Kim's Seafood

Because Engineer and I are on our own this week (Diva is away at camp) we took the opportunity to immerse ourselves in our new community and eat where the locals eat.

My thought is that it is about the same cost both in ingredients and time to shop, prepare, and clean-up to eat out for two as it is to cook for two (within reason of course.)

With that in mind, we did our research* and found an inexpensive local restaurant headed out.

I'm going to be honest here and say that we did not intend on going to Kim's.  We were planning to go to a pub and get a burger but when we walked in, the wall of smoke that hit us took my breath away.  We walked right back out.

Then we thought we would head to a diner {all the way} across town.  Once we arrived to find no cars in their parking lot, we saw a piece of paper on their door notifying customers of recently changed hours that only included breakfast and lunch.  Publications, internet review sites, even their own Facebook page did not reflect these new hours.

Hrumph...

Plan C had to be enacted and that was to find the closest place to where we were that we recognized from the list.  Thank goodness for a GPS.

We scrolled through until we found a third burger joint and headed in that direction only to find that it was no longer in business.

Seriously?!...C'mon!...

We tried the GPS scrolling method one more time and found that we weren't that far from Kim's Seafood.  They are not a burger place.**

We thought we would give it a shot anyway.  What a brilliant stroke of luck that was!

We nearly missed it because when it comes to "hole in the wall" places, I think Kim's qualifies.  It is a storefront in a small shopping center by a wash-a-teria.  It looked a little suspect with it's bare bones decor and poker machine room in the back but it smelled good...if you like the smell of crawfish...and I do.

What I had come to understand about Kim's Seafood:

• They used to be located in New Orleans before Katrina wiped them out
• Their crawfish egg roll is so popular that when they took it off of the menu, patrons clamored for its return
• They use authentic New Orleans bread for their po'boys
• Their shrimp po'boy is something to write home about

We walked right up to the counter and ordered 2 shrimp po'boys, 2 crawfish egg rolls, an order of fries, 2 tap waters, and a Heineken for Engineer (it was well deserved after all of the driving all over town business.)  Our total was around $31 (without the beer and its accompanying obligatory tip, the total was more like $27.)  Our aim was to eat for less than $25 so we did go a little over (seafood is more expensive than burgers).  With that being said, we didn't eat all of the fries nor half of my po'boy so we had leftovers to take home.

They had steady traffic the whole time we were there.  Many people called in their orders to go and we watched as bag after bag of freshly boiled crawfish walked out the door.  It always makes me feel better to eat at a restaurant that is busy.

Let's talk about the food, shall we?

First of all, I loved to see that they use U.S. grain fed catfish and Louisiana shrimp and oysters.

Since they started in New Orleans, it gives them credibility making their po'boys.  All po'boys are not created equal.  Using that traditional Leidenheimer Baking Company bread sure does make a difference.  It's crusty but not hard on the outside and fluffy and not gummy on the inside.

Theirs is a traditional po'boy in the sense that it comes dressed with pickles, mayo, shredded lettuce, and sliced tomatoes.  That freshness is the perfect foil to the mountain of crispy not-at-all greasy popcorn shrimp that comes piled on the sandwich.  The shrimp's breading is light and crispy and the shrimp itself is cooked perfectly and not rubbery.

The fries were nothing special and I would skip them altogether next time to concentrate more on that gorgeous sandwich.

As for the crawfish egg roll...>drool<...oh.my.word.  I fancy myself a bit of an egg roll addict connoisseur.  These are perhaps the best egg rolls I have ever had.   Crunchy on the outside with perfectly seasoned vegetables and crawfish on the inside.  Gosh, it's good...

Please, if you are passing through Northwest Lou-zyana on your summer travels, I beg of you to stop and order the crawfish egg rolls.  You will not regret it.  And while you're there, you might as well order a shrimp po'boy, you know, for good measure.

You can find Kim's Seafood at 901 Benton Rd. Suite E in Bossier City and follow them on Facebook.

*We thought it might be fun to try out new-to-us local haunts and let you know about them.  There is absolutely no compensation for our reviews and the places don't know we are coming.  We do a little research online at Yelp and Urbanspoon, via the "Locals Love Us" and "The Locals Eat Here" publications, and obviously, through asking the natives.

**Kim's does sell cheeseburger po'boys.