Yes, it’s real catfish, and a west Fort Worth restaurant serves it four different ways
When is a catfish not really a catfish?
Dwight Cooley of Belzoni’s Catfish Cafe knows.
“Farm-raised catfish, when you break it open, it should be pearly white,” said Cooley, a Belzoni, Mississippi, native and former local math teacher and school principal.
Belzoni is the “Catfish Capital of the World.” So he knows how to tell real farm-raised catfish from basa or “swai,” a similar but cheaper fish.
Catfish fraud is rampant. Basa or “swai” is often substituted.
But farm-raised catfish should have “no fishy smell — no fishy taste,” he said in a recent episode of the Eats Beat podcast, available on itunes.com..
“It should take on the flavor of however you’re cooking it. And the fillets should be inconsistent. If you see all consistent fillets, you’re probably not getting farm-raised catfish.”
There is no question about the catfish at Belzoni’s, serving lunch 110 N Jim Wright Freeway (Northwest Loop 820).
They’re the only fillets that are so light and crisp, you can pick them up with your hands and eat them like popcorn.
Belzoni started frying catfish at school carnivals 20 years ago, when he was still teaching.
He always said he’d start a restaurant “one of these days,” and the day came.
“I decided to make the leap and decided to pursue some dreams,” he said.
His friends are starting school in a very different way this year, with Zoom calls, Plexiglas partitions and lots of sanitizer.
I can tell he misses it.
“Once an educator, always an educator,” he said.
“I’m sure if I were still in education, we’d be putting together plans and solving some problems. We’d work to make schools safe where kids can get the education they need.”
In the year since Belzoni’s opened, Belzoni’s has added grilled catfish in three flavors: lemon-pepper, Creole or brown-sugar-bourbon.
That’s more catfish that any restaurant I know, with the possible exception of a restaurant out west that also offers it pecan-crusted.
But Belzoni’s also offers whole catfish, or catfish-cake “rounds.”
Sides include fries, turnip greens, fried okra, corn, green beans and mac-and-cheese.
Catfish is easier to find at drive-thru windows these days, from unique local restaurants like Zeke’s to the local Lisa’s Chcken & Seafood restaurants and Mineral Wells-based Chicken Express.
Belzoni’s is best of all the drive-thrus, and one of the best catfish cafes we’ve seen.
Cooley also adds sriracha tartar sauce and a housemade green pepper sauce of vinegary Tabasco peppers.
The menu now also includes fried chicken sandwiches with bacon, pepper Jack cheese and ranch dressing (try it Buffalo-style), and half-pound burgers with pepper Jack, fried jalapenos, fried pickles, bacon, mushrooms and chipotle mayo.
“We’ve got a real good burger, and it’s big,” he said,
There’s also sweet potato pies.
Belzoni’s is open for drive-thru or curbside dining for lunch weekdays and Saturdays and for dinner Fridays only; (817) 386-0714, belzoniscatfishcafe.com.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
