Since The Food Show and I arrived in Tom’s life at the same time, I remember specifics about various periods. One thing ran throughout: Tom was constantly getting “tips” from listeners about places he just had to try. Sometimes these tips would lead us to genuine gems, but mostly not.
Now that I have inherited the mic, such recommendations come to me. Often I will discount them, depending on their source, but I will also get very excited about enthusiasm from a trustworthy fan, based on other recommendations from the same source.
One day Atchafalaya Seafood in Picayune, MS. was highly recommended. Everything I heard about it seemed credible, and I was excited to make a little drive to check it out, as we have so many other times through the years.
It has been a few months since it first came up on the show, and we had to overcome Tom’s near-death experience and his subsequent stabilization to even venture out. Last week we did.
Right after the show we got into the car and headed for Mississippi. As so often happens, details become fuzzy, and they often don’t square with reality. “The first exit up Hwy 59” turned out to be 4 exits up, with 10 miles between the 3rd and 4th exits. I stopped at the first exit just in case, and luckily got gas there. I would need it between the 3rd and 4th exit. A guy at the next pump knew about the place and gave me the proper directions.
And then we hit monstrous traffic, which Tom cannot do. Fortunately, I had just tanked up, so that wasn’t a concern. I still aborted this plan as soon as I could.
It was only a few days later that we headed back out for Picayune. This time we had better luck and made it to Atchafalaya Seafood by way of back roads, though we still did that last 10 miles on I-59.
The renovation from the Ryan’s Steakhouse is very well done. Expansive with minimalist decor, it fits the profile of a seafood place so well it’s hard to imagine it was ever a chain steakhouse.
I was immediately put off by the first question we were asked. What to drink? I ordered a tea for Tom and water for me, but then I was informed it would be bottled water. This is okay if the bottled water is something special, but don’t hand me some nondescript brand. Since I was only getting water to dilute Tom’s tea so he could drink more water, I was annoyed by her response. I never did see the brand and didn’t ask.
The menu is adequate, with enough choices to satisfy everyone’s needs, but nothing more. From the usual suspect's app section, I chose between spin dip, boudin balls, and something called Bayou Bites. There were a few others in the section, but these were most interesting to me. Tom had a half dozen chargrilled oysters.
The Bayou Bites were addictively tasty and consisted of shrimp, crab, and crawfish in a seafood stuffing encased in what seemed like a double-wrapped flour tortilla that was deep-fried. These were sliced and placed on shredded lettuce with an accompanying sauce that was impossibly delicious. It is called Atchafalaya sauce and if they aren’t bottling this, they should. I hated myself for liking this starter so much.
Tom had chargrilled oysters with nothing to recommend them but their existence as oysters. I didn’t understand the sauce for chargrilling, and I was unimpressed with the raw materials, Oysters should be much better than these in a place that specializes in seafood to the extent that there is a market alongside the restaurant.
For entrees, Tom got a combo fried seafood plate with oysters and wild-caught catfish. These catfish filets were smallish but were much tougher than I expected. I usually revel in the delicate aspects of wild catfish, but it was missing here. The coating was nice but I found all the fried seafood here to be a tad greasy. Disappointing. The oysters were smallish and again, not as good as they should be for a seafood market.
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I fared much better with my crabcake plate. It contained two pan-seared crabcakes that were lump rather than jumbo, with just the right amount of filler. I liked these rather well. The side I got was dirty rice because I am curious about it whenever I see it. This was very dark with that intense organ meat flavor, which I usually like but less so here. It was good but nothing I would make sure to order again.
As extra sides, I got coleslaw and jambalaya. The coleslaw was so forgettable I forgot to finish it, and the jambalaya was the red seafood variety which was also uninteresting enough to simply leave it.
There were things on other tables that I was curious about, and items on the menu that I still wanted to try. This “tip” from a radio listener did not direct us to a gem, but neither was it a waste. When we want to take a short drive someplace different, this will fit the bill. And if we never get back, that’s fine too.
