Three Quick Bites

It’s a predicament. What do you do when revisiting an area? Do you return to your favorite restaurants from visits past? Do you explore the new? Fortunately, we are staying in the Lafayette (LA) area long enough—two months—that we can do both. Today, we return to three of our local favorites for a quick visit.

Stop One – Sunny’s Fried Chicken in Church Point, LA

I have been craving this fried chicken since we left Louisiana last May, so Sunny’s became one of our first meal stops upon our return. For this lunch, Chuck ordered the two piece white meal with mashed potatoes and gravy and I chose three wings with a medium side of slaw. Each of our meals came with a biscuit that had us wishing that Sunny’s did breakfast. These biscuits would be great with sausage gravy. But, alas, they don’t.

Even though their slaw is chopped and not shredded (another of my eccentricities) it is still excellent with a very creamy and somewhat sweet dressing. The mashed potatoes must have come from a box since I detected the taste of artificial butter flavoring. But the onion rings met all the standards for excellence—thin sliced, light batter, and onions that still retained a bit of crunch.

I am particularly fond of Sunny’s wings. Last year (4/14/11), I theorized that these wings could not have come from an earthbound chicken and must be the appendages of an extraterrestrial-mutant-bird that had been zapped by radiation. What makes them special is the large bulb of meat that is carved from the breast when the wing and breast are separated. And knowing that I was going to order Sunny’s wings, I brought with me a small bottle of my favorite wing sauce (and here I lose all of my credibility as a knowledgeable foodie)—Original Louisiana Supreme Chicken Wing Sauce that I buy at—get ready—Dollar Tree. It has just enough heat, almost no sharp vinegar flavor, and also makes a great marinade for chicken.

This is 5.0 Addie eats—except for the mashed potatoes.

Stop 2 – Cajun Way/Boudin King in Crowley, LA

No trip to this area would be complete without one stop at this ultra-casual restaurant. In fact, it was Cajun Way’s onion rings that inspired Chuck to take pen in hand and write “The Ode to the Onion Ring” on November 1, 2008. We have a minor difference of opinion since I rank the rings at Frog City Café slightly higher than Cajun Way’s, but both are so good that any differences are minor.

I began my lunch with a small bowl of shrimp gumbo which, after the addition of some black pepper and hot sauce, was quite good. The bowl contained a large number of small shrimp (what in some areas are called bay shrimp) swimming in a dark roux base.

Deciding to eschew fried foods for the day (OK, I did eat my share of the onion rings.), I ordered the large shrimp salad which was a mix of iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots, red cabbage, and tomatoes topped by a surfeit of small boiled shrimp that had a faint taste of seafood boil.

Chuck ordered the catfish poor boy which was small in size—but also in price—containing a modest quantity of well-cooked catfish strips. His accompanying potato salad almost looked like yellow mashed potatoes and contained too much mustard for my taste.

We have certainly had better food in this area, but keep coming back for the excellent onion rings. Overall—Cajun Way earns a 3.5 Addie rating.

Stop 3 – Rochettos Pizzeria in Scott, LA

You knew that there had to be a pizza somewhere, didn’t you?

Last year (3/15/11), we tried to put the proverbial square peg into the proverbial round hole when eating at Rochettos. Using the list of options, we tried to create a white Margherita using olive oil instead of tomato sauce with satisfactory, if not great, results. This year, we stuck with what they do and ordered a basic cheese—light on the cheese, or course—and sausage on the restaurants thin cracker-like crust.

Chuck and I are of a mind when it comes to pizza crust. If we can’t have wood oven/VPN crust, we prefer the cracker crust to the New York style hand tossed. (Don’t ask me about deep dish. That’s a casserole and not a pizza.)

The remarkable thing about this pizza is the quantity of sausage covering the crust. You never see this much sausage anywhere. I think that it contained a bit too much fennel for Chuck’s taste but I didn’t think it was overdone.

I don’t think that the Lafayette area will ever be known for excellence in pizza, but Rochettos 4.5-Addie cheese and sausage assuages our pizza craving.

"To review the role of Adler, Kitty Humbug, and the Addie rating system, read the November 14, 2011 blog."