Rolling in the Deep...Fryer: Our Power Rankings of the Best LSU Rolls in Baton Rouge

by Sydney Blanchard & Blair Loup

I'm a Baton Rouge native, and if there's one thing I can say about this city, it's that its people are passionate. I theorize that living so close to the state's seat of government rubs off on us. Our opinions, on everything from LSU football to where to find the best sushi, are about as polarizing as our politics.

Thus, an idea was born.

We decided to do some research and find out which local sushi places had football themed rolls. At first, we thought we'd stumble across a few, but after poring over dozens of menus, we discovered that almost every sushi restaurant in town offers some play on an LSU inspired roll.

There are Tiger rolls, Geaux Tiger rolls, Death Valley rolls, LSU Tiger rolls, and of course, a number of LSU rolls.

It would have been nearly impossible to try to write about all of these, so we narrowed our focus on the LSU rolls and got to eating. One pattern emerged: at least one fried element is present in nearly all of these rolls.

Go figure.

Here's our rankings of the best LSU rolls this town has to offer, with photos for reference.

Rock-n-Sake Bar & Sushi

Shrimp, cream cheese, snow crab, red tuna, avocado at Rock-n-Sake (3043 Perkins Rd #A).

Rock-n-Sake's roll was by far the standout. Colorful, inventive, and tasty, we had no problem gobbling down this roll. This interpretation of the LSU roll consisted of battered shrimp and cream cheese in a traditional rice roll and snow crab topped with ruby red tuna and avocado slices.

Sushi Masa

Snowcrab, crawfish tails, cream cheese, and spicy mayo and eel sauce at Sushi Masa (5837 Essen Ln).

Sushi Masa's LSU roll fell in line with some of the other rolls on this list, but we think their interpretation was the best. Snowcrab, crawfish, and cream cheese combine in a rice roll that's battered, fried, and topped with spicy mayonnaise and eel sauce. The crunchy fried shell plays well with the cool cream cheese in the center.

Ichiban Hibachi Grill & Sushi Bar

Fried oyster, snow crab, avocado, asparagus at Ichiban (5741 Essen Lane).

Ichiban's LSU roll confused then pleased our tastebuds. The combination of fried oyster, snow crab, avocado, and asparagus topped with crunchy and purple and gold sweet sauce was uniquely Louisiana. I'm not a huge oyster fan, but the choice to include fried oysters in a roll earned Ichiban some extra points.

Omi Hibachi Grill & Sushi Bar

Snow crab, cream cheese, battered and fried at Omi (7951 One Calais Ave).

It was Blair's and my first time at Omi, and we were excited to see what it was all about. We were pretty disappointed this roll was so similar to Sushi Masa and Koi's LSU roll (snow crab, cream cheese, rice roll, battered and fried), but Omi's choice of batter made this one of our favorites. The texture of the batter reminded us of beignets, and it worked well with the other ingredients.

Drunken Fish

Spicy tuna, cucumber, salmon and eel at Drunken Fish (4410 Highland Road).

Blair and I were impressed with how different Drunken Fish's take on the LSU roll was compared with the others, but for us the flavor just wasn't there. Spicy tuna and cucumber nestle together in a rice roll topped with fresh salmon and barbecue eel. Drunken Fish was my spot in college, but this roll was a miss for me.

Koi Sushi Restaurant

Crawfish, Snow crab, cream cheese, all fried at Koi Sushi (Koi Sushi Restaurant).

Koi's interpretation fell in line with that of Omi and Sushi Masa, but the biggest turnoff for us was the value. This was the most expensive roll we had, and we couldn't figure out why. The components were the same as the LSU roll as Omi and Sushi Masa, but Koi's batter just didn't hold up as well as the others.


Do you agree with our rankings? Did we miss a must-try LSU roll? Let us know in the comments!

Barney Greengrass??

Barney Greengrass in NYC

On the Upper West Side of Manhattan resides a Jewish Deli that has literally stood the test of time.  Open since 1908, stepping into Barney Greengrass is like opening the pages of a history book.  The interior looks like it may not have been updated since at least the 70s, but that's okay.  The "Sturgeon King" still gets plenty of love from New Yorkers and people all over the world.  Their specialty is Atlantic fish, so I thought it to be a little odd that I got invited to eat there for breakfast, though it soon make sense.  I met Sharon from The Daily Meal at Barney Greengrass and she gave me a quick overview of the menu.  The salmon and sturgeon specialties were served fresh, smoked, and cured with eggs or to top on bagels.  Sharon ordered the fresh Nova Scotia Salmon and advised me to go with an order of scrambled eggs with lox.

Scrambled Eggs with Lox at Barney Greengrass

Lox is salty cured salmon that in this case has been chopped up and added to a batch of scrambled eggs.  While the Scandinavians introduced the dish to North America, the Jewish immigrants of NYC made it famous.  The salmon is brined in salt, sugar, and other spices in the same fashion that the famous Jewish corned beef and pastrami are.  It definitely added a delicious twist to a scrambled eggs dish.  The salty fish flaked apart and flavored the well seasoned eggs.  I could have eaten a second plate.  Fortunately for me, Sharon decided to share some of here salmon for me to eat on my bagel!

Nova Scotia Salmon with Cream Cheese on a Bagel

I guess it makes sense that I would eat a bagel in New York.  And I'll admit, I definitely enjoyed it.  The bagel with cream cheese and delicious salmon hit the spot along with the lox-packed eggs.  I can see why Barney Greengrass came so highly recommended.  It certainly isn't for the atmosphere or ambiance.  It is for the traditional, quality food that brings you back to the way things used to be.  Before modernist cuisine and molecular gastronomy hit NYC, this food belonged to people from centuries ago.  And I'm glad I've eaten some!

Andrew Zimmern Visits Baton Rouge and the Food Trucks Go Crazy!

Jay Ducote and Andrew Zimmern in Baton Rouge

Andrew Zimmern, probably best known for hosting Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, stopped by Baton Rouge on Wednesday to film an episode of his popular MSN web series "Appetite for Life."  In case you are unaware, next week a new episode of Bizarre Foods America will air on the Travel Channel that features Louisiana and our unique cuisine.  This time though, Andrew was hosting a jambalaya cook-off, and to make things more interesting the weekly Wednesday Food Truck Wroundup was held at lunch in conjunction with the filming.  I actually had the extreme pleasure of being one of the judges for the food truck event that featured each truck's best Cajun inspired dish.  Along side me in the judging booth were Rachael Upton from 225 Dine, Lauren Westbrook from WAFB, Beth Colvin from The Advocate, and Brian Haldane from Talk 107.3 FM.  

Judging Panel for the Appetite for Life Food Truck Wroundup

Every truck there did an exceptional job with the challenge.  The dishes blew me away with their creativity and flavor.  This seriously might have been one of the most difficult food challenges that I've ever had to judge.  It is a tough job, but somebody has to do it... or so they tell me (as I'm doing it!).  Here were the entries and results.  Start drooling now.

Taco de Paco's "Cajunator": Seafood gumbo taco with seared andouille, crawfish tails, rice, gumbo sauce, and fried okra!  This won the "Laissez Les Bon Food Trucks Rouler" award for best use of traditional Louisiana/Cajun foods in the entry.

The Cajunator from Taco de Paco

A Coffee Truck returned with their King Cake Latte that took the non-traditional prize in last year's King Cake Contest with Visit Baton Rouge.  While it didn't win any awards this year, it still impressed all the judges and was a great sweet treat along side all the savory dishes.

a coffee truck's King Cake Latte

The Cuban Connection's entry featured a blackened catfish filet over a bed of Louisiana seafood paella.  I loved the seasoning on the catfish as it burst with spices that were home to both the Cajuns and the Cubans.  Unfortunately this plate didn't win either, but the Cuban truck should still keep their chin up!

Seafood Paella with Blackened Catfish from Cuban Connection

 Curbside hit a homerun with a debut offering and sneak peak at their upcoming links truck.  The "Porkducken" featured truck-made local pork, chicken, and wild duck sausage basted in duck fat, thyme, and roasted garlic then finished with lemon zest.  Nick and crew topped the sausage with a cream cheese foam, Hungarian smoked paprika and fresh chives which all sat atop some house-made creole potato chips and fresh French bread.  Curbside ended up taking home the "Way more creative than this name" award for most creative dish.  Well deserved!  It freaking rocked, and I can't wait for that new truck!

Curbside's Porkducken

Sadly I got so carried away with everything that I forgot to snap a picture of FRESH's shrimp salad.  It also had blue cheese and candied pecans.  It was definitely my kind of salad!  They didn't win any awards for it, but I'd gladly eat it again!

Ignatius Reilly's took home the top prize with their Warm Savory Couche-Couche, with Smoked Trotter & Switches Gravy and a Fried Softshell Crawfish.  The gravy was loaded with slow cooked pig tail and crawfish tails.  The dish had an amazing balance with sweetness from the cous cous cake, spiciness from the gravy, and savoriness from, well, everything.  And then to top it off with deep fried soft shell CRAWFISH?!  Wow.  For the win.  The "Show Dat" award for overall best tasting - best in show.  Congrats!

Ignatius Reilly's winning dish

The event as a whole helped raise over $2,000 for the Capital Area United Way.  Big thanks and congrats to everyone involved, and I'll definitely be posting the link to the Appetite for Life episode when it comes out!!  Oh, and there is also this clip about the whole event from WAFB.  Watch closely... you'll see me taking a huge bite at some point!

Indulge in Gourmet at Sweet Wishes Café

This article has been published in the November 2010 issue of Town Favorites Magazine. You can visit the Town Favorites website at http://www.townfavorites.com/, follow them on Twitter @TownFavorites, "Like" them at Facebook.com/TownFavorites, and find their magazines at over 150 restaurants and businesses around Baton Rouge! Pick up a copy today!

Indulge in Gourmet at Sweet Wishes Café
by Jay D. Ducote

In November 2007 Rhonda Weeks and Sheetal Bueche opened Sweet Wishes Café on Perkins Road. They wanted to open a business, Rhonda liked to bake and decorate, and gourmet cupcakes were an up and coming trend in big cities around the country. Thinking the idea would fit in well in Baton Rouge, their shop opened its doors for cupcakes to go or as a place to relax with their delicacies, coffee, and free wireless internet.

Rhona Weeks and Jay Ducote pose with cupcakes at Sweet Wishes

Sweet Wishes keeps eight to ten flavors available each day on a mostly rotating basis. While the Red Velvet, Heavy Duty Chocolate, Plain Jane, and Chocolate Chip are the regulars on their menu, other assorted cupcakes will come and go with the seasons or with requests from customers. The café owners pride themselves on their level of customer service. If you give a couple days notice they can have any flavor on the menu, not just the eight to ten that are available at the counter. They do custom cakes, are willing to do last-minute jobs, and also specialize in wedding cupcakes and corporate gifts with company logos screen-printed onto the frosting. According to Rhonda, the logo sweets make great holiday presents or “thank you” items for clients.

Delightful Gourmet Cupcakes on display at Sweet Wishes Cafe

The ladies at Sweet Wishes Café played with different flavors a lot more when they were first getting started than they do now. Still, every once in a while they invent something new. Their most recent flavors play with fruit fillings like apple, blueberry, and apricot. Rather than stuff their cupcakes with a blob of fruit filling, they insert multiple columns of fruit throughout the cake, allowing the eater to taste some in every bite without ever getting an overload. I found the Blueberries & Cream cupcake to be tantalizing to the taste buds with just the right amount s of cake and filling in each bite.

Pupcakes also highlight the menu at Sweet Wishes. These gourmet dog treats are made with oatmeal, cheese, whole wheat flour and other ingredients that are ideal snacks for your puppy. They also serve ice cream from the LSU Dairy Store, making them one of the few places on earth to get LSU ice cream. Rhonda and Sheetal proudly brew Baton Rouge’s own Community Coffee. However, it isn’t a one way relationship. During the holidays, CC’s Coffee Houses dish up Sweet Wishes’ Chocolate Mint cupcakes. Sounds like a great way to celebrate to me!

Geaux Tigers!

In the end though, a gourmet cupcake doesn’t actually do any good unless it tastes fantastic. Fortunately for Sweet Wishes, their cakes live up to the billing. I sampled quite a few cupcake varieties including each of their four regular flavors as well as Toffee Temptation, Blueberries & Cream, and Chai. I found the Chai cake to be particularly interesting and a great flavor for a cupcake. Sweet Wishes flavors are found in the cake, not loaded in the frosting. The cake itself is slightly heavier and denser than a typical cupcake while still delivering the necessary moistness, which appealed to my palate. The frosting is the same on all cupcakes. Sweet Wishes uses a cream cheese based frosting that is far more inviting than most completely sugared cupcake toppings. The cream cheese base allows the frosting to highlight the flavors in the cake while providing a great balance between sweetness and substance at the same time.

Jay Ducote takes a bite of the Toffee Temptation cupcake

The Toffee Temptation had a distinct taste with crunchy toffee on top. The textures played really well together and made it one of my favorite cupcakes of the evening. However, while the Red Velvet is consistently their number one seller these days, my personal favorite cupcake was undoubtedly the Heavy Duty Chocolate. Rhonda and Sheetal load the rich chocolate cake with extra chunks of dark chocolate to make the cupcake explode with a chocolate overload. Once again, the cream cheese based icing pairs extremely well as it smoothes out the richness of the chocolate and allows the eater to taste just how delicious the whole thing really is. Heavy duty, yes, but nothing I couldn’t tackle over and over again. It would be worth it… despite my growing waistline. Decadent and delicious!

For more information about Sweet Wishes Café, you can visit them at 10889 Perkins Road, find them online at www.sweetwishescafe.com, follow them on twitter @SweetWishesCafe, like them on facebook.com/SweetWishesCafe, or give them a call at 225-757-6880. Enjoy!

Jay D. Ducote is the author of the blog Bite and Booze, which chronicles his culinary and indulgent cultural experiences around Baton Rouge, South Louisiana, and the world. It can be found at www.biteandbooze.com. You can also reach him by email at jay@biteandbooze.com, like the Bite and Booze fan page on facebook.com/biteandbooze, and follow him on Twitter @biteandbooze. 

Thanks to Eric Ducote of BRBeerScene.com for taking all the pictures for this article.

Things To Do
Baton Rouge

Dining at DeAngelo's with Fantastic Friends

Another day, another lunch!  This time I met Hannah, Robert, Kevin, and Shawn at Louis DeAngelo's Casual Italian Dining on Jefferson Highway.  DeAngelo's is a Baton Rouge original with multiple locations around town.  They offer a pretty traditional Italian menu with various pastas and pizzas.

DeAngelo's on Jefferson

We met for lunch as a follow up from the previous dinner at the Romero's house and the lunch at the Roux House.  It was certainly great to see Robert again before he heads off to New Zealand, and it is always a pleasure to hang out with Hannah Lane, artist extraordinaire.  Kevin and Shawn were still in from Chicago, so we had quite a fantastic group.  I ordered the Nona's Lasagna because I had been craving some of the layered Italian dish and wanted to compare DeAngelo's variety to others around town. 

Nona's Lasagna at DeAngelo's

The lasagna was layered with plenty of cheeses from mozzarella to ricotta in addition to the meaty Bolognese sauce and the marinara.  The overall flavor was a mixture of sweet tomatoes and lots of basil.  It was good lasagna, but certainly not my favorite.  I felt like it lacked something in the texture and thought that it almost needed to be eaten with a spoon rather than a fork.  While it was good, I certainly did not think it was spectacular.  I was also able to sample a couple shrimp from Hannah's salad.  They were delightful little grilled crustaceans but the quantity did not meet the price in my opinion and they were rather small for a typical grilled shrimp in Louisiana. 

Banquet Room with Paintings by Hannah Lane

One of my favorite parts about DeAngelo's was the fact that the decorations around the restaurant largely consisted of paintings by Hannah.  Walking around the banquet room felt like taking a tour of Italy as Hannah's collection of paintings from her trip to the European boot were hung around the dining space.  Her artistic style is refreshing, colorful, and just the right amount of abstract to know that it requires a great amount of creativity and imagination.  I left DeAngelo's very happy after getting my fill of lasagna and an art show!

Cheesecakes and Assorted Sweets from L'auberge Du Lac in Lake Charles

My day of delivering delightful dishes to my neverending belly was not over after DeAngelo's.  When I got back to the office I found a box of cheesecakes on sticks and other assorted mini-cakes from the bakery at the L'auberge Du Lac casino in Lake Charles.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the box lid to find such amazing treats staring back at me as if they wanted to be eaten.  Since cheesecake is one of my all-time favorite desserts, I picked out a good one and plunged it into my mouth.  Wow!  First, what a great idea!  Whoever thought of putting a cheesecake on a stick is brilliant!  Secondly, these were really good cheesecakes with a beautiful mixture of cream cheese and sugar.  I couldn't resist and had another.  And the next day, since nobody else in the office was eating anything, I had the carrot cake too.  It was pretty good, but not as amazing as the cheesecakes on a stick!

Tequila Night Tailgating Bites and Boozes, LSU vs Auburn

In honor of a great tradition,  I wanted to make sure to write a post on one of my favorite events in Baton Rouge: Ford Family Tailgating's Tequila Night!  For the LSU vs Auburn game FFT held their 11th annual Tequila Night at the front steps of the Electrical Engineering Building.  Before I get into the booze, I would like to give a special shout out to the some FFT desserts.

Mama Ford's Famous Ooey Gooey... One Corner Piece Left.  Dibs!

The most famous FFT dessert is Mama Ford's Ooey Gooey.  This pan of edible joy contains two layers of simple and extremely delightful sweet tooth fixers.  The bottom layer is pretty much yellow cake mix and butter while the top layer has cream cheese and powdered sugar.  I'd hate to give away all the secrets here, but you should know that Ooey Gooey is pretty amazing.  If you ever want a taste, come tailgate at FFT and I'm sure you can get some... but come early if you want a corner piece with a crispy crust around the gooey middle!

Almond Joy Brownies and Triple Chocolate Brownies

In addition to the Ooey Gooey, FFT also provided two trays of scrumptious brownies for the party.  The top brownie pan is an Almond Joy creation complete with chocolate, coconut, and almonds.  On the near side we had brownies with extra chocolate and then even more rich, creamy chocolate on top.  Both were dynamite!

An Ice-Cold Steveweiser

I know it was tequila night, but thirst must be quenched in between shots of distilled agave.  Answer: good old genuine, American (Belgian owned) hops, barley, yeast, and pure spring (tap) water all brewed together in perfect harmony, with tons of rice for filler, oops, I mean "flavor", of course.  Delicious, crisp, clear, refreshing Budweiser... still the King of Beers after all these years.

Assortment of Empty Tequila Bottles Towards the End of the Day

Tequila Night always brings out a fantastic selection of tequila.  Of course, some joker always brings a handle of Cuervo, but its ok because we can distribute it to the minions.  Jeremy Ford always brings the top shelf tequila that I just have to sample.  The shots begin at 10:00 a.m. and continue every half hour until almost game time (which in Baton Rouge is usually around 7 p.m., not noon like the silly people in other parts of the country).  Eric set a new record by consuming 21 tequila shots throughout the day while drinking beer in between and, surprisingly to most, was still standing at the end of the day.   Overall the day was a tremendous success.  Collin Ford gave me a ticket to the game, LSU beat the crap out of Auburn, I got a corner piece of the Ooey Gooey, and the tequila never stopped flowing.  I can't wait until next year's Tequila Night Twelve, the Doce!