A Taste of Lawrence: Terrebonne Po' Boys

I love Cajun food. If you love Cajun food, you should check out Terrebonne in Lawrence, you won't be disappointed.  It's located on Vermont street, one block west of Massachusetts Street, and 8th Street.

It's a small, hole-in-the-wall spot, with a few tables set up and a patio outside. The counter is where you order and there's a cooler with goodies like brownies and carrot cake, as well as deviled eggs and beer.

I ordered a deviled egg because they are only $0.50. I was not expecting the burst of spicy flavor I was greeted with when I chomped down on my deviled egg. It was peppery and cajun-y and maybe just a little too much for me in the way of spice. I shoved the other half in my husband's mouth and didn't warn him, but he likes hot/spicy food and loved the egg. I thought it was good, just spicy, of course. It had a good mustard flavor and what seemed to be a cajun seasoning to it. They also have wasabi deviled eggs, and those weren't as spicy as the first one I tried.

For dinner, I ordered the jambalaya, which comes with two hushpuppies. I also ordered a few other things to share: Red beans and rice with andouille sausage, some desserts, and an alligator po'boy.  (The po'boy was actually Ryan's dinner, but I tried it!)

The jambalaya was so good, I didn't want to share it. It was full of shrimp, shredded chicken and sausage, I was surprised at how much meat was in there. The shrimp was my favorite part, moist, spicy and not fishy or rubbery. The rice was cooked perfectly, the seasoning was just spicy enough, with a dominant oregano flavor, which I liked. There were chunks of celery and tomatoes, too, but kind of got lost behind all the other great stuff inside. It wasn't too greasy, which I appreciated. Sometimes jambalaya can be greasy because of the sausage but this wasn't bad.

The red beans and rice is another dish I want to order again. The beans were tender, the rice was fluffy and the andouille sausage was juicy and flavorful. The sausage was grilled and put on top -- you can order it with or without the sausage.

I tried the alligator po'boy, but only one bite. It was good, but I wanted to get back to my jambalaya. The alligator meat is fried and it seems a little chewy, but I hear alligator is chewy in nature, so that's normal. It was a good chewy, though, and the sauce they put on the sandwich was tangy and creamy. It comes with tomato, lettuce and onion, too if you want it. I liked the flavor, but it did just remind me of a fish sandwich.

Hushpuppies came with my jambalaya, and I was impressed. I just wish they wouldn't have been burnt. Not all of the hushpuppies were burnt, but a few of them were. I happened to get one that wasn't burnt and it was pretty amazing. It was pretty big, -- probably twice the size of the ones from Long John Silvers and maybe a bit bigger -- fluffy and crunchy on the outside. I enjoyed the chunks of corn inside the fluffy cornbread-textured filling, I'm not sure but it seems as if they may make their own hushpuppies.


I got some of the sweets, too of course. The chocolate brownie, carrot cake, and a peanut butter bar with chocolate. Everything was tasty but my favorite was the chocolate, gooey brownie. It was soft and ooey-gooey and I enjoyed the chocolate flavor. I ate this one the day after I went to the restaurant and it was still soft and fresh. The carrot cake bar was a little dry, but the cream cheese frosting in the middle helped. It was still pretty good. The peanut butter bar had crunchy rice pieces in the peanut butter part and the chocolate was a dark chocolate that was hard like a bar chocolate, whereas the peanut butter was soft and sticky. That one was my second favorite, and for $1.25 a bar, that's a score.

Everything I had was good and I would definitely return. The jambalaya was my favorite and I want more, but I'll have to wait until next time.  It was full of meat and just spicy enough. The hushpuppies were good, greasy, but good. I am ready to go back and try some of the other items on the menu.

A Taste of Colorado

I took a trip to Longmont, Colorado for my friend's wedding. Of course I had to try a local restaurant, but I decided I was going to drive over to Boulder and check what they had to offer there. Boulder is only about 30 minutes away.

When I got to Longmont, which is about 45 minutes north of Denver on the east side of the mountains, I didn't feel like eating my turkey sandwiches on white bread any more, I wanted real food. (I always bring food in a cooler to save money on the trip). I decided to check out the Mexican restaurant called 3 Margaritas, next door to the hotel I was staying in. The lady at the front desk said it was good, and I didn't have to drive anywhere. After driving eight hours I didn't want to drive any more.

Three Margaritas was your typical Mexican restaurant that can be found here in Topeka, or really any other city for that matter. The only thing special that I found on the menu, was the Burrito Colorado, and the server recommended it, too. So that's what I got and it wasn't bad, I ate the whole thing. It was shredded beef cooked in a spicy red sauce inside a flour tortilla with guacamole, beans, cheese, sour cream and green chili. I did not like their chips and salsa, though. The first bowl was so spicy I could hardly eat it, and the second bowl, when I asked for something mild, tasted like tomato sauce, so I didn't eat much of that, either. If you like spicy, you'll like the salsa, I'm just a wimp, I guess.

The Burrito Colorado was smothered in a green chili sauce, sour cream and cheese. Inside, the shredded beef was just spicy enough to be toned down by the creaminess of the toppings. Since I didn't like the salsa, I used the chips to eat most of the toppings mixed together. Other than it being a tasty combination, I didn't really get the "Colorado" part of it. Then again, I'm not from there, so who knows. My server wasn't too chatty so I didn't ask him.

After eating Mexican, I wanted to get a taste of the region. I went back to my hotel room and looked up restaurants in Boulder. I found a list of the top 10 spots, and tried to go with one that wasn't going to cost me over $35 an entree. I found a little diner called Lucile's, a creole/cajun breakfast nook found in an old Victorian style house in a residential area.

Fresh squeezed lemonade

The tables are packed inside, reminding me of restaurants in New York City, but it has a down-home country feel. The napkins are swatches of random fabric, and the walls feature local newspapers and playbills.  The wait was almost 30 minutes at noon on a Saturday, but the review I read said that would be the case, so I wasn't surprised and ready to wait. The host said there was a community table with no wait so I said "What the heck?" I was immediately sat and even got to meet some locals while I ate my meal.

I ordered freshly squeezed lemonade because my table mates recommended it and had just waited on it to be made. For lunch I ordered breakfast: eggs, potatoes and a biscuit. Everything about the meal was memorable. The biscuits come out first, square and cut from a cake pan, fluffy and buttery and hot. They are so big, too, I had to slow down so I would still be hungry for the rest of my food. There is strawberry jam on the table and I tried that, too. It was sweet and I enjoyed it, but the biscuits were so good on their own, I only just tried the jam.

My potatoes and eggs came out soon after. The potatoes were so good that I bought the creole seasoning they used and tried to make them myself at home. They were soft and smothered in Lucile's own creole seasoning. I wouldn't say they were fried, but they weren't boiled either. I think they may have been steamed or sauteed like I did them at home, only adding water every so often to soften them up. The seasoning was just a little spicy, but it was sweet,
too. I was pretty full from the biscuit but the potatoes were so good, I practically finished them off. The eggs were a perfect over medium, which is usually hard to come by -- I usually get over easy when I order over medium. Yeah, I'm picky.

I stood in line to pay and the service was brisk. Nine people were in front of me to pay, but I only stood there for about 10 minutes. I only paid $11 for the meal and I tipped a few bucks, too. I figured that since the other restaurants on the top 10 list averaged $35 for entrees that I had fared pretty well.

I saw that Lucile's has locations in Denver, Longmont, Littleton and Fort Collins, also. The one in Boulder was the original restaurant that was opened in 1980. When I return to the state I will definitely be returning to Lucile's Creole Cafe.