"we used catfish instead of soft shell crab. those crabs aren't available in opelousas. the batter is good. thick but good. we used the sauce recipe for another recipe. we used fish stock instead of crab stock. fish stock is a good substitute. crab stock isn't something you find easily in rural areas."

"I made this for my son's christening party. I cooked in a 6 qt crock pot for 11 hours and it was a hit with everyone.

"The pie tasted great. I substituted the bourbon for Trinidadian Angostura Rum because that is all I had at home. I also didn't use corn syrup. I used Steen's Cane Syrup. Everyone in SW Louisiana uses this more than corn syrup. I just used what I had. Plus the pie crust recipes on this website have too much grease. I know you need it for a tasty pie crust but some of these recipes had too much. I'm not trying to get any larger. I used Mercedes Vidrine's recipe for pie crust from 1970s cookbook Quelque Chose Joyeux Noel. If you live in SW Louisiana, you should be able to find it at the library. Bonne chance avec ton baking!

"This was pretty good. I left out the masa harina and added roasted poblano and roasted green peppers. I also cooked it for nearly 4 hours to make sure the beef was extremely tender. The sauce was excellent. Great recipe Emeril.

"very good. we used dried shrimp powder from opelousas instead of whole dried shrimp. also we used the gravy from emeril's vatapa as a dipping sauce. real good and real simple!

"the recipe is great. i used salted cod called bacalao instead of sea bass. the recipe reminded me of my aunt's conch soap from honduras! you can't go wrong by selecting this recipe!