From A Past Issue Of The New Orleans Menu Daily Originally published September 4, 2007 Ten Best Dishes Stuffed With Seafood 1. Stuffed soft shell crab, Dakota. 629 N. US 190 , 892-3712. They jam so much mostly-crabmeat stuffing in there that the thing almost looks like a ball with legs. 2. Stuffed crab, Peppermill. 3524 Severn Ave., 455-2266. Since Maryland crab cakes took over all over town, the traditional stuffed crabs have all but disappeared. These are the best around: a bread stuffing studded with jumbo lump crabmeat, all in the little metal shell. 3. Stuffed flounder, Fury's. 724 Martin Behrman Ave., 834-5646. At this time, Fury's is the only restaurant I know of serving the whole stuffed flounder we came to love at West End at Bruning's and other restaurants. Fury's can't always get the flounders (that fish is one of the few that has been ion short supply since the storm), but when they do it's terrific. The same stuffing is terrific wrapped around shrimp. 4. Stuffed mushrooms, Pascal's Manale. 1838 Napoleon Ave., 895-4877. Manale's makes a fine crabmeat stuffing to fill a pair of big mushrooms--already a good dish. The excellent, light hollandaise sends this over the top into irresistibility. 5. Stuffed drumfish Tommy, Drago’s. 3232 N. Arnoult Rd., 888-9254. This is the ancestor of their famous char-broiled oysters, a piece of fish with skin and scales intact, sitting on the grill being basted with garlic-and-herb butter and the crabmeat stuffing on top. 6. Deviled stuffed crab, Bourbon House. 144 Bourbon, 522-0111. This is an elegant approach to the old stuffed crab, made with meuniere sauce and more than a little bit of pepper. 7. Seafood-stuffed eggplant, Galatoire's. 209 Bourbon, 525-2021. There's hardly any bread in this. The stuffing is made, instead, with a bechamel sauce and lots of shrimp and crabmeat, along with enough spices and herbs to make this a very big flavor. The same stuffing at Christian's made their famous stuffed fish; I hope we'll see that (and Christian's) again. 8. Crabmeat-crusted redfish, Red Fish Grill. 115 Bourbon, 598-1200. "Crust" is a misnomer. It's a stuffing, really, made almost entirely of crabmeat, that's layered on top of thie fish before it goes under the broiler to be finished off to a crusty, sizzling deliciousness. 9. Stuffed shrimp wrapped in phyllo, Maple Street Cafe. 7623 Maple, 314-9003. This is a great idea. The stuffing itself is very crabby, to the point of elegance. They jam that inside a butterflied shrimp, and then wrap the whole thing with flaky phyllo pastry and bake it. A little lemon butter finishes off a great appetizer. This is also on the menu at the Maple Cafe, 541 Oaklawn, 833-8877. 10. Stuffed shrimp, Bozo’s. 3117 21st Street, 831-8666. These differ from the standard in being butterflied and broiled, with the claw-crabmeat stuffing sitting right in the middle. Lighter than most such things. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com