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Belle Chasse, La. — August is National Catfish Month and there is a traditional catfish house in Belle Chase that is frying up tender catfish fillets with all the fixings. We stopped in at this establishment on Highway 23 and talked catfish and more with owner Dale Adams of Adams Catfish House.

Adams didn’t actually know that it was National Catfish Month. But hey, when your family has been frying catfish for over thirty years, every month is catfish month. Adams tells us that their recipe is actually his mother’s. It was a lifelong dream of hers to have a catfish restaurant. Adams tells us that much of what they do today is the same as it was done when they opened their doors in 1979.

The menu is simple. Catfish fried with all the traditional fixings like thick-cut fries, massive hush puppies and sweet creamy coleslaw. The fried fish dinners come in four basic variations. A small fried filet dinner (3 fillets) which is $12.49, a large filet dinner (6 fillets) for $19.98, a whole fish dinner (3 fish on the bone) for $16.69 or the AYCE whole fried fish dinner for $21.49. Adams Catfish House also serves up grilled catfish, shrimp and chicken. The grilled seafood is super flavorful and a little lighter on the waistline. We tried the grilled shrimp salad and it was very good. It is a hearty bed of iceburg lettuce topped with cheese, tomatoes, boiled eggs and grilled shrimp. This salad can be served with fish, chicken and shrimp either fried or grilled.

Appetizers at Adams consist of onion rings, fried veggies and fried pickles. There are about a dozen sides on the menu at Adams. One side that MUST be tried is the hushpuppies. They are large and perfectly fried. The texture of the hushpuppies is perfect, dense and moist with a faintly sweet flavor. However you can still taste the seasoning and onions that are nestled within. When I say that these hushpuppies are large, it is no joke. They are slightly smaller than a tennis ball. Dale tells us that they are influenced by hushpuppy recipes from western Louisiana and that is why they are a sweet batter. All I know is that they are awesome! I could not get enough of their delicious flavor.

So celebrate National Catfish Month by doing some fried catfish the old-fashioned way. At Adams Catfish House, there is plenty to go around.