This Week's State Specials are from:

The following state special dinner menu is for Friday, February 10th through Thursday, February 16, 2012.

Hurricane............$7.00
Tequila, White Rum, Pineapple, Blue Curacao and Orange Juice Over

Ice Shrimp and Chicken Gumbo ............$5.95
Shrimp, Chicken, and Andouille Sausage in a Spicy Okra and Rice Stew

Gator Bites............$8.95
Tender Morsels of Alligator Loin Deep Fried in a Tempura Batter Served with a Spicy Creole Cream

Steak Pontchartrain............$25.95
A Pan Roasted 10 oz Strip Steak Finished with a Brandy, Green Peppercorn Cream Sauce

Crawfish Etouffee............$20.00
Tender, Sweet Crawfish in a Complex Stew of Flavorful Spices Served with Red Beans and Rice

Bananas Foster Cheesecake............$5.95
A Cream Cheese Cake Covered with Golden Rum Flambeed Sweet Bananas

Facts & History

Pelican State

Named in honor of Louis XIV of France

Entered Union on April 30, 1812 as the 18th state

Louisiana has a rich, colorful historical background. Early Spanish explorers were Alvarez Pieda, 1519; lvar Nez Cabeza de Vaca, 1528; and Hernando De Soto in 1541. Sieur de la Salle reached the mouth of the Mississippi and claimed all the land drained by it and its tributaries for Louis XIV of France in 1682.

Louisiana became a French crown colony in 1731, was ceded to Spain in 1763, returned to France in 1800, and was sold by Napoleon to the U.S. as part of the Louisiana Purchase (with large territories to the north and northwest) in 1803.

In 1815, Gen. Andrew Jackson's troops defeated a larger British army in the Battle of New Orleans, neither side aware that the treaty ending the War of 1812 had been signed. Louisiana is a leader in natural gas, salt, petroleum, and sulfur production. The state also produces large crops of sweet potatoes, rice, sugar cane, pecans, soybeans, corn, and cotton.

Louisiana provides for two highly sophisticated and distinct cuisines; Cajun and Creole. Both cuisines make use of abundant local crawfish, oysters, shrimp, chicken, smoked ham seasonal game, rice, corn meal, hot peppers and file gumbo. The rural Cajun cuisine was strongly influenced by the arrival of French Acadians exiled from Nova Scotia. They brought with them a simple country style of cooking which blended with the ingredients that grew wild in the state's southernmost bayous and swamplands.

Creole cooking that developed in the port of New Orleans represents a unique blend of many culinary traditions. Creole cooking was borne from the influence of many diverse ingredients and cultures including those of Africa, France, Spain and The Choctaw Indian.

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