Cuisine Rouge Road Trip

While I focus on writing about local food and restaurants, there are just too many great festivals this time of year to pass up taking the occasional road trip. Since another of my interests is history; specifically the history of my ancestors, I decided to make my way down to St. Bernard for the annual Islenos Fiesta.

The Islenos are a group of Canary Islands descendents whose ancestors immigrated to various locations around South Louisiana as part of a military recruitment by the Spanish government in the late 18^th century.

A group of descendants in St. Bernard formed a organization to help preserve the culture and heritage of their ancestors and hold an annual Fiesta to raise money for that cause. The Fiesta features your typical array of crafts, souvenirs, and activities, but the real treat are the traditional musicians and dancers who fly in from the Canary Islands. They dress in the period costumes of when they first arrived in Louisiana and perform songs and dances which help recreate the culture of that time.

And of course there is food! Sure, there are the standard items you find at any festival; hamburgers, hot dogs, funnel cakes, etc., but the real treats are the Spanish dishes.


Bacon Wrapped Plantains

Some of the appetizer type foods sold are shown above. The plantains are excellent. A small strip of bacon is wrapped around a chunk of plantain with a toothpick and deep fried. The slight sweetness of the plantain and the saltiness of the bacon taste excellent together.

Croquettes

The croquettes are also quite tasty, filled with a spicy ham mixture.

Paella

One of the stars of the show is the paella. For those unfamiliar, paella is a rice based dish typically containing a variety of meats and/or seafood, and seasoned with saffron. Our beloved jambalaya is like the bastard son of paella, originating in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Spaniards who had come to the New World were attempting to make paella, but couldn't find saffron, due to the high cost of importing it. Tomatoes became the substitute and Creole jambalaya was born. To be honest, this wasn't one of the best versions I've had, but considering the large quantities that it is prepared in, it was pretty tasty.

Spanish Wines

New this year to the Fiesta was the welcome addition of a tapas and wine bar, sponsored by the St. Bernard Parish Tourist Commission. They had a nice selection of three Spanish wines. Sangre de Toro and Campo Viejo Crianza, are tasty red wines, well reviewed and economically priced. The Gran Feudo Rosado is a rose wine, a lighter version of the other two wines, with similar flavors but a crisper and fruitier taste.

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Tapas

The tapas selection consisted of two Spanish cheeses, Manchego and Mahón, some chorizo, and a very typical Spanish dish called tortilla de patatas. This dish is made from eggs, fried potatoes, and onions, serving as a base to which any number of things can be added. The variety of ingredients put into one of these typically depends on what region of Spain you are located in.

Grilled Oysters

I have to admit though, that my favorite thing to chow down on at the Fiesta every year are the grilled oysters. I'm a huge fan of oysters and these are plump, salty, and freshly shucked then topped with a delicious mixture of melted butter, mashed garlic, parsley, and parmesan cheese. They are grilled just long enough to absorb all those flavors and not dry out.

Flan

Of course you gotta have dessert, and they have the traditional flan, a custard based dessert topped with creme caramel sauce. Bueno!

So keep your calendar open toward the end of March next year to attend the Fiesta. It's a great mix of history, culture, and a chance to sample some tradition non-Cajun foods of Louisiana.

Lucy's Retired Surfers Bar and Restaurant

151 Third St.
Baton Rouge, LA
225.361.0372
http://www.lucysretiredsurfers.com

New to the downtown area is Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar and Restaurant.  An offshoot of the New Orleans location, they occupy the renovated space formerly held by D’Agostino’s Italian restaurant.  The décor and theme are almost overwhelmingly surfer related, with everything from pictures to posters and a full sized surfboard above the bar.  The surfing DVD playing in a constant loop over the TVs is somewhat annoying, especially on return visits when you have already seen it.

The menu is very much in line with the theme, featuring lots of seafood and “California” type items.  They do feature a full bar, and several specialty drinks that are tropical in nature and pack quite a punch.  One that stood out to me is the “Da Killer Blue Whale”, a mixture of lemonade, vodka, curacao, and Everclear.  Another unique drink item offered is the Bloody Mary shot.  A spice-rimmed shot glass is filled with vodka that they have infused with peppers and spices, and the drink is served with a cherry tomato.  They’ve deemed it the world’s fastest Bloody Mary.

Over the course of several visits, I sampled a couple of the appetizer items with mixed results.  The Jamaican Jerk Chicken was great.  Four grilled pieces of chicken breast seasoned with jerk spices are served with an accompanying sweet and sour sauce deemed “Pali sauce”.  The chicken was cooked perfectly, with great grill flavor but not dried out.  The sauce matched well with the spiciness of the chicken, and the portion was adequate for an appetizer.  On another visit, I tried the pulled pork sliders, which were decent in flavor and taste, but lacked an accompanying side item.  According to the menu, they were served with sweet potato fries, but I’m unable to report on those based on the fact that I never saw them.

Ordering that item uncovered an unfortunately very negative aspect of the restaurant, the service.  The bartender seemed to be completely unaware of the menu, and when asked about the dish, couldn’t seem to decipher what was going on.  Granted, I was seated at the bar, but I would suspect that the bartender should at least be familiar with appetizers on the menu, the items often ordered by patrons at the bar.

The entrée I tried was pretty good, a nice piece of fish crusted with ground tortillas.  In a move obvious to be a play to the Baton Rouge locals, they take tortilla chips, both standard color and purple, and crust each side of the fish with these, then its fried, and served with mashed potatoes.

Lucy’s is open daily from 11AM to 10PM, and feature several specials.  Happy hour is Mon-Thurs, 4PM – 7PM featuring $5 well drinks, $18 buckets, and 2 for 1 margaritas, along with free chips and salsa.  Tuesdays are “Taco Tuesdays” with $1 beef tacos, $2 steak or chicken tacos, and $3 shrimp tacos.

Despite some service issues that may be corrected in time, Lucy’s is a very welcome addition to the downtown scene, and a great alternative to the standard fare.  Hopefully once some of the bugs are ironed out, they can focus on more specials so that they can take better advantage of the downtown lunch business.