Everything Gumbo

I do 99% of the cooking in our home, but when J decides to step up to the plate, he does not mess around. This weekend he decided it was time to revisit one of his favorite foods: gumbo.

The result was smashing, and we are not lenient judges around here. J achieved the perfect consistency for spooning over rice, and the gumbo had enough soup for sipping while still being full of Dungeness crab (two whole ones!), chicken, shrimp, sausage, okra, celery, onions, and green bell peppers. The only thing it lacked was a hint of smokiness from a smoked ham hock and/or a little blue crab flavor, but given what's easily available in SF it was a phenomenal showing. What a treat to come home to after an afternoon at the gym!

Queen's Louisiana Po-Boy Cafe

More home supply shopping brought us into the Bayshore neighborhood again today. And boy, we just keep finding good food down there! Today, we went to Queen's Louisiana Po-Boy Cafe for the first time. I was extremely pleasantly surprised.

First, the space. I was expecting a hole in the wall, or at best a tidied up older space. That's what you usually find in this part of town. But Queen's is a completely renovated space: clean, open, inviting, with tasteful decor and a great staff. Everyone was very friendly, and after being asked if we were first time customers we were offered free samples of the sweet potato fries and the gumbo (both delicious). This is obviously a family-owned neighborhood establishment, but it's clear they took the effort to make it a place that could compete in SF's tough food scene.

J had an oyster po-boy. Yum. I would only say that the bread was a waste of stomach space, because the fried oysters were done very nicely indeed.

Gumbo: YUM! One of the best gumbos we've ever had. Some people might take issue with this gumbo being more like a soup and less like a thick stew. However, I liked being able to sip it, and the flavors were amazing. The soup had an intense crab flavor and light smokiness, and it was chock full of crab meat, shrimps, chicken, and sausage. There was some rice and beans at the bottom too. This would be a great meal on its own.
I had the fried catfish, which came with two sides; I picked hush puppies and a potato salad. This picture was taken after I was more than halfway done, so you can imagine how much food there was. The catfish had a fairly substantial cornmeal crust, but the crust was hot and crispy and the fish was moist all the way through and tasted very fresh. There's nothing worse than muddy catfish! And the hush puppies were a revelation. I don't usually like these thick balls of dough, but these were garlicky, oniony, herby, and had corn kernels embedded in them. And with honey butter? Perfection.

We'll definitely be back at Queen's sooner rather than later. Yay, Bayshore! What a fun neighborhood it has been to explore.