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the similarly named eggs everyone loves: little crabs with a tasty stuffing. “We also do a breaded seafood cake, which is like a crab cake, but with different seafood variations. And everyone loves our shrimp egg rolls.” This year, the delis are trying out some new sauces on the hot line, including a crawfish and mushroom sauce, which is a traditional New Orleans-style sauce with heavy cream and butter that’s loaded with flavor. There is also a new shrimp and tasso (spiced Cajun pork shoulder) sauce. “It’s not Lent-friendly because of the tasso,” says Westbrook with a laugh, “but sometimes people make a little bit of an exception!”

The seafood hot line has more than entrées, of course. Hush puppies, French fries, onion rings — all the accompaniments you’d normally hope for with fried seafood. Want more reason to grab your keys and head over to Rouses? All that delicious fried shrimp is local Louisiana shrimp caught by local Louisiana fishermen. And those breaded seafood cakes, deviled crabs and seafood stuffing were made in Mobile, Alabama, by a second-generation family business. Rouses always means local. For those with a big appetite or a lot of mouths to feed, there is also a grab-and-go seafood platter with fried fish, fried shrimp,

THE MARITIME & SEAFOOD INDUSTRY MUSEUM ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT The Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi, Mississippi, covers more than 300 years of history, beginning in 1699 when the French first set foot on Mississippi’s shores, through Biloxi’s golden era as the Seafood Capital of the World during the early 1900s, to the present day. Among the museum’s prized possessions is a fully operational automatic shrimp-peeling machine from the 1920s — a remarkable Louisiana, who was challenged by his father, a shrimp plant owner, to design an automated shrimp peeler. Lapeyre’s invention became a catalyst, ushering in a revolution that reshaped the very foundations of the industry. These cutting-edge machines can individually peel an astonishing 1,000 pounds of shrimp per hour, with batches ranging from 10 to 200 count of shrimp per pound. To grasp the magnitude of this achievement, consider that hand-peeling the same amount would require up to 150 experienced shrimp peelers. creation of 16-year-old James Martial Lapeyre from Houma,

52 ROUSES SPRING 2024