that] could have been costly mistakes.” In the seafood business, he says, you’ve got to kind of be able to foresee a lot of things, and plan meticulously. As soon as you miss that sale, the customer is going to go to somebody else for their crawfish. That’s not even counting the slow seasons and how to navigate them.

Al Scramuzza and Donald Rouse at the Rouses Grand Opening in Gretna, LA in 2014. Fate stepped in when he and his grandfather were coaching together at the Johnny Bright Playground in Metairie about 10 years ago. Al coached everything — always had — and had continued doing so until he turned 90 (which is as good a time to stop as any). It was part of the community-mindedness of the Scramuzza family, and applied to everything from sports to crawfish boils to rebuilding houses after Katrina. “My grandfather was always big on praying, and big on being positive,” said Tony. During this time, people kept pestering his grandfather to put out a crawfish boil seasoning, because the one they used at Seafood City literally defined the flavor of crawfish for a generation, and people were nostalgic for it. That is when the Scramuzza family started working with Rouses Markets. “When he decided to actually do it, I helped him with it,” said Tony. “It was a big deal when we got it into Rouses, and the product was really doing all right.” Seafood City’s boil seasoning had 14 ingredients in it, Tony told me, where most only have four or five and, unlike non-local seasoning, their boil didn’t pad their bags with salt, which after a certain point is just filler to make people feel like they bought

more than they actually did. The Seafood City boil leaned heavily on Italian herbs, representing the family’s roots and giving it a distinct profile. In the end, they decided against continuing the product, however. “My grandfather was getting close to 90 by then, and I was still kind of young and learning business,” said Tony. “Eventually we decided to get away from it, but the whole experience sparked my appetite for business.” Instead, Tony decided to get into the industry his grandfather established here so long ago. “I started peddling crawfish, and it just kind of took off from there,” he said. Today Scramuzza’s Seafood, whose storefront is on Idaho Avenue in Kenner, is the largest supplier of crawfish for Rouses Markets. Though his surname helped recognition of his company early on, crawfish is not an easy business to be in, said Tony. The competition is fierce. It takes a long time to build a group of reputable, reliable crawfish farmers and fishermen. Everything is perishable, and you’ve got to deal with a lot of weight and at a very fast pace.

For Tony, the first few years of business were all about grinding and putting in the hours to get everything going. He certainly learned about a strong work ethic from his grandfather. “I worked with him after Katrina redoing houses, doing sports, selling seasoning — he definitely taught me about how to work hard and get stuff done. I don’t even realize, sometimes, just how ingrained those things are in me at this point.” Today, the two are talking about marketing, where the elder Scramuzza shined like few others in the city. And those wild commercials that helped define crawfish in New Orleans remain important to the Scramuzza family as well. “We still, every holiday, get together and watch the commercials on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day,” he said. “We get a great laugh at their creativity and how good my grandfather was.” There are lessons to be learned there for the young businessman. And one thing is for certain: Al Scramuzza’s imprint on New Orleans cuisine is for all time. Very pretty indeed.

“You’ve got to have the product when people need it,” he said, “but you don’t want to sit around with a perishable product W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 2 5

GASPARD

egardless of whether it’s a slow season or one that’s wide open, in the crawfish business, it’s all about size.

“Everybody likes the nice ones, man,” said Jason Gaspard, the owner of Gaspard Seafood. To be successful in the crawfish business, you have to be good not only at sizing up a sack of crawfish, but doing so very, very quickly. “We’re looking at hundreds and hundreds of sacks a day, depending on the time of year. You have to look at that sack and, in a matter of seconds, determine if it’s going to have good crawfish.” When the crawfish professionals are checking out a fisherman’s haul, they’re looking at a few key things. “Every sack is going to be a mix; you’ll have some small, some big, some medium,” Gaspard told me. “You just don’t want a sack where it’s a lot of little ones.” Then there’s the smell test. “We’ve been doing this for so long. We know our fishermen and farmers — these aren’t fly-by-night people. We have great relationships with them, and they’re giving us fresh product, but you’re dealing with live product, and things happen.” Families are the backbone of the crawfish industry, and Gaspard Seafood is no exception. The company was born in the late

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1980s, started by Jason’s father, Paul Gaspard, who had fished crawfish since childhood. Back then, there just weren’t a lot of crawfish to buy in Marksville, Louisiana, where they lived, and Jason’s father and uncles would fish around the nearby bayous. “Farm-raised crawfish wasn’t a big thing yet,” said Jason. When the more traditional fishing spots had a bad year, his father saw an opening in the market and got to work. “That gave him his ‘in,’ and he got in his little pickup truck and just started opening up accounts. The business grew from there.” Paul started selling crawfish, wholesaling it. As the years grew, he started buying crawfish from everywhere because you never know when they’re going to be good, when they’re going to be bad, when they’re going to be small, when they’re not going to be plentiful. Jason started working for his dad around 1997, and the father-son duo continued growing the company. Gaspard Seafood has been partnered with Rouses Markets for about 20 years now, bringing their Louisiana crawfish to the local community. Jason’s father died two years ago. Today, Jason runs the company, which is now based out of Crowley, Louisiana. “Every sack we get in used to pass through my dad’s eyes or hands. Every sack goes through my hands now,” he said. Today, Gaspard Seafood buys crawfish from the rice farmers who grow crawfish, and from the fishermen that fish in the Atchafalaya around Belle River and Pierre Part, Louisiana. The small ones go to a peeling plant in Breaux Bridge, and the good stuff goes

onto trucks to sell the next morning. It is a 70-person operation — and a sophisticated one. Working with living product means maintaining rock-solid logistics and making snap value judgments. “Different times of the year, you get different sizes,” said Jason. “You’re not always going to get the big, big ones. There are certain times when, if crawfish is scarce, you can let some slide. But when things are plentiful, you’ve got to give your customers something really nice.” Because Louisiana absolutely cannot get enough of our favorite indigenous crustacean, there is no such thing as a relaxed day when crawfish season is in full swing. That is especially true in a drought-affected season like this one, where crawfish are in short supply. Anyone who has run a family business already knows that it means long hours, sometimes away from the family you are supporting. “I didn’t really see my dad much during crawfish season. I’m 51 right now, and I’ve been doing this more than half my life. Now I have a wife and small kids, and I don’t see them during crawfish season either. It’s really hard; that’s just how this business is. When it’s on, it’s on.” BAYOU LAND

ince the early 1970s, Bayou Land Seafood and Rouses Markets have been working together to get the best crawfish in the hands of the best shoppers. “Back when Rouses only had one or two stores, we were delivering to them, and over the years we have grown with them,” said Adam Johnson, who owns Bayou Land. Like Rouses, Bayou Land is also a multigenerational family business. Johnson’s grandfather, Roman Robin, and uncle, Roy Robin, founded the business more than 50 years ago. Johnson bought the company in 2000. “I was 37 years old when I got in the captain’s chair — I was the young man in the business,” said Johnson, adding with a laugh, “Now people are calling me ‘sir’!” Based out of Grand Anse — a little, unincorporated area near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana — Bayou Land works with local fishermen, buying pond-raised crawfish and wild-caught crawfish from the Atchafalaya Basin. They also get crawfish in the “rice country” of Acadia Parish, St. Landry Parish

and Vermilion Parish, generally. “We buy crawfish for the live market,” Johnson said, explaining the work they do. “For the smaller stuff, we process it into tail meat. And we’ll peel five or six days a week, starting mid-February through about mid-June, normally, on a regular season. And that’s processing crawfish, removing the tail meat and packaging that.” It’s a manual process, with 30 or 40 people removing the tail meat from crawfish by hand, and a few others doing the packaging and freezing before it goes to the market. In a single season, they will do this for three-quarters of a million pounds of live crawfish, which works out to a little over 100,000 pounds of tail meat. This season might be a little harder, but the work never stops. For live crawfish, it’s not a 24-hour operation, but it’s close; six days a week for four months out the year. Bayou Land drivers are picking up sacks of crawfish in the afternoon, bringing the bugs back to the office for sorting by evening, and loading the trucks for delivery early the next morning. Sacks weigh anywhere from 30 to 40 pounds, and Rouses orders by the sack — and a lot of them! “I’ve always been proud of being in the industry. It consumes your life during that time of the season. People are running their traps, trying to catch crawfish, starting in November and going into July. But the processing season is February through May.” Johnson has been part of the crawfish industry his whole life. In addition to Bayou Land, his father and another uncle farmed crawfish. “Growing up, starting in November, we’re putting traps out. We’re working with my mom and dad. And on the weekends, I was fishing with them. It was required, but it wasn’t a chore to me. It was still fun.” During crawfish season, you never slow down. “It’s not an easy job, he said. “You work — excuse my language — you work your butt off for those months.” It slows a bit once the season is ended, but you’re still moving. “In the off season, you’re fixing traps, and there are things to do at the pond to get things ready. You have to drain the water, and then you have to pull that water back up a few months later. And so there’s still lots to do, but it’s more scheduled.”

There was one big benefit to all of it, though: “During the season, you’re working and you’re dedicated to that. But we had the best crawfish in town. We always had the best crawfish boils.” RANDAZZO’S

ocated on a small peninsula in Bayou Pigeon, Louisiana, in the southern tip of Iberville Parish, Randazzo’s Bayou Pigeon Seafood is in the heart of crawfish country and the Atchafalaya Basin Spillway. It was a family business from the start, founded in the 1980s by Eugene and Violet Vaughn, along with their kids and in-laws. “My father, Eugene, and his sons-in-law all crawfished, and dad always had an interest in one day starting a company,” said Glenda Randazzo, who owns and operates the company today with her husband, Chris. “One day we were all sitting around and, almost on a whim, decided to make a business venture. We would figure it out as we went!” Today, Randazzo’s is a third-generation company, with the children of Glenda and Chris — Colbey, Case and Caci, and their son-in-law, Landon — keeping the company running strong. Their daily operations include purchasing live, wild-caught crawfish from Atchafalaya Basin fishermen and live pond crawfish from local farmers. If you’ve ever had crawfish from your local Rouses store (and if you haven’t, what’s the wait?), you’ve enjoyed some of that famous Randazzo seafood. In addition to live product for your weekend crawfish boil, Randazzo’s also processes and packages excess caught crawfish, and they offer washing and prepping services for on-site catering jobs. The secret to their success? Hard work and long hours, says Glenda. “The business is always changing, so you have to be flexible to that, period. It started out as a handful of people in the company, and to be successful it takes a lot of long hours, a lot of aching backs and a lot of sacrifices.” It seems like every year in the crawfish industry is a new start with the same old worries. A bad crawfish season — often due to drought — affects crustacean and community alike. Lower water levels from

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 2 7

CRAWFISH ENCHILADAS ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Prejean’s Restaurant in Carencro and Broussard puts its own Louisiana twist on a Mexican classic, with Crawfish Enchiladas, a favorite at the Louisiana Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell. The restaurant has been a part of the festival for almost 35 years.

Photo by Romney Caruso drought stress crawfish populations, deteriorate water quality, and disrupt breeding and growth cycles, leading to smaller harvests. Add in higher temperatures, which also affect crawfish health and size, and you’ve got reduced yields and new challenges. Water flow is crucial: Stagnant or slow-moving water during droughts can affect habitat quality, as well as crawfish survival and growth. And sometimes, waterways dry up and you simply can’t get to them.

Indeed, the Rouse and Randazzo families have been in business together for over 20 years now, with no end in sight, because the people of Louisiana absolutely cannot get enough crawfish in their lives. According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, commercial fishermen and crawfish farmers in Louisiana lead the nation in crawfish production, supplying more than 100 million pounds per year, contributing $300 million to the state’s economy each year.

“It's rewarding to be a part of such an important and celebrated industry,” says Glenda. “We stand hopeful that this season will be another good one for both the Rouses and Randazzo families — and for all the “We are optimistic but anxious,” says Glenda, families in our community.” as crawfish season gets underway. “But that’s every year — this year is no different than any other, we have to keep reminding ourselves.”

2023 was one of the drought years, as anyone who endured that summer can attest. In fact, Louisiana had the highest percentage of “exceptional drought” in the state’s history. (The one time being exceptional is bad!)

Nothing stops crawfish season. It might be slow this year, but it is happening, and whenever they’re available, you’ll find the best prices for them at your local Rouses.

Nothing stops crawfish season. It might be slow this year, but it is happening, and whenever they’re available, you’ll find the best prices for them at your local Rouses. 2 8 R O U S E S S P R I N G 20 24

Queso con Seafood

By Liz Thorpe

I’ve written before about the assumed biases that I, as a “cheese person,” am often saddled with. People immediately think that knowing and writing and caring about cheese means I only like “fancy” (read: expensive/imported/rarified) cheeses. Nothing could be further from the truth. Cheese first spoke to my nerdy, academic side when I realized that it was a living cultural artifact. Each cheese is the product of a specific time, place, geography and unique set of constraints. Each cheese has an origin story and, when you learn why a cheese is the way it is — why it tastes a certain way, or is made a certain way — you gain a special window into a past world. I love all cheeses because each is a singular portal. Also, I love tasty and delicious things, and many tasty, delicious things might also be called junk food rather than refined food.

his crossroads of cultural artifact and compulsive snackability brings me to the literal melting pot that is queso. The word queso simply means cheese in Spanish, and then there are numerous Hispanic cheeses that have queso in their name, such as queso fresco (fresh cheese). But to Americans, queso is a molten river of seasoned melted cheese for dipping, often flavored with pepper, tomato and spices. We have Texas to thank for queso, where this cheese dip originated in the early 20th century. Tex Mex queso was likely a best attempt at reproducing the Mexican dish queso fundido, or melted/molten cheese. Queso fundido is made with a variety of cheeses not often found outside of Mexico, and it’s typically seasoned with onion and tomato salsa. All are mild, neutral-tasting cow milk cheeses with relatively high moisture and excellent meltability — cheeses like Asadero, Mennonite or Chihuahua. Americans didn’t have these cheeses, and so used available ingredients to emulate queso fundido. Here, we were inadvertently helped by the technological innovations that created processed cheese. Standard-issue Tex Mex queso uses a block of Velveeta (invented in 1918) melted and blended with a can of RO-TEL diced tomatoes and green chiles. Velveeta has the advantage of being non-refrigerated and shelf stable, meaning it could be easily kept on hand. It was quickly joined by American cheese (as in Kraft American Cheese) as a popular base for queso. Both Velveeta and American cheese share sodium phosphate as an ingredient, which is key to great queso. This emulsifying agent ensures that, when heated, the disparate elements of cheese (fat, protein and water) stay W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 2 9

together. Without an emulsifier, heat causes fat to separate, protein to break down and moisture to be expelled; with an emulsifier everything remains in a balanced, harmonious suspension; that means a smooth, flowing river of cheese. This is especially critical for queso, where it is used first and foremost as a dip. It can be an amazing ingredient (more on that later) but its default purpose in life is to be dipped into. The longer queso can stay warm, gooey and chip-coating, the better a dip it is. While aficionados might argue that without the seasoning queso isn’t truly queso, most Mexican and Tex Mex restaurants that serve queso default to a “plain” (not spicy) version — or at least offer it as an option. Across Texas and now across the United States, this neutral base of melted, processed cheese has become an inspiring palette for all kinds of cultural improvisations, from kimchi queso to Indian-spiced queso with fermented chilies and cardamom to a toss-up between white queso and yellow (actually, orange) queso.

3 0 R O U S E S S P R I N G 20 24

This broad appeal is no surprise to James Beard award winner Chef Frank Brigtsen, the celebrated chef-owner of New Orleans’ renowned restaurant Brigtsen’s. Chef Brigtsen helped introduce New Orleanians to Mexican food at the helm of the late Chef Paul Prudhomme’s seminal restaurant, K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen. As Frank explains it, when Prudhomme opened K-Paul’s in the late ’70s he was still the Executive Chef at Commander’s Palace, and K-Paul was where Paul could put a more personal imprint on the menu. Originally, K-Paul’s was a lunch spot, and the Wednesday lunch special was always Mexican. Prudhomme had fallen in love with Mexican and Tex Mex food during his extensive travels in New Mexico and Colorado, and he showcased that love at his restaurant. As Frank says, “It was his [Prudhomme’s] love that introduced me. We were doing an expansion of what we knew of Creole cuisine and culture. The beauty of queso is that it’s multicultural. All the immigrants over the past 300 years have left their imprint on this fusion cuisine. Post-Katrina, New Orleans’ population

of Spanish-speaking people from Mexico and Central America increased dramatically. It’s only natural that queso would show up in our grocery stores and restaurants. The beauty of food is in its diversity.” Frank would know. He continues to contribute to the evolution of what queso can be with a homemade version of what he calls “queso sauce.” His version, which you can try at home (see sidebar), includes sautéed onion and bell pepper, seasonings of garlic, jalapeño, cumin and roasted green chiles, a roux-thickened béchamel, grated sharp cheddar and the Hispanic cheese queso fresco. Frank describes this last addition as “little explosions of creaminess.” Texture, he reminds me, is so important in food. Is this queso? Queso fundido? Cheese sauce? It takes inspiration from all, combining them to create something uniquely delicious and primed for a Louisiana spin on enchiladas or nachos — Frank assures me it’s ideally served with crawfish tails in the mix. Chefs Prudhomme and Brigtsen began exploring Cajun / Creole / Mexican mashups 40 years ago. Today, they’re joined by former restaurateur Stephen Stumpf and serial entrepreneur Darren Walker of Zoeys Queso. After owning and operating a burrito restaurant franchise, Steve saw an opportunity to make better-quality queso available to the supermarket-going public. While his restaurant made fresh salsas, guacamole and queso every day, the only stuff he could find for his home fridge was loaded with additives and preservatives. An LSU Dairy Science grant provided an opportunity for him to collaborate on the research and development of a new kind of queso. The goal for Zoeys Queso was a clean label product without gums, thickeners or stabilizers — still delivering tons of flavor — and with glorious “dip-ability” and a solid shelf life for stores. Unlike other retail quesos, Zoeys contains over 70% cheese, which drives its taste appeal. Not unlike the American restaurant scene, Zoeys began with a plain (mild) queso, with just a bit of jalapeño and tomato. It wasn’t long before customers clamored for a spicier version, and a fortuitous meeting led Steve to the Louisiana Pepper Exchange. Their intense blend of jalapeño with red and orange habaneros gave rise to Zoeys Three Pepper Spicy Blend Queso. Although queso has become a ubiquitous staple of Mexican restaurants nationwide, I wondered what would lead someone to make queso in New Orleans. Isn’t queso still, at its heart, Texas’s thing? Frank, Steve and Darren all had the same nonplussed response (like, duh lady, you may have lived here a while but you still don’t get it): New Orleans is a fun city. You want fun foods on your table for visitors. There may be no better fun, snacky party food than queso. Whether you make your own or you open a container, microwave it for a minute and stir. The next question is, what are you going to dip in it?

FRANK BRIGTSEN’S QUESO SAUCE Makes 6 cups Chef’s Note: This is a great sauce for nachos, and even better when you have peeled crawfish tails — or you can use shrimp.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 cups diced yellow onion 1 cup diced green bell pepper 1 bay leaf 2½ teaspoons salt ¹⁄₈ teaspoon ground white pepper ¹⁄₈ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon dried whole-leaf oregano 1½ teaspoons finely chopped fresh jalapeño pepper 1½ teaspoons minced fresh garlic 1½ cups finely chopped canned roasted green chiles ½ cup diced roasted red peppers (or diced pimentos) 1¼ cups milk ¾ cup cream 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 3 tablespoons all-purpose white flour 2 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese 1 cup crumbled queso fresco HOW TO PREP: Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, bell pepper and bay leaf. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and clear. Reduce heat to low. Add the salt, white pepper, cayenne, jalapeño, garlic, cumin and oregano. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 1-2 minutes. Add the roasted green chiles and diced roasted red peppers (or pimentos). Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes. Add the milk and cream, and bring the mixture to a boil while you make a roux: In a small skillet, melt 3 tablespoons of butter. Slowly whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the finished roux to the boiling sauce mixture and whisk until fully blended. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add the grated Cheddar cheese and queso fresco. Whisk until the cheese melts into the sauce. Remove from heat.

"The beauty of queso is that it’s multicultural. All the immigrants over the past 300 years have left their imprint on this fusion cuisine. Post-Katrina, New Orleans’ population of Spanish-speaking people from Mexico and Central America increased dramatically. It’s only natural that queso would show up in our grocery stores and restaurants. The beauty of food is in its diversity.” — Chef Frank Brigtsen W W W. R O U S E S . C O M

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Some like it spicy, some like

it mild! Try our Bayou Dipping Sauce on your favorite seafood. 3 2 R O U S E S S P R I N G 20 24

DIPPING SAUCE During a 2020 interview with Rien Fertel for the Southern Foodways Alliance, Anthony and Megan Arceneaux of Hawk’s Crawfish Restaurant in Rayne, Louisiana revealed that Anthony’s mother is believed to be the originator of the original crawfish dipping sauce. “I was telling you about the little crawfish boils we’d have in our backyard when we were kids,” Anthony said. “My sister didn’t like horseradish cocktail sauce. Back then, that’s all the dip they had. My mother would make a little sauce with mayonnaise, a ketchup-based sauce. And she [Anthony’s sister] would eat that. So, while she [Anthony’s mom] was making it, she’d just make enough for everybody, and we didn’t have to fool with cocktail sauce. So when we opened this restaurant, we used her recipe, and everybody loved it.”

CRAWFISH & GRITS “I first encountered shrimp and grits years ago while visiting an old friend in Charleston, South Carolina. I was a bit skeptical since my favorite brunch dish is grillades and grits (which I usually make for Christmas brunch), but it was delicious. I was intrigued and gave several recipes for shrimp and grits a try. Former chef/owner Bill Smith of Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill (the restaurant is now closed and Bill has retired) made a version that was quite delicious. Bits of bacon, cheddar cheese and a good dousing of Tabasco piqued my taste buds. New Orleans chef Donald Link’s version features tasso, and the addition of heavy cream made it even more delicious. I’ve made it several times, and it’s always enjoyed.

SEAFOOD DIPPING SAUCE Makes about 1½ cups

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 cup mayonnaise ½ cup ketchup Squeeze of mustard 1 tablespoon Cajun Power Garlic Sauce Dash of Worcestershire sauce Hot sauce, to taste Black pepper, to taste Cajun seasoning, to taste 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon onion powder A splash of pickle juice (optional) HOW TO PREP: In a bowl, mix mayonnaise and ketchup together. Add the mustard, Cajun Power Garlic Sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Adjust the heat with hot sauce to your liking, and season with black pepper, Cajun seasoning, garlic powder and onion powder. Thoroughly mix all the ingredients until wellcombined. Optionally, add a splash of pickle juice for extra acidity. Refrigerate the sauce for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors blend. Serve with your favorite seafood or other dishes.

Photo by Romney Caruso

But it was a recipe for crawfish and grits from my friend and former employer that really pleased my palate. I love this with crawfish, but since the crawfish season this year may be lean, you can easily substitute shrimp for the crawfish. This dish is perfect for serving at a brunch or dinner party.” - Marcelle Bienvenu

SMOTHERED GRITS WITH CRAWFISH Serves about 6

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 pound peeled crawfish tails 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon cayenne 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 cup chopped yellow onions 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon chopped garlic 2 cups chicken stock 3 cups half-and-half 1½ cups quick-cooking white grits ½ cup freshly grated ParmigianoReggiano cheese

HOW TO PREP: Toss crawfish tails with salt and cayenne in a mixing bowl and set aside. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until slightly soft, about 2 minutes. Add the crawfish and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the stock and half-andhalf, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 2 minutes. Add the grits and stir constantly until they are tender and creamy, about 10 minutes. Add cheese and stir until mixed and melted. Serve warm.

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Cheesy RITZ Pickle Chips

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“If, like me, you live in New Orleans, visitors constantly ask you where to eat. The city’s long-standing reputation as a culinary destination is welldeserved, so you can’t really go wrong. But I try to have a variety of suggestions handy when asked. These are some of my favorite places to get trout amandine or meunière. I invariably order it with crabmeat.” — Marcy Nathan, Creative Director for Rouses Markets

3 6 R O U S E S S P R I N G 20 24

Bon Appétit Meunière Amandine is a French classic served in some of New Orleans finest restaurants. The sauce is spooned over fish fillets that have been coated in flour and pan-fried and topped with toasted almonds. In some restaurants, pecans are swapped out for the almonds.

Antoine’s, French Quarter Established in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore, a French immigrant, Antoine’s is one of the oldest restaurants in the United States. It has been passed down through the Alciatore family for generations, with each contributing to the preservation of its traditions. The menu features a variety of New Orleans dishes, including Oysters Rockefeller and Eggs Sardou — both invented at Antoine’s by Antoine’s son Jules — and Classic Fish Amandine, which is fresh gulf fish in a light flour breading, topped with toasted almonds, brown butter and a drizzle of fresh lemon.

Arnaud’s, French Quarter Founded in 1918 by French wine salesman Arnaud Cazenave, Arnaud’s is a French Quarter landmark. Like many of the city’s traditional establishments, Arnaud’s offers a mix of classic Creole and French cuisine, including their signature Shrimp Photo courtesy Galatoire's Restaurant New Orleans

Arnaud, made with boiled Gulf shrimp marinated in their famous tangy Creole Remoulade Sauce (bottles of which are sold at Rouses Markets), and Gulf Fish Amandine, a crisply fried almond-crusted fish fillet topped with sliced almonds and a lemon-butter sauce. Arnaud’s is also home to the famed French 75 Bar.

Austin’s Seafood & Steakhouse, Metairie Get the Pecan Crusted Trout, which is pan-fried and topped with Creole Meunière sauce and Lemon, or the pan-fried Trout Amandine with Creole Meunière sauce and Lemon, at this white-tablecloth restaurant owned by Mr. Ed’s Restaurant Group.

Brennan’s Restaurant, French Quarter Founded in 1946 by Owen Brennan, the restaurant is known for its elaborate breakfast and brunch offerings; in 1951, the classic tableside New Orleans’ flaming dessert, Bananas Foster, was invented here. The Gulf Fish Amandine is made with preserved lemon butter and gourmet Marcona almonds — known as the “Queen of Almonds” — imported from Spain.

Brigtsen’s, New Orleans Chef Frank Brigtsen has run his namesake restaurant with his wife

and business partner, Marna, for 38 years. Before that he apprenticed under Paul Prudhomme at Commander’s Palace and became the first Night Chef at Prudhomme’s K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen. Brigtsen has earned national recognition at his eponymous eatery, including the 1998 America’s Best Chef: Southeast James Beard Foundation Award. In 2022, he was honored by the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience with the prestigious Ella Brennan Lifetime Achievement in Hospitality Award. Brigtsen makes his PanFried Speckled Trout Meunière with Pecans. Order the Filé Gumbo as a starter — Bon Appétit magazine just voted it one of the best bowls in New Orleans.

Café Sbisa, French Quarter This Decatur Street restaurant has a rich history dating back to 1899. Executive Chef and co-owner Alfred Singleton’s fried Catfish Pecan is served over Jumbo Asparagus topped with Pecans and Creole Meunière sauce. Start with the Oysters Sbisa, a Rockefeller-type appetizer of flash-fried Louisiana oysters served over Herbsaint creamed spinach, topped with Tabasco hollandaise, chopped bacon and Parmesan cheese.

Chophouse New Orleans, New Orleans The Redfish Amandine at this oldschool steak restaurant is topped with jumbo lump crabmeat, toasted almonds and brown butter sauce. W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 3 7

Clancy’s, New Orleans The Fried Oysters with Brie, Smoked Soft-Shell Crab with Crabmeat, and Panee Veal Annunciation are standouts at this beloved neighborhood restaurant, which started as a neighborhood bar and po-boy restaurant in the 1940s, transitioning to fine dining in the 1980s. The lunch menu includes Sautéed Gulf Fish with Toasted Almonds and Citrus Brown Butter Vinaigrette; at dinner, order the Fried Gulf Fish with Jumbo Lump Crabmeat Meunière. Finish with the Lemon Icebox Pie.

Galatoire’s, French Quarter The culinary traditions of Galatoire’s trace their roots back to France and Jean Galatoire who, in 1905, acquired an already established restaurant on the site where the iconic French Quarter bistro now stands. Friday lunch should start with Soufflé Potatoes, Shrimp Remoulade, Crab Maison and Oysters en Brochette. Gulf Fish — typically, trout that’s fried, broiled, sautéed or poached (your choice) — can be topped with Meunière Sauce or Meunière Amandine. (And definitely add Jumbo Lump Crabmeat, as recommended by your attentive waiter.)

Mandina’s, New Orleans A historic restaurant in the MidCity Cityneighborhood neighborhoodofofNew NewOrleans, Orleans, 3 8 R O U S E S S P R I N G 20 24

Photo by Randy Schmidt Mandina’s was established in 1932 by Sebastian “Sam” Mandina and his wife; Anthony and Mary Jane Catalanotto later purchased the restaurant in the 1990s, ensuring its continuation as a cherished institution. The menu features a range of Creole and Italian dishes, including Gulf Fish, Catfish or SoftShell Crab (when in season) served Meunière or Amandine style.

Mr. B’s, French Quarter This classic Creole family (yes, the Brennan family) restaurant features a variety of regional specialties; the Wood Grilled Fish is served with pecan popcorn rice and a Lemon Butter Sauce or Creole Meunière.

Sun Ray Grill, Gretna Chef Tom Hinyup, who became chef in 1999 (and owner in 2015), serves pan-fried fish with Meuniére Amandine at his restaurant on New Orleans’ West Bank.

Tujague’s, French Quarter Established in 1856 by Guillaume and Marie Abadie Tujague, the restaurant is one of the oldest continuously operating restaurants in the United States. Gulf Fish is served here with Toasted Almonds and Citrus Butter sauce. You can also find Gulf fish Meunière, Meunière Pecan or Meunière Amandine sauce listed as specials at New Orleans restaurants including Saint John in the French Quarter and Patois in New Orleans.

Pecan-Mandine By Poppy Tooker In restaurants all over New Orleans, waiters have traditionally asked, “Would you like your fish served amandine or meunière?” It’s one of the simplest of French butter sauces, and the great French culinary authority, Auguste Escoffier, included his classic meunière sauce among the first 100 recipes in his 1903 Le Guide Culinaire — a cooking bible still used widely in cooking schools today. His procedure describes sautéing a floured fish fillet in butter finished with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of parsley, resulting in an easy, authentic meunière sauce.

t is unknown if Antoine Alciatore, founder of Antoine’s Restaurant, served “truite meunière” in New Orleans’ oldest restaurant, but it is a safe bet he did. The dish is featured prominently on the restaurant’s earliest menus, dating back to the time of Antoine’s son, Jules. When it comes to amandine, as late as 1940 there is still no mention of that variation on the Antoine’s menu. When and how sautéed fish first received a crowning garnish of toasted almonds is not clear, but by the mid-20th century both options were commonplace on New Orleans’ fine dining menus. Escoffier’s meunière sauced French sole fillets but here in the Crescent City, speckled trout fillets — plentiful from both Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico — were the favored substitute. Both remain menu standards today, but what about the official state nut of Louisiana — the pecan? How does it figure into the story?

Trout pecan meunière is a direct offspring of trout amandine, born of an early Sunday morning walk Dickie Brennan remembers from his high school days. Dickie’s dad, Richard Brennan, was one of the original siblings who made the move from Brennan’s on Royal Street to Commander’s Palace in the Garden District in 1969. It was agreed that Richard’s sister Ella would work Saturday nights at Commander’s, and he would be responsible for opening the restaurant for Sunday morning brunch. BERGERON PECANS ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Now under the stewardship of a third generation of Bergerons, HJ Bergeron Pecan Company — the HJ is for founder Horace Joseph Bergeron — is the largest pecan shelling plant in Louisiana. The company processes an impressive five million to seven million pounds of in-shell pecans a year, sourced not only from their own family orchards, but also from a network of over 90 growers across the state. Bergeron Pecans have earned the highest-quality pecan rating from the National Pecan Shellers Association.

Dickie accompanied his dad to the restaurant most Sundays and remembers one particular autumn day when newly fallen pecans were underfoot. Richard mused to his son, “Dickie, why in the world do we put almonds on our fish dishes? They’re not local! We should use pecans instead!” A young Chef Paul Prudhomme was at the helm of Commander’s kitchen at the time and set about cooking the first pecan meunière for “Mr. Dick.” Since that momentous Sunday morning, countless chefs have given their own creative spin on what has become a Louisiana classic. Some take the extra step of adding finely ground, roasted pecans to the flour dredge, giving an extra, nutty crunch to the finished dish. No matter which nut you choose to top which fish with, a buttery meunière is guaranteed to classically finish the dish splendidly. W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 3 9

Louisiana Eats with Poppy Tooker Remoulade and ravigote sauces are French classics that changed dramatically after making the trip across the Atlantic to New Orleans. In France, remoulade is a cold mayonnaise-based sauce flavored with chopped pickles, capers, parsley, and often chervil and tarragon, finished with a bit of mustard. In the time before refrigeration, mayonnaise was a dangerous proposition in New Orleans’ tropical temperatures, as the required raw egg provided an ideal breeding ground for bacteria — sometimes resulting in deadly food poisoning. This is the reason the mayonnaise base was replaced with Creole mustard in the city’s oldest remoulade recipes.

y the early 20th century, commercially prepared mayonnaise virtually eliminated the possibility of food poisoning, and the creamy base did sneak back into some local versions of remoulade. By then, the spicy, bright-red,

mayonnaise-free version of the sauce had become the New Orleans standard still served in old-line restaurants like Antoine’s and Galatoire’s today. The key ingredient in New Orleans remoulade is Creole mustard. This coarse, stone-ground mustard is believed to have arrived in the Crescent City with early German settlers. Emile Zatarain was among the first to produce and sell Creole mustard commercially, and his original product remains the standard. In France, mayonnaise is never an ingredient in ravigote sauce. Derived from the French word ravigoter, which translates to “refresh” or “reinvigorate,” its original use was as a dressing for cold meat. The original French ravigote — more of a vinaigrette — also incorporates capers, parsley, chervil and tarragon. In the hands of Creole chefs, our local version includes chopped capers, parsley and green onions folded into a mayonnaise base and used to dress boiled shrimp or lump crabmeat. To add to the confusion, Galatoire’s Restaurant serves one of the only hot versions of ravigote to be found anywhere. Savvy diners know that the restaurant’s classic, cold, mayonnaise-based ravigote appears as the appetizer “Sauce Maison,” on the famed restaurant’s menu. The hot version combines béchamel and hollandaise sauces with lump crabmeat and green onions, and is served as an entrée. So, remoulade or ravigote? No matter which version you choose, when you combine it with fresh, local Gulf seafood, you’re sure to have a winner.

LOUISIANA EATS! ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Rouses Markets is a proud sponsor

of Louisiana Eats!, Poppy Tooker’s NPR-affiliated radio show and podcast for people who cook and people who love to eat well. She’s also the author of Tujague’s Cookbook: Creole Recipes and Lore in the New Orleans Grand Tradition and Pascal’s Manale’s Cookbook: A Family Tradition.

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POPPY’S CRABMEAT RAVIGOTE

POPPY’S TROUT PECAN MEUNIÈRE

Serves 6

Serves 6 You can substitute catfish, snapper, redfish or tilapia

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: Juice of 1 lemon 1 egg 1 cup canola or vegetable oil I pound lump crabmeat 6 ounces capers, chopped 3 tablespoons chopped parsley 6 green onions, thinly sliced Salt, to taste Pepper, to taste Hot sauce, to taste 1 head of iceberg lettuce, finely chopped

fillets for the trout fillets.

HOW TO PREP: Combine lemon juice and egg in a food processor. With machine running, slowly drizzle in oil to make a mayonnaise. Gently mix together mayonnaise, crabmeat, capers, parsley and green onions and season with salt, pepper and hot sauce. Chill thoroughly and serve on a bed of chopped iceberg lettuce.

POPPY’S REMOULADE SAUCE Makes 2 cups NOTE: Sauce is better when allowed to rest for an hour or more before serving. It will keep for up to 4 days, covered, in the refrigerator. Instead of using it to sauce boiled shrimp, fold the peeled, boiled shrimp into the remoulade and allow it to macerate for 24 hours before serving.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 3 green onions ¼ cup flat leaf Italian parsley 1 celery heart (the innermost part of the celery, including the tender leaves) Juice of 1 lemon 1 cup Creole mustard ½ cup olive oil ¼ teaspoon salt Pinch of cayenne pepper 2 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika HOW TO PREP: Chop green onions, parsley and celery in food processor until finely minced. Add lemon juice and Creole mustard, then blend together. With processor running, drizzle in the olive oil. Add salt, pepper and paprika.

Photo courtesy Arnaud's Restaurant

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 6 trout fillets 1 cup all-purpose flour ¾ cup toasted pecan pieces 1 egg 1 cup milk 1 tablespoon hot sauce 2 sticks butter, divided Juice of 2 lemon 1½ tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley HOW TO PREP: Preheat oven to 250°F. Combined the pecan pieces and the flour in the food processor. Pulse together until the mixture is the texture of coarse cornmeal. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into a flat pan for dredging and set aside. Whisk egg, milk and hot sauce together in a large bowl to make egg wash. Set aside. Place trout fillets in the egg wash, then dredge in seasoned pecan flour. Melt ½ stick of butter in a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. When butter bubbles, add trout fillets and fry until browned on both sides. Remove from pan, place on oven-safe platter, and reserve in warm oven while you prepare the sauce. Melt the remainder of the butter in a sauté pan. Over high heat, beat the boiling butter constantly with a wire whisk. Be careful to constantly move the milk solids about briskly in the butterfat until the butter is browned. Remove from the heat, then whisk in the lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Spoon sauce generously over each warm fillet and sprinkle with parsley before serving.

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice Canola or vegetable oil, for frying 2 cups milk 2 eggs 2 cups flour 4 (7-8 ounces each) boneless, skinless speckled trout, redfish, red snapper or tilapia fillets Kosher salt, to taste Freshly ground black pepper, to taste 1 tablespoon minced parsley, for garnish 1 lemon, cut into slices, for serving HOW TO PREP: Preheat the oven to 300°F. Place the almonds in an ovenproof pan and toast them in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, opening the oven to stir them every 5 minutes while they cook. When they become a light golden brown, remove from the oven and set aside. Heat butter in a medium skillet over medium heat; cook, stirring, until solids turn dark brown, 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in vinegar and lemon juice; set sauce aside. Pour oil into a large, heavy-bottomed pan to a depth of 2"; heat over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer reads 350°F. Make a wash by whisking together milk and eggs in a shallow dish; put flour into another shallow dish. Season fish with salt and pepper. Working with one fillet at a time, dip fish in flour, shake off excess, then dip in egg mixture and shake off excess. Return fillets to flour; transfer to a rack over a baking sheet. Test the readiness of the oil by sprinkling a pinch of flour over it. The flour will brown instantly when the oil has reached its correct temperature.

TROUT MEUNIÈRE AMANDINE

Working in two batches, fry fish until golden brown, 5-6 minutes, then drain on paper towels.

Serves 4 You can swap pecans for almonds. Or, if you want a crunchy crust, instead of coating fillets in flour or cornmeal, use finely ground nuts, and serve topped with meunière sauce.

To serve, divide fish between 4 plates; sprinkle almonds on top. Whisk sauce and spoon over fish. Garnish with parsley and serve with lemon slices.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 3 cups sliced almonds 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

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Several restaurants feature chargrilled oysters, the renowned dish created by Tommy Cvitanovich of Drago’s Restaurant (where they’re called “charbroiled” oysters). Here are a few pearls. Drago Cvitanovich opened Drago’s in 1969. The restaurant is most famous for its charbroiled oysters, a dish created by Tommy Cvitanovich, Drago’s son. These original charbroiled oysters are bathed in a sauce of garlic, butter and herbs, dusted with a Parmesan and Romano cheese blend, and grilled in their shells. Drago’s flagship location is in Fat City in Metairie, with additional establishments in New Orleans, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge and Bossier City, Louisiana and in Jackson, Mississippi. Rouses sell Drago’s Butter Garlic Charbroiling Sauce in our Seafood Department. Acme Oyster House, originally known as Acme Café, opened in the New Orleans French Quarter in 1910. After a fire led to the collapse of the Acme Saloon Building in 1924, Acme Café relocated to Iberville Street, adopting the name Acme Oyster House. Presently, Acme has four additional locations beyond the French Quarter: Metairie and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Gulf Shores, Alabama; and Destin, Florida. Chargrilled oysters bathed in an herb butter sauce and topped with a special cheese blend is one of the restaurant’s signature dishes. Cristiano Ristorante in Houma, Louisiana, serves its chargrilled oysters with smoky roasted red pepper garlic butter.

Felix’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar was once part of group of neighboring oyster bars at the intersection of Bourbon and Iberville streets in the French Quarter, including Acme Oyster House right across the street. In 2017, Felix’s extended their Iberville establishment, linking it with a space on Bourbon Street that they had previously occupied for over two decades. Today Felix’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar also has locations at the New Orleans Lakefront and in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Pensacola, Florida. Chargrilled oysters are topped with Parmesan bread crumbs and house-made char butter. The signature chargrilled oyster at Half Shell Oyster House, with locations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, is topped with a sauce of blended white wine, butter, garlic and herbs, and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. For their award-winning oysters, they use a New Orleans-style smoky Cajun sauce, topped with a layer of Parmesan cheese. Jane’s Seafood and Chinese Restaurant in New Iberia serves raw and chargrilled oysters, plus great Chinese food. Jolie Pearl Oyster Bar in Downtown Baton Rouge is a full-service oyster bar and live music venue serving classic chargrilled oysters, oysters chargrilled with Thai chili sauce or lemon pepper butter, as well as oysters barbecued NOLA style with Worcestershire butter sauce made with garlic, rosemary and Tabasco. W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 4 7

BAYOU CARLIN OYSTER CO. GRILLED OYSTER KIT ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Boyer Derise, a native of Delcambre,

Louisiana, came up with the idea for the Bayou Carlin Oyster Co. Grilled Oyster Kit, which contains flash-frozen shucked Louisiana oysters on the half shell topped with a Garlic Parmesan compound butter — a classic version of charbroiled/grilled oysters made famous in South Louisiana restaurants. Find Bayou Carlin Oyster Co. Grilled Oyster Kits in our Frozen Seafood Case.

In 1934, at just 24 years old, Don Landry borrowed $400 from his uncle to establish a bar and restaurant in Downtown Lafayette, Louisiana. Four generations later, Don’s legacy continues. Along with Lafayette, there are now Don’s Seafood restaurants in Covington, Denham Springs, Gonzales, Hammond and Metairie. Besides their classic chargrilled oysters with garlic butter and Romano cheese, they serve what they call Don’s Original “Jacked Up” Oysters. These are charbroiled with bacon, jalapeños and pepper Jack cheese. Morrow’s, in the historic Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, serves authentic Korean dishes and classic New Orleans cuisine, including chargrilled oysters. Oysters Morrow are chargrilled oysters topped with their house-made crabmeat dressing.

LOFTIN OYSTERS STONEWARE OYSTER SHELLS

Mr. Ed’s Oyster Bar & Fish House, with locations in New Orleans and Metairie, serves traditional charbroiled oysters, as well as a Southwest version topped with jalapeños.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Specifically designed for chargrilling

oysters, Loftin Oysters stoneware oyster shells go directly on the grill or in the oven under the broiler. Each shell is unique because they are molded and finished by hand. Loftin Oysters are also perfect for baking, broiling, stuffing and smoking any seafood. You can also use them to serve sauces. Loftin Oysters is owned and operated by Kyle and Ali Loftin, along with Kyle’s brother Mike. Look for these shells in our Seafood Department. Did you know Rouses Markets has fresh Gulf oysters by the sack? See our seafood department.

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A Baton Rouge staple established in 1950, Phil’s Oyster Bar & Seafood Restaurant serves its oysters charbroiled with one of the restaurant’s signature sauces: Original Garlic Butter, Diablo, Orleans Style, Buffalo, or Spinach and Artichoke. At Uncle T’s Oyster Bar in Scott, Louisiana, charbroiled oysters can be served NOLA style, topped with garlic butter and shredded Parmesan; Firecracker style, topped with jalapeño, pepper Jack cheese, bacon and Cajun seasoning; Le Bon Cochon, topped with smoked boudin, pepper Jack cheese and creole mustard glaze; or candied, topped with Cajun glaze, pepper Jack cheese and candied jalapeños. The images used are from the featured restaurants’ websites.

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“Our Seafood Weekends run Friday, Saturday and Sunday all the way through Easter, which this year is on March 31. The mix of meals available varies depending on the store, but we go all out to make sure the families shopping at Rouses all have something great to eat.” — Michael Westbrook, Director of Deli, Cold Cuts and Sushi for Rouses Markets

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Photo by Romney Caruso

Seafood season is year-round here in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, but never more so than Lent.

“R

ouses is really about two things: the best quality at the best price,” says Michael Westbrook, the director of deli, cold cuts and sushi for Rouses Markets. “Our Seafood Weekends run Friday, Saturday and Sunday all the way through Easter, which this year is on March 31. The mix of meals available varies depending on the store, but we go all out to make sure the families shopping at Rouses all have something great to eat.”

All the staples you expect will be there. “You’ll always find fried fish available,” he says, “and usually we’ll have baked fish with crab stuffing as well. But there is so much more than that.” Shrimp Creole? Shrimp étouffée? Yes, and yes. Does the idea of seafood jambalaya have your belly rumbling? Then brace yourself, because seafood macaroni and cheese might have you reaching for your car keys and racing to your local Rouses. “Those are always very popular,” Westbrook says. “Customers always really like our crawfish cornbread dressing as well

— it’s a dressing, a little like you would have at Thanksgiving, but it’s seafood flavored.” Of course, you can find breaded, fried Gulf Coast shrimp on the Rouses hot line, and sometimes the chefs in the deli shake things up a bit with Asian glazes such as sweet and sour sauce or a sweet heat flavoring. To give you a little glimpse of how the deli seafood hot lines work behind the scenes, every store has some discretion to make sure their local community has the foods that make them happiest. Westbrook explains: “Every store is always going to have fried shrimp out in some flavor, of course — though they have independence to decide if they’re going to do it Asian style today, for instance, so that shoppers always get variety — and so that every time they visit, there’s some new flavor to experience. In the Rouses locations in the bayou region, for example, frog legs are hot sellers, and we make sure there’s plenty for everyone. In Mobile, on the other hand, the mullet is really popular.” It’s not like national chains where every store, everywhere has the same five options. Every trip to a Rouses deli is going to provide a Cajun culinary experience with local flair. “How about deviled crabs?” says Westbrook, explaining that they’re a bit like

“Rouses is a family business, and we serve all our families who shop here. You know, the Rouse family eats the same things you do; they taste everything — they want to make sure that the quality is up to the standards they’ve kept going for three generations now — and our food is absolutely delicious.” – Michael Westbrook

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the similarly named eggs everyone loves: little crabs with a tasty stuffing. “We also do a breaded seafood cake, which is like a crab cake, but with different seafood variations. And everyone loves our shrimp egg rolls.” This year, the delis are trying out some new sauces on the hot line, including a crawfish and mushroom sauce, which is a traditional New Orleans-style sauce with heavy cream and butter that’s loaded with flavor. There is also a new shrimp and tasso (spiced Cajun pork shoulder) sauce. “It’s not Lent-friendly because of the tasso,” says Westbrook with a laugh, “but sometimes people make a little bit of an exception!”

THE MARITIME & SEAFOOD INDUSTRY MUSEUM ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT The Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi, Mississippi, covers more than 300 years of history, beginning in 1699 when the French first set foot on Mississippi’s shores, through Biloxi’s golden era as the Seafood Capital of the World during the early 1900s, to the present day.

Among the museum’s prized possessions is a fully operational automatic shrimp-peeling machine from the 1920s — a remarkable creation of 16-year-old James Martial Lapeyre from Houma, Louisiana, who was challenged by his father, a shrimp plant owner, to design an automated shrimp peeler. Lapeyre’s invention became a catalyst, ushering in a revolution that reshaped the very foundations of the industry. These cutting-edge machines can individually peel an astonishing 1,000 pounds of shrimp per hour, with batches ranging from 10 to 200 count of shrimp per pound. To grasp the magnitude of this achievement, consider that hand-peeling the same amount would require up to 150 experienced shrimp peelers.

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The seafood hot line has more than entrées, of course. Hush puppies, French fries, onion rings — all the accompaniments you’d normally hope for with fried seafood. Want more reason to grab your keys and head over to Rouses? All that delicious fried shrimp is local Louisiana shrimp caught by local Louisiana fishermen. And those breaded seafood cakes, deviled crabs and seafood stuffing were made in Mobile, Alabama, by a second-generation family business. Rouses always means local. For those with a big appetite or a lot of mouths to feed, there is also a grab-and-go seafood platter with fried fish, fried shrimp,

deviled crab, French fries, and hush puppies. “That one is a really great family meal,” says Westbrook. “Families love the convenience of the seafood hot line. We know that, in South Louisiana, everyone loves to boil their seafood. And we do have that at Rouses, but the sheer variety of fried foods we have hot and ready are easy, convenient and delicious too.” It also caters to a variety of tastes and ages. “Our customers don’t get bored with the food we offer, and we have something for everyone: Little kids might love the mac and cheese, and Mom and Dad might want that shrimp Creole.” Rouses also makes a

blackened shrimp pasta, which features a classic Alfredo sauce with blackened seasoning and Gulf Coast shrimp. “Speaking of that, we do a shrimp Alfredo as well, with local Gulf Coast shrimp, Alfredo sauce, buttery cream and parmesan cheese, all tossed with pasta. This is some pretty fancy stuff.” The recipes are all local, with beautiful Cajun and Creole flavors kept to the highest standards in the business. As Westbrook explains: “Rouses is a family business, and we serve all our families who shop here. You know, the Rouse family eats the same things you do; they taste everything — they want

to make sure that the quality is up to the standards they’ve kept going for three generations now — and our food is absolutely delicious.” Rouses has been preparing local and regional seafood dishes for decades now, but every year, it just gets better and better. “We know that our community loves seafood, and there’s no better value for seafood than the Rouses hot line at the deli — especially during Lent,” says Westbrook. “There’s no other place where you’re going to find the variety, the quality and the great price.”

Oh the pasta-bilities! Our signature Gulf Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo features a delicious blend of ingredients, including Parmesan cheese, cream, garlic and butter. This popular dish is a highlight on our hot bar and is also available in full-pan or half-pan sizes for catering needs. If you prefer, you can customize it by ordering it with chicken instead of shrimp. Add your own touch to takeout:

Photo by Romney Caruso

Sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top for a rich flavor and an appealing look.

Add a dash of freshly ground black pepper.

Sautéed mushrooms bring earthy and savory tones that complement the creamy Alfredo sauce.

For a hint of spice, sprinkle a few crushed red pepper flakes on your Fettuccine Alfredo, being mindful not to overpower the sauce.

In Italy, a touch of nutmeg adds a warm and aromatic depth to Fettucine Alfredo.

Enhance your dish with fresh basil, parsley, oregano or rosemary by chopping a few leaves and sprinkling them on the pasta. W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 5 3

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Photo by Romney Caruso

Royal Reds are a deep-water shrimp dwelling in depths of 1,2001,800 feet around 60 miles from the Alabama shoreline. Pink, brown and white shrimp are found in shallower waters, around 200-300 feet deep, throughout Alabama’s coastal waters. Only a select few boats are outfitted with the necessary equipment for trawling this big, crimson shrimp. The season extends from late summer through late fall, reaching its peak in September. And only a few Gulf Coast fishermen are licensed to harvest it. Due to the extensive distances that Royal Red shrimpers must cover, the shrimp are immediately flash-frozen when they are brought on board so, like other breeds of Gulf Coast shrimp, Royal Reds can be found all year long. Royal Reds are larger than pink, white and brown shrimp varieties. Sweet and salty, Royal Reds have a texture and flavor almost like lobster — they’ve been compared to lobster, bay scallops and blue crab. You can substitute them in any recipe that calls for shrimp, but you will need less of them, because they are larger than white and brown shrimp varieties. Because the texture is so soft, Royal Reds also cook almost twice as quickly as white and brown shrimp. And since they are already salty from the deep Alabama water in which they live, you do not need to salt the cooking water.

Six generations of Zirlotts have been harvesting seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. “I’ve been shrimping since I was knee-high,” says Jeremy Zirlott. His family has been involved in the fishing industry in various capacities since at least the early 1800s. “My father was a fisherman. My grandfather, my greatgrandfather — it goes way back, and on both sides: my mother’s side and my father’s side.” Zirlott and his wife, Kim, have run their Bayou La Batre-based family business since 1997. (His daughters help with the business, too.) Zirlott Trawlers supplies Royal Lagoon Seafood, a local Alabama seafood vendor, which in turn supplies Rouses Markets. Zirlott’s boats are equipped with on-deck freezers where shrimp can be packed onto stainless steel trays and frozen over the course of three hours, allowing for a longer shelf life.

STEAMED ROYAL REDS Makes 4 servings

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 2 pounds Royal Red shrimp, shell and head on Old Bay Seasoning HOW TO PREP: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season the shrimp shells with Old Bay. Place the shrimp in a steamer basket and place atop the boiling water in the pot. Steam until the shrimp turn bright red and are firm to the touch, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and serve with drawn butter. W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 5 5

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NEW ORLEANS-STYLE BARBECUE SHRIMP Newcomers to New Orleans are often puzzled by our famous barbeque shrimp, a dish that bears no relation to any form of conventional barbeque despite the name. Pascal Radosta, of Pascal’s Manale Restaurant fame, is credited with inventing the now classic dish at his Uptown restaurant on Napoleon Avenue in 1954. From its earliest days, Manale’s was a favorite spot for New Orleans Fair Grounds racing folks. During a visit with racetrack aficionado Vincent Sutro, Pascal heard about a special shrimp dish his friend had recently enjoyed in Chicago. Pascal headed into Manale’s kitchen and soon returned with a version that Sutro proclaimed superior to what he’d enjoyed in the Windy City. At Manale’s then and now, big headon Gulf shrimp are served swimming in a buttery, spicy sauce that begs to be sopped up with the accompanying hot French bread. Adventurous bibbed diners dig in with gusto to enjoy this delight meant to be eaten with your hands. In the 1980s, when a hollowed-out po-boy loaf filled with peeled shrimp in buttery barbeque sauce was introduced on Manale’s lunch menu, many po-boy restaurants followed suit. The recipe for Manale’s barbeque shrimp sauce remains a closely guarded secret, often imitated with varying degrees of success in restaurants across the U.S. Ralph Brennan’s Red Fish Grill has taken the barbeque seafood concept to new heights with their BBQ oyster po-boy. Substituting crispy, fried oysters for shrimp doused with a spicy New Orleans style barbeque sauce and finished with crumbled blue cheese, the popular dish is served on crispy Leidenheimer’s po-boy bread. To

date, Ralph’s BBQ oyster po-boy has won first prize at the annual Oak Street Po-Boy Festival a record nine times and is a menu standard at the Bourbon Street restaurant. Seventy years after Pascal Radosta whipped up the first batch of barbeque shrimp, every New Orleans restaurant worth its salt boasts its own version. But there is just something magical about indulging in a bowlful at the place where it all began, Pascal’s Manale Restaurant. — Poppy Tooker

BARBECUE SHRIMP Serves 4

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 2 lemons ½ cup Worcestershire sauce 2 tablespoons black pepper 1 heaping teaspoon Cajun seasoning, or to taste 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, or to taste 4 tablespoons minced fresh garlic ¼ cup shrimp or seafood stock, divided Two dozen extra-large wild-caught Gulf shrimp (9/12 count), head and tail on 2 cups (4 sticks) cold, salted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes French bread, for dipping HOW TO PREP: Roll one lemon back and forth on the counter, applying a bit of pressure, to increase its juiciness. Cut the other lemon into several thin slices. Set both aside. In a large stainless-steel sauté pan or cast-iron skillet, combine Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, Cajun seasoning, dried rosemary, minced garlic and 2 tablespoons of the stock.

Reduce the heat level to medium and continue cooking. Gradually add pieces of cold butter to the pan, stirring until the sauce turns light brown and creamy, and the shrimp are cooked through (approximately 2-3 minutes). Remove the pan from the heat, and pour the shrimp and sauce into 4 serving bowls. Garnish with lemon and serve with French bread.

POPPY’S BARBEQUE SHRIMP Serves 4-6

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1½ pounds butter, melted 10 cloves garlic, peeled and cracked 3 lemons 2 tablespoons salt 1½ tablespoons paprika 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper ½ teaspoon white pepper ½ teaspoon dry mustard ½ teaspoon dry ginger 1 teaspoon celery seed 1 tablespoon cardamom 6 pounds large wild-caught Gulf shrimp, head and tail on HOW TO PREP: Cut the lemons in half, then juice them. Add all ingredients besides the shrimp to the melted butter. Place shrimp in a roasting pan and pour the sauce over. Marinate for up to 1 hour unrefrigerated or as long as overnight in the refrigerator. (If marinated under refrigeration, bring to room temperature before cooking.) Cook shrimp under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes on each side, until the shrimp begin to brown. Serve in soup bowls with plenty of hot French bread for dipping.

Add the shrimp to the pan and toss them lightly to coat with the seasoning mixture. Squeeze the juice of the lemon over the shrimp and add the pulp to the pan. Cook the shrimp over medium-high heat, gently stirring and occasionally turning them. When the shrimp begin to turn pink on both sides, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of stock to the pan.

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BEANIE’S BBQ SHRIMP Serves 6 ”I no longer have the handwritten recipe of my aunt's BBQ Shrimp; her name is Kathleen but we all call her Beanie or Bean. It doesn’t matter, though, because it’s engraved on my brain. We made it together when I was in college at Loyola. Once in a while I’d go to her house in Chalmette for the weekend to do laundry, babysit my little cousin and eat myself silly! She also made a mean red bean soup, but that's for another story.” – Patti Stallard

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 3 pounds head-on, large Gulf shrimp, unpeeled 1½ sticks (¾ cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into large pats and kept cold until use ½ cup extra virgin olive oil 6 cloves of garlic, minced 2-3 tablespoons shrimp or seafood stock (optional; only if you happen to have some) 2 lemons (1 for juice, 1 for slices) ¹⁄₃ cup Worcestershire sauce 2 bay leaves ½ teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped (or ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary) ½ teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped (or ¼ teaspoon dried thyme) ½ teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped (or ¼ teaspoon dried oregano) Fresh cracked black pepper, to taste ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon sweet paprika Creole seasoning, to taste ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste Hot sauce, for garnish Sliced green onions, for garnish Crusty French bread HOW TO PREP: Preheat oven to 375°F. Pour the olive oil into an oven-safe roasting pan. Add the minced garlic to the pan. Add the rosemary, thyme, oregano, black pepper, cayenne, paprika, Creole seasoning and salt, and stir to combine. Add the bay leaves, the juice of 1 lemon, the other lemon in slices, the stock (if using) and the Worcestershire sauce. Stir well to combine. Place pan in preheated oven and let cook for 15 minutes. Carefully remove pan from oven, and add the unpeeled shrimp to the pan, stirring lightly to distribute them. Return pan to the oven for 5 minutes more, or until shrimp are 6 2 R O U S E S S P R I N G 20 24

mostly pink. When shrimp are pink, remove pan from oven. Turn oven setting to Broil. Meanwhile, add chilled butter pats one at a time to the pan, whisking well between each added butter pat. Return pan to the oven for 3-4 minutes more, but keep a close eye the whole time, then remove from oven. Stir well, then add servings to large bowls. Sprinkle with sliced green onions and serve with hot sauce and French bread on the table.

TRADER VIC’S Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron, the visionary behind Trader Vic’s iconic Polynesian-themed restaurant and tiki bar chain, left an indelible mark on culinary history. Originating in 1934 under the moniker Hinky Dink’s, Trader Vic’s was eventually transformed into a cultural phenomenon. Bergeron is often recognized as the creator of Crab Rangoon, an imaginative take on the fried wonton that emerged on the scene in the 1950s. Following the success of various exotic rum concoctions, Vic introduced the Mai Tai, a now-classic cocktail made with

rum, lime juice, orgeat syrup and orange liqueur; it became a signature drink of Trader Vic’s. Orgeat, pronounced “or-zha” or “or-zhat,” is a sweetened almond cocktail syrup.

HOW TO PREP: Pour all ingredients except for mint and lime wheel garnishes into a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously, then pour into a double old-fashioned glass. Float the lime wheel in the glass and add the fresh mint sprig. Serve.

MAI TAI Makes 1 cocktail

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 ounce white rum 1 ounce dark rum ¾ ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed ½ ounce orange curaçao liqueur ½ ounce orgeat ¼ ounce simple syrup Fresh mint spring, for garnish Lime wheel, for garnish

CRAB RANGOON DIP WITH WONTON CHIPS Serves 8-10

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: For Wonton Chips: 20 wonton wrappers, cut in half Vegetable oil, for frying Salt, to sprinkle For Crab Rangoon Dip: 1 pound crabmeat

12 ounces cream cheese, softened ¼ cup sour cream Juice of 1 lemon 1 tablespoon hot sauce 1 teaspoon garlic powder ¼ cup sweet chili sauce, plus 1 tablespoon 5 green onions, thinly sliced, 1 tablespoon reserved for garnish 1 cup shredded fontina cheese, divided Salt, to taste Freshly ground black pepper, to taste HOW TO PREP: In a deep-sided frying pan, heat ½ inch of oil over medium heat until it reaches 350°F. Add wonton wrappers in small batches and fry for three minutes or until golden, flipping halfway. Remove from oil and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Season with salt and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 1-quart baking dish and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together softened cream cheese, sour cream, lemon juice, hot sauce, garlic powder and 1 tablespoon of sweet chili sauce until smooth and creamy. Fold in crabmeat, green onions (reserving 1 tablespoon for garnish) and ½ cup of the fontina cheese. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Spread the mixture evenly in the greased baking dish, then cover the top with the remaining fontina cheese. Bake for 15 minutes or until the dip is bubbling and the cheese is melted. Remove from the oven, drizzle with the remaining ¼ cup of sweet chili sauce, and top with reserved tablespoon of sliced green onions. Serve warm with the prepared wonton chips.

Photo by Romney Caruso

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CONSTANTINE’S RESTAURANT The Greek influence on Mobile’s culinary landscape is epitomized by Constantine Nicholas Panayiotou, known to his patrons as Mr. Gus. He and his son George ran their familyrun establishment, Constantine’s Restaurant, for 50 years in Mobile.

LOBSTER ROLLS ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Lobster rolls come in two distinctive styles: hot or cold. The hot variation, referred to as a Connecticut Lobster Roll, is composed of a portion of cooked lobster meat bathed in butter, served on a toasted or grilled brioche roll or top-cut roll, with extra butter on the side. The cold version, known as a Maine Lobster Roll, is made with cooked, chilled lobster meat mixed with celery for added crunch and just enough mayonnaise to coat the lobster mixture. It is served on a toasted brioche roll or top-cut roll. If you’re making a lobster (or shrimp) roll at home, any griddled brioche hot-dog bun will work.

Salt & Sky’s Lobster Roll Kit allows you to create two Connecticutstyle lobster rolls from the comfort of your own home. The kit features sustainably wild-caught lobster meat sourced from the North Atlantic paired with the company’s special lobster butter and toasted brioche rolls, for a perfect blend of sweet and salty. Enjoy the taste of New England summer with this year-round lobster roll kit, conveniently packed for your enjoyment.

The journey began in 1913 when Constantine, a Greek immigrant, made Mobile his home. His entrepreneurial spirit led to the inception of Constantine’s in 1934, a venture that swiftly grew into one of the city’s most iconic dining destinations. Among their many contributions to Mobile’s culinary scene, one of the standout creations was Mr. Gus’ Shrimp Constantine. Conceived in the 1940s, this dish is a unique twist on New Orleans’ famed Shrimp Remoulade, distinguished by its use of dry mustard and curry. This dish not only delighted patrons at Constantine’s but also continues to delight diners to this day at Felix’s Fish Camp, the iconic restaurant on Mobile Bay’s Causeway. George Panayiotou, inheriting his father’s culinary passion, played a pivotal role in the later years of Constantine’s. His expertise was further recognized when David Cooper, who opened Mobile’s Ruth’s Chris Steak House franchise in 1997, appointed him executive chef. George’s culinary journey continued to evolve, and he became the executive chef at Felix’s Fish Camp in 2002, where he reintroduced many of Constantine’s signature dishes, including the legendary Shrimp Constantine. In 2010, George ascended to the role of Culinary Director of all Cooper Restaurants. Under his guidance, the group, which includes the historic BLUEGILL Restaurant on the Causeway as well as Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Mobile, continues to flourish to this day, along with many of Constantine’s famous dishes. — Christopher Andrews

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Explore cherished restaurants like Wintzell’s Oyster House; meet unforgettable figures like Cudjo “Kazoola” Lewis; and savor iconic dishes like the renowned West Indies Salad in A Culinary History of Mobile by Christopher Andrews, founder and owner of Bienville Bites Food Tour & Taste of Fairhope, Alabama. The book, published by Arcadia Publishing, is available in stores now and can be found on Amazon.

SHRIMP CONSTANTINE Serves 6 Reprinted courtesy Mobile Bay Magazine, original recipe provided by David Cooper as featured at his restaurant, Felix’s Fish Camp, Mobile, Alabama.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 3 tablespoons Mister Mustard Original Hot Mustard 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 3 tablespoons finely minced green onion 5 tablespoons finely minced celery, pressed and well-drained 3 tablespoons finely minced parsley, pressed and well-drained ¹⁄₈ teaspoon minced garlic 1 ounce horseradish 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper ¾ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon curry powder ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 5 tablespoons Regina Red Wine Vinegar 1 cup Heinz Ketchup 3 teaspoons Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce 1 cup vegetable oil 1½ teaspoons extra virgin olive oil 2 pounds boiled shrimp Shredded lettuce HOW TO PREP: Place all ingredients, except the last four, in mixer. Process on medium speed until well blended, approximately 3 minutes. Slowly add oils until sauce is well-blended and all ingredients are evenly distributed. Place in plastic container (never aluminum). Cover and refrigerate for two days. After two days, place sauce back in mixer and process on slow speed for 10 minutes. Place sauce back in plastic container and refrigerate until needed (use within 10 days). Allow the sauce to come to room temperature before serving. Serve over bed of shredded lettuce alongside boiled shrimp.

COCONUT SHRIMP Serves 4 Use large shrimp that are at least 12/15 count to a pound. If the shrimp are too small, they will cook through before the coconut breading has time to crisp.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: ¹⁄₃ cup all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon ground black pepper 2 large eggs, beaten ¾ cup panko bread crumbs 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut 1 pound raw, large Gulf shrimp, rinsed, peeled and deveined, tails left on 1 cup coconut oil or vegetable oil, for frying Sweet chili sauce, for serving HOW TO PREP: Combine flour, salt and pepper in a shallow dish. In another shallow dish, beat the eggs. In a third shallow dish, combine the panko and shredded coconut.

pressing gently to help coconut and panko stick to the shrimp. Add enough oil to cover the bottom of a large skillet, and set it over medium heat. When oil is warmed, add the shrimp to the skillet and fry, turning once, until golden brown and cooked through, about 4 minutes. Don’t crowd the pan; work in batches and add more oil as needed. Using tongs, remove the shrimp from the oil and transfer to a paper towellined plate to drain. Serve with sweet chili sauce.

Working in batches and holding the shrimp by the tails, coat the shrimp with the flour, then dip in the egg, and then dredge in the shredded coconut mixture,

Photo by Romney Caruso

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AD Get live Louisiana crawfish by the sack or hot from the pot. Our down-the-bayou recipe has been perfected for over three generations, so our seafood always comes out seasoned to perfection.