Fire on the Bayou in Orange City, FL

In honor of Fat Tuesday, today we visit a cajun restaurant in Orange City called Fire on the Bayou. I found this restaurant when they showed up on the top of the listings for Orange City restaurants on my phone. It was new to me.

They had all the standards you would expect, ranging from poboys, seafood boils, gumbos, and more. I ordered the Taste of Nawlins, served with Jambalaya, gumbo, red beans and rice, and andouille sausage. The portion size of this dish was huge, with just one of the bowls being enough for a meal. The jambalaya contained chicken and sausage and had a good kick to it. It was much more stew-like compared to many other versions of the dish, but I enjoyed it. Of the three, the jambalaya was my favorite. Gumbo was my second favorite, topped with three large shrimp. The red beans and rices were good, but seemed pretty ordinary compared to the gumbo and jambalaya. The andouille sausage topped the red beans & rice. Slices of French bread were served on the side, perfect for soaking up the stews...

I enjoyed my meal at Fire on the Bayou. I would gladly return.

Gumbo Shop in New Orleans, LA

I started to get hungry while wandering around the French Quarter in New Orleans. This meant lunch was happening soon, and the winning restaurant turned out to be the Gumbo Shop.

Gumbo Shop is located in a historic building on St. Peter Street. They had indoor seating or outdoor seating in a nice looking courtyard behind the restaurant.

I had the Seafood Okra Gumbo. According to the menu, this was okra, onion, bell peppers, celery, and a tiny bit of tomato sauteed and blended with shrimp and crab into a thick brown Creole soup - served over rice. This was a very tasty okra. There were plenty of good sized shrimp floating around in there, as well as half of a crab. The gumbo had just the right amount of spice. It was very flavorful, and wasn't  too spicy or bland. I liked it! Bread was served on the side.

I enjoyed Gumbo Shop. The food was good and the prices were much more affordable than the surrounding restaurants that I looked at. I'd return!

Cajun Cabin in New Orleans

While traveling on a twenty hour road trip from Central Florida to Oklahoma, there was two choices for lunch. Option 1 was to stop at a fast food restaurant and eat the food in the car. Option 2 was to stop in New Orleans and find some authentic Cajun food to get to-go and eat in the car. I obviously decided to go with option 2.

After finding a parking spot in the French Quarter, I made my way to Bourbon Street and went on a very quick (15 minute) tour of the area, and then settled on a restaurant called the Cajun Cabin. They had fake trees in the dining room and alligators on the walls. The back of the restaurant was complete with a faux cabin filled with tables.

I ordered a dish called A Taste of New Orleans. It came with a cup of jambalaya, Red Beans & Rice, and some sort of gumbo. The jambalaya was the prettiest dish with it's bright yellow rice topped with a pepperoncini, but it tasted kind of bland. Regardless, it was still pretty good. I'm not normally a big fan of red beans & rice, but Cajun Cabin's beans were really good. I would say they were some of the best I've eaten. The gumbo was also really good. I'm not exactly sure what was in it, but it was much better than I was expecting.

Cajun Food on Fat Tuesday

Happy Fat Tuesday!

In celebration of today being Fat Tuesday, the last day of Mardi Gras, I'm posting some previously unpublished Cajun food that was eaten before the existence of this blog. This is an Andouille Sausage Sandwich with peppers and onions and a plate of Shrimp Gumbo. These were eaten at Universal's Mardi Gras event, where along with the fun parade and concerts, they also set up several food stands throughout the park selling Cajun food that isn't half bad. I especially like their Jambalaya, complete with whole crawfish, but unfortunately, I don't have any pictures.

Of course, for more Cajun food in Orlando, I really liked the jambalaya and po boys from the Crooked Bayou.

To get closer to New Orleans for today's Cajun theme, I dug up some pictures of food from a trip to Memphis, TN in 2006. Here is some Alligator Gumbo that I ate at the Rum Boogie Cafe on Beale Street. From what I remember, the alligator gumbo tasted great. The problem was with the amount. What I ordered was considered a dinner, but the amount of gumbo that was actually served was kind of sad. They put a little pile of iceberg lettuce next to a cup of the gumbo and charged double the price of just a cup of gumbo alone. Eating outside at the restaurant along Beale Street was a great environment, although it didn't make up for the horribly slow service in the restaurant.