Launched nearly 11 years ago by Mark W. Bihm and Humberto Villegas, the now-married couple has managed to attract a steady percentage of neighborhood taco crawlers with Louisiana favorites such as Crawfish Etouffee, shrimp Creole and hearty gumbo made with traditional dark roux.<\/p>\n The structure, which is known as a false-front house or swamp shack, dates back to the late 1800s. It was moved here from Fifth Avenue at a time when more than 200 of them lined the streets of Downtown. According to Villegas, the kitchen was once a gun shop and the small, homey dining room was a storage space.<\/p>\n Villegas has also been told by members of San Diego Ghost Hunters that the spirit of a crying little girl lurks inside. The group drops in for dinner a few times a year with paranormal detection equipment and they sometimes conduct s\u00e9ances after their meals, he said.<\/p>\n Open Thursday through Sunday only, Bihm does the cooking while Humberto works the dining room, its front porch and an adjacent outdoor patio. Bihm is a native of New Orleans and derived some of his recipes from \u201cMama Barker,\u201d a longtime family friend who taught him how to regulate the butter, roux and cayenne for Crawfish Etouffee.<\/p>\n The dish was lush and creamy both times I tried it, and stocked generously with the tiny critters imported from his home state.<\/p>\n Gumbo with chicken and sausage uses a thinner, darker roux achieved from mixing oil into the flour instead of butter. Experienced Cajun cooks like Bihm know exactly when to yank it off the heat at the very moment before it would burn. In a recent visit, the consistency was smooth and the flavor sported accurate pungency. Plenty of soft French bread baked by Sprouts is served alongside to soak up the precious liquid.<\/p>\n The bread is served also with a starter of BBQ shrimp and Savoie\u2019s hot beef sausage. We substituted the latter for alligator-pork sausage, which tasted basically like Kielbasa with kicked-up seasonings. When blended into pork, the reptile meat isn\u2019t nearly as dense in texture as compared to when I\u2019ve consumed it in pure form.<\/p>\n The shrimp were butterflied and ultra tender, although Bihm\u2019s glistening-red sauce became the high point of the dish. It clung lovingly to the proteins and offered a fruity and oniony flavor that complimented the robust finish of Andygator doppelbock beer sold in 22-ounce bottles. Or if you prefer bloody Marys, the caf\u00e9 slings a snappy, gulpable version made with wine-based vodka and secret spices.<\/p>\n Judicious measures of cayenne pepper were evident in every dish we tried, although with less of it poking through shrimp Creole. The large crustaceans are dressed in stewed tomato sauce containing the \u201choly trinity\u201d \u2014 onions, celery and bell peppers. I\u2019ve seen it prepared both milder and spicier in other places. Bihm\u2019s recipe falls safely in the middle.<\/p>\n Conversely, he uses liberal doses of whiskey in the sauce poured over decadent bread pudding. It\u2019s one of the booziest versions I recall having, and one of the best.<\/p>\n The caf\u00e9 maintains a low profile leading up to Fat Tuesday, scheduled this year for February 17. Expect the regular menu, but with beads, masks and wreaths in place to chase away any forlorn spirits lingering within the property.<\/p>\n Por Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":816,"featured_media":232779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11557","_seopress_titles_title":"Big Easy classics from a hidden swamp shack","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11557,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mission-valley-news","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Exteriorwebtop\"](\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Exteriorwebtop.jpg\")
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(Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Andygator](\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Beerweb-300x225.jpg\")
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(Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Screen-Shot-2015-02-13-at-10.40.53-AM.png\")
<\/a>\u2014Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/em> es el autor de \u201cSecret San Diego\u201d (ECW Press), y comenz\u00f3 su carrera como escritor local hace m\u00e1s de dos d\u00e9cadas como miembro del personal del antiguo San Diego Tribune. Puedes localizarlo en <\/em>fsabatini@san.rr.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"