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Seafood season is year-round here in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, but never more so than Lent. “R ouses is really about two things: the best quality at the best price,” says Michael Westbrook, the director of deli, cold cuts and sushi for Rouses Markets. “Our Seafood Weekends run Friday, Saturday and Sunday all the way through Easter, which this year is on March 31. The mix of meals available varies depending on the store, but we go all out to make sure the families shopping at Rouses all have something great to eat.” All the staples you expect will be there. “You’ll always find fried fish available,” he says, “and usually we’ll have baked fish with crab stuffing as well. But there is so much more than that.” Shrimp Creole? Shrimp étouffée? Yes, and yes. Does the idea of seafood jambalaya have your belly rumbling? Then brace yourself, because seafood macaroni and cheese might have you reaching for your car keys and racing to your local Rouses. “Those are always very popular,” Westbrook says. “Customers always really like our crawfish cornbread dressing as well

— it’s a dressing, a little like you would have at Thanksgiving, but it’s seafood flavored.” Of course, you can find breaded, fried Gulf Coast shrimp on the Rouses hot line, and sometimes the chefs in the deli shake things up a bit with Asian glazes such as sweet and sour sauce or a sweet heat flavoring. To give you a little glimpse of how the deli seafood hot lines work behind the scenes, every store has some discretion to make sure their local community has the foods that make them happiest. Westbrook explains: “Every store is always going to have fried shrimp out in some flavor, of course — though they have independence to decide if they’re going to do it Asian style today, for instance, so that shoppers always get variety — and so that every time they visit, there’s some new flavor to experience. In the Rouses locations in the bayou region, for example, frog legs are hot sellers, and we make sure there’s plenty for everyone. In Mobile, on the other hand, the mullet is really popular.” It’s not like national chains where every store, everywhere has the same five options. Every trip to a Rouses deli is going to provide a Cajun culinary experience with local flair. “How about deviled crabs?” says Westbrook, explaining that they’re a bit like

“Rouses is a family business, and we serve all our families who shop here. You know, the Rouse family eats the same things you do; they taste everything — they standards they’ve kept going for three generations now — and our food is absolutely delicious. ” – Michael Westbrook want to make sure that the quality is up to the

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