A Cajun Dinner on the Bayou

Growing up on the bayou in Abbeville was a seafood lover's dream. Fresh gulf seafood was at our fingertips daily, right off the boats. My mother's cousin had a trawling boat and would bring in tons of fabulous, fresh shrimp, crabs, oysters, and fish every weekend. He would make the rounds to all the family member's homes and stock their freezers full. He was generous to a fault!


Then his family would have a big seafood feast on Saturday nights, complete with a live Cajun band that he played in. They had a camp in their backyard, built especially for parties. What could be better than delicious seafood, a Cajun band, and a whole lotta dancing going on. How I wish that I had videos or even pictures of these shindigs. Even though I do not, my memories of these good times are so etched into my memory, that I can recall every detail, just as though it was yesterday. Fun just stays with you.


I took a ride to Abbeville, today, to visit my Dad and to take him out to dinner. Since Abbeville is famous for it's selection of fabulous seafood restaurants, it's always hard to choose one. I was in the mood for boiled crabs (yes, again), so we started to head over to Richard's Seafood Patio to dive into some sinfully delicious, highly seasoned crabs. On the way there, please try to understand that we had to drive by three other fabulous seafood restaurants, before getting to Richard's. We were getting hungrier by the minute.

Black's, a landmark in Abbeville, is famous for it's oysters, as well as it's seafood gumbo, and other Cajun seafood delicacies. It's original location was a bit up on the same block, on Pere Megret Street, in my grandfather's old building. My Dad's store was right next door, in the same building. To say that this was lucky is understating the joy of smelling all of this wonderful food cooking, whenever my brother and I would go to Dad's store, after school. We had more than a few after school snacks at the old Black's. Oh, cest bon, cher!


Dupuy's Oyster Shop was closed for vacation, so that eliminated agonizing over that one. Next we came to The Riverfront Grill, which is famous for it's New Orleans style seafood dishes, as well as divine Cajun cuisine. Dad wanted some crawfish etoufee and by this time, I just wanted crab anything. And then I remembered the succulent , Eggplant Evangeline that is my favorite item on the menu. Fried eggplant /topped with crabmeat in bechamel sauce with a spinach salad and sweet potato fries. It was all out of this world! What about Richard's? Well, maybe next week! Do you have a favorite seafood restaurant?