Avocado toast at French Truck Coffee
There are times you just want a light bite while enjoying coffee with friends. When you’re at French Truck Coffee, the ever-reliable, trendy avocado toast does the trick.
Thick focaccia bread is toasted and coated with delicious avocado spread and topped with pickled red onions. It comes with a small side of seasoned tomato salad for topping, of which I do liberally. And while you can pick it up and eat it with your hands, the tasty density of the toast and toppings makes it fork-and-knife worthy.
French Truck Coffee, 2978 Government St., Baton Rouge, (225) 406-7776. Mondays through Fridays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Jennifer Brown, senior editor)
Jubans' Ora King Salmon
While I've come to enjoy fish dishes more as each year passes, it is still rarely my go-to order. Jubans' Ora King Salmon may force me to change my ways.
Created using fresh New Zealand salmon, which the menu says is considered to be the "Wagyu of the sea," the dish is served with ratatouille, sautéed spinach, smoked tomato coulis, chive beurre blanc and a salmon cracklin'. It is a beautiful, colorful dish, but it tastes even better than it looks.
Jubans is located at 3739 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge. (225) 346-8422. Hours are Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. through 9 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. till 10 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. (Jan Risher, features editor)
Sushi at Rock N' Sake
If I had to pick one category of food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be sushi. After a trip to Spain, sushi at Rock N' Sake was the perfect welcome-back meal.
A Tuesday night at the restaurant is usually pretty packed. You see, Rock N' Sake offers a Tuesday special which includes their Tiger roll and roll of the month for $6 when you purchase any regular-priced roll, along with drink specials. This particular Tuesday seemed "normal." It dawned on me. The college kids are gone for the summer. A sigh of relief.
Aware that the wait time would be shorter tonight, I joyfully placed my order: the Triple "S" and the Tiger Roll. The Triple "S" features tuna, onion ceviche sauce, "snowkrab," green onions, spicy tuna, tempura shrimp, cream cheese, jalapeños and more. My favorite part was the grilled onions that were atop the roll. The Tiger Roll, similarly, includes tuna, shrimp tempura, avocado, eel sauce and more.
My friends and I were in and out in 30-ish minutes. Record timing for a Tuesday!
Rock N' Sake, 3043 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge. (225) 615-7940
Rock N' Sake is open Tuesday-Wednesday 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Thursday and Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (Lauren Cheramie, staff writer)