Good gumbo may be hard to find outside of the South, as this staple dish of Louisiana Cajun and Creole foods is typically crafted with generational family recipes that vary widely from household to household. Perhaps this is why restaurants outside of Louisiana have a hard time getting the recipe right. In Miami, the one place that comes close is The Fatty Crab.
While I’m not from Louisiana, I’ve been lucky enough to eat authentic gumbo in the state. And it is now one of my favorite American stews. What I love the most about this warm dish is that it feels like a hug on a plate. In its basic form, the hearty stew has herbs, vegetables, and at least one protein. Depending on where it’s made and the time of the year, gumbo might be thickened with okra, dark roux (slow-cooked oil and flour), or filé (sassafras leaves in powdered form). But mainly, good gumbo should fill your soul with the comfort of home. One spoonful of properly cooked gumbo has the power to make you feel like everything is going to be alright.
Longing for this back in Miami, I’ve searched high and low, braving traffic-choked highways and fighting for parking spots to visit the few restaurants that serve the stew. Out of all of them, The Fatty Crab’s gumbo is the best I’ve tried in the city.
The Fatty Crab’s gumbo soup
The Fatty Crab’s uninspired layout and cheesy pink neon signs might make you assume that the food will be as bland as the cookie-cutter houses in Doral, the neighborhood where it’s located. But what the restaurant lacks in design, it makes up for in what really matters: the food…