Magnolia’s Diner – Natchitoches, La. – Review
As is obvious, I am a foodie in addition to all my other endeavors. This week I happened to be in Natchitoches, La., where I am from in my pre-Texas days.
Louisiana is, of course, the greatest state in the country for food no matter what the New York and Cali food snobs think. You get great food here and not only that, the cultures are so diverse the food is unique and not in some pompous "fusion' way. In Louisiana you can taste the history.
I was hard at work and asked my wife and mom to pick up a plate lunch for me while they were out and they brought back something I just have to write about.
Magnolia's Diner is a new food treasure for me and I'm sure I'll be making it a regular stop when I'm in town.
First, I'm going to refer to it interchangeably as carrying soul food or black cuisine. No need for the politically correct crowd to write and tell me that calling it "black food" is derogatory because 1) I don't care and 2) it isn't derogatory the way I am using it.
Soul food and black cuisine often intermingle, but sometimes they are separate. This is one of those occasions where the cooks have managed to mingle the two and some would say it is one and some the other.
The food is simple, seasoned well, and tasty and, in addition, you get a lot of it for the $8 a plate lunch costs. You can look at the picture below and see what I mean.
The meal is served buffet style, with your choice of meat and vegetables. Today, the meat choices were turkey or smothered pork chops. My wife actually called me on the telephone to see which one I wanted and I chose the turkey, thinking it would be slices of turkey breast. Instead it was a turkey wing. Now I'm not complaining. A turkey wing has plenty of meat on it and the skin was spiced well and I have no complaints. I mention that it was a wing instead of breast meat just to emphasize a point. Black/soul food is a lot like Cajun food, or country food. In a pure form much of it is made from the cheaper cuts. Gumbo, chicken and dumplings, anything smothered, were all done to use a cheaper cut of meat and sometimes to stretch it as far as possible. You could feed a lot more people with a pot of chicken and dumplings than you could with a fried chicken.
A turkey wing is one of the least expensive parts of a turkey and yet Magnolia's Diner took this and with proper seasoning turned it into an excellent entree. They then added cornbread dressing, green beans, and sweet potatoes and turned out a fantastic plate lunch that required no extra salt or pepper. The meal got a big thumbs up.
If you happen to be in Natchitoches swing by Magnolia's Diner at 621 Bossier Street and tell them the Dude sent you by.
