Two thumbs up for Darwell's Cafe

This weekend Mrs. Food Blogger and I spend some time on the Gulf Coast and had the opportunity to take in a establishment that we have both been wanting to try for some time – Darwell's Cafe in Long Beach.

I am usually skeptical of joints that I see on the Food Network, with one exception – Dinners, Drive-ins and Dives, and even Guy Fieri's rave review of a certain Gulf Coast BBQ joint that will not be named had me scratching my head.

But, back to the focus of the review – Darwell's.

This is a fun, quirky, eclectic eatery provides a one of a kind dining experience on the Coast. Upon entering the front door you order at a counter. Behind the counter you can see directly into the kitchen where Chef Darwell Yaeger and his staff are hard at work. With the extensive menu on small signs all over the walls. That was my only complaint, I studied the small signs for a good 10 minutes and I still couldn't come close to telling you what all they serve.

They had a dry-erase with some nightly specials, being somewhat confused I just blurted out a special that sounded good.

I ordered the “Blackened Filet Tips with Lump Crab”, Mrs. FB ordered “Blackened Shirmp with Lumb Crab”. We also ordered a crab cake appetizer.

After placing you order you move to the beverage station where you order your drinks, and then decided where you want to sit. Darwell's features both indoor and outdoor dining,. Being it's June with temps pushing into the mid-90's we opted for indoor dinning.

After picking up our Coke Zero's at the beverage station we picked out a table in their back dinning room (it was about 15 degrees cooler than the front dinning area), started looking at the unique folk art and water-colors that adorned the walls. Most of the art is the work of Darwell's father – Papa D.
It wasn't long before our crab cakes arrived.

They served them with a nice hollendaise sauce and a vidalia onion dressing.

Upon cutting into the nicely portioned crab cake it was easy to tell that Chef Darwell's lump crab to bread-crumb ration was off the chart! These crab cakes were some of the best I've had, and I've long been known as someone who loves crabcakes. The hollendaise sauce was the perfect compliment, but if you prefer a sweeter taste the vidalia onion dressing was nice.

I'll be honest here, I probably ordered my blackened filet tips because of the confusing menu display, because as a rule I do not like “blackened dish” weather it be steak, redfish, or whatever. I think my general disdain for “blackened” dishes is because 90% of places don't know how to do it correctly.

Do not include Chef Darwell in that 90%, the blackened filet tips were exceptional! Filet tips grilled to near perfection. The tips were cooked medium with a perfect amount of blankening seasoning. They were served in a large shallow bowl, with slice of french bread in the middle of the bowl. The filet tips were served around and over the toasted slice. Then huge chunks of lump crab meat were played in the middle of the dish.

The crab itself was not blackened, just steamed, lightly seasoned and served atop the steak tips.

Having dinned at a large number of seafood restaurants over the years I think the lump crab was largest chunks of succulent crab I've been served.

Interestingly, the dish wasn't served with any sides, but that was the only complaint anyone could make.

The lump crab took on hints of the seasoning from the blackened filet tips, and the toast was a nice touch.

Mrs. FB was kind enough to exchange a few of her blackened shrimp for a few of my filet tips, and while the blackened shrimp had a touch more spice than the tops, they were also excellent. The shrimp were sauteed to perfection, with a rich full deep water taste. They were plated in the same manner as the tips with lump crab and french bread.

Several times while we were dinning Chef Darwell emerged from the kitchen to talk with patrons and to insure everyone's dinning experience was up to his high standards.

In all this was an outstanding dinning experience, we'll be back in the future to try some of their other Southern Coastal inspired dishes, and that doesn't even take into account huge smoker churning out BBQ with Papa D serving as pit-master.

The low light in the back dinning area wasn't good for photos, and they didn't come out, so sorry for no accompanying photos.

Darwell's Cafe gets two big thumbs up from the Food Blog Family!

Lookout 49 - Gulfport

Over the New Year's Holiday the wife and I dined at Lookout 49 in Gulfport. We began enjoying the Lookout while it was still in Long Beach harbor and have continue to drop by on occasion while traveling to the Gulf Coast.

Lookout 49 serves fresh caught Gulf seafood and the menu changes with the season and what's available throughout the year.

While we've enjoyed some visits more than others I can't remember being disappointed on any occasion that we've dined there. This visit the experience was exceptional.



We began our meal with seafood stuffing cakes, pretty much crab cakes with both crab and shrimp. They were prepared nice, fried golden and served with a tangy ramoulade sauce. They were good, could have been fried just a bit longer, but in all they were well received.

Side salads for the entrees were good, they were a fresh mix of spring greens and baby spinach. Fresh house made croutons and dressings highlighted the salads. I enjoyed a very nice bleu cheese and my wife had the ranch dressing, both house made and very nice.

I ordered the "Catch of the Day", on this occasion it was speckled trout filet served on a bed of rice with a creamy Lyonnaise sauce with chopped bacon, shrimp, sun dried tomato and basil. A side of steamed, mixed vegetables were served - green beans, parsnip, and broccoli.



This was the largest speckled trout fillet that I've ever been served in a restaurant, and it was fried to golden brown perfection. You can tell that it was cooked at a high enough temperature that it left the crusting crisp while leaving the fish tender, flaky and moist. The Lyonnaise sauce was creamy with ample amounts of shrimp and large pieces of bacon, the sun dried tomatoes were a nice compliment to the sauce and the basil married all the flavors together. This was one of the better seafood dishes I've had in a very long time, it was simply exceptional.

My wife ordered the Grilled Stuffed Amberjack. A nice Amberjack steak served over a bed of fresh greens. It was topped with a grilled seafood cake much like our appetizer dish. It was served with the same side of steamed vegetables as the catch of the day.



The texture and flavor of the Amberjack was very good and the grilled seafood cake was a nice compliment. Adding a fresh squeeze of lemon to the jack steak and a bit of the ramoulade to the seafood cake accented the dish well.

The service was very good from the polite hostess to the attentive servers, I would be hard pressed to come up with a negative about this dining experience, so I won't even try.

Lunch at Cafe Ma'me

This afternoon I found myself meeting a prospective business partner in Oak Grove for lunch. He suggested a recently opened eatery near his office - Cafe Ma'me. I was pretty excited about the prospects of trying out this newly opened boutique cafe. I had heard good things about it from our friends at myHattiesburg.com, so I was looking forward to trying it myself.

From what I can tell this is an extension of D. Morgan Catering, with a modest dinning area sharing the kitchen with the catering company. The setting is cozy, about half a dozen mismatched tables in an intimate setting.

Cafe Ma'me bills itself as "true French with Creole and Cajun influences".

I enjoy Cajun/Creole cuisine, Mrs. Food Blogger's family traces roots from the Mississippi Gulf Coast to New Orleans (Old Metry as they call it) and back to France. So, she quite frankly spoils me with some of the best Cajun/Creole you can find anywhere.

Cafe Me'me is open Monday-Friday from 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM, and serve a limited menu. Today the lunch special was a "Creole smothered steak with mashed potatoes and English peas".

The Lunch special was served with a small pone of cornbread. The cornbread was pretty good, it was sweetened and that's just a pet peeve of mine, I don't like sweet cornbread. I grew up eating a more coarse ground savory cornbread and that's just the way I prefer it. If you like sweet cornbread, you'll probably really like this as it was served piping hot with fresh spread.

The smother steak and mashed potatoes were well above average. I'll go so far as to say one of the better "home style" lunch plates I've had in some time. The steak was not a chopped or cubed steak. It had the texture of a thickly sliced roast beef cutlet that was "cut with a fork" tender. It was smothered in a creole flavored brown gravy that was quite nice. Now when I say it was a Creole gravy don't think spicy. Authentic Creole cooking is not about the heat it's about flavor. And the flavor always starts with onions, bell pepper and celery, and they blended together in this brown gravy to near perfection.

The mashed potatoes were home made, not out of a box. They were creamy with that unmistakable texture of real mashed potatoes. The Creole gravy on these home made mashed potatoes was just excellent The English peas were good but not to my taste, these peas were sweeter, they had to have added maybe some creme fresh or maybe butter and sugar. They were not bad, but this is another item that I tend to prefer savory over sweet.

To finish the meal the offered s complimentary bread pudding desert. Again you can tell that this was home made and not out of a box. I was pleased to taste hints of not only the traditional cinnamon, but also nutmeg. A light fresh creme sauce was served over the bread pudding, could have used a bit more of the sauce but in all a very nice desert.

The red beans and rice looked and smelled wonderful, but I didn't get to try them, I'll check that out the next time I am out that way.

Weekly Specials - 9/21 - 9-25, 2009

Blow Fly Inn - Gulfport

On Saturday night the wife and I dinned at a Gulf Coast landmark - The Blow Fly Inn. For years I have heard about the Blow Fly Inn. In the last year it has been featured by Guy Fieri on Food Network's Dinners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Without question the location and setting of the Blow Fly Inn on the banks of Bayou Benard is one of the most picturesque locations of any dinning establishment on the Gulf Coast. As we arrived the sun was just setting over the bayou and it was a beautiful sight.

The restaurant was packed, we had to wait a little while to be seated (about 10 min.). The hostess was polite and within a couple of minutes of being seated a server was there to take drink orders. Our server on this visit was very nice, professional and attentive.

We began our meal with an order of onion rings. I don't recall Guy making a big deal out of the rings on the show, but they are something to write home about.

A huge helping of hand cut, wet battered onion rings cooked at the perfect temperature. They used a dredge of mainly flour with just a little corn-meal mixed in, seasoned to near perfection with a blend of cajun spices. The last ring on the bottom of the pile was as crispy as the first ones off the top - that's a rare find. Most of the time the grease drips down the pile and the last few are soggy and inedible. I am sure that at some point I've had better onion rings than these, but for the life of me I can't remember where or when.

Our server was polite enough not to serve the side salads along with the appetizers, a few minutes after the rings arrived she brought out the salads.

Pretty standard fare of lettuce, tomato, cucumber a few red onions with some boxed croutons. A pleasant surprise was that my blue cheese and my wife's ranch dressings were house made and better than average. Honestly, with that big plate of rings on the table, far from empty, I didn't wast much time on the salad.

I kind of had my mind made up that I was going to try the stuffed flounder that was featured on Triple-D, but they did have three weekend-specials that were very tempting. This weekend they featured a grilled Amberjack, a broiled redfish fillet and a fried grouper fillet served over rice, topped with a crawfish and shirmp etouffee.

I fought the urge to try one of the specials and ordered the stuffed flounder. Flounder is in my opinion the most under appreciated of our native near-shore species. The flavor is mild, delicate and is one of the easiest fish to clean and prepare due to it's unique skeletal structure.

The flounder was served whole (headless), it was bisected down the midline and the fillets were pulled back. Inside the chef packed the flounder with a generous amount of lump crab meat stuffing. The entire fish, stuffing and all, was flame broiled to near perfection.

The flounder was well seasoned on the outside with a cajun blend that also covered the suffing, it was garnished with lemon slices and parsley. The flounder was flaky and the texture of the slighty chared skin was compliment to the stuffing. The stuffing had plenty of crab meat and only way that this dish could have really been improved, in my opinion, is to use a slightly smaller amount of bell pepper in the stuffing. It sort of grabbed you instead of melding with the onions, celery and spices.

This is one of the better seafood dishes that I have encountered on the Gulf Coast since Katrina.

This portion of the review is provided mainly Mrs. Food Blogger. This was a unique interpretation for grouper. Grouper is also somewhat of an under appreciated local fare. It's usually found filleted, fried and stuffed in between a po-boy bun. This is one of Mrs. Food Bloggers favorite off-shore fish because of it's mild flavor and firm flaky texture.

The grouper was battered in a mix similar to that the onion rings were dredged in, but had more texture, maybe added egg whites? The breading was seasoned nicely. The fillet was served over a large bed of rice, and garnished with steamed whole green beans, carrots and what we believe to have been parsnip.

Over the entire dish was poured a better than average crawfish and shrimp etouffee. The combination of flavor was nice, the fillet had a little too much batter and may have been slightly over-cooked. Had the dish had more of the etouffee and a little less rice it would have garnered a better review.

We each sampled the others entree, and both agreed that the grouper dish was slightly above average, but the flounder was very good. In all it was a fine dinner, the service was well above average, the meal as a whole was very good, and the setting on Bayou Benard is second to none.

Tamales at Shucker's Oyster Bar

Shucker's in Oak Grove is one of Hattiesburg's hidden gems. Located off of Hwy 98 W behind Lake Serene Grocery in an unassuming strip mall is one of the areas most unique establishments.

An oyster bar by trade Shucker's has a very limited menu, but what they do they seem to do well. They specialize as you have probably guessed in oysters, but they serve some other traditional Cajun fare in seafood gumbo, red beans and rice, and boudin. Their shrimp boudin is excellent.

On my last visit I asked about the tamales, and was told that in addition to the beef tamales that were listed on the menu that they also had venison tamales. Always ask if they have any off-menu items or daily specials.

I ordered some of each, and I'll be honest they're pretty small as far as tamales go, but at $1 each it's not too bad. I enjoyed both the beef and venison tamales the texture was good and the they were seasoned almost perfectly. The flavors were distinct and the venison had a more mellow flavor than the beef. The were served with a chili sauce that was flavorful and spicy, but not too spicy.

I know good tamales are hard to find in this area and not many places make them, but if you're craving a few finger sized tamales, then stopping by Shucker's may be just the fix you need.

Lil' Ray's in Long Beach

Last night the wife and I found ourselves on the Coast. We decided to stop at a staple of Gulf Coast cuisine "Lil' Ray's". The original Lil' Ray's was opened in Waveland in the 1970's and since then the family has opened other locations across the coast in Gulfport and Long Beach.

I've often stopped at Lil' Ray's Long Beach location while working on the coast and suggested that to the wife because we were visiting friends on the west side of the coast.

The decor is simple and what you would expect from a seafood/po-boy shop along the coast. The server was friendly, fast and efficient.

We started with an appetizer of smoked yellow fin tuna dip. The tuna dip was probably the highlight of the meal, it was fresh, seasoned very well, large helping of smoked tuna served over a bed of lettuce with fresh sliced tomato.

I ordered the fried Grouper (fish) po-boy with a side of fries. My wife ordered the half/half shrimp platter. That consisted of half an order of fried shrimp and half an order of grilled shrimp.

My Grouper sandwich met the expectations that I have for Lil' Ray's. The fish was fresh, flaky and fried to a golden brown. It was not over or under cooked. Served on a fresh bagget (they truck their bread in daily from New Orleans). The homemade tater sauce was a pleasant complement to the tasty grouper. The fries were very average and over-priced for what you get, in hindsight I should have gone with a cup of seafood gumbo or shrimp and corn bisque.

The shrimp platter was good, not great. The shrimp were fried in a flour and cornmeal dredge that was a little too thick for fresh shrimp. They were not bad, but average is about as high as I could rate them. The grilled shrimp on the other hand were much better. They were lightly seasoned with some cajun/creole seasonings and then grilled over the open flame just right. The potato salad served witht he platter was average at best, but the hush puppies were nice.

All in all it was a good meal. A bit on the pricey side with the total for two people being more than $40 for a pretty simple dinner, considering that the only beverages we had was sweet tea (very good sweet tea).

When most folks from the Hattiesburg/Laurel area travel down to the coast we end up eating in Gulfport or Biloxi and far too many times we end up eating at a chain you can get at home. I encourage everyone to venture to some of the smaller towns - Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Ocean Springs, D'Iberville and try some of the home-owned establishments.

Dinner at Brownstone's

Having dined at Brownstone's several times I was looking for a little something different and asked the waiter for a recommendation. The owner/manger was walking by at the time and suggested that I try their signature “Zesty Tuna Steak”. I agreed and ordered the crab cakes appetizer. My wife ordered the Cajun Shrimp Alfredo.

The crab cakes were good, not great. The texture was good, and there was an ample amount of crab. They blacken their crab cakes, for my taste it's just not needed. The crawfish bordelaise sauce that is served on top of the crab cakes was a nice touch.

I had the Spring Mix side salad and it was nice, very fresh mix of baby greens topped with blue cheese and roasted pecans. A very nice, very light salad. I chose to just lightly drizzle my salad with some EVOO (extra virgin olive oil).

Now the main course, the Zesty Tuna Steak. I've had quality tuna steaks at different restaurants round the country, but this was as unique of an interpretation as I have experienced. The well proportioned tuna steak was grilled to near perfection. It was plated on top of a bed of garlic mashed potatoes, which was a very interesting take on a traditional dish. Over the tuna steak and potatoes they poured a cream sauce of roasted red peppers with sweet citrus and honey. The dish was garnished with tomatoes and fresh green onions.

This is without question the most unique tuna steaks I've ever encountered and the grilled tuna lends it self so well with the sweet and lightly spicy cream sauce. When married with the garlic mashed potatoes it's an excellent combination. This is not a melding of flavor that I would have ever considered and I am so glad I took the recommendation to try this very unique dish.

The portions were generous, the presentation was very nice, and the atmosphere was well received. A very nice dining experience that was highlighted by the flavor of wonderful, unique signature dish – the Zesty Tuna Steak!

- HubFoodBlogger