Au Revoir, Lafayette
What do you do when you wake up hungry in Lafayette, Louisiana? On our recent journey to Acadiana we had plans to tackle a brunch on our way out of town, but that was scheduled for noonish, after checking out of the hotel. We needed a bit of nourishment to hold us over and the hotel breakfast didn’t offer much in the way of Cajun delicacies. Thank goodness we were right around the corner from T-Coon’s Restaurant: T-Coon’s has beignets. This was The Wife’s request - who was I to deny? Cafe’ du Monde in New Orleans is a special place for sure, but they weren’t around the corner. T-Coon’s beignets were just fine, and we were off to a great start.
For brunch I had my heart set on Blue Dog Cafe, as much for the chance to see George Rodrigue’s Blue Dog art as for the good food reviews. But my heart will have to wait. It seems you have to get there pretty early to get a seat. We didn’t. The second priority (after meal planning) in a Reed Family adult weekend away is to sleep in. We did. So we’ll be back.
My original plan for our arrival meal two nights prior was Prejean’s, a legendary Cajun restaurant that’s been around for 37 years. That plan was foiled, but now we had an opportunity to make up for it. The timing worked out well, too - I had eaten breakfast there once before on a solo trip, but now I could try some of the lunch entrees. (Notice the plural but remember: The Wife would be sharing!)
One of Prejean’s classic dishes is the crawfish enchilada. The flour tortillas are packed with crawfish tails and a Rotel sauce, topped with cheese, baked, and smothered with their crawfish and Creole sauce. It’s decadent, to say the least. But I’m not sure if it wins the Medal of Decadence when up against the Alligator Cheesecake.
The first thing necessary, when you face an alligator cheesecake, is to wipe away all the common expectations when hearing the word “cheesecake”. It’s not sweet. Not covered in fruit, drizzled with caramel, or studded with all the delights a Jubilation creation affords. This one is savory, to say the least, and was perhaps my favorite part of the meal. The common denominators are cream cheese and a crust, though the cream cheese is flavored with Creole seasoning, not sugar - the crust is Parmesan and panko, not graham. Smokehouse alligator sausage and Gulf shrimp are blended into the cream cheese, and the cake is swimming in a pool of crawfish Cardinale cream sauce. Creamy and spicy, laden with little nuggets of Cajun goodness. I like to order different things where’ere I go, especially if I return to the same place - but I would order this again just to share it with others.
I went with another signature dish for my entree: the Catfish Oscar Prejean. The large catfish filet was fried and extra crispy, which set it up well for all the accoutrements. Jumbo lump crabmeat on top with a drizzle of Bearnaise sauce, and on the bottom a few rods of mesquite-grilled asparagus in a rich brown butter Madeira wine sauce. (If you were looking for a light meal, you should have eaten with someone else…)
The final classic was a crawfish pie. I knew the song: “Jambalaya, crawfish pie, file’ gumbo - son of a gun, having fun on the bayou.” This flaky hand pie was the only food in the verse I’d never tried. It wasn’t fancy, but I got the impression that this might make the Cajun Comfort Food list. To change it up a bit, I dragged a few bites through one of the sauces I had on the table on other plates - you never know what’s going to work.
Prejean’s was our last stop in Lafayette, but there was another side trip we made that morning that has a story worth telling. On the Cajun Food Tour we had stopped at Nunu’s Market, but didn’t really have a lot of time to look around sufficiently. And I still didn’t have any boudin in my cooler. (Rule Number One when traveling to food destinations: take a cooler.) So back to Nunu’s we went, and stocked up on specialty meats. Boudin. Ribeye sausage. Smoked pork sausage with Steen’s cane syrup. Steak sausage was a new concept, and when we grilled it at home, it was just as you might think: a meaty, dense sausage with that unmistakeable flavor of steak.
To wash down all the meat we grabbed a few local sodas for the road. Swamp Pop was born and raised in Lafayette, incorporating local flavors like Satsuma orange and Ponchatoula strawberries into the mix. I chose Noble Cane Cola, infused with Louisiana figs - perhaps not a fruit you’d think of as a soda enhancer, but it did give the cola a unique sweetness. We also brought home some File’ Root Beer. Sassafras root
is already one of the classic flavors that root beers are based on, and the Swamp Pop folks enhanced that just a bit, with the earthy touch of file’ powder (ground sassafras leaves.) Abita, the folks that also make a great root beer, had a seasonal soda on the shelf: Pecan Pie Soda. (You know I did.) And here’s my assessment. It did taste like a pecan pie in fizzy drink form. It was seriously sweet. It’s not the kind of soda you want to wash down a supreme pizza, for sure. But if you need a little something sweet after dinner and don’t want to actually eat a piece of pie, a little swig of this soda might just satisfy that sweet tooth. Pretty good over vanilla ice cream, too.
We hated to say au revoir to Lafayette, but Lake Charles, Cousin Mike and more culinary capers awaited. We laissez’ed the bon temps rouler, and headed west.