Four Roses Reappears; Bourbon Dinner At Arnaud’s.
Four Roses was a very popular blended American whiskey in the 1940s the 1970s, when it faded away. It was in the same category as Seagram’s 7 Crown, and made by blending bourbon with “neutral spirits”–essentially vodka. But in the 1980s bourbon became unpopular, and the blended brands even more so. A few years ago I did a fairly thorough search for Four Roses, and found nothing. Now it’s back, but instead of the blended spirits it’s now a small-batch bourbon–the hip part of the bourbon business these days.
Arnaud’s is holding a dinner this Thursday (February 26) in which the new Four Roses will be tasted both in cocktails and neat. The company has created a proprietary version of the bourbon that will be sold under Arnaud’s name and Four Roses. The Four Roses master distiller will autograph bottles of Arnaud’s new private label for guests to take home as part of the cost of the dinner. Which is a four-course affair, to wit:
Passed Appetizers
Bourbon-based cocktails.
Cornmeal Crusted Crawfish Cake
Warm mirliton slaw and Creole mustard vinaigrette
Wine: Stag’s Leap Chardonnay 2013
Slow Roasted Veal Sirloin
Port wine reduction, mushroom and barley risotto
Wine: Clos du Val Merlot 2011
Bourbon Pecan Pound Cake
Vanilla bean ice cream
Wine: Arnaud’s Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon
The dinner will be in a cool spot: Arnaud’s Bourbon Suites, which overlook Bourbon Street from balconies on the second floor. You are welcome to attend, whether you remember Four Roses or not. The price is $150 inclusive. Call the number below to reserve.
Arnaud’s
French Quarter: 813 Bienville. 504-523-5433. www.arnauds.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.
Sunday, February 15, 2015.
One Letter Makes Me Work All Day.
In my email today is a request from a subscriber to the website that the restaurants listings include the price info. A couple of months ago, I redefined that data. Instead of estimating what dinner would cost in the restaurants, I now take the average price of an entree in each place. This is much more definite than the old system. Now all I have to do is work the graphic into all the reviews and listings. Let’s see. . . I have around 500 places with full reviews. And I have nine different lists of all the restaurants in town. It takes about two minutes to add the price info in one listing. So 150 hours.
I spend about four hours planning this operation. It sounds trivial, but it’s features like this that appeal most to readers. I’m lucky to know what they want. On other fields (radio, for example), I have very little idea what listeners want from me.
Zea’s Asian oysters.
Dinner at Zea. I hear that they will shortly have the Asian fried oysters that they run as a Lenten special every year. It may be the best dish they ever serve at Zea. But I’m apparently ahead of time for that. But other dishes beckon. I like the Sunday soup of the day: a chunky, lightly creamy tomato soup with a bit of parmesan cheese. I tell them to leave the latter ingredient out. More often than not, a gratuitous bit of cheese adds less than nothing to a dish.
The forecast for Mardi Gras is that the Fahrenheit will be in the 30s and it will be raining, perhaps heavily. That sounds worse than last year, which was the second most unpleasant Mardi Gras weather in my memory. (Beating it was 1978, the first and only time in its 122 years that Comus called off its parade due to the weather.)
Monday, February 16, 2015.
Lundi Gras. Beans.
So I’m still baching it while the Marys luxuriate in the Langham Hotel in Pasadena. I do the radio show at home, and that is the only part of the day that doesn’t feel hollow. There is no chorus rehearsal tonight, even. I drive over there to make sure, stopping for red beans and rice with grilled pork chops at New Orleans Food and Spirits. So I play my role as a walking New Orleans cliche while Lundi Gras plays out its rituals. All the parades have been moved up to avoid the rainstorms on the way.
New Orleans Food & Spirits. West End & Bucktown: 210 Hammond Hwy. 504-828-2220. || Harvey: 2330 Lapalco Blvd. 504-362-0800. || Covington: 208 Lee Lane. 985-875-0432.
#30 Among The 33 Best Seafood Eateries
Brisbi’s
West End & Bucktown: 7400 Lakeshore Dr. 504-304-4125. Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
The greatest restaurant loss from Katrina was the historic West End. Even though it was was in a long decline when the hurricane hit, the total destruction down to water level marked the end of a dining zone that dated back to before the Civil War. Efforts to restore any kind of restaurant to West End were greeted with hope and longing. So much that we even put up with Landry’s, the chain restaurant that opened years before any other West End place did.
Then, after six years, plans for two new restaurants alongside the New Basin Canal began to take shape. Brisbi’s and The Blue Crab–similar in that they include many outdoor tables, a view of the lake, and service to boats–opened in late 2013. The crowds were enormous. Everybody who had ever dined at West End jammed in, waited a long time for a table, and had meals which more often than not left the diners a little or a lot disappointed. How could it be otherwise? The revival of a major institution always has its customers saying that it isn’t like the old place. Now, after two years, these two restaurants and their customers have figured one another out. More or less.
Brisbi’s.
WHY IT’S NOTEWORTHY
The classic West End restaurant is a big, casual place with big windows giving a view of the lake, serving modestly-priced local seafood dishes of large size. The food begins with raw oysters, boiled lake crustaceans, and fried everything. What sets Brisbi’s apart is that its menu extends well beyond the basics, with hollandaise sauce and fish tacos and other departures from the deep-fryer.
Brisbi’s barbecue shrimp.
WHAT’S GOOD
The chef is David deFelice, a member of the family that for over a century has operated Pascal’s Manale. There is no business connection there, but Brisbi’s kitchen does borrow more than a few dishes from the Manale’s catalog. They include both good things (barbecue shrimp) and bad (turtle soup). Indeed, the poor boy sandwiches and seafood platters seem to take a back seat. Downstairs, what almost seems like a different restaurant shucks thousands of oysters and boils the seasonal shellfish.
BACKSTORY
The exact spot where Brisbi’s is now was for decades the Hong Kong restaurant, a well-known Chinese place as famous for its romantic booths for necking as for its food. Owner Jonathan Brisbi has a feeling of waterfront dining, having grown up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He and partners (one of whom was, briefly, Chef Duke LoCicero of Cafe Giovanni) began working on the restaurant in 2010, finding themselves having to be pioneers in erecting a restaurant outside the levees, with even more bureaucrats to sedate than usual. Brisbi’s opened at almost exactly the same time that the Blue Crab did, in 20132.
Drumfish Oscar.
DINING ROOM
The building is brand-new, with most of the operation lifted twenty feet above sea level. (There are elevators.) Other requirements came from the Army Corps of Engineers, who had to sign off on nearly everything. The main dining room is smaller than one expects, but so much outdoor dining space is available that this becomes an issue only when the weather is unpleasant. One wants to dine alfresco always, because a full house in the main interior room generates noise levels hard to talk over.
FULL ONLINE MENU
BEST DISHES
Starters
Raw oysters
Tuna tartare nachos, pepper jelly vinaigrette, wasabi aioli
Fried green tomatoes, crabmeat or shrimp remoulade
Buffalo-style oysters, shrimp, or chicken
Shrimp and crabmeat-stuffed mushrooms, hollandaise
Baked crab cakes, horseradish cream sauce
Garlic-parmesan fries
Barbecue shrimp and grits
Shrimp and crab gumbo
Entrees
Fried oysters, shrimp, catfish, calamari or combinations
Pecan crusted catfish, sweet potatoes, asparagus
Sesame-crusted tuna, pineapple teriyaki
Gulf fish Pontchartrain, crabmeat, hollandaise, asparagus
Fish tacos, blackened or grilled, pico de gallo
Salmon florentine (spinach, artichokes, hollandaise)
Fish meuniere or amandine
Fried oysters with pasta bordelaise
Panneed chicken with fettuccine Alfredo
Spinach and romaine salad, fried oysters, bacon, roasted peppers and grape tomatoes, blue cheese
Sandwiches
Fried oysters, shrimp or catfish poor boy
Chicken or eggplant parmigiana or meatball poor boy, red gravy
Stuffed barbecue shrimp poor boy
Roast beef debris poor boy
Hamburgers
Desserts
Bread pudding
Key lime pie
Bananas Foster
FOR BEST RESULTS
The kitchen better executes the more ambitious, hipper dishes than it does the basics. The raw oysters are so good that one might spend the entire visit on the lower level.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
From Day One through today, service here has never been finely tuned. The food either comes out too fast or not nearly fast enough. That turtle soup recipe should go extinct.
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 +2
Consistency
Service+1
Value +1
Attitude
Wine & Bar
Hipness +2
Local Color +3
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
Courtyard or deck dining
Romantic
Good view
Open Sunday lunch
Open Monday lunch
Open after 10 p.m.
Open all afternoon
Oyster bar
Good for children
Easy, nearby parking
Reservations accepted (for five or more)
St. Joseph’s Day On The North Shore
We get lots of requests for Eat Club dinners on the North Shore, but for a variety of boring reasons we don’t hold them there very often. But here it is, at an auspicious time: the evening before St. Joseph’s Day. By which time Daylight Saving Time will be in force. So if you have to cross the lake from the South Shore you will do so in daylight.
Impastato Cellars opened a little over a year ago, with the same men as in Impastato’s in Metairiie. That means that we’ll find the same fresh fish, baby white veal, and (best of all) the paper-thin, house-made fettuccine Alfredo, everybody’s favorite Impastato dish. Joe Impastato himself will drive across the lake for the evening, while his daughter Mica–who manages the North Shore location–will be our hostess. The rest of it will be familiar to those who have been with us in Metairie: terrific food generously served, liberally poured wines of interest, and a very good time.
The dining room at Impastato Cellars.
Here’s the menu–subject to changes that usually improve the selection. Wines will be paired with the courses, but they haven’t been selected yet.
Seafood Appetizers
Sauteed crab claws, shrimp remoulade, stuffed mushrooms, crabmeat cannelloni, Italian baked oysters
Wine: Prosecco
House-Made Fettuccine Alfredo
Thin noodles with a sauce of cream, butter, and Parmesan cheese
Romaine And Tomato Salad
With the house Italian dressing
Fresh Gulf Fish, Veal Or Soft-Shell Crab Peyton
With crabmeat, shrimp, artichokes, mushrooms, sherry-lemon butter sauce
~or~
Veal Porterhouse Chop
Veal filet and veal sirloin, grilled bone-in, sauteed mushrooms
~or~
Grilled Filet Mignon
All The Desserts in the House
They’ll bring them to the table, and you pick the one (or two) you like.
Impastato Cellars
Wednesday, March 18, 6:30 p.m.
Madisonville: 240 Highway 22 E. Map.
$85, inclusive of tax, tip and wines.
Click here to reserve.
Salmon Soufflee “Auberge de l’Ill”
This is one of the most delicate dishes I’ve ever eaten. The flavor of the fish is refined and carried on a cloudlike texture. It was created by and is the famous dish of L’Auberge de l’Ill, a three-star restaurant in Alsace, France. Their chef brought it with him to the fondly remembered Henri, where the food of L’Auberge de l’Ill was served. Thin, milder fish work best–particularly flounder, sea bass, and small drum.
For the fish stock:
1 small whole rainbow trout, filleted
Bones of the fish (if available), rinsed
1/2 bottle white wine
1/4 cup onion, coarsely chopped
2 sprigs fresh thyme
5 fresh basil leaves
~
For the stuffing:
8 oz. of the fish (from the stock above)
3 eggs, separated
Pinch salt and pepper
Pinch nutmeg
8 oz. heavy cream
~
1 lb. cold-smoked salmon, unsliced
2 shallots, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 bottle dry Riesling (Alsace preferred)
12 oz. fish stock (see below)
4 oz. heavy cream
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 Tbs. butter
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
1. Make the fish stock first. In a large stainless steel skillet, add all the stock ingredients to 1 quart water. Bring to a light boil and cook 10 minutes. Remove fish fillets. Strain stock and discard solids. Set aside.
2. To make the stuffing, separate the eggs and combine all ingredients except cream and the whites of two of the eggs in a food processor. Process into a puree while adding cream gradually.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until peaks form. Carefully fold egg whites into stuffing mixture. Refrigerate.
4. Slice salmon into long, thin fillets on a slight diagonal (about four ounces each). Place fillets in a buttered baking pan and sprinkle with chopped shallots. Pile stuffing atop each fillet. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Add wine and fish stock to pan and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tops of stuffing are golden brown. Remove and keep warm.
5. Pour the liquids from the pan into a skillet and add cream. Reduce over medium-low heat by one-half. Chip in butter and whisk into sauce. Add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.
To serve, arrange salmon on plates and pour sauce all around (not on top). Garnish with very light vegetables.
Serves four.
Shrimp Diabla @ La Carreta
This dish seems to turn up–with variations–in almost every cuisine where shrimp and tomatoes are found, from shrimp fra diavolo in Italy to shrimp Creole in New Orleans. Here is the Mexican version, made by grilling big shrimp and topping them with a chipotle pepper and tomato sauce, then running it under the broiler to add the other kind of heat. La Carreta also makes this with chicken, which may even be better.
La Carreta. Mandeville: 1200 W Causeway Approach. 985-624-2990.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
February 23, 2014
Days Until. . .
St. Patrick’s Day 22
St. Joseph’s Day 20
Easter 36
Famous Names In High Living
Cesar Ritz was born today in 1850. Every use of the word Ritz implying luxury and excellence derives from his career. After managing hotels in Monte Carlo and Switzerland, how founded his own ritzy place in Paris. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel here is a direct descendant. I wonder how he’d feel about Ritz crackers.
World Food Records
Today in 2007, a group of New Zealand fishermen landed the largest colossal squid ever caught. It was just under forty feet long, and weighed almost a thousand pounds. These fantastic creatures have been known for a long time, but almost never encountered live. They can fight a sperm whale to the finish, the winner not a foregone conclusion. Not enough breading and oil could be found to fry this calamari, so it was grilled and served with aioli instead.
Physiology Of Eating
The man who invented the word vitamin was born today in 1884. Casimir Funk was a biochemist who worked on figuring out which parts of our food did what in the body. Good thing he didn’t name these essential nutrients after himself. Can you imagine a daily multi-funk regimen?
Annals Of Lunch
The Rotary Club was founded today in 1905, in Chicago, by Paul Percy Harris and three friends. Rotarians are nice people who accomplish much in their communities. After speaking at their breakfast and lunch meetings on many occasions, I can say that eating excellent food is not one of their goals. I usually respond to their invitations by saying that I’d be happy to speak, as long as I don’t have to eat.
Food Calendar
National Banana Bread Day. As nugatory as that may sound, it rings a bell because if you buy bananas, it’s almost a certainty that you buy too many. When bananas become overripe, they’re in the perfect state for making banana bread. It’s great for breakfast, and makes a pretty good late-night snack.
Annals Of Candy
Leo Hirshfield, an Austrian immigrant who owned a candy shop in New York City, made up the basic formula still used today for Tootsie Rolls. The year was 1896. He named the candy after his daughter. It was the first hand-wrapped penny candy, and was obviously a big hit, even though it tastes chocolaty, not like chocolate. Sixty-four million Tootsie Rolls are made every day. (Does that sound right to you?) Tootsie Roll Industries (the front and back parts of the corporate name don’t sound right together, either) was founded with only the namesake product. Now it also makes Charms Blow Pops, Mason Dots, Andes Mints, Sugar Daddy, Charleston Chew, Dubble Bubble gum, Razzles, Caramel Apple Pop, Junior Mints, Cella’s Chocolate-Covered Cherries, and Nik-L-Nip.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Eaton is a tiny crossroads in west central Tennessee, ninety-four miles northeast of Memphis. It’s a rich farming area, made so by the many times over the eons that the Mississippi River flooded this area and left behind very fertile soil. The townlet is defined by Eaton Circle, a road that draws a rectangle on Route 188. It’s pretty rural around Eaton, so if you need a restaurant you’ll have to drive ten miles east to Trenton. There you’ll find a couple of restaurants with intriguing names: Joe Dean’s Bypass Cafe, and Toot And Tell It. Ten miles west, the train they call the City of New Orleans makes daily stops in Dyersburg.
Edible Dictionary
waterzooie, [wah-ter- ZOH-ee], Flemish, n.–The name of this great Belgian soup-stew seems to suggest seafood, but it’s more often made with chicken. It begins like chicken gumbo, with the chicken pieces (preferably from a big old hen) browned and then simmered in water to both cook the chicken through and throw off a stock. The rest of the recipe is more like chicken-vegetable soup, with more onions than anything else. What makes the dish unique is the addition of cream, eggs, and lemon at the end, giving qualities of Greek avgolemono soup. Despite all those ingredients, it comes out on the light, if chunky side. A great winter soup, it’s found in nearly every restaurant in Belgium, a great country for dining. Also spelled waterzooi and waterzooje.
Deft Dining Rule #223 & #224:
When sauces or condiments come to the table in little dishes, don’t think twice about trying them with anything else on the table. Few mistakes can be made.
Always try a few drops of sauces or condiments brought in little dishes to the table before eating a lot of them. Some are very, very hot.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez:
The more different kinds of pepper in a dish, the more interesting and powerful the heat.
Food Namesakes
Gilbert Moxley Sorrel, brigadier general in the Confederate army, was born today in 1838. . . Pro golfer Cindy Figg-Currier teed off her life today in 1960. Later she was able to add a second food word to her name. . . Football linebacker Jerod Mayo got the Big Snap today in 1986.
Words To Eat By
“Hunger makes you restless. You dream about food–not just any food, but perfect food, the best food, magical meals, famous and awe-inspiring, the one piece of meat, the exact taste of buttery corn, tomatoes so ripe they split and sweeten the air, beans so crisp they snap between the teeth, gravy like mother’s milk singing to your bloodstream.”–Dorothy Allison, contemporary American writer.
Words To Drink By
“A rattlesnake that doesn’t bite teaches you nothing.”–Jessamyn West, American writer. She died today in 1984.
The Art Of Egg Cookery.
Delicacy is the watchword. And knowledge of the visual arts in general. Don’t forget to keep them warm! Check each yolk for freshness!
Click here for the cartoon.