I recently mentioned to a friend that I was on a quest to hunt down the best spicy foods in Dallas, and he implored me to visit Alligator Cafe to try their Voodoo sauce, mentioning that they'd appeared on Food Network's Heat Seekers in January. (That's the show where my boyfriend chefs Aaron Sanchez and Roger Mooking travel around the country hunting down the most delicious ways to burn their adorable little faces off.)
I stopped into the 'Gator's newer, fancier Casa Linda digs -- think faux gator barstools and weathered brick walls -- for lunch to put my spice tolerance to the test. There's an option on the menu to "Voodoo" any entree for a buck. The Voodoo sauce is a blend of roasted habanero, jalapeño, serrano, manzilla and poblano peppers that's intended to thoroughly spice up any dish on the menu for all the capsaicin junkies out there.
I chose the crawfish etouffee ($10.95 at lunch) as my Voodoo vessel and wasn't disappointed. It had the perfect level of mouth-searing spice -- the burn quickly spread over my palate but the rich, complex flavor of the etouffee still came through loud and clear. The flavorful stew punctuated with tender chunks of crawfish had an addictive quality that kept me alternating bites with gulps of ice water until the bowl was scraped clean. (Good thing I wasn't drinking one of their Abita brews, because I would've been white-girl wasted by the time my plate was cleared.)
A slight case of acid reflux haunted me the remainder of the afternoon, but it was totally worth it. If spice is your thing, get down to Alligator Cafe and get Voodoo'd. Just don't forget the Tums.
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