Cafe Roux: A New Cajun Option (For Now)

Restaurant: Cafe Roux
Location: 11554 Ash Street, Leawood, KS (Town Center Plaza)
Food: Cajun classics with an upscale flair
Service: Pleasant, not special
Price: Unexpectedly reasonable for a classy place
Rating: two  napkins

It's a little difficult to find good Cajun food north of the Mason-Dixon. Most cities have one or two decent Cajun restaurants but not a plethora of choices. Kansas City is no different (see this Fat City link back on Fat Tuesday in which a local chef laughs at the selection here in town). Recently, though, my friend Tyson, a fellow New Orleans food lover, surprised me with a new option as we were texting back and forth, trying to figure out where to go on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend : Cafe Roux at Town Center. Game over. Reservations at 8:00.

Would Cafe Roux have a better run than the likes of The Red Vine? Based on the size of the "crowd" when we arrived, the outlook is not good, as the ol' eight ball says. But it was a beautiful Saturday night on what may be the biggest grilling weekend of the entire year. So perhaps these factors coupled with our tardiness (seated at 8:30 - is that late?) made Cafe Roux's business (or lack thereof) appear to be less successful than it normally is. Whatever the case, it was nearly deserted. I was worried.



After much deliberation about where to sit (too much freedom!), we went with a street-side outdoor table. A great choice. The echo-y, climate controlled, sparkling clean dining room just didn't seem appropriate for our Cajun affair. True, the streets at Town Center are about clean enough to eat off of - certainly not the endearingly grungy southern bayou setup you find at Jazz and most other Cajun-themed joints - but the slight humidity and fresh air helped. So did the food.

The menu was quite small, but contained just enough of the classics to please those of us who knew what we had come for.  As we pondered what to order, I hailed a spicy martini (Cajun-tini?), made simply with Absolut Peppar and vermouth, garnished with an ingenious skewer of two green olives stuffed with pickled jalapenos. I enjoyed it so much, I look forward to purchasing the ingredients needed to make my own and consuming them the rest of the summer. Elizabeth got some nutty concoction containing every kind of juice Dole makes and a spritz of some type of booze. I skeptically tried a bit and found it to be just as I had expected - spiked fruit punch. No thanks. (But undoubtedly refreshing.)

For dinner we settled on splitting several things, ordering up the crawfish boil, crawfish etouffee and "green" redfish. We each added a $3 cup of gumbo, too, as a starter, which was brought to the table accompanied by four mini baguettes, perfect for mopping up sauces the rest of the night. The gumbo was the shining star of the evening... hot, moderately spicy, and rich but not too thick. There was rice included in the bowl but not too much, which allows the soup's flavors to shine and speaks to the chef's opinion of his dish. As I picture my return to Cafe Roux, I debate whether I might go for a bowl, a side of grits, and just mop it all up with the delicious french bread. A more delicious and affordable dinner would be hard to come by anywhere.

The crawfish boil was as should be expected. Simply boiled four to five inch long crawfish came in a big bowl with some large, skin-on boiled potatoes and half cobs of corn, all swimming in a murky natural jus.

The flavors were all there. This was the classic crawfish boil, lacking nothing. It may have been slightly more enjoyable served by some guy named Boudreaux out of a smoldering pot behind his withered swamp shed in the hazy heat of a N'awlins night, but that's about the only improvement I can think of. Salty juice went streaming down my hands and writs each time I cracked another open from the bountiful portion we were served, and I enjoyed slurping and sucking at the shells in attempts to extract as much flavor as possible from the meaty tail and juicy head. A key to the potatoes: I made sure to split mine open in the broth, like a matzoh ball, so they'd soak up as much moisture and flavor as possible. The corn, too, benefited from the naturally briny cooking liquid, needing no extra salt or butter.

The etouffee was slightly fancier than those I've had before. It was apparently heavy on the tomatoes - bright red in color and containing a noticeable tang from the acidity. The texture of the etouffee, too, was fancy, in a delightful way. Etouffees I've had before have all been somewhat thick and creamy from the richness of the butter-laden roux. This one was a little chunkier - less congealed - and its celery, peppers and onion still had a little bite to them, which was nice. The texture was a plus in this version of one of my favorites in the genre. The crawfish content in the dish was plentify, too, which was a huge plus. Often, the crawfish in an etoufee can be impossible to locate. Cafe Roux clearly takes pride in their generous allotment.

The "green" redfish, perhaps, would have been better had I not eaten it last. I think that during the time I spent dismantling crawfish from the boil, it lost its delicacy. The hearty fish seemed a tad overcooked - pretty dang solid and hard to cut with a fork's edge. And the bed of rice sweetened naturally with the corn's cream had lost its temperature in the breezy evening air, seeming more like a leftover dish straight out of the fridge than a nice seafood accompaniment. I could easily tell, though, that had this been my entree of choice, it would have been perfectly satisfying eaten piping hot, straight out of the kitchen. The ample sweet corn kernel salad mounded on top of the meat added a pleasant juiciness and complimentary sweetness to the dish, bringing all the flavors together. I'd guess that the vast majority of patrons who order the "green" redfish would be perfectly happy with it. 

Were I able to go back in time (or perhaps on my next trip), the shrimp and grits would be a sure bet for me. I'm anxious to try their version which, at $16, was one of the (surprisingly) pricier options on the menu. That speaks to Cafe Roux's prices overall, though, which I found to be incredibly reasonable, given the relatively upscale atmosphere (compared to Jazz) and gourmet bent of the menu.

No regrets, though. We loaded up on some tasty classics that satisfied a hunger in my belly not satiated since our trip to New Orleans almost a year ago. In summary: Cafe Roux was Johnson-County-does-Cajun, and pretty good at that. I'd certainly recommend it and I look forward to going back and sampling the menu further.

Rating: two napkins

Steak Night

We try to limit the amount of red meat we eat, for health reasons. Truth be told, Elizabeth is prone to high cholesterol, so that, coupled with the things you hear so often these days about the treatment and conditions of cattle raised on the large farms that supply the vast majority of the meat we buy at our uber-convenient mega grocers, leads us to try to cut our intake down to once a week or less.

But every now and then, the craving for a great steak comes calling, and there's no avoiding it. The only choice is to satiate the hunger. So Friday night, with a three day weekend in front of us and impeccable grilling weather at our disposal, we did just that.



Whole Foods supplied us with two small filets, which we chose for their leanness in comparison to other, possibly more flavorful cuts like strips or ribeyes. The menu we brought together was Filet Mignon with Mushrooms and Sauce Pinot Noir, cauliflower puree and sauteed broccolini with garlic. The result was a relatively simple meal that packed in all the flavors for which our appetites had been screaming. (Cook's note - the wine used for the Sauce Pinot Noir is best to eat with dinner, but pop open a Smokestack Series like the Tank 7 we had, to delight your palette as you taste-test your way through the cooking process. You'll be glad you did.)

For the Cauliflower Puree:

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower, 2 to 2 1/2 pounds

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Pull the leaves off the cauliflower and cut out the core in a kind of cone-shaped section. Then pull the florets off the head with your fingers, using a knife when you need to. Break or cut the florets into smaller, regular pieces (about 1 1/2 inch) and put them in the steamer insert. Bring about 1 inch of water to a boil in the steamer pot, add the insert, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes, or until you can poke a paring knife into the stems and you can feel that there's still a little texture there. (Tooth, it's called.) Stir the cauliflower well a few times while it's steaming so that it cooks evenly.

Dump about half of the cauliflower into a food processor. Measure out 3/4 cup of the steaming liquid, and pour in about 1/4 cup; purée until smooth. Now dump the rest of the cauliflower on top, add about 1/3 of the remaining liquid, and purée again. You'll need to stop and scrape and stir the purée a few times; add more liquid as you need to, but with the understanding that you really want to add as little liquid as you can get away with (I accidentally threw out the cooking water, so we substituted with buttermilk with tremendous results). With the motor running, process in the butter, salt, and pepper through the feed tube. Taste for seasoning and serve hot. (You can reheat over low heat in the same pan if you're not eating immediately.)

Ted Allen's Cook's Note:

Cauliflower is an excellent canvas for other flavors. I like things spicy and I love mustard, so I sometimes add a tablespoon of Colman's, the amazing English mustard powder, to this purée;. You might also add curry powder, grated Parmigiano, crumbled blue cheese, or a chopped fresh herbsd

For the Broccolini

1 1/2 lbs. broccolini
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
salt & black pepper to taste
(we also added red pepper flakes for a little added spice and flavor)


Boil the broccolini in a pot of salted water until crisp-tender (about five minutes). Drain.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Sautee half of the garlic until golden brown (about 30 seconds). Add half of the broccolini and sautee until heated through (you can actually cook the heck out of it - until the florets start to char - and it tastes even better). Remove from pan and repeat with the rest of the oil, garlic and broccolini.

For the Steaks, Mushroom and Sauce

Two 8 oz filets
Kosher Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 bacon strips (we omitted)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 pound assorted mushrooms
1 tbsp freshly chopped garlic
2 sprigs rosemary
2 cups pinot noir (we used Coppola's Rosso blended table wine which has great body that works well for cooking. Sometimes, finicky, light pinot noirs will turn out flavorless and make for a weak sauce, even when reduced)
2 tbsp prepared demi glace (Whole Foods didn't have any. We substituted beef broth which is not the same at all, but adds a different flavor and body to the sauce that is needed)
2 tbsp unsalted butter (increase this even more if you want a thicker, richer sauce and don't mind the calories. It's not necessary that you do, in order to achieve a tasty sauce, though.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Season both sides of the meat generously with salt and pepper. In a large, heavy OVEN PROOF skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat, until almost smoking. Place the steaks in the hot pan and cook until well seared on side 1, about 3 minutes. Turn the steaks over. There should be a nice crust on top. Add the mushrooms, garlic and rosemary. Transfer the pan to the oven. Roast for 10-12 minutes, until steaks are med-rare. 

Remove the steaks, mushrooms and rosemary to a platter; cover to keep warm. Return the pan to the stove over medium-high heat. Deglaze with the wine, scraping up all the yummy bits in the bottom of the pan. Mix in the demi glace, stirring to combine. Put the steaks and mushrooms back in the pan and coat with the sauce. Finish with the butter to make it rich.

(Note - we didn't want to heat up our oven, so we used our large toaster oven for this. To do so, after searing the steaks, we sautted the mushrooms, garlic and rosemary, which picked up the flavor from the meat and left their own flavor on the pan. We remove those ingredients and then poured in the wine and broth, letting it deglaze and reduce for several minutes. We placed the steaks and mushroom mixture in our toaster pan and then added the slightly-reduced wine sauce, then roasted everything together - this produced a great result.)


I've written about the cauliflower puree before. It's a great alternative to mashed potatoes if you're looking for something healthier and different. The broccolini, too, is a great twist on something you may (hopefully) already eat a lot but maybe doesn't have the cache you're looking for on steak night. When cooked correctly, their stems are sweet and crisp. The char on the florets is a salty, unexpected flavor contrast. And the kick of flavor and spice from the garlic and crushed pepper takes it to another level. Best of all, this rich wine sauce, pared with the earthy mushrooms and the fresh rosemary tastes like real steakhouse affair. If your steaks always seem to taste too much like your own cooking and not as special as you'd hope, give this recipe a try. I'm confident you'll surprise yourself in a good way.

Sung Son Sings A Delicious Song

Restaurant: Sung Son a Vietnamese Bistro

Location: 4116 Pennsylvania Ave., KC, MO

Food: Traditional Vietnamese + Buffet

Service: Extra polite, but almost too stand-offish

Price: $12.95 buffet or entrees from $7 - $18

Rating: one napkin

Sometimes, picking a place for dinner can be a frustrating and time-consuming endeavor. The goal of choosing the right spot, with the right atmosphere and right food for your mood and appetite is a task I probably (definitely) put more effort into than a normal person.

So when we were turned away at Korma Sutra the other night, arriving just a few minutes too late, a feeling of doom swept over me. Our carefully planned, thoroughly thought-out restaurant selection was abruptly rendered obsolete. But just as I thought the restaurant-choosing process was about to start over from square one, a celestial ray of light shone down on the simple doorway directly across the street, illuminating a path to dinnertime bliss. A siren's song beckoned us from Sung Son Vietnamese Bistro directly across the street. Relenting to fate with a shrug and a grin, we allowed ourselves to be sucked in through the doorway to a starkly empty (but nicely decorated) dining room.

Elizabeth had been there before but this was my first time. So without assurance from previous visits, I was a little scared by two things that struck me immediately upon entry: the aforementioned emptiness, and the buffet carts set up at the west end of the room, continuously heating food for apparitional customers. An unappreciated lineup of prepared, warmed foods begs the disconcerting question of "what's so wrong with this stuff that no one's eating it?" Turns out my fears were premature. Though we didn't eat at the buffet, we enjoyed an overall pleasant experience, and were also joined by a flock of other diners who came in shortly after us.

Elizabeth and I opted for a seat in the south side of the dining room (away from the buffet) and ordered off the menu. The restaurant is surprisingly large, tastefully decorated with white curtains and white tablecloths with a sealed concrete floor and exposed concrete walls, which lent much more character to the place than the institutional sheetrock and carpet many Asian restaurants employ. I liked the feel of Sung Son.

After promptly served ice water and a few minutes of menu-perusing, we made our selections: spring rolls to start, a Vietnamese scallion crepe as entree one and a simple shrimp and rice dish for entree two, both of which we split evenly.

We enjoyed the spring rolls just fine, which came filled with rice vermicelli, little cubes of fried tofu, lettuce, shredded carrot and mint. They were fresh - slightly sticky to the touch and moist on the inside. Few things are worse than a spring roll that's been sitting in the open air long enough for its rice paper wrapper to stiffen and its crunchy vegetables to become tepid and limp. The peanut sauce was average, which means good. Plenty of real peanut taste, but lots of sweetness, too. Maybe a little too sweet, but not enough to stop be from aggressively swathing out the bowl with my spring rolls each time I prepped a bite.

Relying on the ubiquity of restaurant menus online failed me on this trip, however. Sung Son does not appear to have a website or their menu posted anywhere online. And I failed to take down the names of our entrees. So I apologize for not having better details on the entrees we were served:

The crepe selection jumped out at us because we hadn't seen Vietnamese crepes on many local menus and the last time we'd had one was at The Slanted Door in San Francisco when we were on our honeymoon. This one reminded us very much of the one from our previous experience. The crepe is not like a French crepe. Rather than seeming to be made from a doughy batter, its flavor and consistency is more like that of an almost paper-thin omelette. More eggy; less like a pancake, and savory. Alongside the crepe, which is filled with a mixture of softly cooked mung beans (much like a yellow lentil in flavor and texture - quite good), came a huge pile of mint leaves and sprigs of cilantro, plus iceberg lettuce. In our ravenous haste, we failed to load the crepe with any of these additional accoutrements, still enjoying it thoroughly. The eggy, starchy Vietnamese pancake taco thingy was a nice, mild side to our more substantial shrimp and rice dish.

...Speaking of which, this large helping of well-cooked, medium-sized shrimp came on a heaping pile of steamed rice with little sweet fried crunchies of some sort and topped with chopped scallions. On the side were sweet sliced carrots, cucumbers and lettuce. The shrimp had been coated with an ultra thin batter and stir fried - juicy on the inside with a little crunchy shell on the outside. In small bowl with both of the entrees came a spicy, pinkish-orange chili sauce I'd not had before. It tasted almost like simple syrup with flecks of red chilies and maybe a little ginger infused in it. As a topping for both the shrimp and the crepe, it was a nice sugary compliment.

Thanks to the chili sauce, there was a good amount of sweetness among the dishes - again, probably more than I would have preferred - but when I finally set my utensils down and pondered my overall opinion of the meal while wiping my mouth clean, I came to the conclusion that the food I'd just consumed was far beyond satisfactory. It was tasty.

Several days later, as I write this, I find myself not necessarily dying to return, but definitely planning to hear the song of Sung Son again call my name. Sung Son is a solid addition to the Asian food scene in KC and a relatively classy addition to an area of town that is in dire need of relatively classy establishments. If you need a change of pace from your normal Vietnamese dishes, give Sung Son a try.

Rating: one napkin