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Meghan Winkler
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Meghan Winkler
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Meghan Winkler
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Meghan Winkler
Johnny Schulze grew up eating Cajun and Creole food in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and those Big Easy flavors stayed with him when he moved to Northeast Ohio with his wife, who is Cajun.
Watching her family cook and attending culinary school in New Orleans helped Schulze, a military veteran, master the cuisines. He put his spin on them by launching his Zydeco Bistro food truck in 2010, one of the first in Northeast Ohio. His chef-driven Cajun and Creole cuisine might not be what people expect.
“I approach it not with a lot of spice but with a depth of flavor,” he says.
Consistently voted one of the best food trucks by Akron Life readers, Zydeco Bistro serves authentic dishes including hush puppies, beignets and a summer salad ($15), which features Gulf of Mexico lump blue crab meat and shrimp on greens topped with pickled veggies, corn salsa and a house lemon-lime vinaigrette. Po’boys ($12-$14) come with blackened or buttermilk fried chicken, crispy Lake Erie perch or crispy shrimp. The latter is most popular, featuring shrimp marinated in buttermilk and Zydeco Cajun-Creole seasoning and lightly breaded in a crunchy cornmeal coat. It’s dressed with lettuce, tomato, pickles and Zydeco remoulade-style sweet, savory bistro sauce on light French bread. He says quality ingredients set his po’boys apart, particularly the bread and shrimp, which he ships in from New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, respectively.
Meghan Winkler
“It tastes more like the ocean, has more briny flavor than shrimp that’s grown in farms,” he says. “The flavors are sophisticated, so simple.”
But many Zydeco fans line up for his jambalaya ($12). Schulze’s version is Cajun style, so don’t expect a tomato sauce like Creole people typically make. Instead, he sears chicken thighs until they’re blackened in a cast-iron Amish pan. Then he caramelizes the celery, Spanish onions and garlic in that same pan to deglaze and lock in the flavor. He also toasts rice, absorbing any remaining flavors and creating dirty rice with a rich brown hue. He adds smoked andouille sausage, Zydeco Cajun-Creole seasoning, bell peppers and chicken stock and cooks it all in a Dutch oven. People can drizzle Zydeco hot sauces on it for extra spice, but the final dish bursts with ample flavor on its own and keeps people coming back.
“People really like it,” Schulze says. “They can’t get enough of it.”
Find It: Aug. 6 & 12, Hartville MarketPlace; Aug. 13, Medina Flea; Aug. 19, Barberton Public Library; Aug. 20, Filia Cellars; Aug. 27, White Timbers Winery; zydecobistro.com
