ROUSES_JulyAug2019_Magazine

FRESH SUSHI You’ve probably seen our professional in-store sushi chefs handcrafting sashimi and sushi rolls. We also have a variety of sampler platters, and sides like edamame and seaweed salad. Special orders and sushi platters are available. BOILED GULF SEAFOOD As the Gulf Coast’s grocer, and avid fishers ourselves, we feel a particular commitment to preserve and protect our seafood industry, which plays such an important role in our culture and economy. Most of our seafood comes from local fishermen with whom we have close personal and professional relationships. But our commitment doesn’t end at our coast. We’re mindful of how all of our seafood is caught and farmed. Our tropical fruit selection goes beyond pineapples, papayas, mangos, guavas and coconuts — we even have passion fruit, star fruit, and pink dragon fruit, which tastes like a cross between a kiwi and a pear. Jackfruit is our most distinctive selection. This giant spiky fruit can be used for both savory and sweet dishes depending on its ripeness. Firm green jackfruit is great cooked. It has a meaty flavor and texture similar to pulled pork. Ripe jackfruit has a sweet taste like a combination of pineapple, mango and banana. Look for a yellowish skin with spikes that have softened, and a shape that yields under gentle pressure. We have full-service butcher shops specializing in fresh meat, sausages and specialty prepared food items. Our trusted butchers are available to answer your questions about cuts, grades and cooking techniques. Beef and pork are cut by hand. Choose from steakhouse quality USDA Prime beef and USDA Choice beef. On the more affordable end, we also have USDA Select Beef. Most of our stores also have a dry- aged beef locker, in which the beef is aged at least 25 days. Special orders are welcome.​ AT SEASON’S PEAK: TROPICAL FRUITS AN OLD-FASHIONED BUTCHER SHOP

How I Roll by Ali Rouse Royster, 3rd Generation

I may be showing my age here, but when I was younger, eating sushi was not on my radar—at all.While I think I knew that people ate raw fish and rolled it up in seaweed and sticky rice; I just never imagined eating it myself. In the late 1990s, maybe early 2000s, that began to change. Sushi restaurants popped up in nearby bigger cities, but it still seemed pretty far removed from me in small- town South Louisiana. I tried restaurant sushi as a student at LSU in Baton Rouge and quickly fell in love. Even more of a shock was the takeoff of grocery-store sushi! When we opened our first Rouses in Covington in 2003, we started making sushi for our customers, and it was a hit. I think when we expanded the program to our Thibodaux store not long after, that may have been Thibodaux’s first sushi for sale! Fast forward to 2019, and sushi is about as mainstream as chicken nuggets. My husband and I bring our three little ones out to eat at local sushi restaurants pretty regularly for a quick bite, and they’re all little edamame-eating machines. Our little girl (age three) loves to pop the beans out with her fingers, dissolving into giggles when one gets away from her. We still have to pop the beans out for the baby (he’s two), and we can hardly keep up. I tell my husband we need to start ordering two servings, because most times I don’t even get to eat one! Our oldest orders for himself now, and his usual is a clear soup and California rolls. (Y’all. He’s four.) We’ve started picking up rolls for him from Rouses as a lunch treat every now and then. If you’d have told 1999 me that in 20 years my toddler-age children would be eating sushi, I guarantee I would never have believed you!

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JULY•AUGUST 2019