Fat Tuesday

With all the hot weather that Iowa has had in the past several weeks, Jeffrey and I haven't been cooking as much as we'd like.  It doesn't help that our downstairs a.c. went out.  We had someone come out and have a look, and it's at least working now, just not as well as before.  So it's still 80 degrees on the lower level. Which is an improvement from 90 degrees indoors, I guess.

Then - don't these things seem to come in groups? - the air conditioner that covered the upstairs level died.  Completely!  There's no turning it on at all anymore.  We still have two under-powered small bedroom air conditioners, but they're woefully inadequate.  Anyway, I digress.  We haven't been cooking, and therefore the frozen leftovers that we both take for lunches have become depleted. So one Tuesday, I took a little trip out to Fat Tuesday, a small Cajun restaurant on the south side of Des Moines.  I picked that one on purpose, because I like green peppers and Jeffrey is allergic to them. Literally EVERYTHING at Fat Tuesday has green pepper in it.  Well, maybe not the cornbread.

I got a small bowl of gumbo, some red beans and rice, and jalapeno cornbread to go.  The food was ready quickly and was packaged snugly for the trip back to my downtown office.

Here is the gumbo:

I tasted it, and OOOWEEEE it was spicy hot!  The Andouille sausage was very good, and I tried very hard to like the numerous pieces of chopped okra in the soup, but I still have an aversion to that most Cajun of veggies.  (You might remember that last year, okra made my top 5 Ick Foods of 2010). 






I thought the red beans and rice would give my burning mouth a little rest, but to my surprise it was even spicier! Very good, but VERY hot.

The cornbread was a blessing after all the spiciness- but why did I pick the jalapeno cornbread?!?  The flavor was wonderful, but my tastebuds were definitely ready for something sweet, not more heat. 

I was surprised that my favorite, dirty rice, wasn't on the menu.  Maybe it's not Cajun, just Southern.  Not sure about that.

I enjoyed my lunch very much, but if you don't care for spicy food, don't say I didn't warn you!

Fat Tuesday is located at 6112 SW 9th Street in Des Moines.  They're open Monday- Saturday from 11 AM to 9 PM, and on Sundays from 11 AM to 6 PM.