Victoria – When it comes to good food across the Lone Star State, you never know where you’re going to find it! Take Cajun Wok in Victoria for example. This extremely clean, well-lit kitchen is in the last place you’d expect to find it. A convenience store. “Everybody that comes here, they be like, ‘Huh, I never seen a thing like this,’” said Darielle Gartica, who started this business with her partner Dominique Randle.
When they first walked into the Beverage Wall convenience store to see if it was the right location for their business, it was a no brainer. “It looks amazing,” said Dominique. “I mean, he keeps it clean and it’s like, ‘Let’s do it.’ This area was perfect for us. It had everything we needed to get started, so it was like, ‘Let’s go.’”
Gas station dining gets a bad rap, but the Beverage Wall’s cleanliness and organization makes it work for both Cajun Wok and their customers. “A lot of our customers that come from the other side of town, they was like, ‘I didn’t know what to think when I pulled up and it was a convenience store,’” said Darielle. “But now everybody’s kind of giving them that heads up, ‘It’s a convenience store, but you’re going to love it in there.’”
Even though the shop is pristine, extremely well-organized snacks aren’t the reason I’m here. I’m looking for something with more seasoning, and that’s where Cajun Wok gets things cooking thanks to their infusion of Cajun and Asian flavors. “We love this type of food, so it really wasn’t that hard for us to get it done,” said Dominique. “We eat it all the time, so we know what the flavors need to taste like. We know what each dish needs to make it a complete dish.”
This business got started for Darielle and Dominique during the pandemic. Cooking these dishes and then dishing them out of home sounded like a great idea, but there was one little issue called the law. “The Public Health came shut us down, all nice and cute like,” said Darielle.
“He was actually really nice though,” said Dominique. “It was probably the nicest anybody could have told me this. ‘I’m sorry, y’alls food looks really amazing, but we’ve got to close you guys down.’”
So they moved into the convenience store, and boy has it been convenient. “Business happens,” said Darielle. “We prayed for a long time for it, so it’s really showing up now.”
Dominique was ready to get down with my dinner so she started putting together their signature dish. “This is going to be our fish shrimp hot box,” said Dominique. “Now what we have here, I’ll call them the elements because nobody wants to be yelling, ‘I got your sausage, corn, and shrimp!’ The elements for our hot box, I have them here already, which we’re going to take and drop in our boil pot where the magic happens. You got whole onions, we got all our seasonings, got onions in there, bell peppers. All for flavor, all for flavor.”
As the elements boil up, Dominique takes garlic, onions, peas, and carrots and sautés them on the grill with some coarse pepper. “Only seasoning we’re going to take here,” said Dominique. “Darielle always says, ‘I like to be able to see the pepper in the food.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’”
After adding some steamed rice to the flattop, the fish gets reeled into the recipe. “I’ll come grab my fish here, which already seasoned up and battered for us,” said Dominique. “This is swai filet. It’s in the catfish family. Yeah, everyone always asks us, ‘Is it catfish?’ No, it’s swai.”
The rice is the first thing finished and it gets topped off with spice. “We’ll hit it with our little seasonings,” said Dominique. “This is Cajun Wok season here. Little cayenne for the heat. So we come and get our shrimp out of here because they don’t take long to cook. You smell it. You smell that pot?”
Three sauces are added on the side including tarter, remoulade, and something special. “That’s our blessed butter,” said Dominique. “We call it our blessed butter. You have to bless the food before you eat it, right?”
After all her hard work preparing the food, Dominique puts just as much love into plating the meal. “Presentation is everything to me,” said Dominique. “Because if it looks good, you’re going to want to eat it, and then when it tastes good, that’s just a plus.”
Top it off with the fried fish and we’re almost finished. “Add food glitter (parsley), make it look good,” said Dominique. “And we’re done. That is the fish and shrimp hot box.”
Opening up the takeout box housing the completed hotbox created a whirlwind of both visual and olfactory sensation. The smell of seafood, butter and spice is matched by the gorgeous piece of fish sitting atop the rice, shrimp, corn and sausage, all of which is tied together by the food glitter. The fish itself is hot and flaky, and the light flavor of the swai allows the spice to shine alongside the tarter and remoulade sauce.
If you can break free from the hypnosis caused by the fish, you move onto the boiled shrimp, which were born to be dipped in the blessed butter. The butter itself is thick and incredibly flavorful, and the shrimp serves as a perfect delivery method. When you run out of shrimp and have blessed butter to spare, the rice at the bottom does a great job of soaking it all up to round out your meal.
Well, if you’re looking for some tangy, terrific seafood that’s accompanied by some sensational signature sauces, come into South Victoria and see that the Cajun Wok is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List. “Man, it just gives you such a great feeling to know that you served out a dish that people just enjoy and want to keep coming back for more,” said Darielle. “It’s an amazing feeling, amazing feeling.”