Christina's in Beauregard Town

Hidden in downtown Baton Rouge at the corner of St. Charles and Somerulos, Christina's has been offering up quality home cooking for years.  This little restaurant is not as well known as it should be around town, but its loyal customers still keep the place packed for breakfast and lunch.  I recently ate lunch at Christina's for my first time and was certainly not disappointed.  Darrell Broussard joined me on the walk from our busy offices to the Beauregard Town neighborhood.  The quaint restaurant is warm and welcoming, and the lunch menu is full of Southern-fried home cooking. 

Christina's in Downtown Baton Rouge

Christina's had a lunch special on this fortunate day that featured a chicken fried steak with gravy and three sides.  Their list of sides rotates so it is written on the wall instead of in the menu.  However, it is long enough to count as reading a book, so picking three seemed like a difficult task.  I wanted to vary things up a bit, so I eventually settled on the buttered corn, collard greens, and praline yams.

Chicken Fried Steak with Buttered Corn, Collard Greens, and Praline Yams

The corn had a good buttery taste as the name implied but beyond that was just your average canned corn.  The collard greens tasted pretty good and I enjoyed their saltiness and tender texture.  However, the highlight of the sides, and in fact the entire meal, came in the form of the praline yams.  They may not have been much more than canned sweet potatoes with plenty of butter and caramelized sugar, but this dish was purely delightful!  I could have eaten those praline yams all day!  The chicken fried steak had a great flavor and combined well with the white gravy, but it was a little smaller than I would have liked.  Still, the praline yams made up for everything and in the end, I had no complaints with the meal or the restaurant.  I'd gladly go back to Christina's any time, and I especially want to check it out for breakfast!

Maxwell's Market for a "Business" Lunch

Maxwell's Market now has three locations in Baton Rouge.  The original is on Corporate Boulevard near Jefferson Highway, another is across from Pennington on Perkins Road, and the newest spot is right off of Highland Road near Ruffino's.  On a nice sunny day in Baton Rouge I joined Laura and Natalie for a nice "business" lunch at the Perkins location. 

Maxwell's Market on Perkins Road

Maxwell's is a locally owned market that carries premium meats, fresh seafood, a great selection of beer and wine, specialty foods, and local produce.  Additionally, they offer a delicatessen for patrons that would like to dine in.  Their slogan is "Bake. Grill. Chill."  Not bad, considering I like all of those things!  We took our lunch breaks from busy downtown government life and headed to Maxwell's to sample the deli menu.  Maxwell's offers a variety of poboys, burgers, soups, and salads.  I decided to go with the Cuban, a poboy style sandwich with a little kick.

Cuban Sandwich from Maxwell's Market

The Cuban sandwich came with layers of roast pork, ham, turkey, salami, Monterey Jack cheese, pickles, mayo, and Creole mustard served hot on French bread.  Naturally I ordered mine sans the pickles and mayo.  I habitually despise pickles to the point that my hatred would lead to anger and my anger would lead me down the path to the dark side of the Force, but I'm actually ok with mayo in small amounts.  Still, when I'm eating at a restaurant, deli, burger joint, or sandwich shop, I typically order my food without mayo because I find that it is rare to find someone who knows my definition of a "thin" layer of mayo.  The sandwich tasted fine but I would have preferred a more generous portion of meats and cheeses than what they served.  One of my very few complaints about poboys is that often times the bread overshadows the filling.  I enjoy overstuffed poboys, and this certainly did not fit that bill.  Still, the meats and cheeses were freshly sliced Boar's Head brand and certainly gave a good flavor to the sandwich.  The Creole mustard complimented the spicy Monterey Jack perfectly, so all in all I was a happy eater.

Basket of Sweet Potato Fries at Maxwell's Market

During the Fall and the holidays, one thing that I find hard to resist is sweet potato fries.  These crispy wedges of sweet potato goodness make me happy that yams are so plentiful around here.  They are such a terrific stray from the usual French fry.  I shared this basket of fries with the other guests at the table and we were certainly not disappointed.

Overall the trip to Maxwell's ended successfully.  I'm glad I went in and saw what this local market has to offer.  Although the deli did not blow me away, I'm going to make sure that I do some wine, beer, specialty foods, and meat shopping there.  They had some pretty cool stuff!

Delpit's Chicken Shack

There are several good places in Baton Rouge to find fried chicken other than Popeye's.  Undoubtedly one of the best of these places is Delpit's Chicken Shack on N. Acadian.  The Chicken Shack serves up hot lunches to many satisfied patrons every day as they have quite a few offerings on the menu, but their specialty is the bone-in, finger-licking fried chicken.

Delpit's Chicken Shack, N. Acadian Thruway, Baton Rouge, La

I recently visited the Chicken Shack for my first time after strong recommendations from Eusebio and Eric.  The lovely Caroline met me there for lunch to help me see what all the fuss was about.  We got things started with an order of the "shack balls."  These hand-battered boudin balls were unlike the other deep-fried Cajun treats that you can find around town.  The each ball contained the flavorful rice and meat mixture that remained extremely moist inside.  The shack balls impressed me a lot, so I couldn't wait for the chicken!

Three Shack Balls

The fried chicken dinner came in a styrofoam box with couple of sides and a roll.  I ordered a three piece meal of all dark meat and picked cornbread dressing with brown gravy and yams as my side items, which may have been a decent call, but they weren't anything too special.  Fortunately for me, they were better than the two sides that Caroline got so at least I can brag about that!  Both of my sides were plenty good enough to eat, just not good enough to bring people to Chicken Shack on their own.  The chicken, on the other hand, is a different story!

Fried Chicken, Cornbread Dressing, Yams, and a Roll from Delpit's Chicken Shack

Seasoned well, fried crunchy on the outside, and juicy on the inside, this chicken could soundly be argued to be the best fried bird in town.  It was absolutely delicious from the first bite of crispy skin to the final nibble of tender flesh off the bone.  Each bite made me want to order more to eat until I couldn't stuff any more down my throat, then go back for more the next day!  I resisted the temptation though.  But don't worry, I'll be back soon enough.