Acadiana

I had the extreme pleasure of dining at Acadiana, a relatively new restaurant on New York Avenue. I'd been looking forward to it, since I'd read a pretty good review of it in the Washington Post, and I'd seen the menu online. Chicken and sausage gumbo. TURTLE SOUP (I'm a big fan). Duo of "pies". Roast beef po-boy. Shrimp po-boy. Tilapia. Chicken and sausage jambalaya. Fried catfish. Crawfish etouffee. Roasted duck. Grilled gulf redfish. Barbeque shrimp. Red snapper. Sides of mashed potatoes, dirty rice, jambalaya risotto, and cheese grits.

I was going to have dinner with my cousin and her friend at 7 or 7:30.

Unexpected turn of events in The Apartment, by the way.

I arrive at about quarter till, and ask the guy at the front desk how long the wait is for the next available table, expecting to hear 20-30 minutes. "We can't seat anyone until about ten o'clock," he says. "So the wait is about three hours." Yowza! That's what happens when you get reviewed in the Post, I guess. Plus, it was a nice Saturday night in the city, the DC Auto Show was just getting out, and the Wizards had a game at the MCI Center nearby. Lots and lots of folks out and about.

So we went to a movie first and then went back at ten to eat. We saw Glory Road, the story of the 1966 Texas Western team that started five black players against all-white Kentucky. I won't say too much about it, but here's what I liked: Adolph Rupp is technically a bad guy for movie purposes. And maybe he was a bad guy in real life, since he didn't recruit black players until he lost the game to Texas Western (now UTEP). But there are three or four scenes during game timeouts where they go into the KY huddle and show him actually doing a good job coaching. Credit to the filmmakers for that. At the time he retired, Rupp had won more college basketball games than any other person who had ever set foot on the planet. So racist or not, he was no dummy. Something I didn't particularly like comes from something I heard on the radio. Apparently, people were not waving Confederate flags around at Cole Field House during the game. I also doubt that a black TW player crashed into a horrified Rupp, but I don't know if that's true or not. The story of Texas Western is dramatic enough, and doesn't need factual embellishment to make it better. (however, the last time I attended a football game involving West Monroe High School, I saw dozens, if not hundreds of Confederate flags).

First came the biscuits with cream cheese and pepper jelly. Quite nice. I had the duo of pies: two crawfish pies, two Natchitoches meat pies. The crawfish pies were outstanding. The meat pies were a little dull. Not enough spice in them, sadly (though my cousin and I were impressed that the waiter pronounced Natchitoches correctly; alas, he messed up slightly on "Tchoupitoulas"). But there's room for improvement. They just need to resist the urge to tone it down for the DC area palate. Put some red pepper and black pepper in there, sweetheart. They're your friends. I also had the grilled gulf redfish, which came with jambalaya risotto, shrimp and crawfish. A very, very nice dish. My cousin's friend had the pies as her entree. My cousin wasn't hungry. I'm thinking about trying to go there a couple of times a month, because I really liked it all. And next time, I'm definitely getting the turtle soup. When my cousin and I were talking about it, her friend asked what was in it. I don't remember exactly what she said, so she'll be quoted with dots.

Turtles........Yes, really turtles........Yes, and they are gooooooood!.......Yes, like turtles in Finding Nemo. Righteouuuussssss!.......I thought she was going to cry for a second, she looked so horrified. But man, I love me some turtle soup.

Anyway, I recommend Acadiana to you. Acadiana, by the way, is a region in South Louisiana. There's an Acadia Parish. Acadiana High School is in Lafayette. The region is the heart of Cajun country. The Acadians were the ones exiled from Canada by the British who made their way down to Louisiana. The word "cajun" comes from the word "Acadians".