Hot Dish Review

What’s better than a low country boil with all the fixin’s? A low country boil on a luxury houseboat!

Last Saturday was the inaugural voyage of Goin’ Coastal’s Sunset Cruise. The weather was perfect, and the shrimp were boilin’. As the houseboat left the dock, guests mingled and relaxed with a glass of wine or beer.

Chef and restaurant partner Seth Hendricks and my man LC came up with the idea during our many martini and lobster-fueled visits to Goin’ Coastal in my neighborhood. a few meetings later and the idea became a reality. Cooper Global provided the venue and chauffeured transportation to Lake Lanier, while Hendricks and his staff were in charge of preparing the food on board.

LC and I had stumbled upon an amazing acoustic guitarist, Steve Q, at 10 Degrees South the week before. He provided the entertainment for the event and had everyone dancing on the top deck. Promoted via Urban Daddy, the dinner cruise was quite a bargain at only $75 a ticket for this first voyage, with beer and wine included. Guests reportedly consumed forty bottles of wine and 45 lbs. of gigantic steamed shrimp!

Along with shrimp, Hendricks boiled up a batch of andouille sausage, red potatoes, and corn on the cob. When everything was done, he and his crew poured it all into an enormous metal warming tray, drizzled it with melted butter, then sprinkled his special seasoning mix over the whole thing. Folks lined up to get a heapin’ helpin’ of deliciousness as the sun set over the water. Perfect.

LC and I are no strangers to the family houseboat. We’ve celebrated his birthday, Memorial Day, and Labor Day on it, sleeping (or perhaps, not) in two of the five bedrooms. I’ve made a tub of my famous guacamole in the kitchen in the cabin, helped cook bacon and eggs for eight with LC’s cousin DC, and enjoyed burgers grilled on the upper deck. It’s 100 feet of luxury.

Cooper Global and Goin’ Coastal anticipate many more cruises throughout the Spring and Summer. The Cooper houseboat, The Family Tradition, is also available for corporate and private rentals, with a maximum capacity of 100, not including shrimp. Email lcooper@cooper-global.com for information and pricing.

I’m a food snob, so it will come as no surprise that I try to avoid chains much like I avoid sick people and crying babies. I cringe at the thought of thousands of containers of “product” distributed to restaurants nationwide, containing identicle crab cakes, egg rolls, frozen cheesecakes.

But sometimes dining at a chain is unavoidable, like at a recent business dinner. The location was negotiated based upon accessibility to the interstate (nearly always a bad sign), and its proximity to all guests.

Don’t get me wrong, I love some chains, like the much maligned Krystals and the simple yet delicious Wendy’s. Fast food chains, however, are a necessity of life, filling a literal void on grueling road trips, providing a consistant product whether you’re in New York City or smalltown USA.

Pappadeaux, and other concept chains, are another story. They thrive on tired themes that appeal to (you guessed it) middle America. LC and I pulled up to the huge stand-alone building, its sprawling deck awaiting warmer weather, decorated with copious neon signs lighting the way to a smorgasbord of Cajun and Creole seafood favorites. At least it’s a theme I like.

Jambalaya, etouffee, and gumbo anchor an extensive menu of every kind of seafood, all available fried, broiled, blackened, steamed, or grilled. Several creative, and caloric, specialties caught my attention, like the Texas redfish, grilled with Maine lobster, avocado, sauteed spinach, and roasted tomatoes in a white wine lemon butter sauce. Another paired grilled jumbo scallops and shrimp with mushroom risotto, spinach, and herb butter. That’s what LC ordered for his entree.

The organizer of the dinner had mentioned martinis and lobster earlier in the day and I was having a hard time steering away from either one, but first, I was intent on having something Cajun. So I talked LC into splitting a bowl of Louisiana style seafood gumbo. We requested hot sauce on the side, fully expecting the soup to be pretty mild. And it was….until we added the hot sauce. But the bowl did contain copious amounts of crab meat, shrimp, and oysters, plus a few chunks of tomato and okra.

Everyone was drinking martinis, mine being the only real one, made with Bombay Sapphire. I ordered my lobster grilled but didn’t care for the mashed red potatoes and broccolini sides that came with it, so I switched them for onion rings and spaghetti squash.

There’s a fine line between under and overcooked lobster, and Pappadeaux unfortunately crossed it. My crustacean was a bit chewy, but had a nice grilled flavor. The stringy texture of the spaghetti squash didn’t appeal and my onion rings never showed up….a blessing in disguise. I was hoping they would offer a comp’d dessert to make up for the snafu….and they did!

LC’s dish was tasty, although there was no hint of New Orleans on the plate. Meanwhile, martinis were being delivered to our table at a furious pace, adding fuel to the boisterous banter.

On cue, our patient server brought out the tray of desserts, each one enough to serve four. I chose the bread pudding, of course. A couple of cheesecakes and a chocolate cake joined the fattening fray. Made with apples and raisins and resting in a pool of creme Anglaise, it was not overly sweet. I was pleased with my selection.

Pappadeaux’ menu states that the seafood is fresh, as in not frozen, as in “swimming yesterday”. Not bad for a chain. I bet the place will be crawling with crawfish and Carnival revelers soon!

5635 Jimmy Carter Blvd. 770-849-0600

A sad goodbye to the scene of much debauchery….
It’s hard to believe I haven’t reviewed Bluepointe until now. The restaurant is an Atlanta staple and the scene of so many memorable (and crazy!) evenings. Like crashing (former) Dallas Maverick’s Steve Nash’s private birthday bash upstairs and my own private birthday bash several years later, complete with champagne and lobster.

As I’ve said in a recent post, I’m a sucker for tradition. Or perhaps I’m merely a creature of habit. I always get the lobster at Bluepointe. In my many visits I have tried practically every dish until I discovered the lobster. Since then, I’ve been loyal to the 2lb. shellfish in curry.

The peanut crusted grouper is awesome and so are the scallops. The calamari appetizer used to be very spicy and amazing but it has become increasingly boring over the years with the predominant flavor being soy.

And ever since me and AD attended a Veuve party at Bluepointe I can’t seem to order anything else to drink there. Many bottles have been consumed since then.

My visit to Bluepointe last night was an exercise in irony. Or deja vu. I was wearing the blue dress, the same one I wore to my birthday dinner. I had champagne and lobster. And I was with LC….just a different one.

Seated at one of the more intimate tables near the bar where me and AD used to sit, LC was somewhat intoxicated and rather ravenous. I asked for a dish of the rice crackers they used to have at the bar but was disheartened to learn they no longer serve them. I would have dumped the snacks in my purse just for old time’s sake!

We started off with edamame and ordered two more appetizers to share. Wanting to try something different I chose the calamari salad. Although it has been many years, I always associate fried calamari on greens with one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants in New York called OG (Oriental Grill). Theirs was a perfectly assembled dish of impeccable field greens, fried calamari, and a slightly sweet Asian dressing.

I was impressed with Bluepointe’s version, with tempura calamari, arugula, sweet mango, crispy apple, cashews, and razor thin radish slices, lightly dressed with a subtly sweet Asian vinaigrette. A perfectly balanced composition, both in flavor and texture.

LC wanted to try the short rib wontons in umami broth. Umami is the culinary buzzword de jour, loosely translated as indescribable deliciousness. The Japanese are so cerebral. Three wontons filled with beef swam in a brown broth. Sorry, no umami, just a fistfull of salt in the overwhelmingly soy based broth. More champagne.

We had much better luck with the dependably delicious curry lobster. Served with baby asparagus, bok choy and Asian long beans in a slightly spicy yellow curry, it was as succulent as ever. The enormous lobster makes two generous entree portions. As a side, LC couldn’t resist the corn mash, yellow corn with lots of butter, which turned out to be his favorite dish of the evening.

For dessert I went back to my usual chai creme brulee. Not a fan of lemon sorbet I asked to substitute the orange sorbet which came out in a fun cube shape. The candied ginger on top of the crispy sugar really makes it special. We scarfed it down, along with another glass of champagne.

Now we were ready to dance!

When I visited my folks in Florida last Thanksgiving, we stopped by Neon Leon’s for a drink after dinner one night. I didn’t get a chance to sample their Cajun cuisine so it was on my hot list a couple of weeks ago when LC and I made the trip South.

The restaurant’s neon, beads, and live zydeco music on the weekends make it the obvious choice for a Mardi Gras celebration any time the mood strikes.

It was a Friday night and the place was packed with locals. Men in T-shirts and caps dined on plates of fried anything, raising their cans of PBR after each song. We were seated unfortunately close to the stage, making converstion nearly impossible.

My Dad doesn’t waste any time when it comes to food, ready to place his order before we were seated. Me and both of my parents ordered the trio of Cajun favorites….seafood gumbo, etouffee, and jambalaya. I was hoping the dishes would be spicy and ordered a Corona Light to quench the fire. LC was the lone holdout, going for the blackened grouper special, with fried okra on the side.

Even though fried green tomatoes are really a side dish, like so many other restaurants, Neon Leon’s offer them as an appetizer. The menu says “can’t get ‘em anywhere else”. I was compelled to try them, although I suspected they would be heavily breaded. I was right, and glad I wouldn’t be able to get them anywhere else. The ones I make at home are a thousand times better.

Aside from Cajun classics, Neon Leon’s specializes in char-grilled steaks. They also have some unusual items, frog legs and gator tail in particular.

LC’s fish was perfectly grilled and seasoned, however his fried okra was as disappointing as the fried green tomatoes, with a batter so heavy it completely masked the flavor of the vegetable.

Our Cajun samplers came out with three bowls inexplicably sitting upon a scant bed of field greens….likely the only use for lettuce at this restaurant. The contents of one bowl was beige. It was the etouffee. My Mom described the sauce as pasty and I agreed.

We each received a dish of dirty rice which I added to the gumbo, along with a few drops of hot sauce. Plump shrimp and okra came together for an authentic and tasty soup. Another bowl contained a deep red soup, the jambalaya. Full of red beans, shrimp, sausage, and chicken, this dish was definitely my favorite. It was spicy enough without the addition of hot sauce.

I can’t pass up bread pudding for dessert. Topped with vanilla ice cream, the pudding was exceptionally dense with an overwhelming flavor of nutmeg. Not so great, but the four of us polished it off.

Neon Leon’s is truly a hidden gem, tucked away in the woods in the middle of Florida, but it’s clear that lots of folks have found it over the years, making it a destination for Cajun food and entertainment.

10350 W. Yulee Drive, Homosassa, FL 352-621-3663

A year ago I was packing for Carnival in Rio. This year I’ll be celebrating much closer to home! News from Julia at The Reynolds Group:
A month-long Mardi Gras celebration is underway at Goin’ Coastal, with ‘Nawlins classics and cocktails served up every Thursday night in February and March! Enjoy spicy specialties like:

- Ragin’ Cajun crawfish boil –
2 lbs of crawfish along with corn, potatoes and sausage
- Buffalo gator tail platters for $5
- A dozen fresh oysters for $10
- $4 Hurricanes

On Fat Tuesday, the party continues at Goin’ Coastal with three pound trays of spicy Cajun crawfish for just $15, oysters for $5 per dozen and Buffalo gator tail platters for $3. In addition, ‘tenders are set to pour $4 Hurricanes all night long!

Between now and Fat Tuesday, every pound of crawfish guests purchase gives them a chance to win two round trip tickets to New Orleans! The winner will be selected at the Fat Tuesday celebration!

1021 Virginia Avenue 404-941-9117

B and I went on a roadtrip to Florida last weekend. It was more like a drive-by, arriving Saturday for a show featuring JB from Widespread Panic, then heading back to Atlanta on Sunday, but we did manage to eat at a seafood restaurant in Orlando called Landry’s.

On the main drag where most of the buildings take on the cartoonish nature of the theme parks nearby, Landry’s is no exception, boasting a kitschy marquis like an old movie theater. The decor inside, however, is best described as “regular”. B and I chose a table in the bar area since we were in a hurry.

Landry’s is the kind of place that has every kind of seafood prepared in every possible way…..grilled, fried, broiled, steamed, stuffed, and covered in special sauces. There are a few trendy dishes like the blackened sashimi, which we ordered, but the menu is mostly old standards like fried shrimp and stuffed flounder.

B ordered a Corona with salt and limes. Every time she does that I follow suit….just sounds too good to resist. Perusing the extensive menu we fixated on the appetizers. She had a hankerin’ for oysters and ordered a half dozen.

The blackened sashimi was a pretty display of rare ahi tuna with wasabi and ginger, the plate dotted with a mystery sauce that tasted oddly of petroleum. Looking at the menu now I see that it was mango sauce. Really? Otherwise, the fish had little flavor except the heat of the wasabi.

We also tried the shrimp stingers, an appetizer of jumbo jalapenos stuffed with whole shrimp and pepper jack cheese, then fried and served on a bed of onion strings. So much for eating light. Like fried balls with tails, these things were spicy, cheesy decadence. I devoured most of the onion strings as B was savoring her raw oysters.

Our fourth item was called oyster bar trash. Blackened shrimp and jumbo lump crab meat with a helping of white rice. Tasty, but certainly not worth the $13.99 price tag.

I ordered a second Corona. The tally for our seafood snack, before tip, was $60. No worries. We had purchased lottery tickets in a small town called Cecil, so we were assured of a windfall!

Landry’s appeared to be an old-fashioned family-owned restaurant so I was disappointed to discover that it is a chain, with 22 locations across the Southern U.S, from Vegas to Myrtle Beach.

We bummed cigarettes for dessert and headed to our hotel to pretty up which didn’t take long. One Dixie cup of cheap red wine and we were lookin’ sharp!

8800 Vineland Avenue, Orlando

Just as the roads were becoming too treacherous to drive Sunday evening, LC and I decided to order delivery from Top Spice. Let me clarify…..it was too dangerous for us to drive, not the delivery guy!

Top Spice has a full Thai menu as well as some Malaysian specialties, including my favorite Mystic Claypot. I always miss out on the actual clay pot since I’ve only had it delivered, but the dish is irresistible nonetheless, full of plump shrimp, squid, onions, peppers, and okra in a rich, spicy curry.

LC tried the Prik Khing beef, sauteed with green beans, red peppers, and onions in a spicy chilli sauce. We both requested extra spicy but his turned out hotter than mine.

I attempted to order sticky rice with our entrees but the voice on the other end said “sticky rice mango?” So I said “sure, whatever”. Basil rolls were ordered too….mandatory appetizer.

The poor delivery guy made it through the snow. LC and I dug in, dipping basil rolls in a cloyingly sweet sauce. Surin’s spicy sweet sauce is far superior, but the basil rolls themselves were pretty good.

I took a peek at the accidental dessert order and was appalled by its garrish bright green color. There was a day-glo green dipping sauce and sliced mango that was not ripe. Horrific looking and horrific tasting too.

Both of our entrees hit the spot. The quality of their seafood is terrific, and not overcooked as is often the case with squid. LC’s beef was tender and the sauce was so tasty we ate it with the leftover rice for a midnight snack.

1529-F Piedmont Avenue 404-685-9333

The Sunday before Thanksgiving LC and I somehow ended up at Goin’ Coastal….again! We weren’t planning on eating actual dinner, maybe just a watermelon margarita and a crab cake, something light.

Little did we know that they do a Sunday supper. Diners choose an entree item and four sides, plus soup and dessert. It was so inexpensive, only $17, how could we say no?

We ordered the collard greens, cheese grits, grilled asparagus, and potatoes, but it was the jalapeno cornbread pudding that I was craving….so we got five sides.

Despite the season, they still had the watermelon margaritas. Sweet and tart with a jalapeno kick.

Tomato bisque came as a starter. It’s not my favorite soup. Their collards were bland as always, lacking that vinegary punch. Jalapeno cornbread pudding wasn’t as spicy as usual, but was satisfying nonetheless, as were the creamy grits with gouda. I hardly remember the asparagus and potatoes but I think LC liked them.

I was most impressed with the grilled swordfish, displaying a smoky flavor and meaty texture. Goin’ Coastal uses simple cooking methods that don’t overwhelm the delicate fish with sauces or spices, and a minimal amount of oil, making it not only sustainable, but healthy as well.
Not only did we have the savory cornbread pudding, but also a dense chunk of sweet bread pudding for dessert. Although we were both stuffed, we managed to take a few bites, dragging our spoons through the liquor-spiked vanilla sauce beneath it.

Driving by the restaurant twice a day, I noticed they are now offering a lobster dinner deal Monday through Wednesday for just $15! There may be time restrictions, like the Sunday supper’s 5pm-10pm window, but hell, it’s worth checking out. I believe they are doing the lobsters with all the fixin’s for pick-up on New Year’s Eve too. Now that sounds like a great way to celebrate!

1021 N. Highland Ave. 404-941-9117

Still somewhat disappointed about the sold-out smoked mullet at The Freezer, we decided to hit Neon Leon’s for another drink and perhaps a snack.

My Mom had mentioned this place several times, its walls covered with guitars from Lynyrd Skynyrd. The band’s bass guitarist, and the restaurant’s namesake, Leon Wilkeson, had always wanted to open a place where guests would be entertained while they dined. Several family members pitched in to make that dream a reality.

Located in Homosassa, Florida, the food and atmosphere are straight out of Louisiana, featuring zydeco music, cajun specialties, and tons of Mardi Gras beads. The place was packed so we took a few stools near the bar and ordered some drinks. Mom has been obsessed with mint juleps as of late so she ordered one and I got an Abita Turbodog which is brewed just north of New Orleans. Dad got his regular boring Bud Light.

The menu is mostly cajun and creole. There’s the ubiquitous gumbo, jambalaya, and etouffee. Unfortunately, we didn’t try any of them. Instead, we opted for the smoked mullet dip….just had to. It was served with crackers inserted….cute, in a 1950′s housewife sort of way but it made them mushy. The flavor was pretty good and smoky.

We also got an order of crab stuffed mushrooms…..a little bit like deja vu 1980. Big mushroom caps with crabmeat stuffing were baked in a little casserole dish. They were actually very tasty. But who serves stuffed mushrooms any more? Sorry, I know I’m a food snob with my foie gras and flatbreads. It’s just funny to see things like mozzarella sticks and shrimp cocktail on a menu in 2010. I do wish we had ordered the fried green tomatoes, they probably know how to do ‘em right!

Neon Leon’s is open for lunch, too. Maybe next year we’ll stop by for some gumbo and fried green tomatoes!

10350 W. Yulee Dr. Homosassa, FL 352-621-3663

My parents were adamant, both warning “it’s just a hole in the wall, nothin’ fancy”, like that would offend me or something. They were talking about The Freezer in Homosassa, Florida, where they dine often alongside drunk locals, boisterous bikers, and the occasional canine.

Handwritten posterboards serve at menus, but the regulars already know what to order…..fresh steamed peel ‘n’ eat shrimp, crab legs, blue crab, and stone crab claws. Served piping hot in carbboard box tops and styrofoam to-go containers, most everything on the menu requires guests to peel, hammer, or otherwise work for their reward.

And it’s apparently worth it. The place is packed most nights. Steamed tilapia and smoked mullet are also on offer, as are a few sides like cole slaw, clam chowder, and chips with salsa. We wanted to try the mullet but they were out when we visited. No worries, there were plenty of the hair variety seated at the bar!

Bottled domestic beer like my beloved Miller Lite is only $2. Me and my Dad ordered a couple and waited for our steamed shrimp. We got a full order for the three of us, 2 1/2 lbs. for $20. My Mom tried the cole slaw which was refreshing with the steamy shrimp (the photo looks blurry but it’s steam, I swear!) that are liberally sprinkled with a secret blend of seasonings.

As for the reference about canines, see if you can spot the doggy diner in the photo to the left. Gotta love a place where you can bring the whole family!

5590 South Blvd. Dr. Homosassa, FL 352-628-2452