If you ever want to meet an individual who loves Louisiana, drop by Kim’s Seafood and Po-Boy, located at 901 Benton Road in Bossier City, and meet Duc Duong. Mr. Duc owns the joint, along with his always-cheerful wife, and together they’ve launched three restaurants. The first two, located in New Orleans and southern Texas, respectively, were destroyed by hurricanes. The current incarnation of Kim’s serves up some of the best po-boys I’ve ever eaten (the secret is the Leidenheimer Baking Company bread that Mr. Duc has delivered from New Orleans), along with a seasonal assortment of fresh Louisiana seafood.
The menu includes something like 150 items. One of those items, the strange and awesome crawfish egg roll, is as beloved by regular customers as it is hated by Mr. Duc. Ask him about these crawfish egg rolls, and he gets visibly perturbed.
“They’re too much work,” he told me. He tried to do away with the egg rolls, which he personally makes by hand, but customers gave him too much grief about it. “One lady came in and ordered three crawfish egg rolls,” he said. “I told her, ‘I quit serving them. They’re too much trouble!’ She stomped her feet and got very angry.”
We all owe that lady a debt of gratitude. Thanks, angry crawfish egg roll lady, wherever you are.
Even the post on Kim’s Seafood’s Facebook page announcing the return of the crawfish egg roll seemed a little resigned. “We are now serving crawfish eggroll,” said the first post. A follow-up comment: “So many people ask for it.”
Who says the little guy’s voice doesn’t count any more?
A note on the photography: Somehow, I managed to slice the egg roll in the photo above in the one spot with no crawfish. I assure you, there are crawfish tails in these egg rolls.
