Boutin’s Restaurant’s “Super Seafood Platter”
After being told every gumbo tastes different, I tested this theory by sampling gumbo in several restaurants while on my trip. It turned out to be true, since gumbo has a very loose definition with varying ingredients of shellfish, celery, bell peppers, okra, rice, roux and others, depending on whom you ask. Although each time I tried the stew, it varied a little, it always tasted delicious.
At the locally owned Mansurs on the Boulevard, fine dining meets with all kinds of seafood combinations, including gumbo, oysters and the establishment’s dish called “Ultimate Alfradeaux,” which mixes crabmeat, crawfish and shrimp in pasta with a creamy parmesan sauce. The candles and live piano music set a calm mood for the evening.
For a true Cajun experience, the lively Boutin’s Restaurant features nightly live Cajun music and dancing. I sampled some of its authentic Cajun cuisine with the “Super Seafood Platter,” which includes a boudin, or stuffed sausage, with rice dressing.
The owner, Lynn Boutin, grew up in a rural swamp and incorporated that lifestyle into the design of the restaurant with a 2-acre cypress swamp behind the restaurant, Cajun-themed decorations and thick wooden doors he explained were designed by early Cajun settlers to stop Native American attacks.
More on Baton Rouge:
Bound for Baton Rouge
Gumbo and zydeco!
Bring something back!
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