In the back of the room, cooks roll out the dough, slice it into squares or fingers, then drop it into bubbling oil.  When done, the sweet pieces are liberally showered with white confectioners sugar that we dare you not to get on your clothes!

Your place in the room is in line — filling up a mug with hot chocolate, strong black coffee, or cafe au lait — that creamy mixture of milk and coffee that we were first sipped at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans.

And then you move through the room to find a place at the little round tables where shakers of sugar await you as you enjoy a Southern treat.

Or you just plop down at a wooden table, spread out the daily news, and dig in.

One coffee refill is yours for the taking, but you may have to order an extra plate of beignets just to complement the extra java.  But that’s only if you have room, of course!

For more entries in this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Room, click here.

Coffee Call

3132 College Drive

Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoffeeCallbr?rf=141007179269506

If you park in the adjacent Galvez Garage, you’ll walk directly inside to the Main Street Market where, on Saturdays, you can watch the Fresh from the Market Cooking Demonstrations beginning at 10.  The chef on board this Saturday blended a mixture of fresh veggies and tomato juice for a healthy, colorful gazpacho while guests sipped coffee and sampled breakfast breads from Our Daily Bread right next to the cooking area.

Blending a healthy, colorful gazpacho at the Main Street Market

Loaves of fresh bread line the counter at Our Daily Bread.

We meandered through the crowded aisle, past the demo and the tempting breads, so we could sample freshly made pork sausages neatly pinned by toothpicks and placed within reach at Cutrer’s.  We can’t serve deer meat here, the vendor told me, but I was content with the delicious pork version offered to us.

Offering samples of reshly made sausages from Cutrer’s

At Millitello’s Gourmet Specialties booth, we sampled fresh tilapia baked with Militello’s signature Sicilian Olive Oil with herbs and spices bottled right in. I had to bring home a bottle of this goodness after watching this gentleman offer us a second sample.  First, he added a little balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese, and granulated garlic to a tablespoon or two of the oil.  Then he dipped french bread into the mix.  Can’t wait to serve the fish or the dippin’ bread at home!

Fresh tilapia baked in Militello’s Sicilian Olive Oil was our treat from this booth.

I passed on this gorgeous three-layer lemon cake only because I knew there was more temptation outside . . . and I was right. But you can buy one slice or one cake — your choice.  Pretty cakes, right?

Outside, we met Frances Chauvin whose blue ribbon pies could have won recognition just for their looks alone.  There’s nothing more Southern than homemade crusts filled with luscious coconut or pecan or fruit fillings, and these looked genuinely hand-crafted.

When Francis told me she had just been to Knoxville this past spring to see Robin Roberts (anchor on ABC’s Good Morning America) inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, I asked her how she knew Robin.  She worked for me when she attended college in Hammond where we’re located. Robin made $4.75 an hour when she worked for us, but even then I could tell she was going to be somebody.  At the Hall of Fame, I spent an hour with her afterwards.  I’m kind of a second mama, I guess.

The story about Robin Roberts who worked with Ms. Chauvin held us captive, but the pies were what we took home.

My friend (and willing partner in sampling the goods), Cathy Dunn of Meadville, Mississippi, stood next to a stack of shoe soles.  You read that right — shoe soles.  Ms. Chauvin had to “larn us” what they were:  You take whatever pie crust you have left over, shape it in a circle, and then sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  And we call ’em shoe soles!  (We call ’em yummy!)

Cathy Dunn stands next to a tall stack of shoe soles from Frances Chauvin, the “Pie Lady.”

Some vendors brought goat cheese, some hauled in their greenest perennials, and some laid out their best summer vegetables like okra, potatoes, tomatoes, and lettuce.  What do you think of this head of bibb lettuce that the vendor said was also called butter lettuce? I think it’s picture perfect!

At the Bocage Honey booth, I fell in love with a honey-based soap for my sister Marilyn, a die-hard LSU Tiger fan.  It’s hard to see in this picture, but there’s a very clear likeness of Mike the Tiger embedded in the top of this soap.  (My sister may not even let water touch it!)

It’s a cake of soap with a tiger picture right on top!

At the end of our journey, we wandered back inside only to be drawn to  GoYaYa’s where they make crepes filled with sweet (Nutella, Strawberry, etc.) or savory fillings (Monte Cristo, Ratatouille, Muffaletta and more)!

Cooking great crepes at GoYaYa’s

We split a Muffaletta Crepe, and, as you can see, this half of that delicious olive-laced concoction was plenty!

Half — yes, just half — of a Muffaletta Crepe from GoYaYa!

If you’re in Baton Rouge “of a Saturday mornin’,” stop by Red Stick Farmers Market, a place I first read about in a blog from Traveluster that you, too, can read here.

And if you have a favorite farmers market of your own, let us hear from you in the Comments.  Where should we go next to find the best veggies anywhere?

Red Stick Farmers Market

Fifth Street at Main Street in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Saturdays: 8:00 AM til 12:00 PM

redstickfarmersmarket.org

For more information:

To read about the “Pie Lady,” Frances Chauvin, click here.

GOyaya’s Crepes is on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/GOyayas-Crepes/186937798019822

The Traveluster’s blog post: Baton Rouge’s Local Food Evolution: http://thetraveluster.com/2013/09/baton-rouges-local-food-evolution/

But since we were visiting relatives in Baton Rouge on Father’s Day weekend, I checked Yelp (Click here) for a listing of beignet shops in the area, and then “kidnapped” my hubby for a surprise visit to the number-one rated shop:  Rue Beignet.

It’s a clean little place — bright yellow walls, original artwork, a counter facing a wall of mirrors where folks sit on stools and may avoid (May, I said) covering themselves with a fine dusting of the white stuff that inevitably showers my lap whenever I take the first bite!

We lined up to order a plate of three sweet treats for each of us along with a café au lait.

We were handed mugs so we could serve ourselves from a contraption I wish we’d had when we were first introduced to strong Louisiana java laced with cream at the Cafe du Monde (Click here)  in the New Orleans French Quarter:  a self-stirring contraption that kept the creamy, light brown café au lait hot and all stirred up and handy if you wanted more!

I peered into the kitchen just in time to see owner Brent Sandrock rolling out mounds of light, cakey dough that he sliced and diced into squares and then plopped into the swirling oil.  As you can see, I could hardly hold the camera still with that great smell wafting into the dining area making my mouth water for these rarely-gotten delicacies — so soft, so squishy, and so not beignets for very long!

My husband grabbed our favorite Louisiana read — Country Roads magazine.  It’s part journalism with stories of people and happenings in the area and part annotated calendar — if you want to know where to take in the sights and sounds of Cajun country, you need to frequent this publication! (Click here for the online version.)

But before I could commence reading, a lady took out her very own apron, tied it around her waist, and got serious (very serious!) about the task at hand.  A true beignet aficionado, Claire Landry — whose name I learned later after we hit it off immediately — dines here regularly with her husband Larry and friend Jeannette. Although they were displaced from their home in New Orleans after Katrina, Claire and Larry have come to enjoy Baton Rouge — and breakfast at Rue Beignet!

When the beignets arrived, we almost grabbed them from the waiter’s hands and then doused ’em with another liberal sprinkling of the white stuff.

Don’t breathe in, I’ve always heard it said.  (I guess you’d get a cloud of sugar filling up your lungs.)  But I was also pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to breathe out either — unless I wanted to make Father’s Day a white-out event!

We savored our morning delicacies, sipped our café au lait and then said our good-byes.  I couldn’t resist asking this proud papa if I could take a picture of him and his adorable daughters.  (It was Father’s Day, after all, and they were taking their dad out for beignets.) The man gladly pulled them around him and said something we’ll never forget: I don’t know how I could have ever wished for a boy when I am so happy to have these two lovely girls in my life.

So, if you’re in Baton Rouge, stop by Rue Beignet and tell Brent hello.  Order the always-good beignets or what we’re having next time — a heaping plate of beignet fingers (loads of little sugary squiggles instead of square pillows).

But by all means, don’t forget your apron!

Rue Beignet

18135 E. Petroleum Drive, Suite H

Baton Rouge, LA 70809

225.448.3942

http://www.ruebeignet.com