A couple weeks back I recounted the failed attempt to dine at a relatively new eatery in Lafayette called "Walk-On's", a sports themed bistro(eaux) of sorts. After my comments here, I read a facebook post written by a friend in Baton Rouge who marked her whereabouts at the Walk-On's branch in that city. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to relate (in few words) my experience here. She was amazed, revealing that she actually enjoyed the joint, at least her local incarnation of it. So, with that modicum of hope planted, Blaine suggested it as our lunch venue last Monday, convenient as it was to the spa. This time, parking was hardly has chaotic. The adjacent construction site was empty, no parallel parking, and several open slots in the actual parking area. This time, no music and hubbub spilling through the opened garage doors of the semi-outdoor patio. No waiting. Friendly, smiling staff. What a switch from the night I had attempted capturing a table. If that night had been rugby, this afternoon was golf. Placid, easy-going golf. Our table was on the patio. Lunch special: red beans and rice with a fried pork chop. Score. For starters, a bowl of waffle fries and mayonaise -- yes, let it be known that in my universe, the most excellent and superior dip for fried potatoes of any variety is mayonaise (pronounced "my-NEZ"). Blaine prefers mixing his mayo with ketchup, addinng hot sauce and a bit of pepper (this fine culinary sauce is formally known as "crawfish dip"). My dessert radar spotted a white chocolate bread pudding in the sweets department of the menu. In no time, our friendly server brought the chops and beans. Rugged ordinary food, but seasoned perfectly. Not pasty, good rice consistency too. And if there's bread pudding on the list, you've got to order it. Connoisseurs of the South Louisiana delicacy can not (and shouldn't ever) pass up the chance. I adore making bread pudding, but I don't, simply because I would eat the entire pan of it in the course of an evening. Ording it from a restaurant is much safer. Portion control, and once the dish is empty, there's no more. But it's a tricky matter. There is bread pudding, and then there's bread pudding. Most of the time, you can predict the quality of the stuff just by looking at it, how it holds together, what color it has. If it looks like mush, someone tripped with the milk, or miscounted on the eggs. If it still looks like the loaf it came from, the baker's neighbor had no milk, and maybe only half an eggyoke. The proper bread pudding, as written in the Gospel of Libellus, should jiggle slightly, be rather firm, hold its shape but be moist. There should also be some sort of sauce accompanying it -- the best bread pudding sauces contain bourbon, and they're thick (proper carmelization is required for that). In very general terms, a bread pudding sauce is not much more than a sugar roux prepared with butter and made into a syrupy sauce by adding a healthy dose of bourbon. The perfect combination of sugar and liquor, certainly the only two real food groups in our part of the South. The only problem with that is that bourbon so masterfully masks a host of culinary sins: "The bread pudding swam like oatmeal, but wasn't the sauce delicious!" Etiquette dictates that the only proper response to that is a barely detectable movement of the eyebrows. So our bread pudding arrived. A thick, tall wedge cut from a spring form pan, covered in a white chocolate sauce and sprinkled with brownie crumbles. Two spoons. We shared this one. It met all the critera, and received an A+ down to the crusty edge. The benefit of making bread pudding in a spring form (why had I never thought of this?) is that each wedge has the coveted crusty edge. I've been known to push down old ladies to the floor at a church basement buffet for a chance at a corner square -- not one, but two crusty edges. Walk-On's was redeemed. The good reports of others were true, but a very recent night-time drive by revealed yet again, that dinner is not the time to go for a relaxing, enjoyable, rather quiet meal. If that's what you're looking for, go during the lunch hour or shortly thereafter.
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