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| - **1/2 stars
My Summerlicious binge comes to a full stop at Southern Accent. Came here with Hedgehog as we both wanted to experience the novelty otherwise known as alligator. We booked a table on the patio and arrived promptly for our reservation. The décor is quite interesting and colourful with reminders of Mardi Gras looming not too far overhead.
The type of cuisine served is Cajun Créole. Cajun is the cuisine of the French Acadians who were deported by the British from Canada to Louisiana. The 3 staple ingredients, otherwise known as the holy trinity in Cajun cooking are: bell pepper, onion, and celery. Cajun and Créole cuisine are quite similar and the two terms are generally used interchangeably. The major difference is that Créole Cuisine gathers its influence from continental Europe adapted for the local ingredients of Louisiana. Cajun cuisine is also seen as the "poor man's cuisine" as it was born of many French provincial cuisines from the peasants while Créole cuisine was born from aristocrats.
I must say that their cocktails here are pretty boring. We ordered the French which was made with: Chambord, Vanilla Vodka and Pineapple Juice. A Lychee Love Boat consisting of: Vodka, Lychee Liqueur, Lychee Juice and Lime was also ordered. These were basically martinis, but I felt they weren't very good. Amateur bartender? We were brought a bread basket with hummus while waiting for our appies to arrive. It was a nice departure from eating empty calories and fat from the usual vat of butter that shows up at most restaurant tables.
For starters, we ordered the Kick ass ALIGATOR which is served in a piquante sauce with hush puppies. Hush puppies are a corn bread fritter. The alligator was tender, which totally blew away my misconception that this rough-looking reptile would be a tough monster to bite into. I absolutely adored the piquante sauce, as I could use the excess to dip my hush puppies into. The hush puppies themselves were quite savoury, not overly oily though I did find it to be a bit on the dry side. The Cucumber Gazpacho was rather disappointing. Although it was refreshing, as a gazpacho is intended to be, there was no real flavour to the soup. It tasted like sour cream and cucumber whipped up in a blender. I found it to be rather bland and lacking in flavour.
For mains I ordered the Lafayette Shrimp Étouffée which was served on a bed of cumin-scented rice and a spiced seafood reduction sauce and a side of grilled asparagus. I didn't like the way the rice was cooked as there were hard chunks that clustered together. It was interesting how they molded the rice like a Hershey's Kiss though. The shrimp were of a good size - at least they're not skimping me on the protein! I couldn't really taste the cumin in the rice, and I felt the seafood reduction lacked in any real seafood flavour. All I could taste was the texture of a plain roux.It seems William T. is gaining points for menu selection tonight as his Canal Street Creole Jambalaya was utterly amazing! It was rich in flavour and came with a plethora of proteins including chicken, smoked ham and andouille sausage. It was served with rice that was infused with a flavourful tomato sauce, topped with collard greens and garlic grilled tiger shrimp. The collard greens tasted amazing. Almost like eating really tasty collard chips, though they were not quite as crispy as a chip but had a nice chip-like texture to them. F or those of you who have never experienced this dish and want a point of reference a Jambalaya is similar to the Spanish Paella.
My meal doesn't ever end without a dessert finale! I finally regained my foodie instincts and compensated for my erroneous appetizer and entrée selections with Pecan Pie. The rumours are true, Southern Accent serves up a mean pecan pie. It is served with a side of whipped cream. The crust is heavenly, and not at all oily like most pecan pies you find in the stores. There was a generous amount of pecans (which is great, as you are not left with mouthfuls of corn syrup and no pecans). I like my pecan pie with less corn syrup as the corn syrup really is just there as a binder. Yummy!
The N'awlins Bread Pudding was nothing to sneeze at either. It was made of apples, pecans and raisins and topped with a flavourful bourbon sauce. It was not as sweet as the pecan pie, which I liked and was a very moist bread pudding. I am not usually a fan of bread pudding, but this one is a keeper.
Verdict:
The portion sizes at Southern Accent are quite filling. I think of a typical Southern mother feeding her children, while keeping in mind that she doesn't want to fatten them up like Hansel & Gretel - the portion sizes were just right - enough to satisfy you, but not leave you feeling 10 lbs. heavier. The service was not good - the servers were amateur at best. Would come back if I were in the area just for the Jambalaya and Pecan Pie!
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