100 Most Romantic Cafes For Valentine’s Day
The New Orleans Menu Daily has just posted our annual list of the 100 Most Romantic Places To Diner On Valentine’s Day. Of course, this is highly subjective, and the female readers I am sure are chuckling about the idea that many man know what romantic atmosphere is about, anyway. My wife especially.
We have an added handicap this year. Valentine’s Day–to the great disgust of restaurant owners–falls on the Saturday before Mardi Gras. That is Endymion night, which brings the biggest crowds of the season. The usual French Quarter restaurants we think of first will be very difficult to get access to. Not just because of Endymion, but because the French Quarter traffic and parking are essentially shut down.
I have some strategies you guys might find worthwhile. The most important–and most neglected–is Make Reservations Or Die.
My ranked list of the 100 Most Romantic can be reached by clicking on Valentine’s Day in the main menu at the top of NOMenu.com.
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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.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015.
Steak Knife.
The Steak Knife has been on my mind for the past few months. I attempted going there a number of times, but found no parking in a many-block radius from the restaurant. Mondo and Lakeview Harbor and many other places that made Harrison Avenue a restaurant row also pull in the cars.
But today, for some reason–could it be the chill in the air?–I was able to grab a spot only three blocks away, in the linear parking lot in the center of the Harrison neutral ground.
The Steak Knife at the beginning of a cold evening.
I think the Steak Knife is regarded by those who aren’t among its regulars (and there are many of the latter) as a second-place finisher in the steak field. Given that New Orleans has twenty-seven premium steakhouses, second place isn’t bad–except for those for whom everything is a competition.
Stack of fried eggplant,.
I’ve always liked the place, as much for its sides and appetizers as for its steaks. Escargots, crabmeat au gratin, and a stack of eggplant disks with marinara sauce. Potatoes au gratin. And that funny crustless, sauceless demi-pizza they call “the tidbit.” They make a few very good entree salads, and some non-steak entrees, notably the roast chicken and griled fish with crabmeat and butter.
Strip sirloin.
But I come for the steak. It seems even better than usual. It’s a strip sirloin–my favorite cut–with all the qualities I hope to find. A satisfying sear at the exterior, juiciness in the center, enough fat to enrich the flavors of the beef.
Brothers Bob and Guy Roth have managed the Steak Knife far longer than their father did. He opened the restaurant with Ernie Masson in 1972. After a few years, the place reached a certain equilibrium that it still has–even though a move across the street and the deep flooding from Katrina made changes. The bar is always busy even when the dining room isn’t. Everybody knows everybody. On weekends, they have live music.
Guy came over first to say hello. Then Bob showed up in the togs of a man who has been cooking all night. All is well, in a restaurant you can count on to remain as you remember it.
Steak Knife. Lakeview: 888 Harrison Ave. 504-488-8981.
Muse’s Eggplant with Seafood (Eggplant Vatican)
Chef Muse Benjamin, while not as well known as the superstar chefs of our day, was one of the most influential chefs of his time. He was active for more than fifty years, until his death about seven years ago. Restaurants whose food he defined included Delmonico, the Quality Inn on Tulane Avenue (when that was a great restaurant), the Red Onion, Frank Occhipinti’s, and a few other places. The chef prepared this dish in honor of the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1987. The dish has a few old-fashioned touches, but nobody’s saying you couldn’t use fresh herbs or leave out the Accent. On the other hand, I thought it would be interesting to give you the recipe as I saw Chef Ben do it.
2 medium, ripe eggplants
2 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Stuffing and sauce:
1/2 cup melted butter
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 Tbs. chopped garlic
1 tsp. powdered thyme
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
2 cups oyster water
2 cups shrimp stock
2 cups peeled, deveined medium shrimp
4 large mushrooms, sliced
1 cup milk
1 Tbs. hot sauce
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Accent
2 cups oysters
1/2 lb. white crabmeat
1. Peel the eggplants and slice them in half from top to bottom. Scoop out the center to form a boat with sides about three quarters of an inch thick.
2. Heat the vegetable oil to 375 degrees in a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Stir the salt and pepper into the flour and dust the eggplants generously with the mixture. Fry the eggplant boats in the hot oil, two at a time, until golden. Drain on wire racks set on a pan, and keep them warm in a 200-degree oven.
3. In a saucepan, heat the butter until it starts to bubble, then stir in the flour. Make a blond roux, stirring constantly. At the first sign of browning, add the green onions, garlic, and thyme and cook until the onions are soft.
4. Stir in the wine and bring it to a boil. After a minute, add the oyster water and shrimp stock, and stir in completely. Add the shrimp and mushrooms and simmer until the mushrooms are tender.
5. Add the milk and bring to a boil. Add hot sauce, salt, and the Accent and stir well. Add the oysters and crabmeat and heat through.
6. Spoon the sauce into the eggplant boats and serve immediately.
Serves four.
Afternoon Tea Or High Tea @ English Tea Room
The English Tea Room delivers on the promise of its name exactly. Owner Jan Lantrip is obsessively knowledgeable about tea–she even creates her own blends–and everything that goes with it. Afternoon tea is available all the time, and is highlighted by excellent scones–not too dry, not too sweet, beautiful to look at, with lemon curd, jam, and sweet butter. Many little sandwiches and cookies are in the offing. High tea–a different, more substantial meal traditionally taken in early evening–is also here all the time and wonderful, particularly for the shepherd’s pie and the Buckingham bake (a cross between an egg scramble and an omelette).
English Tea Room. Covington: 734 E Rutland. 985-898-3988.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
February 4, 2014
Days Until. . .
Mardi Gras–13
Valentine’s Day–11
Annals Of Sandwich Making
Today is the birthday (in 1902) of Charles Lindbergh. Beyond his obvious claims to fame, he was the inspiration for a nearly-extinct sandwich. The Lone Eagle is a grilled turkey, ham and cheese sandwich on white bread. After it’s assembled, two of the corners are cut off, rotated ninety degrees, and cheese gets melted over the whole thing. It is supposed to look like an airplane.
Chronicles Of Candy
Today is the disputed birthday (although we’re sure the year was 1930) of Snickers, the biggest-selling candy bar in the world. Two billion dollars’ worth are sold every year. It was Frank Mars’s second major creation in what would become an immensely successful line of candy bars. Like the Mars Bar (later renamed Milky Way), Snickers consisted of layers of nougat and caramel, covered in chocolate. The magic touch was the addition of peanuts. Snickers was named after one of the Mars family’s horses. It reached a low point when people started deep-frying them. All that’s left now is to crumble bacon and blue cheese on top of it. Then the world will end.
Today’s Flavor
Today is Stuffed Mushroom Day. The impulse to stuff a mushroom is strong. You pull the stem out and it leaves a gaping pocket begging to be filled. The range of stuffings is matched by the variability of the results. The best stuffed mushrooms are fantastically tasty tidbits. The worst are murky, soggy blobs in which it’s hard to tell where the mushroom ends and the stuffing begins.
Begin with fresh, firm, mushrooms. Expensive exotic mushrooms should be left to make their own statements. Shiitakes or portobellos are fine, but the basic white mushroom may be the best of all. Buy them a size bigger than you think you need.
For the stuffing, crabmeat, small shrimp, or oysters; a little bacon; bread crumbs; garlic or green onions, and seasonings. The stuffing should be moist but not wet. After stuffing, the mushrooms should go under a hot broiler until toasty, but not so long that the mushrooms start flattening out. The final touch is a small amount of something rich. Melted cheese or hollandaise is the ultimate.
Certain foods are the perfect size for a mushroom cavity. Snails, for example. Crawfish. Big lumps of crabmeat. Whatever you do, be prepared to stuff, bake and sauce your mushrooms immediately before you serve them. Hot mushrooms filled with warm stuffing turn to glop quickly.
Deft Dining Rule #156:
Never order stuffed mushrooms without knowing what they’re stuffed with.
Edible Dictionary
doner, Turkish, n.–One of the most popular bazaar foods in Turkey, doner is a kebab which from a distance resembles shawarma or gyros, but is distinctive. Doner is usually made with legs of lamb that are marinated and roasted just enough to be fully cooked, but still juicy. The lamb is sliced and stacked on a vertical spit that rotates before a heat source. The cook slices the meat pile from top to bottom, resulting in slivers of meat on which one edge is crusty and (if you’re lucky) charred a little. The pile is topped with thick slices of lamb fat, which melts and drips down the pile, keeping the meat moist and delicious. It’s eaten as a platter or wrapped in a pita bread as a sandwich.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Beef Creek flows into Chowan River, which flows into the tidal Albemarle Sound on the Atlantic coast of North Carolina. The creek cuts a path through the Chowan Swamp, a vast watershed that connects with the Dismal Swamp and extends well over the state line into Virginia. The whole area is suffering from pollution problems. Must be all those cows. (What cows? Why is Beef Creek so named?) To find a steak, canoe down the creek and river to Edenton, nine miles downstream to the well-named Hunter’s Restaurant.
Music To Go Hungry By
Today in 1983, Karen Carpenter died of starvation at age thirty-two. She suffered from anorexia nervosa–the mental illness that makes a person believe that she’s too fat, and must not eat, even though in fact she’s already dangerously undernourished. That this should happen to the extraordinarily successful singer–she and her brother were The Carpenters, whose records still sell briskly–got the word out that it could happen to anybody. Once I overheard a young woman sigh and say, “Sometimes I just forget to eat!” I said, “Are you crazy?”
Annals Of Food Writing
Alexis Benoit Soyer was born in France today in 1810. He was a chef who moved to London and became famous for, among other things, inventing the soup kitchen. With a portable setup and with the help of the British government, he fed thousands of starving Irish during the Potato Famine there. He is well remembered in the United Kingdom. He was an extraordinary culinarian, inventing kitchen equipment and writing a number of books.
Annals Of Dessert
In Brussels today in 1998, Microsoft’s Bill Gates had a pie thrown in his face. A cream pie with a lot of whipped cream. Was it lemon? It should have been. And renamed “Pie 8.0.”
Food Namesakes
This is the brithday (1947) of Dan Quayle, the Vice-Presodant during the first Bush Admunistrition. . . British comic actress Hylda Baker came out of the oven today in 1905. . . Noodles, the guitarist with rock group The Offspring, was born as Kevin Wasserman today in 1963.
Words To Eat By
“Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.”–Shirley Conran, British restaurateur and author. (This quotation is also credited to many other sources. And it’s not even true. Stuffing a mushroom is a lot less work than boning out a quail, for example.)
Words To Drink By
“You must be careful about giving any drink whatsoever to a bore. A lit-up bore is the worst in the world.”–Lord David Cecil, English writer in the mid-1900s.
He must have been drinking when he said this.
Pet Food Double Standard.
We save the good stuff for ourselves, and give them the inferior food. Or is it the other way around?
Click here for the cartoon.