THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606180045
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F2 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: A LA CARTE
LENGTH: 82 lines
CRAVIN' Cajun?
Good times will roll at the Bayou Boogaloo in Norfolk's Town Point Park, Friday through Sunday. This festival is the next best thing to New Orleans for those of us who couldn't make it to the annual jazz festival in the Big Easy this season.
The Bayou Boogaloo is my favorite because the food is integral, not just a sideline, including crawfish, red beans and rice, catfish, beignets, boudin blanc, bread pudding, and jambalaya. Mike Hall, chef-owner of Norfolk's Bienville Grill, estimates that 10,000 pounds of crawfish will sustain festival goers through the weekend. In fact, he's bringing 5,000 pounds of live crawdaddies from Lafayette, Louisiana to be cooked in spicy lemon boil and heaped on paper plates at his big tent, the Cajun Cafe.
At an outdoor food court, vendors will serve Louisiana-style specialties. Not on the official menu this year but sorely missed every year are Dixie Beer and Abita Turbo Dog, but Miller beer and Bacardi rum will be available.
To take the flavor of New Orleans home, you can attend cooking demonstrations by Louisiana chefs and buy authentic ingredients for homemade gumbo at market stands assembled by Stan Gauthier of All Cajun Food Company and Arthur Humphrey of N'Awlins Cajun & Creole Spices.
Festival hours are 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. For a schedule of events and additional information, call 441-2345. IN GOOD TASTE
I had little time to spare but no interest in fast food chains one lunchtime as I drove Battlefield Boulevard toward a meeting in Chesapeake. Fortunately, Taste Unlimited has opened in the Great Bridge Shopping Center with a comfy cafe in the front of the gourmet grocery and takeout shop. From a display case with a dozen different carry-out items, I selected an assortment for a picnic on one of the outdoor tables overlooking the parking lot - facing a stand of trees across the highway.
A woman who worked in the strip shopping center joined me, admitting that the upscale sandwiches had become her daily downfall. I was grazing with six little containers of pasta and vegetable mixes plus a mini-loaf from the bakery bin - and just a sliver of duck-peppercorn pate.
Wines, microbrews, international packaged foods, and cheeses from around the world are featured along with the fresh prepared eat-in or takeout dishes at this newest location of the locally owned chain. And they deliver from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Phone 546-9000; fax 546-9074, or visit at 237 S. Battlefield Blvd., Chesapeake. WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Bistro is a generic word for a neighborhood restaurant with affordable but exceptional homemade food prepared under the watchful eye of an owner-neighbor-chef. Brought over from Europe, the term has become Americanized as a clean, casual, often trendy come-as-you-are neighborhood place with personalized service. One of our favorites is not only not in our own neighborhood but also defies the definition by its innovative menu and downtown nonresidential location at 210 York Street, Norfolk.
Nonetheless, we welcome any opportunity to taste the wares the talented staff has wrought at the restaurant that began as Bistro 210, became plain Bistro!, and now will be clearly identified with its chef-owner by its new name, Todd Jurich's Bistro.
Jurich's business partner and wife, Barbara, grows many of the restaurant's specialty vegetables in her organic garden on the Eastern Shore, including peppers from Peru and Ecuador and four kinds of heirloom tomatoes.
One recent special combined wok-roasted yellowfin tuna, wasabi mashed potatoes, and red miso broth; an elegant appetizer stacked mozzarella, vine ripe tomatoes, and Vidalia onions on toasted black-pepper brioche. Look for this bistro among the Virginia restaurants scheduled for the July issue of Travel and Leisure magazine. Phone 622-3210. ON THE ROAD
Of course tourists eat in restaurants. The extent has been identified by a survey from the National Restaurant Association. More than 40 percent of the sales in restaurants with average checks over $15 come from visitors, and travelers tend to dine at more expensive restaurants than they normally patronize at home. Among the communities that serve tourists with high proportions of restaurants to residents are in Williamsburg and the Outer Banks. ILLUSTRATION: FILE STAFF PHOTO
Mike Hall of the Bienville Grill is importing 5,000 pounds of
crawfish. by CNB