Mr Bill's Seafood Express Moss Bluff

OUT AND ABOUT
Mr. Bill’s Seafood Express Moss Bluff
277 north hwy 171 Suite A
Moss Bluff, LA
337-855-8007

Sunday to Tuesday 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM $1 to $15
Wednesday to Friday 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Saturday 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM

Another cursed spot but I think this venue will break it. It is a branch of a popular place in Lake Charles. Little has been done but I am told a major change is coming down the road. At this point it serves blue-plate specials and a menu direct form the McNeese St establishment.

I got a blue plate special the first time in, Meatballs and Gravy over Rice with Salad, Field Peas, Texas toast and a bite of cake. I sometimes choose meatballs or meatloaf as this can tell me a lot about the cook. These were made of meat with just a little vegetable. They had not been overworked so they were not dense or chewy, just right. Onion type gravy went well with some excellent rice. The field peas seemed to be from a can but doctored. A small lettuce and tomato salad came with a delightful Vidalia onion dressing, sweet and savory. The cake was a German Chocolate sheet cake. I do like a bit of sweet to end a meal.

Next time I started with a Crab and Shrimp Pistolette. Instead of stuffing it into a pistolette and frying it, a fried pistolette was split open and a cheesy concoction of crab and shrimp spooned in, good and spicy. Next came a Seafood Platter. It proved a mixed bag. The onion rings that I had ordered instead of fries were excellent, as were the shrimp. Both the oysters and catfish had trouble keeping their crusts on. While the oyster were cooked the rather thick piece of catfish was not. The stuffed crab proved OK but the stuffed shrimp was exceedingly mushy. The deep fat fried crab cake was more crust than interior. Then I noticed something. All three had been made with some or all surimi (a crab substitute made from pollack)

I tried the boudin balls next, nice flour coating but a bit mushy for my taste. The spice and liver in it saved it. I followed that with a Bacon Cheeseburger with Sweet Potato fries. On a standard bun bottom with mustard came a hand formed patty topped with American cheese, bacon, onion, lettuce and tomato. It was wonderful. Best burger I’ve eaten in awhile. The fries were nice also if under seasoned

On Saturday they serve breakfast. I have a soft spot in my heart for French Toast. They offer that but unfortunately I did not care for their rendition. Too much cinnamon and not enough egg in the custard so the bread fell flat instead of puffing slightly. However the bacon and grits prove excellent. Other plates with eggs on them went by me and they looked fine. It certainly is worth another try.

Last time I opted for Grilled Shrimp and Catfish with mustard greens. All around excellent. . The spice coating lovely and both the shrimp and catfish cooked perfectly with great flavor and moistness. The greens were great also. This one I would go back again for

The service is neighborhood friendly along with the pricing. Nice addition for the Moss Bluff area.

Picture Link
http://tinyurl.com/ykyen9w

Soul Food Heaven Breakfast

Just after the Quarters started doing breakfast my favorite place on Hwy 14 started doing $1.99 breakfast. The other Saturday I dropped in for it. Much more satisfying. Eggs done just the way I love them with nice crispy bacon and kick ass grits made from scratch. The only thing I could have use was another piece of toast to sop up the egg yolks. In the area and hungry from 6 to 10:30 drop by.

Chili's

I had gotten a Chili's gift card for my birthday and used it last Friday. Like many chains I do not care for lots of the options but I generally find some good stuff. At Chili's it is the burgers. This is a Jalapeno Smokehouse Bacon Burger with extra thick-cut applewood smoked bacon topped with smoked cheddar cheese, crispy tortilla strips, jalapeños, mayo, shredded lettuce, tomato and onion. Served with jalapeño-ranch dressing. It was freaking outstanding. I do not say this lightly. Most burgers from chains recently have left me cold. The gestalt here was great. Everything complimented each other. As I grow older I like thing a little more spicy. This delivered. Not tongue sear but nice and warm.
Also I may have cracked the appetizer at Chili's. Most of them are enough for a table of eight. However this is just right. A cup of chili with all the fixings. They make very nice bowl of red here for a chain. I guess that is why it is called Chili's

White Chocolate Molten Cake Warm white chocolate cake with a white chocolate filling and berry sauce. Topped with vanilla ice cream under a crunchy white chocolate shell. This was not too bad. A little bigger than I think a dessert should be but not terrible. A one and halfer. It is sorta of a bundt cake with cake at the bottom of the hole. They fill the hole with white chocolate sauce and nuke. Then a scoop of ice cream over it and white chocolate shell over it. I normally do not care for ice cream with my dessert but the shell made all the difference.

The gift card took care of my meal and the 2 for 1 Mojito (which certainly made the afternoon nice) with me throwing in the tip. That reminds me of a pet peeve of mine. Servers do not squat down to take my order. I am not your master and you are not my slave. You are there to give me reasonable service not your allegiance

Leronard's Food Quarters Breakfast

Just recently the Quarters started a breakfast trade. The menu consists of two plate items, biscuits, burritos and po boys. The sandwich items all have scrambled eggs, cheese, and a protein. Either bacon, pan sausage or link sausage. Below is a link sausage po boy. It basically overwhelmed the bread and I had to eat with knife and fork. It was delicious however. I got this through the window but you can go inside and sit down also. They do it Monday to Saturday from about 6 to 10:30. The link sausage had a kick and good flavor.

This is one of the plate item you can get. The other is pancakes. I was less impressed with this. It seemed like a bunch of prefabricated items thrown together on the plate from the fried hash brown patty to frozen biscuit to instant grits and no choice on the eggs which seem to indicate a liquid product used.

In my opinion your best option is to drive thru and get the biscuit, burrito or po boy option.

Brick House Wine DInner

Below is the first course of the Rouge et Blanc dinner I attended several weeks ago. They called it the Cheese Course. It consisted of endive leaves, blue cheese, candied pecans and a balsamic Dijon dressing. It was made to look like a flower. Quite pretty but clunky to eat. They should have crumbled the blue cheese over the leaves. Then you could have take a leaf and eaten it and everything on it in one bite. As it was I had to do it myself. Most people did not seem to know what to do. After the cheese got on the leaf and in my mouth it was wonderful. The bitterness of the endive, the sharpness of the cheese, and the sweet and nutty pecan tied together with the sweet and sharp dressing.

What followed was a lemon sorbet in a hollowed out half of the lemon. I have encounter this concept many times. What puzzled me was the placement on the menu. This sort of thing is usually near the end of the menu to cleanse your palate for dessert. It was both tart and sweet and very good.

The Fowl Course consisted of an oyster dressing patty topped by a spilt quail. I could almost swear the quail had been fried. However it was cooked it was moist and tender with excellent flavor and paired well with the oyster dressing. That had a little kick to it which helped alot.

The Fish Course consisted of blackened sea scallop over polenta with a vanilla beurre blanc. I was expecting a large diver scallop but got bay scallops. That was certainly the strangest polenta I have ever seen. The butter sauce on top of the scallops seemed to be the only thing that really worked here. Not my favorite dish of the night

The Beef Course made up for it. A tenderloin steak cooked to perfection with a port wine and cane syrup sauce. The steak was like butter with beefy flavor which seem accentuated with the sweet undertones of the sauce. The molasses flavor seemed to give it real umph.

The Dessert Course of dark chocolate mousse cake was certainly delicious but I suspect not made in house. The top seemed too perfect.

In all a fine dinner although some might disagree. The main courses were served at room temperature which does not bother but others might perceive them as cold. I am after flavor and this dinner had it so I was satisfied

Cafe Vermilionville Lafayette La

Earlier this year I went on a two day foray to Lafayette. I went to here because I heard a long acquaintance was cooking here, Alex Patout. I have been following this excellent chef from the time he opened a restaurant in his home town of New Iberia to New Orleans to Orlando and back to his home area. I was going to go whole review with this but I have since found out that he moved on. As most the dishes here had major input from him I feel that they are representative of the venue but I still want to pay homage to my friend. The following is a lovely loaf of French Bread they have for house bread. Crispy crust soft crumb. According to Alex they get it from Poupart's


Sampler Appetizer Plate. Starting at one o'clock Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Grilled Gulf Shrimp Marinated in Cajun Power Sauce & Honey, Apple wood Smoked Bacon(delicious, smokey, sweet and spicy)
On either side of that are Crawfish Beignets Louisiana Crawfish Tails Blended with Cheeses and a Bacon Mire Poix on a Spicy Creole Mustard Aioli (ethereal and dissolved in my mouth Great flavor Aioli strikes right amount of spice)
At eight o'clock Alligator Dijon Louisiana Farm Raised Alligator Tenderloin Pieces Fried in Italian Bread Crumbs Accented with a Spicy Dijon Aioli & Crispy Fried Dill Pickle (quite nice tender and juicy with a crunch Hate fried dill pickles)
In the middle is Grilled Alligator Wing (leg)(no flavor like eating a frog leg except the meat is red) This is definitely one of Alex's recipes. You can taste the swamp and bayou here. Crawfish Bisque. Dark roux and deep crawfish flavor with a huge carapace stuffed with wonderful spicy dressing. Rice on the side.

Grilled Grouper Lafitte Topped with Jumbo Lump Crabmeat, Shrimp & Fresh Mushrooms, With Vanilla Bean Sauce, Sautéed Sweet Potatoes & Corn Macque Choux. Fantastic. The grouper had a marvelous flavorful spice rub on it and cook to perfection. The crabmeat and shrimp sweet, shitake mushrooms earthy, macque choux sweet and spicy, sweet potato sweet and earthy. Various bites with various components satisfied. What brought it all together was the sauce made with crab fat butter. This is a Patout signature sauce. Excellent

Creme Brulee. Not the best. Custard overcooked and the brown sugar topping tasted bitter after being torched. Not likely he had much to do with that

While this is an excellent restaurant I feel it will be diminished by the departure of Alex. He brings an air of the bayou and swamps into this place. I breath of fresh air

http://www.cafev.com/

Soul Food Heaven

Sorry about the out of focus picture. It was much more delicious than it looked. It is oxtails. Wonderful falling off the bone super beefy flavor. This is just part of the soul food trifecta I hit this afternoon

The other two parts was split pig foot and some cow tripe. The pig's foot was great. The tripe was really not my favorite kind and it seemed a little undercooked. I generally like honeycomb best. However it was well seasoned and edible if chewy