SEE Magazine
Issue #393: June 14, 2001
Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved

At The Back ON THE MENU by Gilbert A. Bouchard Louisiana Purchase Price Range: **** Value: **** Food: **** Service: **** Overall Rating: **** (out of five) There the Scooby Review Gang was, nestled at the downtown Louisiana Purchase – one of Edmonton’s longest-lasting tributes to this romantic, albeit waterlogged state – passing up the crawfish appetizer special. As appropriate as it would be to nosh on this ultimate Cajun fast-food, we just weren’t in the mood. Put it down officially to professional courtesy (one bottom feeder declining to dine on another) if you must, but the real reason is that I never get enough payback from these muddy-tasting, hard-to-shuck beasts. Instead, Ray and I decide to split the Smoked Alligator and Pork Boudin (served with creole sauce) and Beer Battered Shrimp, two dishes that virtually scream out with Crescent City authenticity and give you loads of culinary satisfaction without the hassle of fine motor-skill shelling. As always, we were enjoying just lounging in this longtime favourite establishment. Louisiana Purchase, if you must really know, was way post-modern before the time, boasting as it does its cheeky half exposed concrete, half heavy floral Empire wallpaper decor, and a sensibility that falls somewhere between family/theme restaurant and elegant new world bistro. This is a joint that manages to be both supremely laid back while maintaining a high level of engagement and service. Enough aesthetic philosophy, let’s talk about the food. The appetizers not only came to the table in good time, but managed to live up to all possible expectations – which isn’t such a straightforward task in a fusion-oriented place. The Boudin, for example, manages to be true to its hearty, two-fisted rural food roots (a firm farmer’s sausage, in effect) while keeping up the higher-dining sensibility you’d expect from a room as inherently classy as this. The dish, like the perfectly battered shrimp that went down like a dream with the last of my Hurricane cocktail, managed also to be true to southern spicing without overloading our sensitive northern tastebuds. Same deal with our entrées: Red Beans and Rice (simmered with smoked sausage) for Ray, and the Cajun Picnic (jumbo shrimp remoulade, sliced blackened flank steak, stuffed roasted peppers and egg with tomato/tequila sauce and hush puppies) for me. Ray’s Beans were totally kick-butt and the Platonic beany-sausage offering was again a dish that walked the line admirably when it came to spices. I was just as happy with my picnic plate. I’m guessing it’s called a picnic plate because all the items, with the exception of the hush puppies (fritters), are served cold, which is ironic given that picnics in the U.S. south and way up the coast into New England tend to be hot food meals (crawfish boils being the archetypical Cajun picnic). Oh well, let’s just talk about the food at hand. What I liked the most about this dish is the fact that the flank steak was served cut in thin slices and came sushi-style, stuffed with salsa. The red peppers were very cabbage roll-like, which suited me just fine and tasted way better cold than I would have guessed. My only real complaint was the fritters were far too dry. Oh well, a tiny deal in a more-than-graceful evening. (P.S. In case you’re wondering, the restaurant is named after the actual purchase of the area that now encompasses Louisiana, by the Yanks from the French, in 1803. The Louisiana Purchase extended from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from what is now Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. For $15 million it was as grand a deal as our dinner was. Hmmm . . . I wonder if President Jefferson ever had the Crawfish.) Louisiana Purchase 10320 - 111 St.

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