Day's Smokehouse: Your One Stop Shop on the way to a Boudin Food Coma

A look inside Day's Smokehouse in Denham Springs, Louisiana

Owner Kendall Day and I at Day's Smokehouse in Denham Springs

In July, team Bite and Booze was invited to visit Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, Alabama. While we were aboard the Wild Hearts Dolphin Cruise we met a couple of nice folks from Denham Springs! It always amazes me how small this world can be. As it turns out, Kendall and Monica Day own a little place called Day's Smokehouse. We immediately hit it off talking about all things Bite and Booze, barbecue sauce, and smoked meats. After our trip on the water, Kendall gave me a pack of their boudin and invited me to stop by if I ever got the chance. While in the area running some Jay D's Louisiana Barbecue Sauce over to the Oakpoint Fresh Market in Watson, I stopped in to have lunch at Day's. 

Day's has everything you could ask for in a Cajun grocer/smokehouse. Their freezers are stocked with everything from garfish balls, rabbit, and quail to stuffed jalapeños, bell peppers, and boudin balls. They also sell USDA choice cuts of meat and do deer processing for their customers. They start early over at Day's Smokehouse (6am on weekdays) and stay open through the drive home. Here's some of the fresh food that they're serving up:

Barbecue ribs, one of my all-time favorite foods in the world, washed down with a tennis-sized boudin ball and a side of their twice baked mashed potatoes sounds like one heck of a lunch...but wait, there's more!

Ribs, Boudin Ball, and Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes

Barbecue Smoked Chicken Wing

The smoked chicken wings at Day's pack flavor to the bone. I definitely demolished the succulent wings they served up. Some things are done a little differently at Day's, and I like it.

Deer Burrito

Not only do they prepare and pack bacon wrapped jalapeños and other goodies for you, but they also sell and prepare their own deer burritos. It's unique, gamey, and delightful.

Like Blair said that day, "I'm eating so much boudin right now, but I'm not mad about it." This plate was full of Day's smoked boudin, another humongous boudin ball (this one was filled with cream cheese and jalapeños), and a large helping of hog head cheese. I'll definitely be heading back to Day's when I'm in the area. Most people were grabbing lunch to go while we were there but there's a nice little table to sit at inside if you want to stay and feel like part of the family!

Smoked Boudin, Cream Cheese & Jalapeño Stuffed Boudin Ball, and Hog Head Cheese

Mount Gay Rum Dinner at 18 Steak

L'Auberge continues its emergence onto the culinary scene of Baton Rouge in a big way.  A little over a month ago I attended Saint Arnold Beer Dinner at the Stadium Bar and Grill, and just a week ago I got to check out a Mount Gay Rum Dinner at 18 Steak.  I've been to wine, beer, bourbon, and even tequila dinners before, but never rum!

Mount Gay Rum out of Barbados creates some stellar spirits.  This is one of those rum distilleries to look out for if you want a truly exceptional rum and not cheap crap like Bacardi or Captain.  There, I said it.  Rum can actually be quite tasty as a sipping beverage, something I found out at Tales of the Cocktail a couple years ago at a seminar titled "Six rums you'll never drink again in your life."  Those were some damn good rums.

Mount Gay has some damn good rums as well, as fortunately for me, they brought several of them along to the dinner.  Michele and I joined a table with a few members of the L'Auberge staff including Sally who helped out with some of these pictures, and Aimee Abernathy from Louisiana Cookin' Magazine.  For our first course, Chef Troy Deano presented a Flying Fish Ceviche with meyer lemon, sambal, and franklin cane sugar.  The ceviche might have been the best thing I tasted all night, and I don't mean that as a slight to everything else.  It had a sweet flavor and amazing texture while not being overly acidic. I could have eaten an entire bowl and been happy.  The Mount Gay Silver accompanied the ceviche in a rum cocktail with mint, sort of like a play on a mojito.  

Hog Head Cheese, Black-eyed Pea Salad, Coconut, Heirloom Carrot Vinaigrette

Course number two served as the salad course.  That's my kind of salad!  The visually stunning plate came highlighted with hog head cheese and black eyed peas.  The combo worked extremely well together, though overall the dish may have been just slightly on the bland side.  I really felt like a little salt could have helped bring all the flavors together.  The fried okra and coconut added a nice crunch to the dish to give it some texture contrast.  We were served a play on a Manhattan with the Mount Gay Eclipse aged rum instead of bourbon.  Stiff would be an understatement, but I still drank it, because that's what I do!

Michele and Jay

Michele and I enjoyed our rum and dinner so far, but we knew that even more deliciousness awaited us at 18 Steak.  Our next plate had Crusted Mahi with a creative long-noodle macaroni and cheese, an heirloom tomato sauce, and a leaf of fried oregano.  The macaroni noodles were intriguing though delicately plated and I could have definitely gone for more!  The panko crusted mahi fulfilled its duty.  The meaty fish still contained plenty of moisture on the inside. I would have liked a little more of the tomato gazpacho to work as a sauce.  Our excellent servers brought out the Mount Gay Black Barrel rum both straight and in a cocktail that played off the negroni.  The course overall worked quite nicely.  The fish and macaroni and tomato had a very comforting feel while still being refined, and it paired with the rum and cocktail very well.

Rum, Rum, and more Rum

Three Lil Pigs

The fourth course featured a lot of swine.  Chef Troy actually brought in a whole locally raised hog from  Chappapeela Farms, butchered it, and crafted the menu based on meat from that one pig.  On the plate we had a drunken pork sausage, a pork tenderloin cooked in beer, and piece of braised pork belly along with a roasted sweet potato.  The sausage had a delightfully rich spice profile that worked well with the Caribbean notes from the Mount Gay Extra Old rum it came paired with.  Once again we got to try the rum straight and in a Dark and Stormy inspired cocktail with ginger beer, mint, and simple syrup.  The pork tenderloin may have been the highlight of the plate.  The tenderness that Chef Deano achieved showed skill and patience.  The Three Lil Pigs proved to be a hit with everyone at the table.  If you love pork, and why wouldn't you, then this dish would have been for you!

Caribbean Nights with the Mount Gay 1703

18 Steak at L'Auberge capped the evening off with a delicious dessert and the rarest of the rums.  For the dessert, L'Auberge's Pastry Chef Arlety Estévez utilized coconut pudding, exotic fruit compote with pineapples and more, and mango sorbet.  The dessert as a whole impressed me.  Each layer of flavors complimented the next.  The mango sorbet wound up being my favorite aspect of it.  With very faint hints of chili, the sorbet stood out as unique, playful, and a great addition to the arrangement of fruity flavors.  As for the rum, there was no need to fix a cocktail with this nectar.  The 1703 rum is complex with flavors of vanilla, caramel, and some fruitiness.  The rums that go into the 1703 have been barrel aged between 15 and 30 years to create a refined rum that is meant to be sipped and enjoyed.  So I did.  Every last drop.  A great cap to a wonderful dinner.  Next time you see a dinner like this at L'Auberge, make your reservations!

Grand Isle NOLA Style

Smoked Fried Louisiana Oysters

Smoked fried oysters and hogs head cheese came out of Mark Falgoust's kitchen at the Grand Isle restaurant in New Orleans.  I wasn't quite expecting it from the seafood restaurant sandwiched between Harrah's and the Convention Center.  Well, I expected oysters.  And plenty of them.  But the smoked fried oysters are something worth venturing to Grand Isle for over and over again.  The crispy fried mollusks had a delicate layer of smoke on them, elevating the flavor from delicious (as most fried oysters are) to extraordinary.  When Mark brought them out of the kitchen, and then followed that with a plate of hogs head cheese, I knew this guy really knew what we was doing beyond the typical fried seafood platter.

Hogs Head Cheese from Grand Isle

Chicken and Andouille Gumbo with a Side of Potato Salad

After the deliciousness of a couple pints of Hopitoulas at the bar where I devoured the previously mentioned oysters and head cheese, we found a table to sample the rest of the fare from Chef Falgoust.  The chicken and house-made andouille gumbo hit the spot with a side of potato salad.  This is certainly more of a Cajun and Grand Isle way of serving gumbo than a lot of the Creole styles around New Orleans.   And the gumbo certainly delivered the flavor.  We also tried the Grand Isle version of Shrimp and Grits.  The Papa Tom's grits with Louisiana shrimp were smothered in an andouille gravy.  The dish was most certainly an interesting play on the classic dish, though truth be told I could barely stop eating it!  The grits and gravy were creamy and delicious, though the shrimp may have been lost a bit.

Shrimp and Grits at Grand Isle

Shrimp Caminada Poboy

As it turns out, Chef Falgoust has taken home a couple prizes at the New Orleans Poboy Preservation Festival.  The Shrimp Caminada is one of those award winning sandwiches.  It features a spicy citrus butter with Asian herb slaw and shrimp on Leidenheimer French bread.  It certainly had a unique taste profile compared to other shrimp poboys, which mean completely as a compliment.  It is nice to see something so classically New Orleans changed with just a few tweaks of condiments.  Heading back to his trusty smoker, Chef Falgoust concluded my tastings with a pork shoulder entree.  The smoked chunk of pork broke apart gingerly with an excellent combination of sweetness and smokiness.  Served with a bed of lima beans, cucumbers, red onions, and herbs, this pork shoulder is another example of Grand Isle being able to do more than just fry seafood.

Pork Shoulder, Lima Beans, Cucumber, Red Onions, Herbs