Cherie's Specialty Meats

For a little more than a year now, Cherie's Specialty Meats has supplied the Lowcountry with a taste of Louisiana hospitality.

The joint jumps with the fiddle and accordion of zydeco music and is festooned with Cajun items: Bulliard's and Tabasco hot sauces, Louisiana seasonings, coffees and pantry goods. Plus there's the frozen cargo: andouille sausage, boneless stuffed chicken, Cornish hens and ducks, and turducken -- the matryoshka doll of Cajun cuisine, a deboned turkey bursting with a deboned duck, which is stuffed with a deboned chicken.

Since June, Cherie's has been serving lunch, the small menu made up of authentic Cajun dishes. Boudin ($3.99 per link, $6.99 for two links) of course merits mention, with pork, rice and seasonings stuffed into a sausage casing. As does shrimp etouffee ($7.99), a classic Louisiana offering of the trinity -- onions, celery and peppers -- set in a creamy mixture over rice.

The gumbo ($6.99) is made with a recipe passed down from the family of owner Steve Meaux. It's a heckuva formula, the bowl rife with bits of chicken and sausage, swimming in a dark, flavorful broth of rice and vegetables. It'd be great for winter should we have one this year.

Try the alligator sausage ($5.99), which is encased with smoked pork and fitted onto an ordinary hot bun. Poor roll -- it doesn't stand a chance given the length of the sausage, best when dressed with mustard and hot sauce.

Occasionally Cherie's makes specials: French bread swollen with Cajun sausage, cheese and jalapenos ($7.25), and twice-baked, stuffed potatoes containing shrimp etouffee and cheese ($3.99 each).

And should you save room after gobbling down the hardy fare, Cherie's offers bread pudding ($3.99) dished up warm with amaretto sauce.

Web: http://cheriesspecialtymeats.com.

Address: 1005 Tanner Ford Blvd., Unit 104, Hanahan.

Phone: 797-2441.

Hours: Lunch: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tues.-Fri.; store hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat.