Chef Alon Shaya was born in Israel, but he spent most of his career as a chef cooking Italian food in the United States. That led to his opening in 2009 of John Besh’s restaurant at the Roosevelt Hotel, Domenica. A few month Shaya and Besh partnered on another, much more adventuresome restaurant, featuring the food of Israel. In the former quarters of Dominique, Shaya (that’s the name of the restaurant as well as that of the owner/chef) is the kind of hip Middle-Eastern eatery that you’d find in Tel Aviv. I have a couple of friends who travel to Tel Aviv often, and they say that the restaurant scene there is nothing less than exciting.
At Domenica during the past few years, Alon has run special menus for all the major Jewish holidays. They have been enthusiastically received and very good. The practice will premier at Shaya starting tonight. It begins with traditional Passover nibbles for the table. It follows through with four courses, served family-style. Here’s the menu:
For The Table
Wood-fired matzo, red and white horseradish, Alon’s grandmother’s charoset, beet-cured eggs with sea salt, bitter greens with almonds and garlic, lamb shank with date honey, parsley and green chili zhoug with grilled asparagus
Matzo Ball Soup
Duck broth, celery and lemon
Pickled Wild Caught Salmon
Quinoa tabouleh with fava beans and morel mushrooms
Sephardic Roasted Chicken
Yemenite curry, fresh apricots, fennel and ginger
Whole Roasted Apple
Candied walnuts and spiced wine
The Passover dinner is served between five and ten p.m., beginning tonight (Friday, April 3) and running through Friday, April 10. The price is $65 per person, plus plus. It is open to everyone; you need not be Jewish to appreciate either the food or the holiday. If you’ve never attended a Passover seder before, it would be more enlightening if you were with Jewish friends. Every part of the meal has a story. On the other hand, I don’t think the service is strictly kosher (if it were, I suspect they’d say so, and they haven’t.)
Shaya
Uptown: 4213 Magazine St. 504-891-4213. www.shayarestaurant.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, March 27, 2015.
Why Don’t We Eat Here More Often, Episode #5702.
I drove into downtown every day so far this week, so I see no reason to worry about whether my fellow employees at the radio station think I’m a goldbrick for broadcasting today’s show from home. Why I should feel guilty about this after twenty years is a mystery.
Likewise, Mary Ann can’t think of a reason why we shouldn’t go to Lola for dinner. It’s a restaurant about which our inevitable finishing comment is, Why don’t we eat here more often? One reason is that they’re only open for dinner Friday and Saturday. And that if we try to just walk in, we might find the restaurant full.
It’s a lovely night for Lola. The attraction for Mary Ann is that the building–a renovated railroad depot dating back to the early decades of the 1900s–uses the open platform for outdoor dining. It’s a little chilly outside, and MA decides that she will allow our sitting indoors tonight. Especially since Mary Leigh is scantily clad.
Hand-cut fries.
The menu is short, but we always want to order everything on it. Tonight the appetizer selection includes four different oyster treatments, all of them tempting, both to my oyster-loving palate, but that of my increasingly oyster-loving wife. (When we first met twenty-seven years ago, she hardly ever touched them.)
The oysters I settle on are fried and deposited atop a salad, sprinkled with feta cheese, with small cubes of lean pork belly strewn about. This is just great, with a borderline sizzle.
Before that came out we started with glasses of wine and a cone of hand-cut, truffled fries. ML says she doesn’t really like the flavor of white truffles. Good! More for me.
I follow that with a zingy vegetable soup. Then with an appetizer of raw salmon, topped with pickled red onions and a cheese-sharpened bed of very soft rice. Very light, very good.
Fried oysters with pork belly.
That’s three appetizers for me. Why? Because the fish of the day is a very handsome fillet of sheepshead. I have convinced MA that sheepshead is a great eating fish. This sample was especially appetizing: pan-seared to a turn by Keith or Nealy Frentz (Mr. and Mrs. Chefs), with some shrimp and quartered potatoes in a butter sauce, and a fluffy, herbal cream atop all.
Sheepshead with shrimp.
Italian cream cake at Lola.
For dessert, an Italian cream cake with the texture of a corrot cake. I haven’t seen one of these in a long time.
Meanwhile, ML eats a salad. She says she’s not feeling well. I think I know why: the trip to Germany and the Czech Republic that the girls are taking next week. The plan–if it can even be called that–sounds very sketchy to me. Everything is on standby. How can Mary Ann sleep nights with this sort of thing hanging over her head? ML is reluctant about the idea, but there’s nothing she can do but go.
Lola. Covington: 517 N New Hampshire. 985-892-4992.
#1 Among The 33 Best Seafood Eateries
GW Fins
French Quarter: 808 Bienville. 504-581-3467. Map.
Nice Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
It’s not well appreciated by restaurant patrons how difficult it is for a restaurant to serve consistently top-class seafood. Even here in New Orleans, it’s a challenge for a restaurant to track down the good stuff. Part of this is because the resource is waning, but even more vexing is the inconsistency of availability. So the two owners of GW Fins–both of whom came into the business with full knowledge of the situation–must at times have wondered whether they were out of their minds to attempt a fish-specialized menu with a dozen species on the menu on a bad day. It is a testimonial to their skill that they have pulled it off. Thereby, they have created the best seafood restaurant in New Orleans.
Scalibut.
WHY IT’S NOTEWORTHY
GW Fins does with seafood what the prime steakhouses do with beef. The kitchen’s main task is finding top-quality finfish and shellfish wherever it is to be found. Surprisingly few restaurants put forth much effort in that direction, making any that do stand out. Fins’ co-owner/chef Tenney Flynn’s seafood procurement machine brings great surprises to the table every night.
Crab cake.
WHAT’S GOOD
Fish being the elusive ingredient that it is, no good fish house has the same resources every day. GW Fins prints a new menu every day to reflect its discoveries, with a dozen or more species of finfish every day. Half are local, half exotic. That’s also true of the cooking style. You can get a great sauteed redfish with crabmeat on top like you can everywhere else, or something completely unique. Occasional special menus bring forth rare items like Australian crabs and exotic tunas. All of this is prepared simply and very well, in portions substantial enough so you can taste the stuff.
Lobster dumplings.
BACKSTORY
Owners Gary Wollerman and Tenney Flynn were the top guys in the Ruth’s Chris Steak House operation nationwide until Ruth sold to the corporate guys. They left to start this restaurant in 2001. They opened a barbecue joint on Iberville Street called Zydeque that they later sold, and an unsuccessful branch of GWFins in Charlotte, NC. Meanwhile, GW Fins just kept getting better.
GW Fins on a busy night.
DINING ROOM
An old D.H. Holmes warehouse, rebuilt without completely removing all the industrial-look stuff, begat a sharp, modern dining space. Space, in fact, is the key word. Lots of it between the tables, floor to ceiling, in the bar, in the bathrooms, everywhere. The wall of windows in front allows a great view of Arnaud’s, across the street.
BEST DISHES
Menu changes daily, but a few dishes are usually there (if the fish is available):
Seafood gumbo
Lobster dumplings
Smoked, sizzling oysters on the shell
Tuna tartare and sashimi
Horseradish-crusted drum
Short-smoked salmon
Sea scallops with mushroom risotto
Wood-grilled pompano
Grilled lamb chops
Baked-to-order apple pie
White chocolate bread pudding
Valhrona Chocolate Cake
FOR BEST RESULTS
If a special menu is running, give it priority. Don’t eat too many of the complimentary sweet drop biscuits they pass around at the beginning. Spend more time than usual with the menu, on the back of which is a large wine list with dozens of wines by the glass.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The Chilean sea bass is interesting, but I object to its presence on the menu. (Chef Tenney seems to have minimized its appearances.) They could use more appetizers. I wish they were open for Friday lunches throughout the year. (They are only during the holidays.)
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 +2
Service+1
Value +1
Attitude +2
Wine & Bar +2
Hipness +1
Local Color +2
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
Romantic
Good view
Good for business meetings
Many private rooms
Open Sunday dinner
Open Monday dinner
Historic
Good for children
Validated parking
Reservations accepted
Salmon Florentine
The color contrast of the green spinach with the pink-orange salmon is almost absurdly inviting. But the flavor of spinach and a good quality fresh salmon is itself very appealing. For this dish, locate the thickest salmon fillets you can, remove all the skin (not as hard as it looks–just have a sharp knife handy), and broil it just until it’s warm all the way though.
2 10-oz. bags fresh spinach
4 salmon fillets, about 8 oz. each
6 Tbs. butter
1/4 tsp. dill
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp. salt
Pinch white pepper
Pinch nutmeg
4 lemon slices
1/4 cup whipping cream
Marinade:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup white wine
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. soy sauce
2 dashes Tabasco
1. Pick the stems from the spinach and remove any bad leaves. Wash the spinach in several changes of clean water, till no more dirt come out.
2. Move the spinach, still dripping, into a large saucepan set over medium-low heat. Cook the spinach, uncovered, until it wilts. The water that clings to the leaves will be enough to cook it with. Remove the spinach and, after it cools enough to handle, squeeze all the excess water out of it. Chop it coarsely and set aside.
3. While the spinach is cooking, rinse the salmon fillets. Combine the marinade ingredients in a wide bowl. Let the salmon fillets marinate for a minute on each side. Place the salmon, dripping marinade, on a greased broiler pan. Place three inches under the heat source in the broiler for three minutes. Turn the fish and top with a few flecks of butter. Cook for another two to three minutes, then remove and keep warm.
4. Melt the remaining butter in a saucepan over very low heat. Whisk in the dill, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. When well blended and creamy-looking, remove from heat.
5. Return the spinach to the pot you cooked it in, now over medium-low heat. Add the cream, lower the heat to low, and cook, stirring, until everything is combined and heated through.
6. Divide the spinach among four serving plates and lay the salmon athwart the spinach. Spoon some of the butter sauce over the top and serve.
Serves four.
Shrimp Remoulade With Guacamole @ Brigtsen’s
This is such an obviously good idea that it should have been thought of years ago. All of the main ingredients go beautifully with one another, with the sharpness of the red remoulade riding herd on the fatty flavors of the shrimp and the avocados. A great appetizer–and one easy to do at home.
Brigtsen’s. Riverbend: 723 Dante. 504-861-7610.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
April 3, 2015
Days Until. . .
Easter 2
French Quarter Festival 6
Jazz Festival 22
Today’s Flavor
This is National Chocolate Mousse Day. It’s getting so that a good chocolate mousse is hard to find in restaurants. Its vogue seems to have passed, as has that of its insipid cousin, white chocolate mousse, which enjoyed a tremendous popularity in the 1980s. Chocolate mousse is not really hard to make; you just need to be careful making it. (I have a very good recipe here. ) The best restaurants for chocolate mousse these days are the Rib Room, Andrea’s, and Antoine’s. There’s a fantastic chocolate mousse cake at Nuvolari’s.
Culinary Landmarks
Today in 1985 was the last day of business for the Brown Derby restaurant, a Hollywood hangout of the highest order in its heyday of the 1940s and 1950s. It was owned by Bob Cobb, whose name lives on everywhere as the inventor of the Cobb salad: lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, chicken, blue cheese, avocado, and crumbled hard-boiled egg, brought out layered in a glass bowl and tossed at the table. The Brown Derby in L.A. is not to be confused with the so-called Original Brown Derby on LA–Louisiana Avenue, that is, corner of Freret. It was a long-running corner bar, grill and liquor store distinguished mostly for its catchy name and the illustration of a derby on its wall.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Fry, Georgia is right on the Tennessee state line, and two miles west of the North Carolina state line. (Careful readers of this feature will know that this part of America has the greatest density of food-related place names.) The nearest large city is Chattanooga, seventy-three miles east. This is mountainous country, but a valley cut through it by the Ocoee River creates lots of flat land for farming around Fry. It’s a crossroads of the Mobile Highway and the Old Mobile Highway, neither of which go to Mobile. The river does, though. After some nice whitewater rafting stretches, the Ocoee’s water winds up in the Tennessee River, whose connection with the Tombigbee will get you there. If you decide to stay around Fry, you can find some fries and other things to eat right there at the Cider House Cafe.
Edible Dictionary
Yubari melon, n.–A contender for the title of Most Expensive Melon On Earth, this is a cantaloupe grown in its namesake city in Japan, on the island of Hokkaido. The best ones are perfectly round on the outside, and have a very smooth, beautifully netted skin. They’re packed in much protective netting and sold in handsome wooden boxes for around $100-$200 each. A couple of years ago one of them sold for $18,000. A farmer has to inherit the right to grow Yubari melons; the first thought that comes to mind is that this may be to keep the price up. Look for hotshot chefs to slip Yubari melons on their menus soon. If the Japanese don’t buy them all, as they have a way of doing.
Music To Dine Elegantly By
This is the birthday of singer Doris Day, who let out her first notes in 1924. She became more famous for her many movies, but on record she had a marvelous gift for putting emotion into a song, with the finest female voice in the popular music world of her time. She started with the big bands and recorded for decades. She sounded like the kind of woman who would snuggle up with a guy and make him feel warm inside.
The Saints
Today is the feast day of Mary of Egypt, the patroness of reformed prostitutes and sexual temptation. She reformed herself by spending fifty years as a hermit in the desert, living on berries and herbs the rest of her life. (For more on Berry and Herb, see Food Namesakes, below).
Deft Dining Rule #808:
Truck stops are almost never good places to eat.
Annals Of Beer
Two weeks after Congress legalized 3.2-percent alcohol beer (the first step in ending Prohibition), Eleanor Roosevelt announced that this weak brew would be proudly served at White House functions. But if you went along with FDR’s programs, he’d sneak you round back for some white lightning.
Annals Of Coffee
Today in 1829, James Carrington patented a new kind of coffee mill. Before it was introduced, the standard way of grinding coffee was to put the beans into several thicknesses of plastic sandwich bags and run over it several times with a Hummer.
Abuse Of Food In The Movies
Butter. Last Tango In Paris. Marlon Brando, born today in 1924. I cannot bring myself to go into details.
Annals Of Food Research
William James Farrar, the father of modern Australian wheat farming, was born today in 1845. He developed a strain of wheat that resisted drought and grew in the extraordinarily poor soil of Australia. Even with that, the country cannot support a large population on its own crops.
Food Namesakes
Jan Berry of the surfing rock group Jan and Dean was born today in 1941. . . Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl was born today in 1930 (“kohl” is the German word for cabbage). . . George Curry was born in Louisiana today in 1861, and went on to become one of the leading figures in New Mexico politics during its territorial period. . . Herb Caen, who wrote a what’s-going-on column in the San Francisco Chronicle for decades, was born today in 1916.
Words To Eat By
“Erasers would taste good with this sauce.”–Blonde bombshell actress Jan Sterling, born today in 1921, speaking about the sauce she found on escargots.
Words To Drink By
“They who drink beer will think beer.”–Washington Irving, born today in 1783.
A New Definition Of Atmosphere.
As long as it’s innovative and uses the best possible ingredients (the second one requires the kind that is used in the most expensive coffee), it has nearly 100 percent chance of reaching a table in a restaurant near you.
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