scole35
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Dixie-Fried
Hello, just wanted to comment on our visit to Chateau New Orleans. I, too, have visited this wonderful little place with congenial atmosphere hard to beat but sorely lacking in really good genuine southern food. It amazes me how one can take a simple humble dish like red beans and rice and make it taste like it came right out of the box. I am afraid the shipping costs and compromising on the quality of taste has undermine the true value of our southern culture. That must be the only reason I can think of for them to spoil such with resorting to box items instead of fresh foods. In times past, nothing pleased me more to have people taste the humbleness of such simple dishes like red beans and rice, grits, gumbo, jambalaya, and etoufee out of my kitchen and just go crazy over it. Grant you, some dishes take more work but hey, it is worth it. Come on, how can you fix any of these dishes with nothing but the real thing, not something out of boxes. It has always been a time honored saying as far as Cajun dishes or Creole, what have you, to have only the best as far as indgredients go. I don't know about you but it really is a shame that someone can't go in and help out that poor owner of Chateau New Orleans. Anybody from the real south will do. We have different flavors all over that geographical area of Louisiana but anyone from there will certainly improve the quality of those dishes. And last but not least, do the prices need to be that high for such humble dishes. I can understand if you are getting genuine andouille sausage from Louisiana and fresh red beans that cook up in no time compared to some of these beans brought here from who knows where.Also the seafood prices grant you are not cheap either. But really, now, give us a break on the prices, huh? Love to chat more but I think you covered it all in your excellent review. By the way, there is a place here that I want to try next, called the SandCrab or something like it and just a couple blocks from where I live right here in San Marcos and run by a family from Florida. Heard it was good from my neighbors but of course, I need to try it out for myself since my neighbors don't come from the south, lol. Have you heard of it and if so, what are your comments about it. Would like to know. Also raised Cajun Stacia "Cajun Mama" Cole— July 1, 2008 2:37 p.m.