Eat Baton Rouge Quick Bites- Juanita's III

If you are into Mexican food- the real deal, not Tex-Mex... do yourself a favor and head over to Juanita's Taqueria y Supermercado. Born on Muriel Drive off of Sherwood, it has grown into two more locations around town, Juanita's II on Perkins Road, and the brand-spanking-newest being located at the corner of Florida and Sharp in the location of the old, and creatively-named, I might add- "Chinese Restaurant".
Arrive hungry and order the Beef Burrito- a foot-long log of cheese-covered tortilla filled with flavorful rice and juicy, tender bits of carne asada which are the best I've encountered in Baston' Rojo. It comes garnished with shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced avocado and tomato, a handful of pickled peppers and crema (south-of-the-border sour cream.) At $7.99, it's a real bargain to boot. Check it out, and just point to the menu if you can't speak Spanish!

-Eat Baton Rouge-

Cafe' Mediterranean

Cafe' Mediterranean
4347 Perkins Rd
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
(225) 336-4501

It's always interesting to me when one of my favorite poor-student-food campus haunts grows up and moves out into the city. Generally, they get bigger and better looking- but sometimes, they lose their identity and fail to satisfy like they did back in the salad days. One of my regular stops at LSU in those days was Cafe' Mediterranean, then located on Chimes Street. For a broke fan of Greek and Lebanese cuisine, this old hole-in-the-wall was a gold mine, featuring big plates of great fresh fare for a song. Since then, Cafe Med has led, appropriately perhaps, a nomadic existence- moving downtown for a stint before landing in the Southdowns Shopping Center on Perkins Road, next door to another of Eat Baton Rouge's favorite chow spots, Thai Kitchen.

One wonders if the new Cafe' Med might get a little overlooked in strip-mall anonymity... a shame, as on a quiet Saturday afternoon there were few diners to enjoy the spacious, artistically painted interior that is a reminder of Cafe Med's Chimes Street beginnings.
We got started this day with a spinach pie, which proved to be a heftier offering than what you'd find at most B.R. Greek and Lebanese eateries. Big triangles of buttery, flaky phyllo dough were stuffed with a better-than-average spinach filling- oniony, garlicky, and delicious. Washed down with ice-cold sweet Lebanese heavily perfumed with rosewater, it appeared we were in for a treat.

Next, we were treated to an order of extraordinarily fresh hummus... it seemed to have been just-made, with a coarser texture than one usually encounters, and redolent of raw, freshly chopped garlic- almost spicy, with a peppery finish and lemony tang. For garlic aficionados such as yours truly, this was right in my wheelhouse. For lesser fans of the stinking rose, this dish may be a bit much.
Along with the hummus, we ordered a pair of kibbi which arrived nicely cooked with a golden brown exterior and a flavorful ground lamb filling which was tasty, if a bit too dense.



We also tried the Chicken Shawarma Salad, which arrived at the table as a huge bowl enough to feed two, even though we ordered a small. It was piled high with chicken and yogurt sauce atop crisp iceberg lettuce tossed in a tangy lemony dressing. This was tasty and satisfying even though the chicken was a bit dry. We also sampled some of Cafe' Mediterranean's meat-stuffed grape leaves, an order of six wonderful little tubes of goodness. We were surprised to find the filing of these to be more of meat than rice, with a texture almost akin to a meatball. Topped with a squeeze of fresh lemon and a dollop of cool yogurt sauce, these were a real home run.

So, it seems- despite it's slightly more uptown digs- Cafe Med still delivers... in atmosphere, in service, in mouth-watering food, and even (college students rejoice!) in value... we escaped after such a feast for only $32 including tip! Too good to be overlooked.

Of Chain Restaurants...

Carrabba's Italian Grill
7275 Corporate Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA 70809
225-925-9999
225-925-9943 FAX
Mon-Thurs 4:00pm-10:00pm
Fri-Sat 11:30am-11:00pm
Sun 11:30am-9:00pm
www.carrabbas.com


A popular criticism (and an unfair one, at that) of many is that Baton Rouge is a lame and chain-restaurant infested culinary wasteland... boring food made for boring people. While you could strain to find some grains of truth to support that, natives know that BR and its environs hold many delectable treats if only one knows where to look. I'll be the first to admit that I prefer to patronize local places over national chains... not only because it's the right thing to do, but because the locals tend to yield better chow. Still, one of life's lessons that has taught me the most is not to have 'contempt prior to investigation'... something that sounds simple, but can be hard to apply to the things I am most passionate about... food, music, LSU football. Generally speaking these subjects are no place for moderation. Besides, there are some chains that provide a consistently good product, and what's wrong with that? To sacrifice a bit of originality for consistency is a deal I will take sometimes. Bonefish Grill, for example, has never disappointed me.

So, with this spirit of open mindedness we set out for a trip to Carrabba's in Towne Center- a locale, despite being open quite some time now, I hadn't made to yet. It's an impressive looking building in a shwanky (for Baton Rouge, anyway) part of town. I dug the stands of fresh herbs that surround the entrance... it's nice to smell the rosemary as you are walking in the door.
Fresh from playing in a tennis tournament and famished, we were seated after a short wait in one of Carrabba's spacious booths. As my ever-expanding waistline will attest, I'm a bread guy- and this is one area Carrabba's gets right... a moist, doughy, sliced loaf appears promptly along with a dish of dried Italian herbs to be mixed with olive oil from a bottle on our table. It makes a delicious dip for the bread, and it is devoured quickly.

Craving calamari (small $6/regular $8) we opted for the larger one to split between us. It arrived piping hot and crisp, with none of the greasiness or rubbery-ness that one sometimes encounters with lesser calamari. It came flanked with lemon wedges and a bowl of marinara. The calamari were scrumptious and like the bread before it, disappeared in record time. Next came a pair of salads, a small Caesar ($4.50) for my wife and a Mediterranean , included with my entree', for me. The Caesar was, well, a Caesar- decent, average, uninspiring. The Mediterranean was a cut above... moist, leafy, dark mixed greens with some interesting garnishes including artichoke and pepperoncini tossed in a pesto vinaigrette.

For main courses, we opted for the luxurious-sounding lobster ravioli ($16.50), stuffed with Maine lobster in a white wine cream sauce with diced tomatoes. Joining the ravioli, I selected the veal marsala (political correctness be damned! I like veal. It's delicious, and the Italians perhaps above all others, know what to do with it.) The Marsala ($16.50) consisted of three small scallopine of veal, sauteed and topped with mushrooms, prosciutto and a Lombardo marsala sauce. This dish is also available as a piccata, topped instead with a lemon butter sauce.
The ravioli arrived, looking a bit puny on the big white plate, with minimal sauce and topped with freshly-grated parmesan. The sauce was a bit bland and would have done well do have had a bit more wine it. We'd also like to have had more of it to sop up. The round ravioli were filled with little chunks of lobster meat, a pleasant surprise as we expected a more homogenous filling with shredded lobster and a filler like cheese or breadcrumbs. Served in chunks and nothing else, the lobster meat showed off its delectable sweetness.
The veal, however, is where an otherwise promising meal landed with a dull thud. Despite looking great on the plate, the veal was disappointing... chewy, gristly texture in a sauce that was the opposite of everything you'd expect in Marsala sauce... bland, unseasoned, unflavorful. A properly made Marsala is a velvety smooth, sweet, winy, wonderfully flavored accompaniment to luxurious veal and melt-in-your-mouth mushrooms. Not even doctoring up with the imported Italian sea salt and Tellicherry pepper on the table to could save this effort. Disappointing as well was the side dish, cavatappi amatriciana, spiral macaroni in an insipid light tomato sauce topped with flavorless cheese. The pasta was overcooked and mushy which completed making this dish a real zero. So off-putting, in fact, that we elected to forgo our usual dessert course and try our luck elsewhere. It was Olive Garden-bad. (There is perhaps no greater scourge on the Earth than Olive Garden to a lover of Italian food.)
This colossal failure aside, Carrabba's may warrant a second visit, if for no other reason than to confirm suspicions. The pizzas, to their credit, looked appetizing- as did the offerings emanating from Carrabba's wood-burning grill. Perhaps the lesson here is that if you are visiting Carrabba's, one is best served keeping it simple and leave the fancier treatments to the Gino's of the world.

Serve You?

Every once in a while,  I come across a little something or another that lets me know that my childhood is just a little farther away in the rear view mirror than it was the day before.

I grew up in the  seventies in a middle-class neighborhood in Baton Rouge, and as a kid it was a treat to go with the family to Piccadilly- fancy dining to kids whose only eating out usually consisted of fast food burgers and fries.

A kid could eat like a grownup at Piccadilly, picking out his own dishes (red jello!) and being waited on by ladies who only addressed you with a sing-song "Serve you?" It was a symphony of gloriously fried food that was like heaven to me. Shrimp, catfish, chicken, you name it. My favorite, though, was that icon of southern eating- the chicken-fried steak.  Cube steak coated in thick cracker crust and big enough to wholly cover a plate... so big, they'd curl up in the deep fryer and come out dark, golden brown, full of hills and valleys that would contain the creamy, white gravy like little pools. A rich, solid meal perfect for a kid who just finished a game of ball or a couple of yards worth of mowing.

Now, I normally loathe when people wax nostalgic about inane things, but hey, it's my blog so... I'm going to anyway. I try to reproduce some of the good experiences of my childhood with my children,now that I am a Dad... so as I took my youngest to Piccadilly for dinner tonight (her request, I guess it's genetic or something) I couldn't help but notice things just aren't the same.

I ordered my old friend, chicken-fried steak, along with some corn and carrot souffle' (another weakness of mine.)

Rather than the mammoth, twisty slab of fried beef that I had pictured in my head, I was instead greeted by something that looked suspiciously like a formed patty... just a little too uniform to look made from scratch. Worse yet, it barely covered HALF the plate! Panic set in, my mind racing with images of someone back in the kitchen fetching pre-formed, pre-frozen CFS patties out of a Sysco bag and tossing them in the Frialator. Shuddering, I tried it. Houston, we have a problem. This was not your father's chicken-fried steak. Instantly, I was bummed out. Now I know you are thinking, "What's the big deal? It's just a chicken-freaking-fried steak. Get a life!" But you see, it's bigger than that... this was like the food version of the J. Geils Band song "Centerfold" to me. My blood ran cold. My memory had just been sold.  My angel is a prefabricated piece of meat or something like that. Everybody now! NAH-NAH-NAHNAH-NAH-NAH! NAH-NAH-NAH-NAHNAH-NAH-NAH!

I'm sorry.

Anyway, as my shock subsided, I tried to look for positives. This was, after all, a place that- despite being a chain, and a cafeteria chain at that- has consistently over the years produced gumbo and etouffee' that I have counted among the best in the city. Piccadilly has been in financial straits throughout the years, and I guess they had to cut some corners. You know, the same way they have paper napkins now instead of the old crimson cloth ones they used to give you. There are still some good things to eat there, as demonstrated by the rapidly disappearing fried catfish in front of my daughter. It's also possible, of course, that I am romanticizing something from my past, as I am occasionally wont to do, or that things just looked bigger and better through a kid's eyes.  I guess that it's just, every time I have an experience like this... when a Baton Rouge icon like Phil's Oyster Bar closes, or changes, it becomes a milestone that I envision referencing as an old man, beginning sentences with "Back in my day...". I'm slowly (or maybe not so slowly) becoming "that guy". Then, the thought occurred that may be older isn't necessarily better. I looked down at my little daughter, doing her best to cover as much of her skin in chocolate pudding as possible. Maybe one day she'll look back fondly at eating catfish at Piccadilly with her Pop. She leans over in the booth and squeezes my arm, and lays her head on my shoulder, happy to have a dinner date with Dad. That's worth a wrong turn down memory lane.

Dos Hermanos Tacos and Burritos Express

2698 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd., Baton Rouge

(225) 291-3477

(225) 291-3478 FAX

It's been my experience that some of the best food arrives out of some of the most humble surroundings. So, with that spirit in mind, I darkened the door of Dos Hermanos Tacos and Burritos Express, inelegantly shoehorned into the old Taco Bell location on  Sherwood Forest near I-12.

The old run-for-the-border spot has been rechristened with a red, white, and green paint scheme in tribute to the Mexican flag, but otherwise is laid out about the same, minus a few Spanish-language DVD racks and a huge projection HDTV wedged into one corner featuring Spanish programming. 

Dos Hermanos has kind of an odd set-up in that the customer comes to the front counter, is handed a menu, and is then told to go sit at one of the booths or tables. Soon, a server appears, ready to take your order, chips and salsas in hand.  In addition to the standard salsa dish, you are also presented with twin squeeze bottles full of salsa verde (green tomatillo) and salsa rojo (red chile) respectively. Good thing, too, as these both outshined the rather ordinary salsa Mexicana in the dish, which was lacking in zip and had a slightly gritty texture. I quickly went through a basket of chips, two-fisting the squeeze bottles of salsa.

My lunch entree' this day would be the Combinaciones dos Hermanos ($8.99), a combination plate featuring one  cheese enchilada, one tamale, and one chile relleno served with the requisite spanish rice and refried beans. The enchilada and chile relleno came bathed in a red ranchero sauce with bell peppers and onions. The enchilada was good if unspectacular. The chile relleno was an improvement, a flavorful poblano pepper filled with gooey cheese that had been battered and fried. The batter could have used a bit more salt to my taste, but it was delicioso nonetheless. The surprise star of this meal was the tamale... frequently an overcooked, dry filler on a combo plate. Not so here- the tamale was served in a corn husk, with a moist masa dough layer inside, covering- to my happy satisfaction- chunks of carne asada that were lick-your-fingers good.  When topped with a squirt of the aforementioned salsa rojo, every bite of tamale was a home run. Another surprise were the refried beans.... dos Hermanos gives these the attention they deserve, serving a creamy and flavorful refried beans that resulted in my making a happy plate! I elected to wash all these down by ordering an Horchata ($2.50), the sweet, creamy, cinnamon flavored rice drink that perfectly quenches the chile fires one sometimes gets eating south-of-the-border cuisine.

Service here was attentive, pleasant and quick. Don't wait on a check when you are done, though... you still have to pay up front at the counter.The good news is that Dos Hermanos presents a good value... I got out of the door, stuffed for just under $13. Dos Hermanos has a large menu that will suit many tastes... all the regular items you'd expect in a Mexican joint... tacos, burritos, nachos... but don't miss out some of their other offerings like Huevos (eggs) or Tortas (Mexican sandwich). Dos Hermanos also has daily specials featuring mole poblano, ribs, and soups like pozole and menudo.

Mexican is a popular choice in Baton Rouge, and also with readers of this blog according to our most recent poll... now, there's another place that provides quality Mexican fare at a good price right in the middle of Baton Rouge- Dos Hermanos Tacos and Burritos Express. Buen Provecho!