Ouisi Cajun Cuisine
Posted by Degan on April 7th, 2011
Note: This post was imported from EthnicEats.ca
I’ve been to Ouisi Bistro a few times before but hadn’t had the full Cajun/Creole experience. My Ethnic Food Lover’s Companion tells me that Cajun cuisine is a mixture of French, Spanish, African, Mexican and Native American cultures and comes from Nova Scotian farmers who moved south. This is where your jambalayas, po’boys and crayfish come in. Creole, on the other hand, is similar in flavour but more formal and that the original Creoles were French and later Spanish nationals born in Louisiana.
We started with gator bites, because how can you not eat alligator when given the chance? At Ouisi it’s served with a healthy dose of “cajun tartar” (a spicy mayonnaise sauce with horseradish), but under all that sauce they do taste surprisingly like chicken, as they say.
For lunch we both had chicken sandwiches (so not the FULL Cajun/Creole experience then, but it’ll do for Vancouver). Matt had the blackened chicken breast on a baguette with Cajun tartar and I had the 14th Street Eats sandwich which was chicken breast with pesto and asiago cheese. Messy but good – lots of sauce all over the place.
Speaking of sauce, I poured what I thought was a sweet relish, Matouk’s Calypso sauce on my fries. It looked so friendly with the jazz musician on the label, except that I had a few fries and then my mouth was on fire. When I took another look I noticed the “hot! hot! hot!” down the side of the bottle and Matt pointed out that the main ingredient was aged, pickled scotch bonnet peppers. I love spice and especially hot sauce so I was excited to try one I hadn’t had before. It originates in Trinidad and Tobago and it’s not available in Vancouver – Ouisi imports it specially – but they do sell it in the restaurant for around $6. Delish!
_________________________________________
Ouisi Bistro
3014 Granville Street, Vancouver
