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Stacked
Deconstruct a sushi roll and what do you get? Sutakku, a small stack of rice on the bottom, a flourish of cucumber, fish, crunchies and smelt roe in a small tower on top. That’s the new gorgeous presentation of our addiction to raw fish and rice, at the downtown Bonsai, on Jefferson Street.
If I have one complaint about sushi rolls, it’s that you have too much, with eight pieces, of the same thing. I’m an eater who loves variety, and the sutakku at Bonsai shaves a roll down to four bites, with an equally diminished price. That means diners can explore more combinations for the same down payment.
There’s also a handful of new dishes at Bonsai that range from really rare beef to a fish tartar nacho, if you don’t mind mixing food metaphors. The new menu is dubbed Tapas, another rambla into foodie Esperanza. What this means is everything comes on the same size square plate, four bites mostly, and the highest price for any one plate is $7.
Bonsai has also re-opened for lunch Monday-Friday, and dinner Monday-Saturday. Call 232-8333 or check out its website,
www.bonsaisushibar.com.
— Mary Tutwiler |
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| Pamplona chef Craig Crosby |
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Pamplona’s prize-winning paella
We always knew that the paella at Pamplona was the best in Lafayette.
But the local tapas restaurant has just taken on the big boys in New Orleans and beaten them at their own paella game, bringing home a first place award for our Cajun-grown cooks.
The cooking contest was held July 9 as part of New Orleans’ San Fermin in Nueva Orleans Festival, which coincides with the original San Fermin (running of the bulls) in Pamplona, Spain.
Pamplona’s new executive chef, Craig Crosby, who worked under former executive chef Orlando Amaro, transported all the raw ingredients to the Big Easy and cooked them in the restaurant’s signature giant paella pans. Crosby beat out entries from Barcelona Tapas Café, Three Muses, Rambla, and Vega Tapas Café to take home the trophy.
“I used Orlando’s authentic Valenciana recipe,” says Crosby, who combined shrimp, squid, mussels, clams, chicken and chorizo in the saffron yellow rice. On Wednesday, July 14, the restaurant celebrated to a packed house with a vat of paella and their signature white sangria. Ole!
— Mary Tutwiler |
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