The Gulf Coast Food Show
Hunting for Chinese Food, Stuck With Thai? A Jambalaya Adventure and Restaurant Reviews in Long Beach
Ever been on the hunt for that perfect, authentic Chinese meal and ended up in a Thai appetizer sampler? That's precisely what happened to us this weekend in Mobile, Alabama. from honey bee conventions to cooking jambalaya for a crowd. So, pull up a chair, grab a drink, and let us spin you a tale.
Imagine this: You've got a ravenous crowd of 150 people, and you're serving up reheated jambalaya. The tension is palpable, especially when the first batch sticks to the pot! But fear not, we used a bit of quick thinking and a boat paddle to rescue the situation. And let us tell you, the satisfaction of feeding a grateful crowd made all the sweat and stress absolutely worth it.
Lastly, we put our taste buds to the test in Long Beach. We tried a new restaurant, and we've got quite a few thoughts to share. From Gator Bite drinks to corn and crab bisque and even firecracker shrimp, we sampled it all. Opening a new restaurant isn't easy, and we discuss the challenges faced and why we should all be a little patient and understanding. So, buckle up and get ready for an episode filled with foodie adventures and culinary insights.
Ever been on the hunt for that perfect, authentic Chinese meal and ended up in a Thai appetizer sampler? That's precisely what happened to us this weekend in Mobile, Alabama. from honey bee conventions to cooking jambalaya for a crowd. So, pull up a chair, grab a drink, and let us spin you a tale.
Imagine this: You've got a ravenous crowd of 150 people, and you're serving up reheated jambalaya. The tension is palpable, especially when the first batch sticks to the pot! But fear not, we used a bit of quick thinking and a boat paddle to rescue the situation. And let us tell you, the satisfaction of feeding a grateful crowd made all the sweat and stress absolutely worth it.
Lastly, we put our taste buds to the test in Long Beach. We tried a new restaurant, and we've got quite a few thoughts to share. From Gator Bite drinks to corn and crab bisque and even firecracker shrimp, we sampled it all. Opening a new restaurant isn't easy, and we discuss the challenges faced and why we should all be a little patient and understanding. So, buckle up and get ready for an episode filled with foodie adventures and culinary insights.
What another busy weekend. Well, it's Sunday afternoon and didn't I say at least, at least at the latest Sunday would have a show out, right? Well, here we are. The weekend's not over Now, it is kind of. Well, you know it's late, late Sunday, but we're here, oh, and we have an interesting show. I hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2:A little follow up on a few things. You know we talked about a few things we're going to follow up on. So when I say busy, I tell you we had a busy weekend. We had a convention over in Mobile, alabama, maybe twice a year, and the location is in Mobile and we love to go a day early because we get to go to a couple of restaurants maybe, and we went to one and it was good. I'm going to tell you about it. But as far as being busy, you know we say we're as busy as a bee. Well, I'm going to tell you what. I don't know if it's fair to the bee to say that anymore, because here's some interesting facts that I just recently learned about, about the honey bee Probably first time you hear in a hall. So maybe not, but boy, it was interesting to me.
Speaker 2:A honey bee. So here's just their makeup Three pairs of legs, four wings, five eyes and a stinger. And I think we know about the stinger mostly the stomach that only holds nectar. It's the only insect that produces food that we can eat. Hmm, well, that's kind of interesting. Now, what about this busy part? Well, the average work of bee flies 15 miles an hour. It's entire lifetime. Now, this was just so interesting, and it's entire lifetime. Do you know how much bee One bee, how much honey that one bee will produce? One twelfth of a teaspoon of honey. How in the world could you imagine? Now it even tells it. He said, to produce a pound of honey, a bee colony will visit two million flowers and fly 55,000 miles. So, in fairness to the bee, I think I'll just maybe make up a different saying how busy I am, because boy, isn't that interesting, busy as a bee. Well, if you do say it, at least everyone will know certainly what you're talking about, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:So I said we went to Mobile. So we're always looking for a new place to try, and you know I've been on this thing about. I want to find a good Chinese restaurant, not the buffet, not the, you know, I don't know. We've come to know as Chinese food. As I mentioned before, you know, just as a very young person, young, 13 years old, for a few years, washed dishes at a Chinese restaurant and there was no buffet here. This was, you know, they were the real deal back in the late 70s, early 80s, but at any rate the food that they served was just boy. I remembered it was just good. It was, you know it, just so flavorful, and now you just can't find it.
Speaker 2:So when we went to Mobile, I said on the way there, I told my wife, I said look, let's start looking and look up some. You know what's a good Chinese place? I even called my friend Brian. You know I told you about him. When I'm going to Mobile I'll ask him hey, brian, where's a good place to go eat? You know we're looking for a new place. Well, I text him and said hey, where's a good Chinese place? Well, he didn't get back to me until after we found some place and he said hey, I can't help you, I'm not into Chinese food.
Speaker 2:Well, it wasn't Chinese that we found, it was a Thai restaurant, but the menu looked really good. The reviews were great, and I tell you what I really think that my experience has been. You can pretty much trust these reviews. You know, look, you're going to get one or two bad ones. You're going to get that, you know. But anyway, the reviews were good.
Speaker 2:The description of the food was real good, the atmosphere, everything was real good. I said, hey, let's just go to this place. And so we did. I had this. Everything looked on a menu. They had pictures oh, I love that pictures of the food, that way you know if you're, if you're getting this. Remember last week we talked about these shrimp that I got all the week before, the shrimp that I got from a Chinese place, and it was like the shrimp was rolled in a big doughnut. It was, oh, it was, it was obnoxious. Well, anyway, you see the picture now and you get to see what you're getting ahead of time.
Speaker 2:Well, they had a. They had an appetizer sampler and the only thing that I was familiar with that was on it was an egg roll. Everything else was kind of different and I said, hey, let's just try this, let's see. So we got that. My wife got some pineapple fried rice. I'm not a fan of that. I got the pad thai. It was a combination pad thai. I love pad thai, it's real good. The glass noodles, you know the clear ones, so we get that. The sampler was fantastic. It was again, this wasn't Chinese, now, what we were hoping for, but the, the glass noodles, the pad thai, oh that was good.
Speaker 2:My wife, I said, listen, I said I have plenty here, just go ahead and eat some of this. She tried the pineapple fried rice, which is, you know, I don't know where that comes from, but she didn't like it and I said, look, you just eat on this because plenty for both of us. So we did, we both ate that and it was good. But it doesn't help us in the hunt for a Chinese restaurant, a real, authentic Chinese restaurant. You know. So, hopefully. And look, you know where we are, we're in extreme south Mississippi. So if you recommend one and it's in Idaho, you know I'd love to go and visit, but you know we have to stay in this kind of area a little bit, but I'll travel a little bit for a good place. So anyway, hey, your recommendations are welcome. Maybe there is one around here that I just don't know about. We've tried plenty, but most of them are buffets and I guess they're okay. But but when you want real quality Chinese food, just haven't had the chance to find it here. So well, we'll keep looking. We'll keep looking.
Speaker 2:So last week we did a show we were supposed to talk about a little bit about the, the jambalaya we cooked, remember that, in the hundred, 160 year old Coltrane, 20 gallons oh, this thing was massive. And we cooked. Now we I say we myself and I had a lot of help. Some friends got together and and we made enough jambalaya to feed 150 people and not just anybody. These were construction workers, so they would it's a volunteer project they were helping build and and we were asking can, can we do the jambalaya? Well, it didn't have to take long to say yes to that, because it's always fun. You know, you get together with your friends and you're chopping and cutting and just a whole. It's a lot of work but, boys, it it's fun, it really is. So that's what we did and just a few little things about it that I just wanted to share with you, because I told you about it. And and just last week we interviewed the owner of kaitaki restaurant, the noodle bar, remember, and His other restaurant, radish. We were able to do both of them. Anyway, very interesting, very good conversation, the schoolteacher that became the restaurant tour, two restaurants now and Good interview, so anyway.
Speaker 2:So we kind of set the, the, the Jambalaya, aside a little bit, but we did accomplish it. It was a lot of work. Here's a few interesting little things about it. So we get, we get all the ingredients together. We had 25. I think 25 pounds of sausage, 25 pounds of pork, 25 pounds of chicken About for that part of the dish we about a little over 50 onions, garlic, bell pepper, celery, you know the whole thing. But but we didn't buy. Normally I would go buy. You know we call it down here, we call it the cage, and trinity to bell pepper, celery and onions, and but we didn't. I didn't go buy it Frozen, already made. It holds a lot of water like that and and I really wanted to get the water rice ratio good on this because A few things we had to do different.
Speaker 2:So we chopped everything by hand and I'll tell you that that was probably. That was probably more than 50% of the fun is just hanging out with friends and cutting and chopping and talking about food and restaurants. Oh, it was great. And so we got all of that chopped ready to go. So the the serving was going to be Saturday. We chopped and prepped everything.
Speaker 2:Thursday. Friday we get together, still preparing some things. We have everything chopped, ready to go, we start cooking. But here's one of the things we had to do it had to be brought over at a hundred and forty degrees hot or 40 degrees cool. Now, that's just a standard Health thing. So it brought up a little issue. You know we're going to cook this Friday and now we're going to deliver it. And now we're going to deliver it an hour away, a little over an hour way hour and 20 minutes away, on the outskirts of New Orleans, on the West Bank of New Orleans. So we're going to deliver this there, then we're going to reheat it.
Speaker 2:Now we're talking about jumbo lia and and and you have the, the rice. Now when you go to, you know it's just so important when, when you get this rice just right in jumbo, it should be flaky. You know you pick up a spoonful and and the rice is just kind of falling apart and and that's what you want. That's a sign of a good jumbo line, not the uh you ever get served jumbo lia and and and it's kind of like an ice cream scoop and and the rice, it's like a big ball, you know, and it's all mushy together. It look it could have a good flavor like that, but it just, it just doesn't do anything. For for the rest of you know, your eyes you're looking at it and and when you have a good flaky, dark Jumbo lia, I like mine dark.
Speaker 2:You know you get it dark. I do, at least a lot of people do too. The kitchen bouquet, you know, you put a bottle of that in there and all it does. It doesn't do a whole lot of seasoning, but it just darkens, darkens the rice a little bit, darkens everything up. And I don't know if it's in our minds or what, but jumbo lia, when, when you're eating it and it's darker, maybe it just plays a trick on us, but it seems like it takes better. Now, I know there's many ways you can get it darker without it, but you know that's the way I do it. A lot of people do it like that. It's easy and it works so.
Speaker 2:So here was the little issue. We decided okay, we're going to bring the cauldron, the table, everything to the site and we're going to reheat it. Now, once we cooked it, we had to cool it down. I think I mentioned this last week or so ago. We had to cool it down. We put it in gallon freeze bags, freezer bags, not a lot in it, you know just about where we can flatten it out. Then we immediately put it on ice, cooled it down and then re-layered the ice and it stayed like that overnight. Now we get everything over there. It's iced down, it's ready to go, and now we have to reheat it. Well, the first, I would say the first, probably, I don't know maybe four gallon bags they weren't full, so we're reheating say, we're reheating two gallons at a time. The first couple that we put in.
Speaker 2:We figured, hey, let's heat this up a little bit, we'll put some oil at the bottom. And then, you know, it may not stick. Let's just see, oh no, it's stuck right away. And it just, oh, the first batch, just it was kind of mushy, you know. And we figured, oh no, we're going to lose all of it. It would taste good, it was still very good, but again, it just lost that flaky look.
Speaker 2:And so what we did? We cleaned the pot out, got the stick, all the, everything that stuck to it. You know, remember, this is cast iron and you're putting rice on it. If you don't do it just right, it's going to stick, especially preheating. So the next batch we did, we dumped in a bottle of water. A bottle of water. Now remember, this wasn't a bad idea because the rice, everything sat overnight. It was cooled quickly, but it was sat overnight.
Speaker 2:Now that rice is still absorbing moisture, and so it did, and anything you know, you put it in the refrigerator, put it on a cool. The next day it's going to be drier because everything in there is sucking up that moisture. So we dumped about two gallons of jumbalaya off the ice On to this. The water now is almost, I don't say boiling, but it's, it's hot. You know that bottle of water, it's hot down there. Now we put it right on top of that and guess what? It didn't stick. And then we put a little bit more on it, a little bit more jumbalaya, and we took the big. It's like a boat paddle, you know you use to roll the stuff. You put the paddle underneath there and just roll the the jumbalaya over, roll it over. You're not mixing, you're not stirring, you're just rolling. And it worked out beautiful and as a result, at the end of this.
Speaker 2:We had, you know, the first batch, like I said, it just it didn't look good, but boy, the rest of it, it just turned out perfect. So every, every serving tray took about four or five bags until we just ran out and did them all. So here's what I learned about it and I want to share with you. If you have to reheat something like this starchy food rice in particular put a little instead of oil, put some water down, at least. Look, it worked perfect for this and it heated up great. It stayed flaky and, of course, it still had its great taste. So that was a little something we ran into, trying to get this thing right, but it turned out great. Everybody enjoyed it and, hey, we're going to. We're going to do it again. Maybe they said maybe, maybe in a couple of months we'll have an opportunity to do it again, and I hope it's Jumbelaya, because now we know exactly how to do this to where there's no, no catches. So that's what we did. It was fun.
Speaker 2:Now, on another note, now, this is something in fact, we just talked about it a few minutes ago about, about, you know, people raiding a restaurant, giving reviews, and is it, you know, can you depend on them. Well, we just had a new restaurant come into Long Beach, long Beach, mississippi. A new restaurant came in. Now everybody's been kind of waiting on them to come in Because they it's a. They have another location in New Orleans. From what I understand, it's down in the French Quarter somewhere and so so it isn't like they just coming over here and and trying something new. You know this is a tested you could say menu. So anyway, they opened this place up. They've been working on this place for a while. They took over another restaurant that closed.
Speaker 2:I don't think it ever really did any good, you know, to begin with. But it's a nice location. If you ever travel through Long Beach. It's right at the main drag, right across from the harbor Big. Now it's gonna be a beautiful building.
Speaker 2:Before for years, with this other place in it, I always get, when we pass out, told my wife I said this place looks like a daycare center. It's such big walls that they could do stuff with and make it beautiful. But they for years they did nothing with it. So now this new place, it's oh, let's see how you pronounce it. I would say Coterie. So a coterie is it's. It's a French word and it means a gathering of like-minded people. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. I think I am. It's close anyway, but it's a gathering. It means a gathering of like-minded people. You know. Friends, you know, have the same interest and stuff, so, so it's appropriate for the name in this case. Hey, you're gathering for some good food, right? Well, the place comes in.
Speaker 2:They, they, by the way, they put a lot of work. I'm sure they put a lot of money in this building. We'd watch them, you know, passing by and they working on it for months, you know, getting everything done. Well, they did a soft opening last week or so, a week or so ago. And here's the thing about the reviews, and I'd like to see what you think. Email me, let me know what you think about this, because I know you've probably experienced the same thing wherever you live. You have a new restaurant opens up and and Sometimes it's not, you know, everything just doesn't go as planned. Well, they just opened up, right, just working on things and just getting it together. Now you got to work the kinks out.
Speaker 2:Well, most of the reviews, in fact I would, I would have to say in all fairness, all the reviews that we read before we went, because we went we tried quite a few of their things on the menu. But before we went I read the reviews and I would have to say, even though there was some constructive criticism, I Don't think any of the any of the reviews were bad, at least the ones that I've read. I think if the owner read these reviews and they saw some of the constructive criticism, I think the owner would probably say, yeah, you're right, yeah, we're gonna, okay, we're gonna work on that or whatever the case is. But here's the thing Evidently and I don't know how all of this works, you know with, with the, the social media postings and what have you locally, one of their rules is you can't you know no bashing Business establishments and they have some other ethic things.
Speaker 2:You know code of ethics that they want to follow. So One review in particular, it it wasn't critical, it just mentioned a few things that were, well, I don't know they. You know Some things that they found good about it, some some they found kind of bad and I'd say bad, just things that didn't like about it. But but it's interesting, the person said, hey, I'll go back, I'm gonna go back, so it wouldn't like, oh, this is horrible, I'm never coming back here. It was okay, this was my experience and I'll be back. I thought that was fair enough.
Speaker 2:But anyway, they they were, you know, told, hey, you can't do this, and look, if that's their rules, it's okay, that's your rules. We got to follow them. But at any rate, what we did I tell you what my wife and my daughter, miss Jenny, we all decided, hey, let's just go see for ourselves. And you know what. I know I'm gonna be fair, I know I know Jenny will and my wife will. Let's just see what it is and and we'll see for ourselves. And so that's what we did. We went and that's what I want to tell you about is and in fact, gets your feedback on when you go to a place. If they just opening up, you know, if the waitresses are get behind a little bit, if things aren't as quick as you know, is it really reasonable to say, oh, this was terrible?
Speaker 2:You know the waitresses were, they were behind on the orders, they well, they just getting to know the kitchen, they getting to know the computer, they getting to know you know the whole thing. And so sometimes it's good to just wait, and that's what we do. We didn't wait long. We waited a week and a half before we went, because I know, I know firsthand, you know I wasn't in that large of a restaurant type scene, but but what we had was food service, fresh seafood, boiled seafood, a lot of cooked seafood, and I know, I know what it's like and when you're under the gun on those things, and so so what, what was reasonable? Well, we wanted to find out for ourselves and we did. In fact, you know, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna have miss Jenny come in in just a minute and I'm gonna get. I'm gonna get her response also, because I think it's similar to mine and in fact, just it was just maybe 30 minutes ago.
Speaker 2:I said, jenny, you know what I'd like you to do because you were with us I want you to give your honest opinion about the things that we talked about. This is what a normal customer group what would say and and and kind of I don't want to say review in the restaurant, but just given our thoughts on this new place, that evidently has got a lot of attention and my and my thoughts is good attention. But they got a lot of attention because of a few people that complained about some things that you should expect in a new, fresh opening. So let's say I'm gonna call Jenny in in just a minute and let's see what a real review Is on this new restaurant. We'll see. Hold on a second. Okay. So Jenny, all right, you got set up, you got your earphones there, you got your.
Speaker 1:I can hear and I can talk clearly.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, good, that's what we want. All right, so you and I, just to let everybody know we were to. I was talking maybe 30 minutes ago about this, the restaurant that we went to. It's a Kateri. Is that right? I keep saying it wrong Kateri, Kateri. Okay, I'm gonna get it right. Okay, but at any rate. So we go to this restaurant and, as I was telling the listeners here, there was a little I don't know, I don't want to say a rumbling of opinions, but it was a little talk about around town, about the new restaurant coming in, was it? What did you get? Was it negative, positive or what did you get?
Speaker 1:I would say it was about 50-50 maybe, just of. Some people went and they had really good experiences, others had okay experiences and then that's that's the gist I got.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean me too. I didn't hear, I didn't see anything that was really bad, you know, and so, and that's what's got me curious about it is is that some are talking about that some of these reviews were just terrible, but they weren't. I think maybe the what was that there's a hosting site, or was it a?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's a page for the residents of Long Beach. Okay, and so someone had put that they went and had a good time, and others commented and shared their experience as well.
Speaker 2:That's what it was, okay, and so you know if you shared their experience and that, look, that's what you do, right? You say, yeah, we went, we had a good time. This is what I liked about it, this is what I didn't like about it. But, but, to be reasonable with it is that these, this place, is just opening, right. How long have they been open? A couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just the very latter part of September they opened.
Speaker 2:Okay. So what we decided to do is you know what the three of us Jenny, myself and my wife we said. You know, let's go and see for ourselves. It's been open a couple of weeks, that you know. That's enough time to kind of get things worked out a little bit, but if it isn't all worked out, perfect. So what you know, we know it's a new place, right. So so we went give us the rundown, because you have a better memory than me. What did we? What did we? What did you have?
Speaker 1:first of all, so for drinks I had a Gator bite is what they called it, and it was. It was very good.
Speaker 2:And what, what? What was in that? Because I did taste it and it was good. What was what was in it?
Speaker 1:It had Everclear and blue carousel I think is how they say it which is like a liqueur, and then they had coconut rum, peach snaps, orange juice and pineapple juice. So it was. It was pretty fruity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. I tasted a little bit of it and it was good and I think your mother and I had some. We had a draft beer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the one thing I thought was cool about this drink that even though it was fruity, it wasn't like overly sweet.
Speaker 2:So yeah, no, drinks like that do have a tendency to get over sweet and that's why I don't like them. But but I did taste yours and it was good, yeah. So now let's get to the food. Let's start with, let's start with your mother. What did she have?
Speaker 1:She ordered a salad and a cracker, Of course of course.
Speaker 2:So we know Carrie, when she goes to eat she's going to get a salad. Five-star restaurant Commanders Palace. I want a salad, so no, but she did get the crab cakes Right.
Speaker 1:And they were good. I did taste them, they, they. I had like two bites and both bites were like jumbo crab meat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they did have crab meat in it. Yes, not make believe crab meat, and it was. It was good. So the crab cakes were good, so that's another good experience. The drink was good, so what did you have to eat?
Speaker 1:I had the corn and crab bisque. Yeah, the corn and crab bisque and to me that can just be. You can find at any coast restaurant, but sometimes it's just filled with a whole bunch of corn and maybe like one or two pieces of crab meat. This was total opposite. It was very fresh, very generous with their crab meat, so I was happy yeah.
Speaker 2:And I tasted it too. I like to taste everybody's. I bug people. I say people, only my family, my wife, my son, daughters, you know that's, that's legal. So now and then I had. It was the taste of what was it called.
Speaker 1:The taste of a cadiana.
Speaker 2:Taste of a cadiana. Now, I really liked the the idea of this because you get a nice healthy scoop of jambalaya, which I love. I love jambalaya. A nice, healthy serving of was it.
Speaker 1:The etouffee.
Speaker 2:Etouffee. Okay, A nice serving of that. And then a small like a like I don't want to say a cup of gumbo. Maybe it was. It was a, it was about a cup of gumbo. Sure, I had that, and what else came with that?
Speaker 1:We also had another appetizer we tried and then that was the firecracker shrimp. Yes, we had the firecracker shrimp and I find that kind of common Some they called bang bang shrimp places you know, but theirs were different in the sense that usually you order bang bang shrimp and it has just like a huge coating of dough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, that is so true.
Speaker 1:They were. It was mainly shrimp and the sauce. The difference I found in their sauce was it was a lot spicier I I couldn't eat it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was, and but to me it was, it was great. It wasn't hot it was. I know to some people it might be and I don't like. I don't like hot stuff that just burns my tongue in my mouth and I can't enjoy anything else. So it isn't like I like that heat, it just wasn't. It wasn't as spicy as you know. It took to some like Jenny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, To be fair, I'm not a good judge when it comes to spicy stuff just because I I can't have it.
Speaker 2:Right, right, okay. So so I had and look, this is what this is, this is, this is a real life, you could say review of three customers that are just going to be honest about what our experience we had. There's no need to bash people, you know, especially you have here these I don't know the people I kind of know of the restaurant in New Orleans.
Speaker 1:It's on Decatur.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've never been there, but I do know they have an exp. They have, you know, a restaurant there and so when they come here, here they are building a business. They putting it's got to be a lot of money. They putting into this place, the time, the effort, the energy, all of this putting into this place and I'm sure they're not going to do all of that work just to serve bad food or to not take perhaps some advice. You know, I'll give you my feedback on it. So I had the jambalaya. I think was good. Definitely I would say that is a well passing jambalaya.
Speaker 2:The et to fay was it was good. It wasn't in my opinion. It just wasn't. The heat wasn't hot enough. But again, that just goes back to man. They were pretty busy Maybe, maybe the way that they got it out on the counter and just wasn't able to get it out in time. They still learn in the ropes. I'm okay with that. That's not a big deal, you know. So it wasn't piping hot. Well, it was still decent. What one little critique on the gumbo, you know, just maybe needed some more, a little more flavor, you know, did you try it at?
Speaker 1:gumbo. I did. I did have a spoonful of it and I would say maybe just a little salt would have helped a little yeah in fact I asked you.
Speaker 2:I said, jenny, taste this and tell me what you think it needs. First things, you said is salt. Yeah, now it did. It needed salt. It needs some more. But now it goes back to the same thing. Now, if I go back which I will, of course if we go back, say a month from now, and we taste the gumbo and let's say it's the same, well, now you know what's an order. It's just a little, maybe a little comment to the manager or the owner. You know, and I'm sure they'd love to hear it, you know, maybe other people would say the same thing. Maybe my taste buds were off that day, you know. So I guess what we learned from this is you know, you have a new place opening up. Yeah, give them a little leadway, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I do. I don't know if you made any note before I came on, but just what they did to the building, I think should be definitely reviewed as well, because it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. What we did is and I know you remember this too when we'd passed by that building for years it was called the Cajun Crawfish Hut and it's a big building with big sides to it, right on the beach, right on Highway 90, and there was nothing on the walls, no colors, no, nothing, and we called it the Daycare Center.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was just not pretty, yeah, and so that's what I say. Here's people coming in and the inside is beautiful. They did a very nice job. So you know what, hey, if it takes another couple of weeks or whatever form to get everything just right, well, so what you know, we're going to go back and we'll plan it. Let's have the. I tell you what I'm going to get the same thing that I'm going to get Taste of a Catiana, was it? Yeah, taste of a Catiana. So I'm going to get the same thing. And now I'm going to compare apples to apples. Maybe, jenny, you could try different, maybe a different drink.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we'll get mom a different salad. See if you can have a different, something different on the menu there. So, all right, we'll go. Well, look, thank you for your little time. Your anything. Did I miss anything, jenny?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the only thing I did want to say was they have a happy hour from three to six.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's right, Because we were there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we didn't even know, but I thought something that was nice was that's what. That's what enticed me to order the drink. I did because it was part of the happy hour, but they also have the diff, some different appetizers that are included in the happy hour. I don't remember all of them, but I thought that was pretty neat because I don't think any of the other restaurants that we've been to locally have that. Yeah, or at least that I remember.
Speaker 2:No, you're right it, I think it's it's own little menu, happy hour menu, and so, yeah, yeah, that was, and the waitress was very helpful. Yeah, I forgot her name and that's a shame, because oh boy, and I don't want to guess at it. But anyway, the young waitress, she was just really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, she was helpful, but she wasn't like over helpful where, like you're in the middle of a bite and she, she comes up. I hate that when that happens.
Speaker 2:Right, no, no, you could. She had a little experience under a belt. You could tell, yeah, good waitress. But anyway, for what it's worth, that's our little thought about it. I think the place is going to be great. We had a good experience there. We're going to go back. I'm going to have the same thing because it's a sampling. So if if anybody hasn't gone yet and you want to just get a little sample of what they do, try that. The sample of a Catiana uh, very well priced, did you find the price is good?
Speaker 1:I thought they were reasonable, especially for the quality of the food and the just the serving size of the seafood.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah. So, uh, I'd have to agree I don't know, I'm, I'm, I'm you hear these things that I don't say that they weren't negative per se. Um, but uh, maybe it's just other people just out complaining, I don't know. Uh, but our experience was good. I can't wait to go back.
Speaker 1:And they're open on Sunday, which is something I feel like is to notate if you're in Long.
Speaker 2:Beach. Yeah, because, yeah, long Beach, the restaurants. Uh, is it kind of Sunday and Monday, huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Sunday and Monday yeah, you better have some hand sandwiches ready. So the rest of the week now you look, you're going to have restaurants all over and plenty to eat. Uh, but Sunday and Monday. So so they're open on Sundays. That's a good thing.
Speaker 1:And they could be open on Mondays too. I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, so we'll see. We'll see. Look, look them up. Uh, nice place, and let's, let's, try to get the pronunciation one one more time. Uh, cotterie.
Speaker 1:Is it Cotterie?
Speaker 2:Cotterie, yeah, a Cotterie.
Speaker 1:I think that's what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cotterie. So we're, we're, look, we're going to get it straight and we'll start pronouncing it right, cotterie. So all right, well, look, thank you, jenny, for your brief little time. I hope, I hope I didn't interrupt you too much, but I did want to get that out there and just get a real, a real review from real people that actually ate there. Uh, good stuff. Thank you, jenny Mm.
Speaker 2:Hmm, well, there we go, a nice, I'd say, honest, uh, honest review, you could say, of the new restaurant here in Long Beach. Um, I think it's fair to say that, that that any restaurant, a new restaurant opening up, you're just going to have some growing pains, you know, even though these people are established, they, they, you know that they have a place, they, you know. But now they have to duplicate it and get everything running just as smooth and it's not always easy. So I'm just so happy to see the people here. Uh, you know, they, they got rid of the daycare center building, at least the, the aesthetics of it, the looks of it. It looks really nice, nice inside. Uh, so, I guess, wherever you are, when you see a new, a new business and, let's say, a restaurant, they coming into your little town, your city, and they starting from scratch like this, redoing the inside of a building, the outside and spending a lot of money. Man, I tell you what? Let's? Let's just give them some time, give them a you know a break where we can, and let, let, let everything settle down.
Speaker 2:Uh, I think the food was good. I really do. Um, like, I said a few little things, but boy, that that's to be expected, you know. So we're going to go, I think we're going to wait like two weeks. I'm going back, I'm going to order the exact same thing that I had and then, uh, you know, what else I like to do is is order one of their in-house or two of their in-house um appetizers, because now you get to taste a little bit different flavor, a little something different that they do, but it gives you an idea of what kind of food they're producing. And appetizers, that's the first impression. You get your little drink, your iced tea, whatever you're getting, and then your appetizer. That's the first impression.
Speaker 2:So you know they wanna do a good job, any of these restaurants, and so, anyway, look, we're gonna follow up, I'll follow up with you and let me give me some feedback on this, let me know what you think about a soft opening on a restaurant. This wasn't even a soft opening. Let's just say the first 30 days of a restaurant being open and the little glitches that are gonna happen, it's you know. Is it reasonable to just kind of give them a little break and down the road? If things continue? Well, now you got something to complain about, but for now, hey, we happy these people are here, their food is good and I'm sure it's only gonna get better if they get settled in. So anyway, we're happy to see them and we're so happy to be with you this evening.
Speaker 2:So, as it look, this is Sunday evening. This is Sunday, I don't know. We're just finishing the show around nine o'clock, maybe later. I haven't even looked at the time After nine, but it's okay because we got to visit with you again this week. We have boy, we have a few things.
Speaker 2:It's just getting the schedules together, for we have some folks from the Mexican restaurant that's gonna come in and discuss some things about Mexican food that we don't really get here, but you would if you were in Mexico. And why is that? I know we talked about it a little bit, but we're gonna get the. We're gonna get right from the horse's mouth why this is, and that's gonna be interesting. So we have a lot of this stuff coming up. We're just trying to work out schedules with people that they work with opening their restaurants and their work schedules, and so in weekends it's busy for restaurants. So but anyway, we're gonna make it happen and in the meantime, thank you again for joining us. We enjoy this every week being able to chat with you and listen to you. Know who? Ethan Langwood, his version of Tipetina and so we're gonna leave this evening, we're gonna leave the whole weekend with Tipetina. See you next week.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you.