Photo note: One of a trio of sausage-sauce combinations served as an appetizer at The Vintage Steakhouse at Eldorado Resort Casino.
As someone who’s been dining out in Shreveport-Bossier for about 17 years, I’ve recently made an effort to sort of “shake off” preconceived notions that I’ve held about certain places and take a new look at the community’s dining scene. And I’ve had a tremendous amount of fun looking at familiar places from new angles. Recently, for example, I paid a couple of visits to The Vintage Steakhouse at Eldorado Resort Casino Shreveport and did my best to order as many of their more unique-sounding appetizers as possible. Their menu, if you haven’t checked it out lately, includes appetizers like pickled shrimp with lemon thyme aioli and red onion harissa marmalade, quail and grits, and a game sausage trio. I ate all of those things, and the one that I am still thinking about is the game sausage trio.
Duck, lamb and rabbit sausages are brilliantly paired with mango mustard, mint chimichurri and cherry gastrique sauces that perfectly complement the bold flavors of game. Someone put some thought into these meat-sauce pairings. The rabbit sausage, which is served atop a dollop of cherry gastrique sauce, was my favorite. The lamb, paired with mint chimichurri, was a delicious mash-up of flavors that I associate with Greek and Argentinian food. Duck sausage and mango mustard, the final of three presentations on the plate, was very sweet but tasty. Experimenting with different combinations (rabbit with chimichurri? duck with cherries?) would have been fun, but by the time that idea occurred to me, my trio of sausages was no more.
At the end of the day, I believe that dining out should really be fun. I’ve typically found more fun at the casual end of the dining spectrum in Shreveport-Bossier, but maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough. If you’re a person who enjoys big, bold flavors, this appetizer is a must-try.
