The Pappadeaux Platter at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen is overpriced, unsophisticated, and likely to cause water retention.
But it’s also really addictive. Strangely, I found myself wanting another one even when I woke up feeling bloated and gross the next morning.
The Platter features fried shrimp, fried catfish (sensing a trend?), fried stuffed shrimp, and stuffed crab, all served over French fries. I asked to modify my Platter with the addition of a soft-shell crab (also fried) and the substitution of a baked potato for fries – my lame attempt to make the dish slightly less fry-tastic. Didn’t matter, as they gave me fries anyway.
Though it all tasted similar because it was all prepared the same way, seasoned and battered, the seafood was nevertheless juicy and tasted fresh. A few squeezes of lemon and some dips into the spicy cocktail and tartar sauces livened up the flavor, particularly of the sizeable soft-shell crab. Even heartier were the stuffed shrimp and crab, both swollen with a rich celery and sage dressing.
The Platter makes for a satisfying, albeit very salty, meal. And when you add a whole butter-soaked baked potato, well, get ready to sink into a sodium coma – and to emerge from it, strangely, wanting more fried fish.
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This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.