OddFellows, Hoboken

The last time that I tried Cajun food in New Jersey it was no good. In fact it is currently the only thing under the 'Meh' label on this blog. That being said, I was willing to give Cousin D (sister of Cousin J, who we all know and love by now, daughter of Uncle S who made the meh recommendation the first time) the benefit of the doubt when she suggested we go out for a little New Orleans cuisine. Cousin D and Cousin A are very familiar with the Hoboken area, and have never steered me wrong food wise, so I figured, what they hey, let's give it a go. It was a very different experience from my first bout with Garden State Cajun. This was actually good (well the food was at least!).

We started off with a drink at the bar so we could catch up and relax for a few. The bartender was attentive, the 'house wine' was nice in both price and tatse, all was right with the world. When it came time to finally sit for our meal, though, we waited an awfully long time to get a table (even though there were several open) and even longer for someone to come over and greet us (Cousin A actually started counting minutes, because it became THAT absurd). Eventually (I think we got up to 15 minutes of wait time?) someone came over to take our order. We shared an appetizer that was composed of black olives, tomatoes and shrimp in a garlic and tomato based broth (not particularly Cajun, but whatever, it sounded good). It was bruschetta-esque in that we had crusty bread to top with the tomato shrimp mixture. My one note on this dish was that it was garlicky... but to me that's not a bad thing. I could see, though, if someone didn't like a strong garlic flavor this would be a bad choice... both the bread AND the mixture were seasoned with the stuff, so it was garlic upon garlic. We all enjoyed it, but def not a first date dish. The shrimp were cooked perfectly (no chewiness here!) and the flavors all worked well together.
Cousin D ordered the blackened catfish, and it was exactly as it should be. This had all of the flavor that I was craving back when I was at meh-town... not too salty, a little slow rising heat, a nice peppery kick. It was delicious. It was cooked to a tee, pulling apart with very little pressue from the fork. It had a tomato relish on the side that paired really well with the blackening spice... cool and refreshing against the pepper. She picked the fries and coleslaw as her sides, and neither were particularly memorable, but they were definetley edible. OddFellows has a HUGE selection of sides, and most of the entree dishes allow you to choose one or two. They range from pretty traditional Cajun fare (red beans and rice or collard greens) to safe and Americanized (mashed potatoes or sauteed spinach).

Cousin A ordered the seafood jambalaya and it looked fantastic (I didn't try it because I was so busy eating my own meal, but I digress). The generous portion was filled with tons of seafood, including mussels, shrimp, scallops and crawfish. It was colorful and fragrant, and he said it was not at all dry (which happens a LOT in rice based dishes). I am sure he enjoyed it because he cleaned his plate!

I couldn't make up my mind on what to order, but luckily OddFellows accounted for that. In their "Li'l Taste of New Orleans" I was able to try the chicken jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, and chicken and adouille gumbo. There was nothing li'l about this. I was served three heaping bowls of food, easily enough for two people. I will go in order from least favorite to most enjoyed. Despite Cousin A's claim that his jambalaya wasn't dry, mine was. Really dry. Maybe it's because his had seafood, which has a lot more natural moisture, who knows... what I DO know is mine was dry. The flavors were all delicious, but the chicken was sticking to the top of my mouth and I just couldn't enjoy it. Next was the crawfish etouffee, which I really enjoyed. The sauce was delicious, rich and creamy. The rice added body to it so it wasn't too thin. The crawfish were as good as I have had outside of the bayou, sweet and meaty. It was almost decadent. Very good. The real winner of this trio, though, had to be the gumbo. SO good. There was some really nice spice to it, with a heat that wasn't overwhelming but was most certainly present. The chicken in this dish was definetley less dry (though I don't think I would describe it as moist), but the sausage was perfect. Andouille sausage is so flavorful it can bump up the wow factor of any dish, but I feel that this one would have been good even without it. It's all in the roux, people. Anyone who knows Cajun cooking knows that the roux is half the battle, and this crew knew their roux.

All in all I have to say that this place was good. The service stunk (seriously, we practically had to do the wave to get our server's attention) but overall we were all pleased with our meals. The food was plentiful, the technique was accurate, and the flavors were authentic. This just goes to show that while Uncle S is not to be trusted, he makes fabulous foodie children. Lucky me!

OddFellows

http://www.oddfellowsrest.com/

80 River Street

Hoboken, NJ

201 656 9009

Bayou Cafe, Freehold

Matt and I recently went to New Orleans on vacation, and haven't stopped raving about Cajun food since. The spices, the flavors, the heart and soul... we really fell in love with the cuisine. When my uncle S told us that he had recently visited a joint called the Bayou Cafe in Freehold we couldn't get there fast enough. We rallied up my Mom and Dad and made our way to what we hoped would be an authentic Cajun supper.

Uh.... No.

Located on Main Street in downtown Freehold (such a hip area!) it fit in with the other amazing local eateries as far as looks go. The furniture and décor were modern and fun. The hostess was friendly and happily allowed us to switch tables (we were originally seated right in front of the band... I will expand on that later). It was clean and had a lot of character. That's about where our good time ceased.

The place is loud. Like 'Huh!?? What was that?! I can't hear you!!!' loud. Like we had to read each others lips and use hand gestures loud. We actually ordered our meals by pointing at the menu since our waitress couldn't hear us. Live music is nice but not at the expense of your customers. Since there is no bar (Yay for BYOB.... knew there had to be a bright side, yes?) the band starts playing at 6:00 PM instead of the standard 10. It's distracting and takes up a good eighth of the restaurant but whatever. The noise was the least of my problems (insert ominous 'dun-dun-dunnnnnn' here).

The food was bad. It was either overly salty or severely under seasoned. It was not well presented and it was actually quite boring... completely UNLIKE the food in New Orleans. But I digress. Allow me to walk you through it (Hey! if I had to sit through this meal you do, too!)

We started with an appetizer of 'cajun chicken fingers'. It came with a side of what I thought was a horseradish sauce (may have been a mustard sauce... either way it was underwhelming). They were fine. Not bad, a little salty, but not bad. There was no heat... zero. Alas, we ate them and hoped that our entrees would be a little jazzier, as when we think 'cajun' we think big flavor and a nice kick of spice.

While waiting for our entrees to come out we had our salad course. I had opted for a nice, safe Caesar salad. Matt got a gumbo (which was the best thing to come out of the kitchen all night) while Mom and Dad went for the house salad. As I mentioned Matt's gumbo was delicious. A little spicy with lots of veggies and rice and beans it was a hit at the table. The house salad, though, was odd. The chef fancied himself creative when he composed these bad boys, as they had standard salad fare (lettuce, tomato, carrot) and balls of cantaloupe. Now I like fruit in salad, I really do, but only when it serves a purpose. Dad put it best when he said 'if the house dressing was at all acidic the cantaloupe would be a welcome addition, as it would even out the flavors. This is not the case. The dressing is sweet, and therefore does not need the additional help of the fruit... all it does is confuse the mouth." Well said, guy.

Out came the entrees. I had ordered one of the specials, which was described as blackened catfish topped with shrimp, Tasso ham, and Andouille sausage. What came out was a messy plate covered in glop. I will say that the catfish itself was cooked well, but everything that was piled atop it was mediocre at best. It was crazy salty and I could not for the life of me figure out which lumps of food were Tasso and which lumps were sausage. The lumps that were shrimp were actually quite tasty and properly cooked, but the sauce they were drenched in lessened the experience for me. The sides of rice and veg were unimpressive. I was very 'meh' about the whole dish.

Mom got the blackened catfish straight off the menu. It was exactly like mine, except she escaped the glop. She was dissapointed by how salty the seasoning was, and, once again, the lack of heat. The fish was cooked well, but it lacked that pizazz that we were all so desperately craving. Same rice, same veg, same meh attitudes towards it.

(See? Looks like a 'before' picture of mine!)

Matt got the Creole chicken, which was an almost stew like dish in a tomato based sauce atop a pile of rice. It had potential, but again it fell flat. It had NO flavor... seriously, none. He added salt, pepper, hot sauce, and was even dying to ask the waitress to bring out some garlic... he didn't (that Matt.... so tactful) but wanted to. The chicken was a touch over cooked, too, but after a sauce that almost bored us to tears who cares. I don't know how it COULD have been so bland... it had peppers... it had onions... it had tomato... how do you mess that up?! It wasn't BAD, it just wasn't good.

Finally, Dad's dish. This was the least offensive of the entrees. He ordered the Jambalaya and it wasn't bad. The dish contained chicken, Adouille sausage, and shrimp in a tomato based sauce mixed over rice. Again, a bit lacking in the flavor department (even though it says 'spicy' right in the description!), but everything was cooked well. Andouille sausage carries so much flavor on its own that it was able to save the dish from Blandsville (well that and the tablespoon of hot sauce Dad threw on). By far the King of all the dinners (which isn't saying TOO much).

Here is what I took away from the experience. One, Cajun food should be a little spicy. Not angry 'OMG my mouths-a-burnin' ' spicy, but there needs to be a zip. Two, it is possible for one place to serve food that was WAY too heavily seasoned and insufficiently seasoned at the very same time. Three, don't trust Uncle S when he suggests a restaurant. To be fair I heard from other family members (Cousin J and her husband R for instance) that the food was decent (we didn't have any overlap in our ordering, so maybe they found the winners). Maybe we caught the place on an off night. It's possible. I just know that we were all so underwhelmed that we have no intention of going back (except maybe for the gumbo.... that was damned good). The biggest lesson learned? If Matt and I want to cure our hankering for some serious Creole we're going to have to get ourselves back to New Orleans. Who's down for a road trip?!?!

Bayou Cafe

http://www.bayoucafe.net/

32 W Main St.

Freehold, NJ 07728

(732) 845-1800