“It’s ‘da Bomb”

We are wrapping up our culinary adventure in Acadiana with a return to some favorites.

We knew that we wanted one last seafood po-boy before our departure. Where to go? Drive ten miles (or so) to Lafayette and eat at Olde Tyme Grocery? Or drive thirty miles (one way) to New Iberia and eat at Bon Creole Lunch Counter? On to New Iberia!!!

Our lunch was almost a repeat (share a whole crawfish po-boy, share an order of fries, each have their own portion of the delicious potato salad) of that which we blogged about on May 3rd and just as delicious. But we had the chance to talk with the most delightful woman, who was staffing the order counter and later sweeping the floor after the noon rush. While placing our order, we mentioned that we were staying at an RV park in Duson. On hearing that, she talked for fifteen minutes without pausing for breath about the lovely campground at Lake Fausse State Park near St. Martin-ville and how amazed she was that they had a place so beautiful.

Our lunch was served. Our lunch was devoured. Our lunch was enjoyed. On the way out, Chuck stopped to tell her again how much we enjoyed their food. When he mentioned the potato salad, she (I’m sorry that we didn’t get her name) smiled and exclaimed: “It’s ‘da bomb!'”

It was during that conversa-tion that we learned that Bon Creole—operating under the name of Bon Creole Seafood Company—had been a food vendor at the Inter-national Festival in Lafayette. What do you know? One festival evening, our dinner was one of their small crawfish po-boys and one small shrimp po-boy. And, like LA Seafood, they managed to uphold the same standards of excellence in less than perfect cooking conditions.

“Are you going to the Crawfish Festival?” she asked.

“We’ll be there.” we replied.

“We’re going to have a booth there, too, and you have to come and try our crawfish and spinach boat. Get one and share it. They’re rich.” she exclaimed.

And so we did—a few nights later. The “boat” (below) was a hollowed out small round loaf of bread into which was ladled a mix of crawfish, spinach, cream, parmesan cheese, and cayenne pepper. She was right. One boat was a meal for two. It was rich, spicy, and thick with spinach and crawfish. And when the filling was gone, you could tear off chunks of good chewy bread coated with the great filling.

And Now, Sunny’s Delight

We had to make one more trip to Church Point to revisit the greatest fried chicken ever (see our April 14th blog). So if Sunny’s had the greatest fried chicken, why did I order the mixed seafood platter? It was all in the interest of research.

Chuck stuck with his original lunch—two piece white and fries. In fact, his fries were the ones from my platter. The same euphoric smile crossed his face as he bit through the perfect crust to the moist and tender chicken underneath. This is truly the finest fried chicken ever.

My seafood platter came with the fries which Chuck ate, a side of good cole slaw, and a mountain of fried seafood. The platter included four plump and juicy fried oysters, five fried shrimp (two of which were over-cooked), three pieces of flaky and sweet fried catfish, a stuffed crab, and a stuffed shrimp.

The stuffing for both the crab and the shrimp was the same as that used to fill crawfish heads for crawfish bisque—a blend of bread crumbs, finely minced onion and green pepper, and cayenne pepper. For the stuffed crab, crab meat was added to the mix, which was then packed into the crab shell and fried.

Stuffed shrimp is a misnomer. Nothing is stuffed into the shrimp. Rather, the shrimp is encased in the mixture and then fried. A more exact description would be “shrimp in stuffing” rather than “stuffed shrimp.” But, whatever you call it, it was delicious. The stuffing envelop ensures that the seafood remains moist and juicy.

Could I go to a restaurant with the world’s greatest fried chicken and not eat chicken? Of course not. I didn’t give Chuck my fries out of the goodness of my heart. I wanted to save room for one of Sunny’s giant chicken wings.

It’s time to leave Acadiana and head north. Already we are planning on a return visit to our favorites—Chef Roy’s Frog City Café, LA Seafood House, Bon Creole Lunch Counter, Olde Tyme Grocery, Sunny’s Fried Chicken, French Press, Original Don’s Seafood House, Zea’s Rotisserie and Grill, and Richetto’s Pizza. And, of course, Meche’s Donut King.

But first I need to shed the pounds gained on this visit.

NOTE: There was no blog entry yesterday because "the blogger was unavailable." The blog's status was "read only;" visitors could read the blog, but I could not enter any information into it.