The menu at Cajun Steamer (click for a large, readable version), the promising new restaurant under construction on Meridian Boulevard in CoolSprings (near Noshville, Gigi's and Swanky's), is offering one of my most Proustian dishes: a fried eggplant stuffed with fish and topped with crab cream. The one at the late, lamented Uglesich's in New Orleans was nothing short of a revelation. Especially when you could watch its preparation in the tiny kitchen. The cook was working on a black stove behind a big screen, tending half a dozen skillets, one of them sizzling my eggplant. Then she stuffed it and ran it under a spider broiler to brown the top. It was unforgettable to watch the cramped quarter and the mastery of the cook, then to taste the extraordinary result.
The rest of the menu promises that and more. A crab-topped fried green tomato, crawfish enchiladas, cochon & grits. Oh people, I so very have my fingers crossed.
