Thursday, February 12, 2015.
Bistro Orleans Pleases More. Home-Alone Time.
Mary Ann flies out to join Mary Leigh and Jude in Los Angeles. Poor old Mardi Gras! Nobody in my family but me goes to parades anymore, preferring to leave town instead. And the weather is even nice–although it’s not looking too good for Fat Tuesday itself.
To avoid getting caught in tonight’s parades, I leave the radio station as soon as I get off the air, and begin thinking about restaurants where I might get stuck or–worse–shut out. I wind up at Bistro Orleans, for which I am doing a couple of commercials every day. In that situation, I need to go to the place more often so a) I know I can still get behind it and 2) develop some worthwhile matters to talk about.
Bistro Orleans.
Specifically tonight, I want to try the oyster artichoke soup. That attracted me to the restaurant a couple of years ago. They’ve improved it, with the adjusted recipe having some qualities of the old-style West End oyster stew, made with a little richer cream base. I order a cup but get a bowl, yet finish it off with pleasure.
Panneed chicken with pasta.
The entree is panneed chicken with angel hair pasta and red sauce. The chicken is very good, light ad greaseless, but with a nice crunch at the interface with the atmosphere. The pasta is not tossed with the sauce, but by the time I’ve had my fill, I am still nowhere near the white layer.
I go home, and am home alone. I think about watching some late-night talk shows, which in my twenties and thirties was a nightly ritual so strong that it could be said that my entire day wrapped around it. Those were the days of Johnny Carson and David Letterman. I don’t know any of the people hosting those shows now. I only watch them on vacation, and find that I still enjoy the genre. But I don’t know how to make the television work. So I sit down at my desk, where there is always something to use up my time.
Bistro Orleans. Metairie: 3216 West Esplanade Ave. 504-304-1469.
Friday, February 13, 2015.
Porter And Luke’s Rebounds.
One of the great advantages of my new-old-new-old-new radio show schedule from 3-6 p.m. is that it allows me to get all my writing done by noon. Then I take the walk that is largely responsible for my great weight loss in the last two years. And then take a shower and a nap. And still have time to give myself an hour and a half to cross the lake, lowering the tension of being against the clock every day.
When Porter & Luke opened on Metairie Road a few years ago, it created a lot of conversation on the radio show. Then I stopped hearing about it, and occasionally heard reports which, while not terrible, seemed to say that the early excellence was wavering. But in the past couple of months, after this long lull, I am once again getting calls saying how much the callers like it. The menu hasn’t changed. Chef Vincent Manguno is still there. So why all the new excitement?
I thought I’d better check, for the first time in quite awhile. Although the place is nearly full and the bar overflowing, I get a table immediately. Almost as soon as I do, I am approached by people I don’t know who want to say hello and, in three cases, want to take a selfie with me. That’s always reassuring, what with twenty more years to go in this restaurant critic dodge.
Triple wedge and seafood salad.
The soup of the day is oyster-artichoke. Even though I ate that yesterday at Bistro Orleans, I get it again, knowing that this one will be different. A little too thick, but I leave none of the big bowlful of it. For an entree I get the triple wedge, a great idea. Small heads of lettuce are quartered and three of the quarters are plated. Over one goes shrimp remoulade, crabmeat ravigote tops the second one, and fried oysters with blue cheese cluster around the third. This is a big plate of food, but I finish it because, after all, it’s really a salad, right?
The salad does not go at all with the glass of Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine I have not sampled in a long time. I loved it in my early days of tasting wines. It’s still a mouthful, and if I had been eating anything else I would have finished the very generous glass.
When I approach the Cool Water Ranch House in the dark, the dogs and cats surround me. I hear a voice coming from inside the house. I know it is WWNO on the radio in the kitchen. I leave it on all the time whenever I’m the only one here. When Mary Ann gets home from her trip to Los Angeles, the first thing she will do is to turn the radio off. Rituals.
Porter & Luke. Old Metairie: 1517 Metairie Road. 504-875-4555.
#31 In The Top 33 Seafood Eateries.
Felix’s
French Quarter: 739 Iberville. 504-522-4440. Map.
Casual.
AE MC V
Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
Among the memories carried around by lifetime Orleanians, the circumstances surrounding the eating of one’s first raw oyster loom vividly. For a long time, the population could be divided into those who had their first oyster at Felix’s, and those who did so across the street at the Acme. What with all the oysters bars in town now, this effect has transmogrified into a predictor of the oyster-eater’s age. If your first was from either Felix’s or the Acme, you are probably over fifty.
WHY IT’S NOTEWORTHY
In recent years Felix’s has become a much more touristy place than it once was–but that’s true of most of the Quarter. Two things remain consistent during the forty years I’ve dined there: the oysters are always terrific, and the service is always marginal.
WHAT’S GOOD
Locals who haven’t dined in Felix’s in awhile may be surprised by how abbreviated the menu is. You once could come here and eat almost anything. Now it’s seafood, sandwiches, and a few appetizers and sides. But that’s forgivable, given the goodness of the specialties. They execute surprisingly good versions of the classic grilled and baked oyster dishes, which one doesn’t often find in such a casual place.
BACKSTORY
If you’re a New Orleans old-timer, you pronounce the name “feh-LEEX.” And you know that the place has been around at least as long as you have (since 1935). For most of that time it was owned by the Rotonti family. The restaurant expanded greatly in the 1990s by taking over the space formerly that of Toney’s Spaghetti House. After Hurricane Katrina, Felix’s opened an Uptown branch on the corner of Prytania and Robert, but closed it after a couple of years. The French Quarter original was many months in returning to business, and when it did it reverted to its original Iberville Street space.
DINING ROOM
Two long rooms are side by side, with the neon-lit entrance on the left. The oyster bar is immediately inside, with what may be the most photographed neon advisory in the entire New Orleans restaurant community: “Oysters ‘R’ In Season.” Although it’s been renovated a few times, the place is well-worn. Everything about Felix’s–especially the food–is pure New Orleans.
FULL ONLINE MENU
BEST DISHES
Oysters
Raw on the half shell
Char-grilled
Rockefeller
Bienville
Oysters du jour
Starters
Seafood gumbo
Turtle soup
Crawfish etouffee
Fried crab fingers
Fried crawfish tails
Shrimp cocktail or remoulade
Alligator, blackened or fried
Fried meat pies
Fried crawfish pies
Jambalaya
Lettuce wedge salad
Entrees
Fried shrimp, oyster, fish, soft-shell crab, or combination platters Catch of the day, grilled or blackened
Grilled or blackened shrimp
Seafood salad (baby greens, lump crabineat, boiled shrimp)
Poor boy sandwiches
Grilled shrimp
Shrimp and oyster, olive oil, lettuce, black olives, red onions
Hot roast beef
Fried shrimp, crawfish, fish, oyster, soft shell crab
Hot sausage
Desserts
Bread pudding, whiskey sauce
Creole pecan pie
FOR BEST RESULTS
The rest of the menu is okay, but oysters are what you come here for. Eat raw oysters at the bar, but ask for a table before you do if the place is busy. The tables in the other room are better for full meals than those in the bar.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The chaos in the bar and the method by which tables are requested needs much streamlining.
FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
Dining Environment +1
Consistency
Service
Value +1
Attitude
Wine & Bar
Hipness +1
Local Color +3
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
Open Sunday lunch and dinner
Open Monday lunch and dinner
Open some holidays
Open till 11 p.m. FR SA
Open all afternoon
Historic
Oyster bar
Unusually large servings
Quick, good meal
Good for children
No reservations
Quiche Lorraine
The first time I ever encountered a quiche was on the menu of the first restaurant I ever reviewed–the Flambeau Room of the LSUNO (now called UNO) University Center. I didn’t know what to make of it, but it sounded good and tasted better. Quiche–a very popular dish in the Lorraine region in Northeastern France–was becoming very popular in America, and had not yet acquired the reputation as something that real men don’t eat. After that untruth got out, quiche was relegated to salad restaurants and pastry shops. It’s making a mild comeback, now that eggs have been revealed as not the death-dealing element in your diet that the nutritionists had been telling us they were.
Quiche Lorraine.
The filling of this quiche is the classic (although in France they’d probably use bacon instead of ham). But the crust is decidedly offbeat. That’s half because I was trying to avoid making a pie crust or a puff pastry crust (I hate both jobs), and I saw these spinach-and-herb flour tortillas in the store. They are made by Hola Nola, a Louisiana-based maker of tortillas. I made a few snips at the edges and folded them up to make the quiche’s sidewall. After fitting it into the straight-sided pan (6-8 inches in diameter), I toasted the empty crust in a 400-degree oven until it became stiff around the edges. Then I poured the filling in, lowered the heat a little, and baked the quiche. It made the whole house smell good, and was deemed delicious even by my less-than-adventuresome daughter’s palate.
6 oz. (about four thin, wide slices) deli smoked ham (Chisesi’s, a New Orleans brand, preferred)
1 thin flour tortilla, preferably green herb kind, 10 inches in diameter
3 large eggs
2 additional large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. salt-free Creole seasoning
1 green onion, tender green part only, snipped into thin round rings
3 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, leaves only, chipped
1/2 tsp. dry tarragon (or 1 tsp. fresh and no parsley)
1 cup coarsely grated sharp provolone cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees for a few minutes.
Slice the ham into thin squares about as big as your thumbnail. Scatter these chips on a pizza pan and put it into the oven. Take them out when the ham has begun to brown around the edges, and set aside.
Cut eight slits from the edge of the tortilla inward about two inches. Fit the tortilla into a straight-sided, eight-inch-diameter round baking pan (a smallish springform pan works perfectly). Put the pan into the oven and bake until the tortilla gets a little stiff at the edges.
While the two steps above are going on, break the eggs and egg yolks into a bowl (check each one to make sure it’s good before adding it to the bowl). Beat the eggs with an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, or whisk it by hand. Keep going until the eggs are frothy and a light shade of yellow.
With a rubber spatula, gently stir the half-and-half into the eggs. Add the salt, Creole seasoning, green onions, parsley, tarragon, ham, and cheese (in that order) and stir gently to preserve as many tiny bubbles as possible in the eggs.
Pour the filling into the tortilla-lined pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. When perfectly cooked, the center part of the quiche should be wiggly, not perfectly firm. Remove it from the oven and let it cool down to feel just barely warm. That will set it the rest of the way without overbaking it.
You can slice the quiche into wedges and serve it right then. Or you can wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for later. (A few seconds in a microwave brings it quickly back to warm.)
Serves six to eight.
Oysters Slessinger @ Katie’s
One of the major additions to the kitchen and the menu when Katie’s reopened (five years after Katrina shut it down) was an oyster-shucking operation. And as has been the case in restaurants with oyster bars, Katie’s installed an array of grilled oyster dishes, of which this one is best. The bivalves get grilled on their half-shells with a topping of bacon, spinach, shrimp and Provel cheese. That last item is a favorite in St. Louis, and so seldom found elsewhere that you practically have to smuggle it in by packet boat from St. Louis to get it down here. It’s more or less a mixture of cheddar and provolone. . Katie’s Scott Craig uses it liberally throughout the menu, froim pizza to this rich oyster appetizer.
Katie’s. Mid-City: 3701 Iberville. 504-488-6582.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
February 20, 2014
Days Until. . .
St. Patrick’s Day 25
St. Joseph’s Day 27
Easter 39
Today’s Flavor
Many websites claim that today is National Cherry Pie Day. The problem with this is that cherries are totally out of season right now, and we must make any cherry pie with canned cherries, resulting in a cloyingly oversweet dessert. Remember when you could get a cherry pie at McDonald’s and places of that ilk? Just apple now, I think (although I’m behind on my research on fast-food fried pies.)
Great Moments In Grocery Shopping
The square-bottomed paper bag was invented by Luther Crowell of Cape Cod, who spent his spare time folding paper and attempting to make things out of it. He got a patent for his bag–which was universal in grocery stores until the plastic sack took over–in 1867. But on this day in 1872 Crowell patented the machine that made them easily and cheaply.
Beer Through History
The Yuengling Brewery opened in Pottsville, Pennsylvania on this date in 1829. It’s still in business, the oldest American brewery that can make that claim. I guess that makes them a bit older than Dixie. It continued operation during Prohibition by making a nasty drink called “near-beer.” Here’s some background on the outfit, if you’re interested.
Inventions For Better Eating
A toothpick manufacturing machine was invented on this day in 1872, by two guys, J.P. Cooley and Silas Noble. One of them did the round toothpicks and the other flat. The best toothpicks are made of alder wood. Ask the next very expensive restaurant you dine in whether they have alder toothpicks. Then tell them that they should. Let’s see how long this takes to make it into the national food magazines. Most of the toothpicks made in America, by the way, are made in Maine.
Annals Of Wine Marketing
The first wine auction that we know about took place in London on this date in 1673. Amazingly, a bottle of Phelps Insignia went for almost $2,000. No, it didn’t. The wine being auctioned was entirely in barrels, and was sold as a bulk commodity.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Onion Creek is a small farming town forty-seven miles south of Dallas. It was at one time a station on the Rock Island Railroad; a main line of the Burlington Santa Fe still runs through it. The town is on the creek of the same name, which flows twenty five miles (creating two reservoirs along the way) before it flows into Chambers Creek, a tributary of the Trinity River, a few miles south of the town. This is cotton-growing country and has been for a long time. The nearest restaurants are six miles north in Ennis. Among them I like the sound of Lety’s Tortilleria Y Taqueria.
Edible Dictionary
Blue Point Oyster, n.–Oysters from the Great South Bay, south of Long Lisland, New York, particularly in the area near a small cape called Blue Point. These were among the most famous of all the oysters of New York City, but like all the rest of them they were polluted nearly out of existence. They’ve made a comeback in recent years, but chances are that any oysters you find bearing the Blue Point name are merely similar to the real thing. In fact, Blue Points are of the species crassostrea virginica, the same kind of oyster found down the Atlantic seaboard and into the Gulf of Mexico. The excellence of Blue Points comes from the cold sea water where they live.
Dining In The Movies
Today is the birthday of Sidney Poitier, whose first big movie was Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? in 1967. It’s about the problems the older generation had when their children started hanging around with people of other racial backgrounds.
Words To Eat By
“The majority of those who put together collections of verses or epigrams resemble those who eat cherries or oysters: they begin by choosing the best and end by eating everything.”–Nicolas Chamfort, an eminently quotable author from the mid-1700s.
Words To Drink By
“What’s drinking? A mere pause from thinking!”–Lord Byron.
Thoughts Of Food #530522
Next week: how speckled trout feels about almonds.
Click here for the cartoon.
Thoughts Of Food #530522
Next week: how speckled trout feels about almonds.
Click here for the cartoon.