A RIVERBOAT CORNUCOPIA

[HostDave]

The American Queen visits charming towns, intriguing cities and captivating historical sites. With our complimentary Hop-on, Hop-off tours in each port of call, the destinations are a huge draw. Even when we’re not tied up to shore, the beauty of the land is always visible. A favorite pastime of guests is sitting in a rocking chair on the Front Porch of America and watching the landscape glide by as we sail up and down the river.

But one of the biggest draws of a voyage with the American Queen Steamboat Company is aboard the boat in the form of the cuisine. We serve a Southern-inspired menu with a contemporary flair that we have continued to refine over the past year and a half in response to guest feedback, adding new variations of the most popular menu items, creating lighter versions of traditional Southern favorites and adding in modern items that are the rage of today’s sophisticated diners. The result is a menu of choices that spans the spectrum.

While our soups, salads, entrees and desserts are big hits, we often find (as do many restaurant operators ashore) that our appetizers are among our most appreciated items. It’s hard to resist a small, individually-sized portion of a delectable dish that rewards the palate. In fact, it’s not unusual for guests to make a meal of just the appetizers, ordering several followed by a soup and topped off with a sweet treat for dessert.

Given our deep Southern roots and the classic cuisine once offered aboard the riverboats of yesteryear, we feature our variations on a number of Southern classics. For example, our Mushroom Ragoút on Savory Grits features a braised mushroom finished with red wine served over savory creamy grits. Even if you don’t think you might like grits, you’ll love this take on a Dixie staple. Our Crispy Fried Frog Legs are an item in high demand thanks to our variation where we take traditional farm-raised frog legs, crust them with corn meal, deep fry them to a golden brown, and then serve them with a refreshing and modern okra-tomato chutney.

Fried Green Tomatoes might be a standard dish in kitchens across the South but we raise it to another level in the elegant J.M. White Dining Room on the American Queen. Cornmeal crusted tomato slices are topped with corn macque choux and jumbo lump blue crab with a drizzle of truffle oil. Crawfish are a part of Louisiana culture and also a featured appetizer aboard as well. We give crawfish an intriguing twist that is classically New Orleans with our Crawfish Beignet, a golden brown beignet topped with savory mushroom cream sauce and seasoned crawfish tails.

And while something like escargot might seem impossibly French, our chefs have given it a lively twist with our New Orleans Style Barbecue Escargot. We take succulent escargot, simmer them in spicy garlic-Worcestershire butter sauce with Abita beer, and then serve them with a flaky puff-pastry. Even if the idea of escargot doesn’t tickle your palate, we guarantee you that you’ll love our Southern variation. Our guests find that the influence of the South on today’s cuisine is more extensive than they might have imagined. Incorrectly, many people assume that the classic Oysters Rockefeller is a dish inspired by the east coast; New York is often mentioned as its birthplace. The truth is that Oysters Rockefeller was created in 1899 by Jules Alciatore, the son of the founder of New Orleans’ legendary Antoine’s restaurant, which bills itself as the country’s oldest family-run dining establishment. The American Queen Steamboat Company’s version stars anise liqueur-scented creamed spinach topping gulf oysters baked on a rock salt and finished with hollandaise.

But even as we celebrate the great tastes of the South, we also honor a multitude of influences prepared with fresh ingredients from the South and the Heartland. Beef Carpaccio - paper-thin slices of rare beef tenderloin from the Midwest, arugula, balsamic reduction and a Reggiano crisp - is reminiscent of a trip to Italy. So are our Seasonal Melons wrapped in Parma Ham. Other dishes simply celebrate the great flavors of the ingredients. Guests rave about our Shrimp Dumplings filled with a savory shrimp mousse, fennel-tomato cancasse and Siberian caviar butter. The caviar is also a star of our Smoked Salmon Pocket appetizers. We take Scotch-cured salmon, boursin herb cheese, as well as crème fraiche and Siberian caviar, and combine it into a mouth-watering delight. Even something as ordinary as trout becomes unforgettable in the hands of our chefs. Our Smoked Trout Canapé features smoked Rocky Mountain trout, horseradish cream, arugula, and thick-cut truffle scented Saratoga chips.

Imagine sitting down to dinner in a two-deck dining room with walls of glass on either side, white-jacketed waiters bustling from table to table, and choosing from an array of appetizers such as Marinated Blue Crab Meat with Asparagus-Dill Mousse Chilled; a Shrimp and Avocado Tower of gulf shrimp and fresh avocado salad served with crusty toasted French bread; Yellowfin Tuna Tartar, a delightful diced sushi grade tuna seasoned with soy-ginger dressing; or our Trilogy of Mushrooms Portabella, a flaky puff pastry served with oyster and button mushrooms prepared three ways. Perhaps the Tandem of Pâté Duck Mousse and Country-style Pâté garnished with cornichons will capture your attention for the evening.

In future blogs, we’ll detail some of the entrees and desserts as well as present a feature on the many soups we offer, one of our hallmarks. The expanded menu of the Front Porch Café will be a blog topic soon as well. In the meantime, we hope these appetizers have teased your taste buds and given you a sense of what fine Southern-inspired cuisine with a contemporary flair really means. We guarantee you won’t go hungry on the American Queen and that you’ll also be thankful we have a fully-equipped fitness center on board!