The Bleu Crab
Café
“A Cajun will always share a recipe with you, but they'll
always leave out one ingredient.” Tourist
couple from Baton Rouge
Acts 14:7…and yet he did not leave himself without witness,
in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons,
satisfying your hearts with food and gladness
By the time she was
six Joyce Eva was making Gumbo at her mother’s side and has been cooking ever
since. She is the owner of the Blue
Crab Café in New Orleans. To see the place,
you would never guess that it was a café.
It sits quietly on a street in the French Quarter, another row house
among all the other row houses. The only
way to recognize it is the bright lime green paint on the siding and the neon
pink porch rail. There is a small sign next to the front door with a picture of
a blue crab and the words Joyce Eva’s underneath. But locals just call
it The Blue Crab. It is well known to locals and a few fortunate
tourists. They say the food has no
comparison, part Creole, part Cajun, part southern and all soul. The recipes are handed down by her grandmother
who was the main cook on her master’s plantation.
The Blue Crab Café has been a tradition since the 1870’s. Joyce Eva, the granddaughter of a slave, is
carrying on a family tradition, like her mother and grandmother, of serving the
best food around.
She graduated
from the famous Le Cordon Bleu school in Paris, and after working as a
Chef in several large cities like Atlanta and Chicago, London, and Paris, came
home to take care of her ailing mother and just stayed because family mattered,
working part-time in the café. After
her mother died, she decided to remain in New Orleans as the chef of this
quaint café. Why not? It already had a following from the locals, and besides,
she was not married and had no other family ties. She needed this quieter life.
Joyce Eva is the acclaimed author of several bestselling
cookbooks on blended Cuisine such as The Taste of Possum and In
Pursuit of Poke Salad, or the popular Suck Dem Heads and Crack Dem
Crabs. The Blue Crab cookbook, her
latest, contains several mouth-watering recipes such as braised Nutria lips and
pickled alligator feet as well as some famous French recipes.
Her salad garden is grown outback with all the freshest herbs. “All my food comes from the heart,” she
says. “Good home cooking is what gets us
through the tough times as well as the good.
I cook as if cookin’ for a funeral 'cause, you know, there is nothin’
better than funeral food. It fills you
from head to toe and soothes the soul.
You won’t leave nothin’ on your plate, and you won’t go home
hungry. That’s a fact!”
At the Blue Crab, Joyce Eva serves only the finest food on
tablecloth-clad tables, real cloth napkins and sterling silver. The chef works with the highest quality,
freshest produce available. Local favorites
are her mustard green salad and of course her award-winning poke salad. The shrimp, crabs and Gulf fish like red
snapper are fresh from the gulf. Her down-home dishes can make your eyes water,
reminding you of your mama’s cooking.
Her pork chops cannot be compared. The pork is purchased from a very small,
family-owned, organic pig farmer in Slidell because she hasn’t found any
cleaner pork to match. “None of my
dishes come from the slaughterhouse, baby.,” she says. “I shop daily at the fish market for the
freshest and all my produce is grown in my own back yard. My wines are suitable for every palate – from
white to rose and red to champagne. You
won't find finer food anywhere else; I guarantee.”
So, if you are in the mood for soup l'oignon, boeuf
bourguignon, con fit de canard or chicken, shrimp and andouille jambalaya, red
beans and rice, seafood gumbo, or just some mouthwatering soul food then you
must go to the Blue Crab Café. If you can find it.
© Nippy Blair 2015.
Posts and pictures on this blog cannot be copied, downloaded, printed, or used without the permission of the blog owner, Nippy Blair.