New Orleans Fare in the Midwest

The weekend before last I drove to Indianapolis to reunite with several of my sorority sisters for the very happy occasion of preparing to welcome a new baby.  And of course when groups of people get together, conversation around a meal is a must.  My local sorority sister, Courtney, chose a place called Yats(http://www.yatscajuncreole.com/) for just this purpose.  I first heard about Yats , when the Chicago area one on Randolph opened a couple of summers ago.  I stopped by once but none of the menu items for that day seemed appealing to me or the group I was with.  Since the Chicago area location closed shortly after it opened, I was excited to finally have a chance to check out the Yats cuisine, especially since I had recently gained an appreciation for gumbo during my trip to New Orleans.  The Yats menu at all locations is a rotating menu, they don't print menus, they just have a list of specials on the board for patrons to choose. It's a very homey vibe, there are no servers.  You seat yourself and order and pick up your food from the counter.  The menu consisted of various "New Orleans inspired" dishes.  I use the term "New Orleans inspired" because when we questioned the New Orleans native of the group abut the various dishes on the list and how they were prepared, she informed us that she was just as clueless as most of these dishes were similar to her city's cusine, but had just enough twist to make them unique and unkown to her. I, safely, chose the gumbo for my meal but I was able to taste almost every dish on the menu thanks to the diverse ordering of our group. And in the end, I didn't exactly LOVE any of the dishes, but I would have been satisfied had I ordered almost any of the dishes.  Almost--I really wasn't a fan of the spinach and mushroom etoufee, but I thought it was a great option for vegetarians.

The menu was pretty short, so it took some of us longer than normal to order.



I ordered the cup of gumbo, it was pretty decent, but still not on par with the first cup I'd ever tasted.  Every dish comes with bread.  I'm pretty sure the bread was my favorite part, it was served warm and was very delicious.



Chili Cheese Etoufee w/ Crawfish.  I struggled between choosing this dish and the gumbo.  The only thing that made me weary is that mose Chili has beans, which I try to avoid.  It was pretty good, part of me wishes I'd ordered it for my actual meal instead of going the safe route with the gumbo.



Half Spinach & Mushrooms Etoufee and Half Chili Cheese w/ Crawfish Etoufee.  If you were unsure about which one you wanted the choice of half dishes was available for everything except the gumbo.



Chicken Curry Etoufee.  This dish was actually a lot better than I thought it would be.  It was a little spicy, but not enough to overwhelm the flavors of the dish.