Summer in Baton Rouge: The Snowball Effect

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

Summer in Baton Rouge: The Snowball Effect

by Jay D. Ducote

Along with the humid wave of blistering heat that hits Baton Rouge every summer comes a cure for the summertime weather.  Though they are known by different names from place to place, one thing for sure is that Baton Rouge is a snowball city!  Call it a “snowball” or use the “sno-ball” spelling.  Even say it is “New Orleans style shaved ice” if you must, just please don’t call it a snow cone!  As the Shultzilla (www.shultzilla.com) t-shirt so clearly points out, “Sno don’t come in no cone!” 

No matter where you get them, true snowballs have several things in common.  First, a snowball is only as good as its ice.  The shaved ice should be powder-like in consistency and void of any large chunks that might accidently hurt a tooth.  Second, true snowballs are served in Styrofoam cups, piled high over the top, and come with both a spoon and a straw for optimal consumption.  The fluffy snow becomes saturated with any flavor or flavor combination of choice, and a good snowball stand will have plenty from which to choose.  Flavors start with your staple fruits like strawberries, mimic popular adult beverages such as pina colada, and even try to capture the tastes of memories like bubble gum and wedding cake.  Most flavors also add an imagery of bright colors that are guaranteed to turn your tongue any color in the rainbow. 

I recently had a chance to visit a couple of Baton Rouge snowball stands to check out their facilities and see what’s in store for 2010.  BB’s Icebox Snoballs on Congress Avenue at Perkins Road was my first destination for sweet frozen treats.  Owners Drew Pearson and Gaines Garrett purchased the snoball stand earlier in the year and are excited about their first summer of operation.  The stand has been in existence for a while, and despite the change of ownership, BB’s Icebox still has plenty of loyal customers that stop by for their snoball fix. 

Jay Ducote orders a large wedding cake snoball with condensed milk at BB's Icebox

Drew said that the ownership opportunity came up through a friend of a friend, and after some financial evaluations, he and Garrett decided not to let the chance pass by.  Both owners are graduates of LSU and have regular jobs, so for now the ownership of BB’s Icebox is a side job.  Still, Drew said that they viewed this as a great way to get their feet wet in business ownership.  Wanting to try one of BB’s standards, I asked Drew for a large wedding cake snoball with condensed milk!

The ice machine hummed in the background as the ice was shaved and turned into fluffy snow.  The ice then got packed into a cup, liberally flavored with wedding cake goodness, crowned with more snow and additional flavoring, then topped with the sweetness of condensed milk.  After Drew handed me the snoball I tried to continue the interview with condensed milk and wedding cake syrup running down my hand, but that just wasn’t happening.  I figured the next best thing I could do would be to just enjoy the snoball.  To their credit, it was truly delicious.  My taste buds had never before experienced a wedding cake snoball, but they were happy that they did then.  The condensed milk added an extra layer of flavor to the wedding cake and partnered to create an excellent marriage of flavors (haha, get the pun?).

BB’s Icebox also offers a “stuffed” snoball for the adventurous eaters.  The stuffed snoball contains soft serve ice cream, mixes in snoball flavors, then tops that with shaved ice and more flavoring.  BB’s serves vanilla and chocolate soft serve and Drew claims that it is some of the best in town.  After having a taste of the chocolate, I think I might have to agree!  BB’s Icebox is open seven days a week from 12-8 PM. 

BB's Icebox Snoballs and the Ninja Snowball Truck

My next snowball proved difficult to find.  That wasn’t because their location is off the map, but rather because they are a ninja!  Ninja Snowballs is incorporating a new business model to Baton Rouge: the food truck!  They started operation during the summer of 2009 when the idea hatched from brainstorming about how successful a snowball stand would be right off of LSU’s campus.  After inspiration from the success of food truck models in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, owner Jared Loftus decided to give it a try in Baton Rouge.  The ideas merged into a mobile snowball stand that uses social media like Facebook (facebook.com/ninjasnowballs) and Twitter (twitter.com/ninjasnowballs) to tell customers where to find the truck.  As for the name, Jared said that Ninja just made sense because the truck would be moving around and tricky to find compared to stationary snowball stands.  “Not to mention,” he added, “everybody likes ninjas.”

After beginning operation in June of 2009 with a black Ninja Snowballs trailer, the company quickly saw the drawbacks of the trailer model and decided to buy purchase a large truck before the 2010 snowball season.  I caught up with the Ninja Snowballs truck outside of Stella Boutique at the Perkins Road Overpass.  Ninja now moves around town in what used to be a large postal service truck that they completely renovated for snowballs on wheels.  Complete with custom plumbing, the truck is now painted bright red and easily spotted with social media logos on the side. 

Ninja Emily hands Jay Ducote a Mango Snowball

Like BB’s Icebox, Ninja’s most popular flavors are wedding cake and strawberry.  While those flavors are staples that no snowball stand can afford not to have, Ninja also has a couple unique flavors that keep people coming back.  They make a chocolate cream flavor and they also get a coffee concentrate flavor from Highland Coffees.  Jared noted that a lot of people like to mix the two together for an iced-chocolate-coffee snowball!  Ninja Snowballs is working on adding some organic and natural flavors to their product line in addition to the sugar-free flavors that they have now.  All sugar-based Ninja snowball flavors are actually made by Ninja with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.

My brother, Eric Ducote, and Aimee Schultz from Shultzilla joined me for a sampling of Ninja Snowballs.  Ninja Emily served me a large mango snowball for my tasting pleasure.  Ninja prides themselves on their very fine ice that the spoon should slide through like a hot knife through butter.  After just a couple bites I could tell that they are serious about their ice because there were no chunks to be found in my snowball.  The mango flavor highlighted the lush snow and added a great tropical summer feeling to the frozen concoction.  I could no longer tell how hot it was outside as I cooled down with the delicious Ninja snowball.

Jay Ducote and Aimee Schultz enjoy their Ninja Snowballs

Baton Rouge has quite a few snowball offerings other than BB’s Icebox Snoballs and Ninja Snowballs.  When the summer heat hits you hard and you need to be refreshed, seek out the stand closest to you and enjoy a snowball.  After all, it really isn’t summer in Baton Rouge without one!

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

Thanks to Eric Ducote of BRBeerScene.com for taking all the pictures for this article.  Also thanks to Hunter Brown for the design of the title graphic.

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Baton Rouge

The Baton Rouge BuRger Scene

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

The Baton Rouge BuRger Scene

by Jay D. Ducote

It’s not very difficult to find a great burger in Baton Rouge if you know where to look. While George’s and Brewbacher’s are staples of the Baton Rouge burger market, there are plenty of alternatives that keep the mouths of Red Stick carnivores salivating. With April being here, Lent being over, and Spring in full swing, when could there ever be a better time to dine on deliciously grilled beef?

I recently went on a mission to find the best burgers in Baton Rouge. My first stop brought me to Mason’s Grill on Jefferson at Tiger Bend. In 2009, Food Network Magazine named the top burger in all 50 states and the Cajun Shrimp Burger at Mason’s took home the prize from Louisiana. I knew I had to give this burger a try if I really wanted to experience Baton Rouge burgers, so I walked in to Mason’s where owner Mike Alfandre greeted me. Mike and his wife Shirley opened up The Daily Grind in 1998 but quickly outgrew the cozy location. The couple changed the name to Mason’s Grill and moved to their new location about six years ago, and the rest is history.

The Cajun Shrimp Burger at Mason's Grill was named the best burger in Louisiana by the Food Network Magazine!

The Cajun Shrimp Burger itself is 8 ounces of fresh ground beef made to order into a jalapeño-stuffed patty. The burger is then flame-grilled to desired temperature while shrimp are sautéed with more jalapeños. When the shrimp are almost ready, the chef will add a cup and a half of jack cheese in with the crustaceans and peppers and let it all melt together. The cheesy mixture is then scooped up and piled high on the beef patty which is resting patiently on a sweet sourdough bun that is made specially for Mason’s Grill. This burger is absolutely incredible as the spices and flavors all mix together in one sensational bite after another. Mike told me that on a typical day he will go through about 50 Cajun Shrimp Burgers and well over 100 pounds of beef. If that doesn’t tell you how good they are, then I’m not sure what will!

Another classic stop on a Baton Rouge burger tour is Dearman’s on Jefferson at Corporate. Dearman’s is a classic burger and shake joint in mold of the old tradition. They claim to be “the original” place to get burgers, fries, and shakes in BR, and the place lives up to its hype. While the claim that they have the “best burger in Baton Rouge for over fifty years” doesn’t quite meet expectations, the overall vibe of the diner and quality of the burgers is worth noting. Dearman’s cooks up batches of fresh beef patties, grilling them all on a flattop. The burger is ready quickly after you order it, comes out dressed how you like it, and is certainly juicy and messy. I had mine with American cheese, grilled onions, and some other toppings, and at the least I will say that it was a pretty decent burger that is certainly a huge step up from fast food or frozen patties.

Fresh Beef Patties on the Grill at Dearman's

My eyes and stomach focused on downtown for my next stop on the BuRger tour. Downtown offers delightful burgers at places like Riverside Patty, Downtown Seafood and Grill, and Capital City Grill. I’ve had those before and can recommend any of them, but this adventure took me to some place a little newer: Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar and Restaurant, where I’d take on a Juicy Lucy! I met the Executive Chef of Lucy’s, Michael Domenick, and asked him about the signature sandwich before placing my order. According to Chef Domenick, the Juicy Lucy has been on the menu for quite some time at the New Orleans restaurant which has now spread to Baton Rouge. He claimed that the opportunity came along to make the burger even juicier, so he worked on creating a half-pound burger patty which features 100% certified Angus chuck and a special spice blend. He told me that he wasn’t just going to make a good burger, be he “wants to make the best burger in Baton Rouge.” Chef Domenick went on to say that his goal is “not just to make a good burger, but change the way people in Baton Rouge eat burgers.” Needless to say, my excitement level peaked in anticipation.

Jay Ducote digs into a Juicy Lucy Burger

The Juicy Lucy has numerous topping options that fit the theme of the restaurant. Anything from sautéed portabellas to sprouts and guacamole to bacon can be added to the burger, as well as a selection of cheeses and a special sauce. The burger is served on an artisanal bun that is glazed with egg whites on the top to give it a shiny finish. I ordered my burger medium with Swiss cheese and guacamole. While it may not have been my absolute favorite burger of the journey, the Juicy Lucy left the largest trail of juice dripping down my forearm! Each and every bite tasted delicious and unique. By the time I polished off the burger my stomach was full and my appetite was satisfied, so this burger definitely gets my approval.

Seth Maggio flips giant burgers at Tramonte's Meat and Seafood Market

My final stop came back on Jefferson just on the other side of Airline. I received a tip that Tramonte’s Meat and Seafood Market just may have the best burger in town, so I had to go have a taste. The market and restaurant has been open for around 8 years, and while they specialize in raw meats and seafood for customers to take home and cook themselves, Tramonte’s also has a few specialties up their sleeves. I ordered a regular cheeseburger, but this giant patty is far from ordinary. Tramonte’s uses a full pound of ground sirloin mixed with top secret ingredients and fresh vegetables and then formed into an enormous patty and flame-grilled to perfection. I asked for bacon-cheddar burger and owner Mike Tramonte obliged by throwing a patty on the grill and then chatting with me about his burgers. I couldn’t get him to tell me his secret ingredients, but the massive burger had a superb flavor throughout the patty and combined magnificently with the sesame seed bun on which it was served. This burger blew me away as I had never even heard of Tramonte’s before, but now that I have, I know for sure that I’ll be back!

The Bacon Cheeseburger at Tramonte's. Mmmm... bacon cheeseburger... aghghagh!

The Baton Rouge BuRger Scene is alive and kicking. Restaurants all over town are cooking up delightful burgers that will tickle your taste buds. You can find a delicious burger at restaurants like Louie’s Café, home of the Big Cheesy Lou, which William Winters, a former employee, describes as “everything you love about cheeseburgers: meat and cheese, abundantly.” Delicious burgers can also be found at burger joints like Roul’s Deli, casual restaurants such as Bistro Byronz, and the Northshore-based Times Grill. Anywhere you look in this city you can find a tasty burger, so go ahead, Baton Rouge, dig in and enjoy!

Eric Ducote took all the pictures for this article. Thanks to Hunter Brown for the graphic design of the restaurant sign collage.

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Baton Rouge

The 2010 Crawfish Season in the Red Stick

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

The 2010 Crawfish Season in the Red Stick

By Jay D. Ducote

This year was well on its way to being a banner year for Louisiana crawfish until a hard freeze in early January changed everything.

“The outlook for this crawfish season started out on a very promising note. Any time we get abundant natural rainfall in the late summer and early fall, it bodes well for the survival of crawfish in their burrows,” said Burt Tietje, a crawfish farmer who sits on the board of the Louisiana Crawfish Farmers Association. “I firmly believed that my problem by this point in the season would have been too many crawfish for the early markets and a rapidly dropping wholesale price.”

However, this was not the case at the early part of this season. Burt, who also works for the Jeff Davis Economic Development Office, continued by saying, “This is a true story... so far I have averaged losing $75-100 each time I have run my traps when labor and fuel are figured in. I keep fishing because you never know when the crawfish will turn on and I want to have fresh bait out there when they do.”

In 1997, Southwest Louisiana had very similar wet weather followed by a severe freeze. “I had to break ice out of the traps, but they were full of crawfish and I never missed a lick that season,” Burt exclaimed. “This year is a complete mystery to me and to everyone I talk to. Perhaps the hard freeze came at a time when the young crawfish were particularly vulnerable. I just don't have an explanation.”

What the Louisiana crawfish industry desperately needs now is some sunshine and warmer overnight temperatures to get the crawfish moving. Mudbugs are cold-blooded creatures and the cooler the water; the less biologic activity is taking place in the ponds and basins. It is estimated that for every 10 degrees of water temperature, activity doubles in the ponds.

Even with a cloudy supply of farm-raised crawfish and an uncertainty about when the basin will have water diverted to it, the demand for crawfish in the Capital area is starting to pick up. Mardi Gras has come and gone and spring is near. Warmer temperatures won’t just bring more crawfish; they will also bring more crawfish boils, all-you-can-eat crawfish specials, tail pinchers, and head suckers. Oh yes Baton Rouge, Crawfish Season is here!

Jay Ducote stands with two batches of live crawfish at Tony's Seafood. Each basket holds up to 500 lbs. of crawfish!

I recently took a look at the Baton Rouge crawfish scene to see where I could find exceptional boiled crawfish in the Red Stick. My first stop, which should be no surprise to anybody who knows seafood in Baton Rouge, was at Tony’s Seafood on Plank Road. Tony’s is best described as an institution, and is in fact the largest seafood market in the Gulf South. Started as a produce stand by Tony Pizzolato in 1959, by the early 1980’s Tony’s had transformed into the thriving seafood market that we know it as today.

The fine people at Tony’s gave me a tour of the facility including a chance to stand behind the counter, and a glimpse at their gigantic walk in cooler where they keep live crawfish. Tony’s cooks their crawfish in batches of up to 500 lbs. at a time in giant baskets and boiling pots. On a prime day, Tony’s can boil up to 30 pots, or as much as 15,000 lbs. of crawfish! Tony’s has great crawfish for the average palate. While they are mass-boiled, the flavor is great and extremely edible. However, if you are the kind of crawfish eater that wants their lips to burn eyes to water when eating spicy, red mudbugs, then Tony’s “friendly” spice may not be quite what you are looking for.

A large batch of freshly boiled crawfish at Tony's Seafood is ready to be served.

My next stop occurred down Florida Boulevard at Randy Montalbano’s Seafood and Catering. Randy Montalbano, Jr. greeted me as I walked in to his restaurant and offered a quick tour of his kitchen. Although the scale of Montalbano’s operation is nowhere close to that of Tony’s, their seafood easily rivals that of their larger counterpart. Founded in June of 2006 by Randy and his father, Randy Montalbano, Sr., Montalbano’s specializes in boiled seafood and other Cajun dishes, providing off-site catering and in-store family-friendly dining. During the peak of the season, Montalbano’s averages around 10,000 lbs. of boiled crawfish per week. Randy let me sample some of his crawfish to get a taste of his spice and flavor offering. Let me tell you friends, C’est Bon! Montabano’s crawfish left my lips tingling without feeling overwhelmed by extreme heat. The crawfish had an excellent flavor with a great balance of salt and spice.

Boiled Crawfish at Randy Montalbano's Seafood and Catering... C'est Bon!

While exploring the Red Stick area for crawfish, I also felt like it would be good to head out to the “suburbs” where I came across Jimbo’s Seafood on Jones Creek Road. Teresa Guerin kindly welcomed me and gave a detailed tour of their crawfish business. Like Montalbano’s, Jimbo’s boils farm-raised and basin crawfish to perfection. Jimbo’s has been serving up fresh and boiled seafood in the same location for the past 16 years and has built a loyal clientele. Teresa showed me firsthand how Jimbo’s hand-picks their crawfish and purges them in salt water to make sure their customers get nothing but the best. After watching preparation, Teresa served me a batch of fresh crawfish. Along side the crawdaddies came beautifully boiled corn and potatoes that are always a perfect complement. Jimbo’s batch impressed me just as much as Montalbano’s. I don’t think they had quite the heat, but they had every bit as much flavor. I wouldn’t hesitate ordering from them next time I wanted a few pounds of mudbugs to go!

MJ sorts through the live crawfish at Jimbo's Seafood on Jones Creek as Jay Ducote looks on.

Hopefully some warm weather will bring in a bountiful harvest so that we can all enjoy this Crawfish Season like we’ve come to know and love in South Louisiana. I hope you enjoy it as much as I will!

Jay D. Ducote is the author of the blog Bite and Booze, which chronicles his culinary and indulgent adventures around Baton Rouge, South Louisiana, and the world. It can be found at http://www.biteandbooze.com/. You can also reach him by email at jaydducote@gmail.com.

Eric Ducote took all the pictures for this article. Credit goes to Hunter Brown for the graphic design of the restaurant sign collage.

  

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Happy Friendsgiving!

Friendsgiving came and went, but the memories will last forever yet again. I'd like to start by giving Sara and Rachel a heartfelt shout out for hosting such a fine evening of wine and Thanksgiving-style cuisine. Our third annual Friendsgiving took place this past Wednesday and certainly lived up to all the hype and anticipation!  I brought scallops topped with bacon and a home made pear and bourbon reduction chutney for an appetizer as well as a side of asparagus for the feasting.  In addition, I also threw in a bottle of Suisun Valley's Scholium Project Syrah, which is quite tasty!

Sara and Rachel set up a couple old Third Row tables in their living room to give us enough dining space for the 16+ guests that showed up for Friendsgiving.  They did a fabulous job setting the table to dazzle the diners both before we sat down and after!

Friendsgiving Dinner Table Before and After We Were Seated

We served the food buffet style and then took our seats at the table.  I was fortunate enough to grab the end of the table with a little extra elbow room!  Our end of the table was certainly the "classy side" as I was joined by Eric, Teal, Hunter, Rachel Smith, and Chris. 

My First Plate at the Freindsgiving Feast of 2009

I'm going to attempt to go around the plate in order and give credit where I can and where it is due.  Starting on the bottom center we have Teal's cornbread dressing with shrimp and crab meat.  It is a great place to start because it was delicious!  I'm not sure I'lve ever had cornbread dressing that had such a perfect combination of moistness and flavor.  Well done, Teal!  Moving clockwise to the left sits the sweet potato casserole topped with candied pecans.  Money!  Next is a special tradition from Hunter Brown: mashed potatoes and gravy from Popeyes Famous Chicken and Biscuits!  It is hard to do better, so why try, right HB?  To the far left there is part of a roll.  Above that there is a great green bean casserole that was made by my sister, Dana.  The beans were moist and tender and covered in crispy onion strings.  The casserole impressed me, but not as much as Dana's other dish, the macaroni and cheese.  All the way at the top of the plate sits Dana's mac 'n' cheese which used multiple cheese varieties and some penne pasta noodles.  Way to go, sister!  Next, we have the turkey.  Eric made the turkey again this year and did another marvelous job with the large bird.  It came out of the oven about as tender and moist as one could ask for with plenty of flavor.  I'm a big fan of the dark meat, so my plate contained mostly leg and thigh meat with some home made cranberry sauce.  There is some ham that Rachel Stich cooked under there somewhere too.  To finish the plate off there are a couple asparagus spears that I cooked under there somewhere and another cornbread dressing at the bottom right of the picture.  Whew!  I got through all that.  How did I go back for another round?  I must be a machine.  Just call me Jaybert Dujols,  the Albert "The Machine" Pujols of feasting. 

Three Home Made Ice Cream Flavors from Sara

There were plenty of desserts at Friendsgiving but ice cream was the only thing I still had room for.  Fortunately Sara had three flavors of home made ice cream to choose from.  On the right is the brown sugar and bacon ice cream!  The bacon flavor shined in the cream while not leaving too much of the taste in your mouth afterwards.  My only complaint would be that there were actually chunks of bacon mixed in the ice cream that tasted fine but messed up the texture of the creamy goodness.  On the top left there is a coffee flavored ice cream which had a good taste that was not overpowering.  Beneath the darker brown coffee ice cream is the orange pumpkin ice cream.  It won my award for best ice cream of the night and I could definitely eat it again.  The ice cream had a smooth, rich flavor with the pumpkin and spices that make pumpkin pie so good... but in an ice cream.  Thanks Sara! How cool would it be to serve coffee ice cream in photo mugs with our favorite group pictures?

Happy Friendsgiving, everyone!  Eat, drink, and be merry!  'Tis the season, afterall.