Category Archives: Food

Bayou Jacks

On the way back from Wichita Falls, we passed thru Roanoke, TX. Roanoke sits between Fort Worth and Denton off 35W. This little town has been growing quite a bit in the last few years. It’s downtown area is one of my favorites as it mixes the old with the new with boutiques and many, many delicious restaurants. I’m sure you will find something here for everyone.

My manager recently told me about a new restaurant that she pretty much became addicted to called Bayou Jacks that recently opened up off highway 377 in downtown Roanoke. So new, I can’t find a website for them so you will just have to trust me on this one. On Friday, our team ventured there for lunch (I forgot my camera) and on the way back from Wichita Falls, Sy had to stop to try it out.

The atmosphere is everything Bayou which basically translates to Louisiana, crawfish, gators and spice.

I think I was beginning to embarrass Sy so there isn’t a picture of the full layout of the restaurant however I think you get the jist of it above.

The menu is quite extensive when it comes to variety. Let’s see what I can remember.

Appetizers: Fried Oyster Nachos, Dirty Balls (there was no explanation on the menu for this one for this Northern gal), Fried Gator, Crab Cakes. All the favorites.

Main Course: Bayou Jacks has the usual, poboys and lots of ’em. It’s like Bubba from Forest Gump except with Poboys – shrimp poboy, catfish poboy, oyster poboy, etc.. They also have Gumbo, Crawfish Etouffee, Jambalaya, Coconut Crusted Mahi Mahi, Grilled Catfish and Shrimp, Shrimp and Grits. Bayou Jacks also offers a meal where you can choose your meat (Salmon, Catfish, Mahi Mahi, etc) and you can choose to have it grilled or blackened and it comes with rice and veggies. I realize I’m forgetting a few items, many items, but if you are into Cajun or at least want to try it – you shouldn’t have a problem finding an item that tickles your fancy.

Now, I’m going to be honest. When we went with our team on Friday, not everyone was pleased. So for your sake, if you are thinking of trying this place out – I’m going to provide some feedback before I get to the good stuff. They weren’t impressed with the blackened chicken salad (lettuce was off) and the fish and chips (too much batter on the fish).

Now, I had a feeling I was going to venture back to Bayou Jacks (Sy loves some Cajun) so on Friday’s appearance, I tried out the grilled salmon with dirty rice and coleslaw. The grilled salmon was great (kind of hard to screw up grilled salmon), the dirty rice was delicious – the rice was plump and full of flavor and nice cubes of sausage in there. The coleslaw kind of threw me off, although it’s my own fault I mean we are at a Cajun restaurant, right?! It’s a bit spicy but it was good (once I got use to it).

Saturday.

Stop Number Two.

Yea – I’m a sucker for Crab Cakes so I had to try them out.

For $9.99 you will get two crab cakes (featured below) on a bed of lettuce with sides of remoulade, cocktail and tartar sauce. Choose to have them fried or sauteed (I chose sauteed).

You know how sometimes you will go to a restaurant and order crab cakes and you can really taste the crackers in the cakes which they use to hold them together. Not these bad boys! These cakes were all crab. They were moist, flaky and practically melted in your mouth. My only downfall is that I found them a bit expensive for an appetizer but they were delicious.

Sy’s meal of choice: Crawfish Etouffee.

I believe this big ole plate was $9.99.

Loads of crawfish in a tangy and flavorful roue with white rice. I’m lucky I even got a bite off his plate. Saying he loved it is probably an understatement.

Dessert: My favorite! I mean if you say that dessert isn’t your favorite meal you are just lying to yourself here. Bread pudding. That’s all I want to mention. They do have other options but I mean the bread pudding is where it’s at and that’s all you need to know.

Delicious! Scrumptious! Why didn’t they put more on this plate it is so good?! It may be a good thing that I haven’t allowed myself to attempt making bread pudding at home. The bread pudding was scrumptious. Moist and flavorful but when paired with the whiskey sauce it pretty much melted in your mouth. If you tried the whiskey sauce by itself, you could really taste the flavor from the alcohol. Paired perfectly. Price: $4.99.

Overall:

Now I will honestly say that I found some items to be over priced. The appetizers seemed to be closer to $10 each which I find a little pricey for an appetizer. I was honestly expecting a bigger serving of the bread pudding for the price compared to other restaurants which serve the dessert. Poboys are around $8-10. The overall price for a main course is around $10-$13 which isn’t bad.

If you are into Cajun food in North Texas and are just craving some crawfish but can’t get to Louisiana quick enough I would definitely recommend trying out Bayou Jacks. Regardless of the Cajun dish that tickles your fancy, I have no doubt that you will find something here that will fix ya right up!

If you do have a chance to swing by Bayou Jacks, let me know what you think!

Bon Appetite!

Is November Over Already?!

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I’m having a hard time facing the fact that this is the last day in November. I’m not really sure where the last week went let alone the rest of the month! I think we may all agree Thanksgiving is a hectic time of year. First comes Thanksgiving Day which we spend with friends and family and then comes the hassle with Black Friday. Black Friday is like a cloud over Thanksgiving to me. You have that feeling in the back of your mind that you have to “prepare” for all of these sales and hopefully you don’t miss out. Oh the pressure! Our minds should only be concerned with our friends and family and when it’s a good time to dig in for those Thanksgiving leftovers! I need to give a recap on my most recent week. This may be a long post!

This year for Thanksgiving, I spent the day with some friends and their families. It was relaxing with great food and conversation. It was nice just to be able to sit back comfortably and enjoy the day! Plus it was pretty amusing to see two one year old babies running around and having a good time. Who doesn’t like babies?! I’m really thankful that I was able to spend the day with such great people. Thank you!

I actually had to work on Black Friday, the over commericalized day that seems to take everything about Thanksgiving away but I did do a bit of online shopping. It’s a lot easier and I don’t have to hassle with the crazy folks in the stores.

Friday evening was spent out on the town in the Fort Worth Stockyards. I’m pretty sure this is one of my favorite places around here. It’s very, oh, “old wild west”. A group of us went out for dinner at Joe T. Garcia’s. This is a family style Mexican restaurant only serving fajitas or enchiladas. I’m going to admit that I had no idea what enchiladas were when I first moved here. We don’t exactly have a ton of Mexican restaurants in the small towns of Vermont but man, I love them! The atmosphere is great, food delicious and the margarita’s are the strongest around! If you plan on going – remember, they only accept cash and to get there early, it’s a popular place around here. (I forgot.)

After filling up at Joe T’s, we headed just down the street to Billy Bob’s, the “World’s Largest Honky Tonk”. I’m not kidding, it really is and it’s wicked awesome. Get ready for some bull riding, two steppin’ and some good ole country music in this venue. It’s also one of my favorites. On this particular evening, Kevin Fowler, a Texas native, was playing. The concert was good however I was having such a good time watching people two step and line dance, I even got out there at one point (here’s to good dancing partners!). The two step is pretty easy if you take away my need for attempting to lead, but once you get spinning around its pretty fun. I realized I haven’t forgotten how to two step – that’s right, I still got it! I learned a new move and before I realized what what going on I was being flipped upside down right out there on the dance floor. A little out of control dance partner I tell ya! It was a great time and I can’t wait to do it again. Now I just need to learn this line dance and I’m ready to go!

I actually had so much fun, why not do it again?! Saturday evening was spent at another honky tonk – Cowboys in Arlington. Another good show by another Texas native (see the recurring theme, great musicians come from Texas), the Bart Crow Band. Cowboys is a little different than Billy Bob’s, there is only one big stage and a much bigger dance floor. One thing is still the same, it still makes you want to get out there and two step your way across Texas.

Sunday was a day for relaxation and to take it easy until I decided it was time to get a Christmas tree! I’ll catch you up on that on December 1st! Enjoy the last day of November everyone! It was a great one!

Oktoberfest, Southlake, TX

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This past weekend seemed like a blur, there was so much going on and lots that I need to fill you in on, however let’s start with Oktoberfest! On Saturday, we checked out the Oktoberfest in Southlake, Texas. It almost seems like each year there is a new Oktoberfest popping up in either your own town or a town close by, here there have been at least three or four of them in the past two weeks, so we had to at least check out one of them!

The Oktoberfest in Southlake is held in the Town Square. It is actually a pretty nice area with a gazebo, small park which is surrounded by a shopping center (outdoor shops) which holds numerous restaurants. Obviously, there is a ton to do to begin with, throw in some tents in the middle of the Square and you have a party. Top it all off, the event was free to the public.

The gazebo hosted a series of entertainers. There was even a nice patch of grass in front if you wanted to bring some chairs and just hang out. A beer tent was conveniently placed nearby.

Southlake seems to show a huge emphasis on family based events, this one included. There is a section of kids games and bounce houses for entertainment. Even a rock climbing wall for the older kids, or adults young at heart. There was even a martial arts instructor teaching children how to break a board with their hands. It’s all about respect and confidence. He seemed like a great instructor and was great with kids. (I have no idea what company / organization he worked with but if I had a child, I would enroll them.) It was probably one of the biggest highlights of my day.

The center of the park was full of vendors and craft tents.

Look at these cute little guys! I love pretty much anything that has to do with fall. I could’ve bought and made a village!

I love this truck! If only I could drive around in this beast!

Food and brews?

Getting there… the event itself was free, however if you wanted any food or beer, tickets would need to be purchased. I believe tickets were $0.50 each and the amount of tickets depended on the item purchased. Numerous vendors were these selling their delicious treats (even soft serve ice cream there on the end).
Beer tents were scattered throughout the area.

This is a good family event, even to get out of the house for a couple hours on a nice day. It appeared to be more family oriented than food/beer driven. You may even see a celebrity or professional athlete as Southlake is the home to many of them. Sy is convinced he saw Jon Kitna, Tony Romo’s back-up. By the time he figured out why he looked so familiar he was walking off with his family. None the less, the man was pretty happy.

If anyone else attended Southlake’s Oktoberfest, what’d you think?!