Chef Eric Prejean

Have you ever considered how strange it is that ZZ Top has two guys in the band with very prominent beards—we’re talking talisman-level facial hair—while its third shaven member is named “Beard”? I had this thought standing on a wooden pier overlooking Bayou Fuselier across the street from the Silver Slipper, watching teenagers sneak over to the bank to smoke, all of us listening to a Cajun band launch into “Tush,” accordions echoing into the early evening, tree frogs seemingly attempting to harmonize with this curious musical selection. There are much less interesting ways to wait for a table.

The Silver Slipper is curious itself: a Cajun-Asian-fusion restaurant on a lonely road outside of Arnaudville, a town so off the beaten path that it has made itself a destination, with cultural outpost NUNU Arts & Culture Collective and Little Big Cup café’s delicious delicacies. But with its hibachi grill and enticing Cajun sushi menu, the Silver Slipper seems off-script even for Arnaudville. Yet, early on this Thursday night, the joint was packed, with a thirty-minute wait.

We took a seat at the bar and tore into a couple of appetizers while waiting for Chef Eric Prejean to appear. I wanted to ask him, “Why Cajun-Asian?” but received a partial answer in the form of Panko-crusted alligator bites served with a tangy Thai pepper sauce. For me, alligator is a more interesting ingredient than it is versatile, but frying it up with a deep brown Panko crunch brought out its strengths—the hearty bite of the meat with its vaguely fishy air. The slightly tart acidity of the pepper sauce brought the dish into full focus. Any street-fair gator-on-a-stick will forever pale in comparison.

My dining partner ordered corn maque choux eggrolls served with a spicy aioli. This cultural collision fully addressed the “why” of my Cajun-Asian question. The maque choux was tucked into four delicately fried egg roll wrappers arranged around the sauce, and the flavor registered fully in both dishes at once. The earthiness of the corn paired with the singular egg roll flavor of deep fried cabbage was a perfect match.

Chef Prejean emerged from the kitchen but was reticent to delve too deeply into his influences. “I hung out with a number of the chefs at Tsunami in Lafayette, and they got me hooked on Asian cooking,” he explained simply. The restaurant itself seems to have similarly accidental origins. Motioning to the bar where we are sitting, Prejean said, “This was the old Silver Slipper. And then they [owner Paige Melancon] had this old house next door, and they pulled it up next to it and remodeled everything.”

The hottest seats in the house were around the hibachi grill. “It’s actually a Mongolian grill,” said Prejean. “That thing is badass, I’m not gonna lie. It’s got twenty-something burners under it and cooks at the speed of light.” On its sizzling surface, chefs make their stir-fries and traditional Mongolian barbecue with ingredients like corn and crawfish thrown in.

Originally from the Opelousas area, Prejean attended culinary school at the Louisiana Culinary Institute in Baton Rouge and, after graduating, got his first job working on a Lafayette food truck called Viva La Waffle. He met the owner of the then-unopened Silver Slipper while working on the food truck and landed a hibachi cook position at the new Arnaudville restaurant. When the head chef left, Prejean explained, “I just sort of stepped into [the chef position].

One might expect the usual Cajun fare at Silver Slipper, but it is all offered with an Asian twist. “You can’t really get anything like this unless you go towards Lafayette or Baton Rouge,” said Prejean. “Anything else around here, you are gonna find straight Cajun food.” An example of his culinary contortionism: instead of the omnipresent jambalaya, Silver Slipper offers three varieties of fried rice—an aromatic shrimp and basil, a hearty chicken and sausage, and a crawfish maque choux version. The fried rice has a more refined texture than jambalaya and is not the starch-bomb that is the average, cheap takeout version. The plump shrimp and basil lends the classic dish some fruity notes, bringing this version into its own.

There are a few poboy options on the menu, but the usual Cajun fare is largely absent in its traditional form. One of the sushi rolls for which I opted, the Beau Chene Roll, combines crispy chunks of fried catfish, sushi rice, and peppers all wrapped in lettuce. In the middle was a sumptuous daub of lump crabmeat topped with sliced avocado, all with a spicy mayo dipping sauce. I have, in my career, been called to come up with many adjectives for fried catfish, but this is the first time my first thought was “refreshing.” It still had that savory, fleshy, crunchy satisfaction of fried fish, but also possessed the cleanliness of a traditional sushi dish.

Lest you think this is all light and dainty fare, I suggest the Leonville Roll. A crab and cucumber roll is battered, deep-fried, and then sliced into crunchy little coins, served with a sweet-and-sour crawfish piquante ladled generously across the top. The piquante almost reads as an étouffée topping, but with a twist. It is what Huey Long might have as a snack in Heaven.

“We are about to put a boiled shrimp roll on the menu,” said Prejean. “Like, with shrimp and asparagus boiled in crab boil with a crawfish dip to dip it in.”

Asian and Cajun cuisines seem worlds apart until you consider the ingredients: seafood, rice, grilled meats, and so on. When asked about his theories on striking a balance between the two culinary traditions, he shrugged. “The way I look at it, anything you can put together that tastes good …” I suppose the food answers the question best.

Details. Details. Details.

The Silver Slipper


2818 Highway 31

Arnaudville, La.

(337) 879-2050

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