We have talked a lot lately about seafood platters on The Food Show. In one of my Monday round-ups of weekend eating, I mentioned the seafood platter at the Blue Crab and producer Patty picked up on a mention of crab claws, which she loved. The following weekend she went to Casamento’s and marveled at the seafood platter there with all its crab claws. And that got me to thinking about the best seafood platters around town. Seafood platters are a stape of our local cuisine. I often quote Klara Cvitanovich of Dragos’ when we were talking about the business. She asked, “Who needs a seafood platter?” The answer of course is no one. No one needs to eat a big pile of fried anything. But we love it.
Seafood platters have changed in recent years from the classic plates of fried seafood at the old West End. Those were far more likely to have trout as the fish, where catfish reigns supreme now. Only Casamento’s offers trout on their seafood platter as an option instead of catfish.
I don’t remember crab claws so front-and-center back then, but they are everywhere now, usually in fancier restaurants in a divine garlic and herb butter sauce. Most seafood platters do not have fried crab claws, but it is fun to see them arrive scattered about a pile of seafood.
“Extras” on a seafood platter run the gamut now. It used to be a stuffed crab. The old kind where the stuffing was in a real crab shell (thankfully we are getting back to that now) and it fit there. And it was real crab. Now we have a mound of mostly breading, exploding from the shell, or a deep-fried patty. Extras used to be stuffed shrimp, but now a soft shell crab is often an add-on. And hush puppies are usually part of this mix.
These too, can run the gamut. Tom told me once that hush puppies came about in the really old days at the plantations when cooks from the kitchen that were separated from the house would bring the food into the house with a trail of dogs howling behind them for food. They would throw fried dollops of cornmeal to shut them up, hence the name: Hush Puppies. This makes sense since I can see no other reason for their existence. Some restaurants have taken their hush puppy mandates rather seriously. Copeland’s has a fantastically light little ball studded with corn kernels. No wonder Mary Leigh would often get an order of just those. Definitely worth it.
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But forget all the “extras.” A seafood platter is about the seafood. Usually it is a trio: shrimp, oysters, and fish. In the olds days, trout. The new days, farm-raised catfish. Occasionally, and thankfully increasing in frequency, Des Allemands catfish, right out of the bayous in these parts. I have had great wild catfish that is light and delicate, (see catfish at Zea’s) and I have had gnarly, gamey catfish. (Orleans Bistro comes to mind.)
Shrimp can be so large you hold them by the tail to bite a few times, or smaller with no tail to eat like popcorn. And of course oysters run the gamut, depending on what nature offers. I had some at Pat’s Rest-A-While last week that were so large I was offended. Guys seem to love the larger the better.
So here are a few seafood platters around town that you may want to try. Tom always did a round-up like this as a "Dozen Best." I can't eat like Tom, so how about a half dozen?
I’m with Patty on the one at Casamento’s. If your family has been in business generation-to-generation for 106 years, you have it down. They offer a choice of the old way, with trout as the fish instead of catfish. But trout is an option, and I know of no other place doing this. The fries are still fresh cut, and the platter is large enough to share. The place is a wonder in that we-haven’t-changed-anything-since-we-opened-in-the-last-century kind of way. And I say that with love and admiration.. The place is historic and charming, though the bathroom is through the kitchen full of boiling pots of oil. Beware.
The second favorite in town is The Blue Crab, whose $42 platter is also large enough for two. It has the regulars of the seafood trio, along with crab claws and a fried stuffed crab. (This place used to have the best old-time version of a real stuffed crab made of crab mostly and I wish they’d go back to that. The fries here were also housecut, but a recent visit made me wonder…
Another former big favorite for me, Pat’s Rest-A-While has me less enthusiastic on a recent visit about the seafood platter, and everything else here. I often said that here was the best batter for fried seafood in my experience, but I found it extra spicy on the last visit. Also, the fries seemed to be downgraded. They used to have a pretty great version of frozen fries but these were very ordinary battered fries. On the plus side, the annoying policy of having to buy a third seafood by the piece has been remedied. All three typical seafoods are available as one $31 platter now. The catfish was in thin pieces, the shrimp were the perfect popcorn-size, and the oysters on this day were enormous. Still served with the afterthought-looking size of nice coleslaw, and two forgettable hush puppy nuggets.
This piece woud not be complete without adding the Don's Seafood Platter to the mix. When Don’s Seafood started doing brunch, they contacted us to have brunch with the owner. We had a lovely time trying new dishes, a few that really impressed Tom. For some reason Tom was never a big fan of Don’s. We returned a few times after and I remember having the seafood platter on one visit. It made an impression on me as being quite different from the others. There was something about the batter that intrigued me.
I went back and had a most enjoyable time sitting outside watching the geese at the Northpark Covington location. It’s a great spot for them, (Don's, but also the geese) offering a ready-made customer from the hotels mere steps away.
The seafood platter is enormous if you count all the “extras.” The usual three seafoods are just part of an interesting ensemble. There is a dish of crawfish etouffee that is very good, and that surprised me because I never eat that dish. This was more Cajun than most, and less red, so that may be why I liked it. Nice shrimp too.
The platter also comes with fries and coleslaw. Besides the shrimp, oysters, and fish, there are a stuffed shrimp and a fried stuffed crab with about six hush puppies. What struck me about the visual besides its variety and size was that there were different batters for different things. This intrigued me so much I sought out the manager. He went into the kitchen to get it right. The fried catfish and oysters are straight cornmeal. The shrimp, hush puppies , stuffed crab and stuffed shrimp are first dusted with flour then rolled in breadcrumbs.
I am sure this is the same thing that was done at the original Don's in Lafayette in 1934. This is an outstanding example of extra care. Both fish and oysters were blonde and crispy. The oil is fresh. I picked the wrong time to do this because these oysters are also enormous. Three bites per. Lovers of huge oysters get out now and get some of these.
The catfish was every bit as good as and maybe even better than the fabled Middendorf’s. It was perfectly crispy, golden brown, greaseless, and just a little thicker than the thin-fried menu star at Middendorf’s. It was so good it made me forget that I don’t eat farm-raised catfish.
The shrimp on the plate were done a bit differently than most. They were large but butterflied, so it felt like more shrimp, and they were properly cooked. The tail was on. These were terrific.
I never eat stuffed shrimp but I do like them when I see them. The stuffing in this one shrimp was definitely not just bread with shrimp flavor. There were bits of crab here and a great blend of spices, and bits of veggies, etc.
The same was true of the stuffed crab, which was unfortunately breaded and deep-fried, which is beginning to be the norm. It was tasty, and a bonus that I could even taste and feel crab.
I loved this platter. Don’s definitely has the feeling of a chain, but the food is good. You can’t be around 91 years and not be doing something right. Their methods are old school but I think it proves something else Tom used to say:” if it tastes good, it is good.” At $33 this seems a deal.
The seafood platter at New Orleans Food & Spirits is also very good. They are extremely generous with their seafood, particularly the popcorn-style smaller shrimp. The batter is light with just the right spice level, the oysters are smaller and crispier, and everything is fried with a deft hand. Golden brown and greaseless from oil that is properly changed. Good stuff.
Dropping way down in goodness, but not looks, is the seafood platter at Copeland’s. It comes arrayed nicely with larger completely peeled shrimp, no oysters, a few pieces of catfish too thick for my taste, and a forgettable dense crabcake of mostly breading that is deep-fried and covered with a cream sauce. The breading is nice, though, with a bit of a kick to it. It’s Copeland’s, after all. This platter is $28 and feeds one..jpg)
I feel often that I completely exclude one segment of restaurants and population in the pursuit of tradition, and particularly the preservation of the New Orleans culinary traditions, something of which Tom was fiercely protective. I checked the website for Peche, a seafood house in that other world. Naturally, there was no fried seafood platter to be concerned I'd omit. They almost certainly subscribe to the thinking of Klara Cvitanovich, whose words ring in my ears more often than anyone knows: "Really, who needs a seafood platter?"
