CAJUN GOODNESS

We had to make a trip to Phoenix today to take care of some business.  But one has to eat, doesn't one?  SWMBO picked the eatery . . one of our favorites even though it is a chain . . Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen.  It just looks like New Orleans to me.



We like to eat in the bar, where you can either sit "at the bar" or in adjacent big leather booths.

As befits a drinking as well as eating establishment, a large assortment of different types and shapes of glassware is sparkling and ready.



Try as I might, I can't seem to get away from the blackened catfish fillet over dirty rice.  I order it every time I go here.

And today that was accompanied by a Sam Adams Octoberfest brew in an iced flagon.

By the way, we did precede the entree with a shared appetizer:  six Oysters Pappadeaux.  They are baked on the half shell with crabmeat and spinach and topped with Hollandaise sauce.  Unfortunately, we dug into them so fast I forgot to photograph them.  But trust me.  They, like everything else, are delicious.

We were seated next to a very large man and his wife who we learned were visiting the restaurant for the first time on their 2nd wedding anniversary.  He was declaiming loudly about how good the food was and I chatted with him briefly.  He said he wanted to try alligator so he had the appetizer.  He was so delighted with it he ordered an alligator entree.  And he told the waitress he had never left a restaurant with unfinished food in a "doggy bag" before.  But he told me this restaurant was his new "supremo!" 

We, too, by the way, had doggie bags with us as we left.  And as I shook my neighbor's hand and congratulated them once again on their anniversary, I left him with a quick "See ya later, alligator!"