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"What’s good?” we asked the young woman behind the counter at the new Bellue’s on Jefferson Highway.

She furrowed her eyebrows, gave us a cold stare and said, “Everythang.”

To offer proof, she shoved a plastic box lined with grease-stained paper towels in our direction. “Want a hush puppy?”

We did. The small fritter’s salty crust gave way to its crumbly-but-moist, steamy middle. A solid creation. Yum.

We glanced at the changing daily specials posted on white boards and flipped through the photocopied menu that sat on the counter. My fellow pregnant friend, Ann, and I had arrived in stuffed-meat, fried-seafood heaven. She was in the mood for a “gut-bomb” and went with an old favorite, Bellue’s crawfish etouffee supreme. I was lured by the smoked baby-back ribs. >>

Bellue’s does a bang-up to-go business, and it’s swamped between 11 a.m. and noon. But after that, it’s easy to grab one of the restaurant’s few tables and take in the smells and the scene.

One entire wall of the new Jefferson Highway location features freezer space where menu items and more are available for your take-home pleasure. Gumbo, smoked ribeyes, smothered corn, etouffee, tamales, tur-duc-kens, deer sauce picante and countless other Bellue’s recipes have been fastidiously vacuum-sealed and organized. Even chocolate and lemon sheet cakes, homemade beef jerky, chicken glace and single serving eggs are neatly preserved in shrink wrap throughout this restaurant-cum-grocery. Never was more down-home fare squirreled away in one place.

Our plate lunches arrived, elegantly presented in Styrofoam boxes, and we raised plastic forks and fountain drinks to eating for two. The dishes here are about as subtle as a freight train, and they’ve got enough smoke and spice to bring down burly plant workers. After all, that’s who has subsisted on Bellue’s for years the original location, which is still going near ExxonMobil on Scenic Highway. But we weren’t dealing with plant workers at our table, just two pregnant women who had long since given up rice cakes. Ann and I dove in.

Her supreme was unimaginably rich. Crawfish etouffee gets plopped atop a big pile of savory cornbread dressing, then topped with plump, crunchy fried shrimp. It was a salty, fatty gut-bomb indeed, and nicely done. My ribs—and the complimentary sausage link that came with them—were juicy and full of meaty flavor. They were glazed with Bellue’s signature smoky, sweet sauce. Bottles of it are also available to take home.

On another visit, I sampled the shrimp po’boy. Purists will balk at the bread’s lack of both texture and flakiness, but I liked the overall flavor and the perfectly fried shrimp. The roll was decadently buttered and grilled, then slathered with both mayo and sweet, spicy cocktail sauce.

Tur-duc-ken, that bizarre stuffed bird threesome, seems a bedrock dish in a place like this, but my sampling was a disappointment. The turkey, duck and chicken and their accompanying seafood dressing were topped with crawfish etouffee. As a result, I couldn’t figure out where one component stopped and the other started. Furthermore, it was way too greasy, even for a girl who likes gut-bombs.

Most of Bellue’s side dishes relish in their cooked-to-oblivion identity, and many are also studded with in-house smoked meats. The white beans with tasso are a satisfying signature dish, and I couldn’t get enough of the smothered shoepeg corn. The sweet, mustardy potato salad is real church-supper fare. Its main ingredient has been cooked to a comforting, fine mash. And the soft squares of white sheet cake topped with slabs of tangy lemon or rich chocolate icing will remind you of the only dish you wanted to eat in your childhood cafeteria.

The take-home tamales make for an easy, quick dinner. They’re heavy on pork flavor, less so on masa, and are kept tender with a spicy tomato sauce. Don’t miss the unusual, but flavorful chicken glace. Like boudin (also available here), it’s one of those tasty but awful looking dishes best accompanied by a saltine cracker. Finally, Bellue’s is especially proud of its gnaw-worthy spicy homemade beef jerky, a rare find in the middle of the city.