Cafe Giovanni’s Four Summer Specials
Chef Duke Locicero at Cafe Giovanni has kicked off his summer specials. As usual, there is more than one summertime menu. In one, they’re following the three-courses-for-$35 pattern that seems to be the magic formula for restaurants this year (and the last few years, come to think about it). It gets you soup, salad, and a pasta entree from a special menu.
An upscale alternative to this is one of Chef Duke’s famous Feed Me dinner, a tasting menu of six small courses encompassing all the best specials that day. That runs somewhere in the $50s, but the deal is in the wine: a flight of five paired vintages free. That would typically add around $40 to the check, but it comes free with the dinner.
And there is a third option, which may be the best of all: three small plates and a glass of house wine for $30. This is limited to the bar and between 5:30-7:30 p.m. And you have to say that you read about it in this newsletter. (Duke! This is too damn many rules, making the restaurant sound less hospitable than it is!)
On the other hand, the Cafe Giovanni singers will be there Wednesday through Friday, and Chef Duke himself is a personable, fun-loving guy.
Wait! One more deal and one more rule. If you show up on Tuesday you get a bottle of wine at half price. . . if you get an entree other than pasta.
The opera singers do not seem to be taking a summer break, and are singing well and with power Wednesdays through Fridays. A good party goes on.
Cafe Giovanni
French Quarter: 117 Decatur. 504-529-2154. www.cafegiovanni.com.
NOMenu invites restaurants or organizations with upcoming special events to tell us, so we might add the news to this free department. Send to news@nomenu.com.
Friday, July 4, 2014.
Seafood Festival. Grass Roots. Jefferson Starship.
“I know you won’t be interested in this,” Mary Ann declares in midday, “but I think I’ll go myself anyway. The Grass Roots are playing tonight at the Mandeville Seafood Festival.”
“What!?” I asked. “The Grass Roots came along right down the middle of my teenage pop music era! They have two songs on my Prom Night playlist! Of course I’ll go!”
The Mandeville Seafood Festival is a misnomer. In its early years, perhaps, there was indeed a lot of seafood out there on the lakefront. But that was the late 1970s, before the food festival craze that keeps us busy every weekend now even existed. The emphasis is primarily on the music part of the program, not the edibles.
This year, it almost looked as if the festival wouldn’t happen at all. But the music producer for the program stepped in, cut back the run from three days to one, and the event goes on. Predictably, the food aspect is hardly worth talking about. Nothing looks interesting enough to order.
The attendance is not what you could call enormous, either. When we arrive at around seven, people milled around in front of the stage, but never densely enough that we are prevented from getting right up there to look at the musicians in the eye.
Mandeville Seafood Festival, with the Grass Roots.
The Grass Roots is well beyond its fourth generation of personnel. None of the original members have been part of it for a long time. On the other hand, the band always had a studio-musician quality. In their case, that probably was a good thing for the music, which I always liked. The composer P.F. Sloan was the main force behind the group. Their biggest hits were Midnight Confessions and I’d Wait A Million Years, but I will always remember Let’s Live For Today, on the radio Prom Night itself.
They look old–about my age. They even joke about that. “After the concert, there will be a meeting of AARP over there,” lead singer Mark Dawson said, pointing to a tent and implying that all the bend members would be there too.
But the important thing is that they sound good. It’s only bell-canto singers like Sinatra that grow audibly old. Not these guys. Rock singing is mostly yelling, anyway.
Mary Ann has a ball. We even dance with one another, for the first time since we took a ballroom dance course on the Queen Mary a few years ago. Quite a few of our friends turn up and joined us–notably Jimmy Buras, who attended three of the five 1-through-12 schools that I did, in the same classrooms. And Ceil Lanaux, whose two sons are best buds with our son Jude, since they were in first grade and the Scouts.
The Grass Roots ended their excellent, lengthy show. The sun went down. It got dark. A first-class fireworks show went off. It’s the Fourth of July, after all. The crowd grows. The big name band on the program would follow.
Unlike The Grass Roots, Jefferson Starship has a member–Paul Kantner, a Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer, no less–who goes back all the way to the mid-1960s, Jefferson Airplane origins of the band. Its Summer of Love hit Someone To Love launched the psychodelic pop era. Another song on my Prom Night playlist. The white-haired Kantner looks almost ghostly (he’s seventy-three), but puts a lot of power into his singing and guitar.
Jefferson Starship. Original member Paul Kantner is in the center.
The Grace Slick role is played by a relatively young (forty-five) singer, Cathy Richardson. She has the moves, the look, the sound and the range to make the band’s music credible. They start with the early Airplane stuff, then moved to the Starship repertoire. The latter is what Mary Ann wanted to hear. But her teen-years music sweet spot is four years behind mine.
Starship is late getting on. And even though tomorrow is Saturday, we are tuckered out, and left at quarter to eleven. We were hardly out of the parking lot of Fontainebleau State Park before we couldn’t hear the music anymore. On the way home, I think about writing my first rock review in decades. Here it is.
F.A.Q.: How To Season Cast-Iron Cookware
Q.
I’ve heard you explain many times how to clean an old casti-iron skillet. But all those times I didn’t pay attention, because I didn’t have any cast-iron pans. Now I find myself with my mother’s old, rusty cast iron, and I ask please if you would run through the steps again.
A. You are not the only one. My pleasure.
Cast-iron cookware, the oldest kind of modern cookware in wide use. It does certain things extremely well, and other things very badly. Its non-stick surface–which is also what makes it black–makes cooking easy. But you have to sort of grow it on the iron surface.
Cast iron takes a long time to heat up and cool down. This has its advantages, notably for deep frying. The iron holds the heat better than almost anything else. On the other hand, while sauteeing something, if you leave the food in the pan after you turn the heat off, it will keep on cooking as if the heat were still on for quite awhile.
Cast iron is brittle and heavy. It can break, and it can break things. It can rust. Although manufacturers now claim their cast-iron skillets are pre-seasoned, I still think it’s a good idea to go through the seasoning process. Here’s how:
Scrub it very well with a gritty scouring powder (the best is Zud, but Comet or Ajax are okay). Use a plastic scrub pad–do not use steel wool, which will actually cause rust. After you’ve scrubbed away any crusty or rusty patches, rinse the pan very well and dry it thoroughly. Coat it with a generous amount of vegetable oil, and put it into the oven at 250 degrees for about a half-hour. When it cools, coat it again with more oil and repeat the process.
The first few times you use it, deep-fry something in it. Then it will have a very good coating that will become non-stick over time. Don’t wash it with anything but plain water after that. If it ever gets rusty, just repeat the process above.
Skillets used for blackened dishes get so hot that all the seasoning burns off. If you plan to do a lot of blackened dishes, buy one skillet just for that. After cleaning, give it a coating of oil to prevent rust. And don’t forget to put the thing in your will, benefitting the most avid cook in your family.
Lobster And Artichoke Dip
Unlike most Americans (and everybody else in my family), I’m not wild about the spinach-artichoke dip you find in every chain restaurant in town–and an increasing number of independent places, too. However, I can’t deny that there’s something to the basic idea, and have been thinking about other directions for it. Then it hit me: lobster and artichoke go very well together. Particularly if you use the claw meat–not just the pincers, but the rest of the claw, too, and even the meat from the legs if the lobster is big enough to make that work worthwhile. (You could also use claw crabmeat.) The step of making lobster stock from the shells is highly desirable but optional. But it gives you the excuse to have a lobster dinner a few days before making this stuff.
Shell and claw meat of two one-pound Maine lobsters, or one 2 1/2 pounder
1 small onion, quartered
Stems of a bunch of parsley
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup green onions, snipped thin
1/3 stick butter
1 can artichoke hearts packed in water
8 oz. ricotta cheese, crumbled
4 oz. whole-milk mozzarella
4 oz. sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes Tabasco
1/3 cup very finely grated Romano cheese
1 1/2 tsp. dill
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup finely grated Romano cheese
1. Break the claws open. Remove the meat and set aside. Put the shells in a saucepan with enough water to just cover. Add the onion, parsley stems, and garlic. Bring to a low boil, then lower to a simmer. Simmer for a half-hour.
2. Strain the water, dispose of the solid parts, but save one of the garlic cloves. Return the water to a light boil and reduce to about a half-cup while performing other steps.
3. In a large saucepan over low heat, cook the green onions in the butter until the onions turn soft. Remove from the heat.
4. Drain, rinse, and break the artichoke hearts into small pieces with your fingers, and add to the pot. Chop the reserved garlic clove and shred the lobster claw meat. Add both, along with all the other ingredients except the Monterey jack and romano cheeses. Stir just enough to combine all the ingredients. Add just enough lobster stock to lighten the mixture, but not to the point that it flows.
5. Turn the mixture into a glass baking dish. Mix the Monterey Jack with the Romano cheese and top the casserole with it. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, until cheese has melted and even gone a little crusty.
Serve with crackers, toasted pita, or crisp tortilla chips.
Makes enough as an appetizer for about 10, or as a buffet appetizer for about 20.
Gnocchi With Crabmeat And Mushrooms @ Tujague’s
When the ancient (1856) restaurant Tujague’s updated itself in 2013, one of the dishes on the new menu was something so superb that customers who had it as an appetizer often asked to have a bigger plate of it as an entree. The gnocchi are made in house with a very deft hand. The texture is perfect. So is the sauce that connects it with the other elements on the place. The crabmeat is a no-brainer, but the wild mushrooms are another matter. The dish harkens back to the day when Tujague’s neighborhood was mostly Italian.
Gnocchi with mushrooms and crabmeat.
Tujague’s. French Quarter: 823 Decatur. 504-525-8676.
This dish is ranked #296 in NOMenu’s list of the 500 best dishes in New Orleans restaurants.
July 11, 2014
Days Until. . .
Tales Of The Cocktail 6
Satchmo Summer Fest 19
Celebrity Restaurateurs Today
Drago Cvitanovich was born today in 1922, in a small town near Split, Yugoslavia (now Croatia). He moved to Louisiana along with many of his countrymen, and joined the oyster industry in Plaquemines Parish. He moved to New Orleans in the 1950s, and worked for a time at a restaurant owned by his brother-in-law Drago Batinich. When that Drago’s, this Drago opened his own place, also called Drago’s, in what later became Fat City.
The new Drago’s menu was half seafood and half Croatian food. It was also half-full, on a busy day. Its specialty always has been oysters. Drago handled that end of the business personally, drawing on his contacts with the oystermen in Empire and thereabouts. The place seemed to be going nowhere when the family decided to reinvent the place. One dish did the trick: char-broiled oysters, such a phenomenon now that it’s as widely imitated as barbecue shrimp or oysters Rockefeller. That was about ten years ago; now, led by Drago’s son Tommy, Drago’s is one of the most successful restaurants in town. Drago is pretty much retired now, but he shows up at the restaurant daily. In his prime (not long ago), he was the fastest oyster shucker you ever saw, and kept up a conversation all the while he did it.
His business continues to grow, however. Drago’s just announced that it’s opening a third location in the Hilton hotel in Jackson, Mississippi.
Today’s Flavor
Today is National Blueberry Muffin Day. Beware: the “blueberries” in many commercial muffins are actually little bits of dried apple colored blue. However, a good blueberry muffin is wonderful. Make some: blueberry season is ending down here, but it spreads north trough the next couple of months. The most famous blueberry muffins in New Orleans were (and are) those baked at the Pontchartrain Hotel. Although the restaurant offerings of the Pontchartrain are much diminished from their glory days when the Aschaffenburg family owned the place, the blueberry muffins still go on. Actually, they’re a little on the dry side, but they do make a breakfast something special.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Lettuce Creek is a bayou that begins in the marshy areas east of Lake Okeechobee in the center of the Florida Peninsula, and travels four miles before emptying into the lake. The area is dominated by vast sugar cane and other farm fields. You have to drive seven miles to the nearest restaurant: the well-named Top Of The Lake in the town of Okeechobee.
Annals Of Dueling
Today in 1804, the most famous duel in American history came to a bad end when Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton–the man most responsible for assembling the U.S. government as we know it–fell in Weehawken, New Jersey, across the Hudson from Manhattan. Burr, who came out of the deal with a badly damaged reputation, came to New Orleans, where he began starting other trouble. Now, of course, men challenge one another with knives in the kitchen (i.e., the Iron Chef).
Gambling And Food
Today in 1913, within walking distance of the Dueling Oaks, the New Orleans City Park Casino opened. It served as the central refreshment stand for the park (and still does). When we were kids, we associated a visit to City Park with the sno-balls, popcorn, and hot dogs we gleaned from the Casino. Then we climbed all over the big live oaks outside between merry-go-round rides and turns on the swings. Ah, innocent childhood.
Dressing Up For Dinner
Today is the birthday, in 1934, of Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani. I wish I could wear one of his suits, but you need a certain kind of physique for those beautiful duds. Avid eaters rarely have such a shape.
Edible Dictionary
couscous, n.– A farinaceous dish made from hard-wheat semolina flour. The flour is dampened and then rolled by hand or machine until small pellets form. Those are passed through a sieve to remove bit bits smaller than a certain size, which are then added back into another batch. The morsels that pass (or, really, don’t pass through the sieve) are dried and ready for use. The standard way of cooking couscous is to steam it in the top of a two-piece pot called a couscoussiere. A simmering stock of meat and vegetables in the bottom steams and flavors the couscous, which is then mixed with the meats, seafood, or vegetables. The resulting dish is a loose, damp but not juicy stew, with the couscous itself forming most of the dish. There are offbeat variations of couscous throughout the dish’s Northern African homeland. Some kinds of couscous are made with cracked wheat or barley grains, and are not a pasta. Israeli couscous has much larger pieces, the size of peppercorns.
Annals Of Overeating
Former U.S. President William Howard Taft was sworn in today in 1921 as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. First and only man to head two branches of the Federal government. But he was the size of two men, at well over 300 pounds.
Treat Of The Day
Many locations of the 7-11 chain of convenience stores around the world will give you a free 7.11-ounce Slurpee today if you ask. Note the date.
Food In The Wild
Today in 2001, a patrolman in Vancouver was accosted by a duck who walked up and grabbed him by the pants leg. The duck kept pulling the cop, who kept breaking loose, down the street to a catch basin. There, in the drainage, were eight baby ducklings. The policeman fished them out with a vegetable strainer, and the reunited duck family resumed its walk to a nearby pond. I’m thinking of some tale of how delicious they all were in the police kitchen that night, but I can’t bring myself to write it.
The Saints
Today is the feast day of St. Benedict, founder of the Benedictine monks, the first Christian monastic order, in the sixth century. His rule was “Pray and work.” Cooking and baking have always been a big part of the work. The Benedictines at St. Joseph’s Abbey near Covington bake an enormous amount of bread everyday, most of which they give away to the poor.
Food Namesakes
Bobby Rice, pop singer in the 1960s and 1970s, was born today in 1944. He was heard on the Fireballs’ song Sugar Shack. . . Mel Appleby, of the rock duo Mel ‘n’ Kim, was born today in 1966. . . Blind Lemon Jefferson, one of the most influential early blues singers and guitarists, wailed for the first time today in 1897. . . Brazilian physicist Cesare Lattes discovered himself today in 1924. He discovered the pi meson, so small its filling could not be tasted.
Words To Eat By
“Mother: “It’s broccoli, dear.”
Child: “I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it.”–E. B. White, long-time New Yorker writer, born today in 1899.
Words To Drink By
“They never taste who always drink.”–Matthew Prior, On a Passage in the Scaligerana.
Been Here, Done This.
Don’t get the pizza with the raw egg on top.
Click here for the cartoon.