The Cajun Foodie

I was out in Minden, Louisiana searching for a bite to eat and as you can imagine, the options were not exactly falling out of the Yellow Pages.  Even my trusty  source from the area was previously indisposed and could not provide a little insight in time.

Luckily, I was able to get some recommendations from the  iPhone (yes my friends, urbanspoon covers Minden) and I had whittled it down to a couple barbecue joints. For some reason or another, Minden seems to have a lot of them and the highest rated one out of all of them was Neta’s Drive Inn, so off I went.

As soon as I started down the road, I could have tossed out the GPS and looked for the smoke (the true sign of any good BBQ establishment).  Neta’s is not just smoking, it is billowing, pouring out of the place powered by a large fan right next to a large pile of wood.

Reminds me of the time I smoked 60 pounds of pork butts for an LSU-Tulane game.  After 17 hours straight of tending the pit, that pig was good… but the Wife had to smell the smoke in my hair for literally 3 months afterward. After 3 haircuts and numerous showers, I could still smell that sweet smoke every time the wind blew what little I have left of the hair on my head.

Usually at BBQ joints, I’m kind of torn as to what to order.  I am usually a big fan of the combo plate for the variety aspect, but deep down my tummy always aches for the sandwiches.

I was ecstatic to see that the menu was a list of nicely priced assorted sandwiches (dare I say a la carte); at 2.50 for the small I really couldn’t help myself from getting the chipped beef and a sausage sandwich, not to mention a side of beans.

After being handed this little care package with the obligatory sweet tea, I sat down on the outdoor patio furniture and decided to go with the beans first.  Little black specks were littered throughout the beans and knowing that they had chipped beef on the menu, this could only mean one thing: chipped beef (or more likely the burnt ends) was in the beans.  They were killer, but they are a side order, and I hardly ever labor over too many words describing the side orders.

I dug into the chipped beef sandwich next.  Let me explain, I am a big fan of BBQ beef sandwiches, HUGE fan actually, and the salivation welled up in my mouth when I read Bowzer’s recent post about the Goalpost just further proved my loyalty to the combo. While I love the highest quality briskets and pulled pork any other time, these items are generally much harder to pull off and usually leave me a bit disappointed.

The chipped beef, and this is not a smack at Neta’s or any other establishment serving chipped beef or any other BBQ beef sandwich, can rise to the level of excellence with some decent meat and a great sauce.

Neta’s had it on both counts.  The perfect amount of tender smokey beef was placed on a soft white bun, and every square inch was coated in the sauce.  It was perfect, and the fact that it wasn’t a hulking BBQ sandwich like you get at Bergeron’s made me feel better about ordering the sausage sandwich too in the name of food blogging….

While I love sausage poboys (ever see the glaze in my eyes when I’m holding my first Manda sausage po boy of the season in Tiger Stadium?) I’m always a bit hesitant about BBQ smoked sausage sandwiches.  Often times you’re left with trying to force the meat back into the bun it just slid out of due to a oily BBQ sauce, but  once again, Neta’s did it right.

Perfectly sized, the sausage was a bit blackened on the edges just as it should be from sitting in a wood stoked fire and was nestled in the soft hot dog bun.  Glistening with THE sauce,it was pretty much the best BBQ sandwich I have ever had in Louisiana and was the stuff of roadside legend.  It also revealed Neta’s secret to me… the sauce.

Their sauce is not some jarred concoction or even a jarred version with a little something something added to it. This sauce had the same black bits of chipped beef throughout it and I knew they must crumble up a couple pounds of it in their sauce which gives it fabulous texture and excellent flavor.  Looking back on it, I wouldn’t doubt if they flavored their beans with the same sauce and let the juices from the meat fall into them as they cook.

I stumbled upon Neta’s but now I’m looking forward to heading to Minden again.  Totally unpretentious, with great prices and excellent food, Neta’s Drive Inn is truly the place to be in that neck of the woods.