Reel in tasty Cajun-style seafood in Long Beach at Cajun Crack’n – Press Telegram

Hunkering down within the Lengthy Seashore department of Cajun Crack’n – the others are in Vacaville, Milpitas, San Jose and Fresno, with extra opening in Harmony and Las Vegas – over a cheerful lunch of a deep-fried oyster po’boy, I questioned idly, as I are inclined to, why is a po’boy referred to as a po’boy? The story, as is commonly the case, is suitably colourful.

It goes again to the late nineteenth century, when the sandwiches have been known as “oyster loaves.” If it contained fried shrimp and fried oysters, it was far more colorfully referred to as a “Peacemaker.”

The identify po’boy got here from a New Orleans restaurant owned by a pair of former streetcar conductors, brothers Benny and Clovis Martin, who opened their eatery in 1921. It was so widespread that in 1929, the brothers turned native heroes by serving free sandwiches to hanging streetcar staff. And it was in the course of the strike that the Martins started referring to their hungry brethren as “poor boys.”

The identify traveled from the diners to the sandwiches. And, with N’awlins being a metropolis constructed on a mix of nostalgia, quirk and downright eccentricity (together with some actually nice eats) the identify caught.

It’s at Cajun Crack’n, the place the sandwiches are tasty facsimiles of the unique – loaves of crusty French bread, crammed with a selection of hen, shrimp, oysters, catfish or softshell crabs, all deep-fried after all, topped with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, a sweetish home sauce, maybe a couple of dabs of scorching sauce should you need, with spicy Cajun fried or lemon pepper fries on the facet.

Does it style the identical as a po’boy devoured within the French Quarter? In fact not. Every little thing tastes higher down there, even within the sewer-wet warmth of summer season. However N’awlins is much, and Lengthy Seashore is shut.

There’s far more on the menu than po’boys at Crack’n – a style of the Bayou in a Carson Avenue shopping center is appreciated for its madcap goodness. Now, if solely the place had a Mardi Gras marching band.

Crack’n follows the Cajun-at-a-remove sample of most N’awlins eateries removed from the Mississippi. The place is an outsized consuming corridor, with practical cubicles and flooring that look as if they are often hosed down after an evening of stews slopping all around the joint.

The partitions and ceiling are embellished with nautical stuff, a warehouse price of boats and stuffed fish and even a Jack Sparrow pirate evident malevolently out on the diners. Meals comes speeding out of the kitchen trailing steam like a paddle wheeler. Lengthy tables of diners confront extra chow than might be rationally eaten in per week, but is fortunately consumed in a night. Let the nice instances roll!

The menu isn’t lengthy, however it’s lengthy sufficient. There are a pair of soups – a gumbo served with or with out rice, and a Cajun chowder. Deep-fried is in all places – this isn’t a sushi bar. The fries come topped with Cajun spice, which appears a generic time period for peppery and salty. There are onion rings, fried soft-shell crabs, scorching sings, fried calamari, fried oysters, fried okra, Cajun fried rice with shrimp or crawfish. There’s a inexperienced salad which appears wildly misplaced. Even the garlic noodles appear to have wandered in from one other restaurant.

In the event you don’t need your fried seafood in a sandwich – feeling poorly a few po’boy – the identical 5 proteins, deep-fried all, are available in a basket with fries. There’s a lobster roll, which at $19.95 is the costliest dish on the menu, until you rely the dozen uncooked oysters for $25.95 – which truly appear a bit tame for Crack’n. Particularly while you confront the principle occasion, the Large Feed – referred to in Stephen King style as “The Boiling.”

First, you select your seafood – a dozen choices, together with shrimp (with heads on or heads off), inexperienced mussels, child octopus, and 4 crab choices. Then, you decide a sauce from 5 – although the fifth sauce is a mixture of the earlier 4. The 4 spice ranges vary from Gentle to Tongue on Hearth; take that warning significantly, for it’s going to negate all different flavors in The Boiling.

Take into account including corn on the cob, spuds and sausage to the combination; a hard-cooked egg appears a bit bizarre.

Then, put together to dig in, making a multitude that coats your bib and by some means soaks via into no matter you put on beneath. The sauce and the seafood will depart your fingers redolent, and your tongue coated. The pleasure is you can be a rambunctious child, it doesn’t matter what your age.

The menu proclaims: “No plate, no fork, no downside. Dig in, have enjoyable.” Go along with a crowd, kiss your weight loss program farewell. You possibly can all the time eat tofu tomorrow. Although you’ll dream of the crawfish. Fried.

​​Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance eating critic. Electronic mail mreats@aol.com.

Cajun Crack’n

• Ranking: 2.5 stars
• Deal with: Lengthy Seashore Towne Middle, 7591 Carson Blvd., Lengthy Seashore
• Info: 562-264-1868; www.cajuncrackin.com
• Delicacies: Cajun-style seafood, served in a big area, at this Lengthy Seashore department of a mini-chain. Specializing in lots of deep-fried meals, together with outsized kettles of seafood referred to as “The Boiling” – which sounds as very like a Stephen King novel as dinner.
• When: Lunch and dinner, every single day
• Costs: About $35 per particular person; reservations greatest for teams
• On the menu: 2 Soups ($6.95), 11 Appetizers ($3.95-$13.95), 5 Fried Baskets ($11.95-$15.95), 4 Sliders/Rolls ($11.95-$19.95), 5 Po’Boys ($12.95-$14.95), 12 Seafood for “The Boiling” ($13.95-$16.95), 5 Combos/Particular Offers Household Meals ($36.95-$76.95)
• Bank cards: MC, V
• What the celebs imply: 4 (World class! Price a visit from anyplace!), 3 (Most wonderful, even distinctive. Price a visit from anyplace in Southern California.), 2 (An excellent place to go for a meal. Price a visit from anyplace within the neighborhood.) 1 (In the event you’re hungry, and it’s close by, however don’t get caught in site visitors going.) 0 (Actually, not price writing about.)