Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Seafood Shacks
242
Middendorf's
Through Thick & Thin
Pass Manchac, Louisiana
The long white shack with its red-and-white-
striped awnings looks quite respectable
amid the bait shops and railroad tracks of
this commercial strip south of Ponchatoula,
where Hwy. 55 stands elevated above the
bayous. But don't expect fine dining—inside
Middendorf's cozy wood-paneled dining
room things are casual, take-us-as-you-find-
us, even a little raucous on a Saturday night.
(Service is friendly, too.) There's bound to
be a line for weekend dinner, even though
they've built a second restaurant next door
to handle overflow crowds (with food this
good so close to New Orleans, a line is
inevitable). Be prepared to wait, and hope
that you'll time it right to get that sensa-
tional sunset view across the bayou. You're
only a 45-minute drive out of town, on the
far side of Lake Pontchartrain (it's only a
stone's throw from Lake Maurepas), but
that's all it takes to feel like you're in the
heart of Cajun country.
At Middendorf's—which has been here
since the Depression—catfish is the main
attraction; reportedly the owners buy two
tons of it a week. Whether you order it thick
or thin is just a question of your desired ratio
of meaty fish to crisp golden batter crust. It's
the thin fillets, though, that seem to earn the
most rave reviews—they're so exquisitely
thin, they come out of the fryer delicately
curled and seem to dissolve in your mouth.
The restaurant also dishes up a host
of southern Louisiana specialties, like
shrimp-and-crab gumbo, boiled crawfish,
crawfish cakes, po' boys, shrimp rémou-
lade, frog legs, and turtle soup. As you'd
expect in Cajun land, many dishes come
topped with barbecue sauce, but Midden-
dorf's doesn't overwhelm customers with
fiery spices—all the better to let the flavor
of the fresh-caught Louisiana fish shine
through. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
30160 Hwy. 51 (
&
985/386-6666
).
(
Louis Armstrong New Orleans Inter-
national (15 miles/24km).
L
$$$
Omni Royal Orleans,
621 St.
Louis St. (
&
800/THE-OMNI
[800/843-
6664] or 504/529-5333; www.omniroyal
orleans.com). $$
Hotel Monteleone
(
&
800/535-9595
or 504/523-3341; www.
hotelmonteleone.com).
Delis
243
New York Deli Classics
Lotsa Matzoh
New York, New York
The term “New York-style deli” seems
redundant. The deli restaurant was
invented
in New York, so how could any proper deli
be anything
but
New York-style?
Downtown on the Lower East Side,
where America's first delicatessens
sprouted in the 19th-century Jewish slums,
Katz's Delicatessen
(205 E. Houston St.;
