Eating Good in the Outlands
I took my wife to a restaurant here in Florida, near where we live. The place is called Po Boy’s Creole Cafe. It looked very promising. Inside it looked more like a sports bar than a New Orleans restaurant but they have some awesome black and white New Orleans prints on the walls.
The menu looked good too. Appetizers included fried pickles (mmmmm!), cajun popcorn and other goodness. Actually, you can view the menu yourself. I don’t see the fried pickles so they may not be selling them anymore. That’s a shame as that was my favorite item.
Anyway, my wife and I are both huge fans of red beans so we ordered the read beans and rice appetizer. The read beans came with great big chunks of tomato in it which kind of grossed us out. It was super thick and I didn’t like the flavor at all.
The wife likes nothing better than a shrimp po-boy so that’s what she ordered. It was kind of small, about 9 inches maybe, and not over stuffed but the breading was spiced decently and the shrimp weren’t over cooked.
I’m a muffuletta fanatic. The description of the muffuletta at this restaurant is:
MUFFULETTA: A New Orleans legend. A round, baked concoction of ham, salami, swiss, and provolone dressed with home-made olive dressing, creole mustard and mayo.
Close but no cigar. Mayo? On a muff? Blech. I asked if they could hold the mayo. The answer was, “No. We have them shipped in special from Louisiana. It’s very authentic. That’s where we get our read beans and rice, too!”
Ugh. I got it anyway. It had been too long since I had a muffuletta. It was an ok sandwich. The olive dressing was good and the meat was very thinly sliced. Worth eating but a far cry from New Orleans.
We’ve been back a few times since it’s so close but it’s not our favorite. Now that it looks like fried pickles aren’t on the menu, there’s not much point in going back.
A much better restaurant, and very authentic, is the Cajun Cafe on the Bayou. This place has EXCELLENT food!
We have been there quite a few times now even though it’s about an hour from the house. I have had just about everything on the menu but my favorite is the Meatloaf and Dirty Rice. Mmmmm! Good.
The boudin and Alligator Sauce Piquant are something to write home about. The piquant is HOT and spicy. It comes with fresh, real, french bread for sopping up the juice. I think pretty much everything comes with a couple of slices of french bread.
Another item to write home about is the cajun corn bread. This is a moist cornbread with cheddar cheese, jalepenos and crawfish. I must repeat myself, Mmmmmmm! Good! I get this every time I go. Sometimes I just get it to go and take it with me.
Finally, no dinner is complete without a dessert. The Cajun Cafe makes the best Whiskey Bread Pudding. Scroll to the bottom of this page to see a picture. This is the best bread pudding in or out of Louisiana. I kid you not. This is the best I have ever had.
The Cajun Cafe has live Zydeco bands and an annual crawfish fetival (amongst other festivals). You can read a bit of the history of the Cajun Cafe on the back of the menu. I spoke to the founder’s daughter’s husband. The family is from Thibodaux and I can vouch that the food is completely authentic.
If you’re in the St Pete Florida area, make sure to stop by for some good eating. Trust me, food like this is far and few between for those of us living in the outlands. 
Take care,
LewisC
new orleans, tampa, st pete, florida, cajun, food, cajun cafe, read beans, muffuletta, poboy
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