LYNN — Chef Rachel Miller of Nightshade Noodle Bar offers a viet-cajun seafood boil dish, exclusively on Fridays.
Miller grew up around the Gulf Coast, which she said spiked her interest in creating a dish like this.
“This is such a big part of the identity of my business,” she said. “It’s unique to the area, you can get it at some chains, but they don’t offer the same experience as us. It’s just more intimate.”
Miller explained viet-cajun as a labor of love that is a “merge of Southern (American) and Vietnamese flavors that evolved along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana as a growing population of new Americans from Vietnam introduced their native flavors to the prized crawfish boils of the region after the Immigration Act of 1965. Old bay, butter and garlic met lemongrass, fish sauce and other new aromatics.”
Miller offers three different combo options, a small, medium and large, with contents that vary depending on what seafood comes in that week. She said the difference between her viet-cajun seafood and that of other local commercial dishes is the locally sourced and organic products she uses.
Local vendors, including Patriot Seafood in Salem and Wulf’s Fish in Boston, provide Miller with lobsters, clams, oysters, crab legs and clams. Her dish is also accompanied by corn, potatoes, and an optional andouille sausage, sourced from Justin Shoults at Uncommon Feasts.
“Our objective is to support locals, and keep it in Lynn as much as possible, and then get the local seafood,” she said.
Miller said Nightshade is proud to be farm-to-table and offers Lynn a unique experience.
“I think it’s really good for the community because where else can you go in Lynn and get a pound of boiled shrimp with viet-cajun butter and just sit outside and have a beer?” she said.
A patio will be opening up soon in front of the restaurant, at 73 Exchange St., which Miller said was very successful last summer. Nightshade does not currently offer any dine-in options, as Miller said they are very cautious about COVID-19 safety, but will have the patio open for customers to enjoy their meals.
Nightshade Noodle Bar also sells lobster rolls and clam baskets during the summer and hopes to expand the viet-cajun seafood boil to every day when the weather is warmer.
“There’s a wide variety there,” she said. “If someone in your family just wants fried clams but you want the full experience, you can have that here. We put a lot of effort into the menu to cover all of those bases so that we can appeal to different types of people.”
Miller said there is so much culture and diversity in Lynn, so she does what she can to appeal to all the people in the city.
She is working on planning events to host in the summer months, “aiming for experiences that are unique to the people that live here,” to bring some liveliness to the city after the tough year everyone has had.
Allysha Dunnigan can be reached at [email protected].
