It's Seafood Season!

It always amuses me when Lent rolls around and we scramble to eat seafood. In New Orleans, we eat seafood. Period. A lot of it. No Lenten season required. No sacrifices. It’s our heritage, and we love it. But Lent does cause us to reflect more and notice our great gift of seafood bounty. I find myself thinking about favorite seafood dishes to eat on Fridays. For the last few years I have been obsessed with the dichotomy of Friday Fish Frys, both the original Catholic ones, and the COVID-induced specials of comparable prices at restaurants.

No more of that. This section of the newsletter during Lent will now be devoted to seafood dishes around town I have loved so much I still think about them. I will likely have a few of these this season.

The first is a new one. A recent discovery. I was wowed by the shrimp bisque at Miss River during Mardi Gras. It was part of a shareable feast for Mardi Gras, and I didn’t want to split this sublime soup. My half was not enough. It had that luscious stick-to-the-lips mouthfeel, and a flavor so intense it went all the way to my toes. This is the kind of soup with the right kind of texture to make a meal of it. Some crusty bread for mopping up every trace, and it’s the perfect meal. (Unfortunately, the house bread is a sweet potato brioche, but there is French bread in the house.) 

I have said this often, but I love the crawfish pie at Trenasse. I love pies. I love crusts, the bigger the better. Crusts that are flaky and have heft to them, especially when there is a liquid creamy filling that a crust needs to support. The crawfish pie at Trenasse has both these components, and that is why it is on this list. Actually, the reason it is on this list is that it is outstandingly delicious. Not for the faint of spice though. This little treat packs a Cajun punch, but to me it is just right. The mixture of flaky pastry and luscious spicy cream sauce, generously studded with crawfish tails hits all the right notes for me.

It is impossible to blurt out a favorite seafood, with all the wonderful things at our disposal here. But crab claws, for me, must be on this list. If crab claws are on a menu anywhere, chances are very good I will order them. To my taste, the crab claws at little Northshore sleeper Cafe Lynn are the most outstanding version of this delicacy. It’s the Persillade sauce. Garlic, olive oil and so many herbal bits

somehow don’t overwhelm the crab. Perfection.

The Oysters Arnaud is the most unique baked oysters dish in town. While I am not nearly as into oysters as a lot of people here, this one really should be on the list for oyster lovers. It is an array of five different baked oyster preparations, presented beautifully, as everything at Arnaud’s is.

Of the many things on Mandina’s menu (most of which I’m not crazy about,) this one stood out for me, mainly because I am such a fan of little softshell crabs, or Buster crabs. Two Buster crabs are fried beautifully, then heavily napped with a delicious version of Remoulade sauce, and surrounded on both ends by boiled shrimp, with more Remoulade sauce. All of this over shredded Iceberg lettuce, the N’awlins way.

For people not interested in seafood, I will also include in these lists one dish that is not made with a protein that once lived. The macaroni and cheese at Rosedale is especially great. Fair warning, it is less creamy and more crusty, but that is my preference. There are lots of other things on the menu here if you want to go deeper than the kid’s favorite. It is a Susan Spicer restaurant, after all.

There are so many more wonderful things to put on future lists. In the spirit of Tom’s “Dozen Best,” I do a half dozen, with plenty more to come this season. We eat seafood all the time. But in Lenten season, we do it mindfully. I like that.