Thursday, June 18, 2015.
Kin, A Tiny But Fine Broadmoor Restaurant.
My friend, dermatologist and groomsman Dr. Bob called Monday to see if I’d like to join him for dinner tonight. We are both baching it. His fiancee is out of town, and MA is, of course, two thousand miles away in her Eden-like hotel.
The restaurant Dr. Bob suggests is Kin, a new, much-discussed bistro in the unlikely location of Washington Avenue near Earhart Blvd. The place is too new for my guidelines, but Dr. Bob has a knack of finding new restaurants that have managed to pull themselves together sooner than most.
Kin is not easy to find. I drove past it three times before I finally picked it out, even though I checked the location first on Bingmaps before heading over there. The problem is that the sign–already small because of the shortness of the restaurant’s name–is hard to see.
The building itself is tiny as restaurants go. Only twenty-something seats, half of them at counters. We were seated at the main counter, from which we could see the great outdoors every time one of the kitchen staff opened the back door. It was about ten percent of being outside.
Looking over the menus for lunch and dinner, we find two very different restaurants. The midday selection is quite Asian, with lots of broth and noodles. That seems logical, given the chef-owner’s name: Nhat (call him Nate) Nguyen. But also in the kitchen are Matt Engle, Matt Fraser. And sous chefs Nate Kruse and Jason Vu. The menu shows fine economy of names, needing only three first names for five people. When space is this tight, you loosen up wherever you can.
The dinner menu is completely different from lunch in both general and particular. The six small plates and seven large ones could be served in any New Orleans gourmet bistro. You’re more likely to figure out the Vietnamese heritage here by looking at the chefs and servers than by reading the menu.
Bob and I work out a plan of three small plates and two large, leaning to the more robust side. He carried a bottle of a big Rhone wine, which pulls us away from the seafood selections. (Kin doesn’t have a liquor license yet, so guests are invited to bring in a bottle, with no corkage charged.)
The lightness of the first course comes from a substantial vegetable component in two of the three dishes. So we have “greens and artichokes,” with still-warm, battered and fried artichoke hearts placed atop the assortment of greens, Asian pear slices, honey-poached pine nuts, and a few other ingredients. Comes across as both a salad and an appetizer.
Also here is a crispy duck leg, with gnudi (“nude gnocchi” is a good explanation of it) made from queso fresco and adobo. This is seriously good to eat.
The dish called “peppers and tomatoes” also includes grapes and cilantro vinaigrette, for a sweet-hot-tart coming together.
In the interim I tell Bob about the Eat Club’s recent cruise. I suspect that he will be most interested in the Rock of Gibraltar and our encounter with the Berber monkeys who live there. I get a pleasant surprise. By going to Gibraltar, I have set foot on an exotic land that Bob has not visited. I think it may be the first time. In his pursuit of wine and birds (he’s an expert on both), he has been around the world, including to many extremely remote places.
The large plates start coming. Bob has been to almost all of those already, so we cover a lot of ground. We have the pork chop with rice-pasta dumplings and roasted peaches. Also here is sorrel, a leafy vegetable that could be considered either a green or an herb. It functions both ways. In this dish, it’s more an herb. The pork chop is thick and ideally cooked, crusty at the edges, a little pink in the center.
Our other entree is the game hen with glutinous (sticky) rice and barley. Two grains in one dish? Why not? It certainly works well. Great with the wine.
The whole dinner is delightful. Chef Nate (Nhat) is full of enthusiasm, and talks about how he might expand in the future. His staff seems to be having a great time working there. Why would they not? The customers and employees are mostly on the young side. (Both Bob and I are at least twenty years older than the average age of everyone else here.) One of the waitresses is particularly engaging, with her short stature and a voice like that of a singing bird. You can practically see a trail of happiness follow her as she carries this delicious food to the diners.
I know I took pictures of all this, but I’ll be damned if I can find them.
Kin. Broadmoor: 4600 Washington Ave. 504-304-8557.
Friday, June 19, 2015.
Pre-Father’s Day Dinner With Daughter @ Desi Vegas.
Our most complicated project of the day is to collect Mary Ann at the airport when she returns from a relaxing week in Los Angeles. The arrival will use up some of the ease in which she has lived for the past five days. Her flight–already a nuisance because of its midnight arrival–runs over an hour late. Meanwhile, my car is still in the shop. (The usual story: it will a two or three hours to do all the work, but two weeks to get the parts in.)
Mary Leigh and I decide that while waiting, we will have a major dinner. Father’s Day is this weekend, so we have an excuse for splurging on a thick steak. We meet at Desi Vega’s, the second restaurant of Mr. John’s Steakhouse, which I believe is the city’s best. Even though it’s only two blocks from the radio station, I have not been to Desi Vega’s in maybe a year. And ML is a steak eater.
We are accorded a great table in the corner of the main dining room. Not many people are there at six-fifteen, but the place will be bustling by the time we leave.
I think a case could be made that the goodness of a steak house can be predicted accurately by dividing the beauty and youth of the women in the place by the alpha-male quality of the men. Desi Vega’s would have scored high with that formula this evening. For example, at one table were two very beautiful, well-dressed women, one of whom wore a sash that declared her to be Miss New Orleans (I think that’s what it said). The man sitting there was a congenial, robust fellow who, judging by our handshake when he came over to our table to say hello, would be the sort of person I’d want on my side if a brawl broke out. (Not that such a thing would ever happen in Desi Vega’s civilized dining room, nor that the man looked like the type who would ever be in such a situation.)
The ratio at our own table would have confounded my theory. Mary Leigh passes with flying colors as the gorgeous young woman. But I’m a gamma male at best.
We start with onion rings. They are excellent, different from the ones I remember having had here before, These are marinated in hot sauce before frying. I’ve run into this only one other time: at Andy’s Bistro in Metairie. Can’t say which had it first, only that these thinly-sliced jobs are right up my alley.
We kill that, then move to my daughter’s inevitable wedge salad and I to my equally likely turtle soup. Now the steaks. She gets the small filet, medium, as always. The waiter tells me that the special of the evening is Prime sirloin strip, bone in. This is my favorite cut of beef, and Father’s Day permits me to order it, despite the $58 list price.
I don’t know why, but the steaks at Desi Vega’s are never quite as good as the ones at Mr. John’s. This one was cooked as ordered, but the sizzling, crusty aspect that Mr. John’s always achieves is missing here. I ask for more hot butter, but that doesn’t do it. I ask for bearnaise, and discover that they don’t really know how to make that sauce. On the other hand, the intrinsic merit of the steak cannot be denied.
We get a side of potatoes au gratin, something Mr. John’s always nails. Desi Vega’s also did that magic in previous visits. But today the potatoes are undercooked, almost to a degree of crunchiness.
Desi Vega his own self shows up. If he were sitting at a table, he would raise the ratio I posited above. I say something about Father’s Day. He tells me that Father’s Day–for a long time no busier than a standard Sunday, if that good–has become a booming weekend, and that he is more or less sold out of all seats at both restaurants. The next thing we know, sons and daughters will stop sending cards making fun of their dads, instead focusing on what wonderful dads they have. We will become like mothers, maybe.
When we learn that Mary Ann’s plane has been delayed, we come up with a plan. We’ll leave her car at the airport, and she will come home when she gets home. Mary Ann thinks this is a great idea, and adopts it as her own. ML drives the two of us home, where we each can retire at a decent hour.
Everything is fine until I hear the next morning that MA’s car was low on gas. What a moron I am not to have noticed. My status drops to that of delta male. (Come to think of it, MA was flying on Delta.)
Desi Vega’s. CBD: 628 St Charles Ave. 504-523-7600.
Del Porto
Covington: 501 E Boston St. 985-875-1006. Map.
Nice Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
For me, all Italian food falls into two categories. There’s the cooking that blows me away every time I go to Italy, or to a few restaurants in this country. And then there’s everything else. I like the food in the latter category, but not nearly as much as I like the former. In New Orleans we only occasionally get the memorable stuff. Even when it appears, it has a way of morphing into Category Due. Del Porto is the only restaurant in the New Orleans area that has managed to keep that amazing, herbal, rustic, robust style of cooking over the long term.
Carpaccio.
WHY IT’S NOTEWORTHY
A strong contender for the title of Best Italian Restaurant in the New Orleans area. Del Porto’s food is influenced by Tuscany, as translated by California. That makes it quite different from other local Italian restaurants, even those that claim to serve Northern Italian food. Its Covington location insulates it from the powerful influence of the dominant Creole-Sicilian style of Italian cookery. To Orleanians who have never traveled to Italy, in fact, the food here might not seem Italian at all.
Tagliatelle pasta with mushrooms.
WHAT’S GOOD
Del Porto’s style is all about grilling, roasting, olive oil, herbs, beans, and freshness. It’s not much about tomato sauces or melted cheese, and relatively little about pasta. The vivid freshness of the vegetables and the bold flavors of the meats and seafood permeate every dish. The cooking has a decidedly rustic style, with an easy-to-love deliciousness and originality. The wine collection is well-stocked with excellent and unusual Italian and California bottles.
BACKSTORY
David and Torre Salazzo came to the North Shore after graduating from culinary school and cooking in the California wine country, which has its own style of Tuscany-flavored Italian food. The restaurant opened in 2002 in a miniscule storefront a half-block from where it is now. After the hurricane, it moved a half-block away to a much more spacious, more visible corner location. And then it took off.
DINING ROOM
The dining room was formerly a St. Tammany Parish courts office, an airy square room with big windows on two sides and a small bar in the rear corner. The dim, subtle lighting at night makes the food look even more beautiful than it already is. A number of tables are set for service on the sidewalk when the weather is nice. A recent renovation added more dining room and kitchen space. The service staff is sophisticated and knowledgeable about both food and wine, and the bar makes very large cocktails well.
FULL ONLINE MENU
BEST DISHES
Starters
Yellowfin tuna crudo, oranges, mint, chili oil, citrus vinaigrette
Soup of the day
White bean & lemon-braised artichoke purée
Beef carpaccio, truffled crème fraîche, parmigiano reggiano
Crispy Berkshire pork belly, gulf shrimp, tomatoes, garlic, chili-orange vinaigrette
House-cured salumi board
Arugula salad, lemon vinaigrette, pecorino romano cheese
Caramelized mushrooms, baby spinach, frisée, ricotta salata
Pasta
Half or whole portions
Cavatelli primavera, zucchini, yellow squash, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, spring peas, asparagus pesto, parmesan & pecorino cheeses
Artisan orecchiette, calamari, chilies, roasted red pepper broth
Tagliatelle, chanterelle mushrooms, truffled mushroom jus, pecorino cheese
Entrees
Fish of the day
Grilled spice-rubbed bone-in pork chop, roasted potatoes
Berkshire pork osso bucco, summer bean stew, corn, roasted pepper salsa rosa
Garlic-rosemary half chicken, potatoes, braised artichokes
Grilled New York strip, fried new potatoes, garlic aioli
Desserts
Flourless chocolate torte, local berries
Warm peach cristata, lemon mascarpone gelato
Italian wedding cake
Tiramisu
Vanilla bean panna cotta, local berries
Gelato, toasted hazelnuts, fresh whipped cream
FOR BEST RESULTS
Make reservations late for in the evening, when the restaurant is less busy and the noise level lessens. The law-office crowd fills the bar for happy hour most nights. The best (quietest) tables are those farthest from the door on the right.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The acoustics are very lively, and when the restaurant is busy it can be noisy. At some point they’ll have to build a vestibule or add double doors to keep the cold wind from blowing in during the winter.
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 +1
Service+2
Value +1
Attitude +2
Wine & Bar +2
Hipness +2
Local Color +2
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
Sidewalk tables
Romantic
Good view
Good for business meetings
Easy, nearby parking
Reservations recommended
Peach, Raspberry and Almond Torte
This is a great dessert I adapted from a similar item served at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. (They host a food writer’s conference every year, which is why I was there.) All of the fruits needed are in season right now, but other fruits can be substituted in their seasons. It’s It’s terrific as is, with a zabaglione or custard sauce, or with ice cream.
1 cup self-rising flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups finely ground blanched, skinned almonds
2 fresh, ripe peaches, sliced
1 cup fresh raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, or sliced strawberries
Preheat oven to 350º
1. Butter a 9-inch springform pan. Fit the bottom with a parchment paper circle. Butter and flour the sides.
2. Mix flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl.
3. In a metal bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer until pale in color and fluffy. Add sugar to butter, and cream for three more minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add egg and beat in completely.
4. Stir the almonds and then the flour mixture into the butter-and-egg mixture with a wooden spoon. The batter should be very stiff.
5. Spread half of the batter onto the bottom of the springform pan. Arrange peach slices on top, and cover with raspberries. (Use your creativity for other fruits.) Then plop the remaining dough atop the fruit. (There’s really no way to spread this; just put it down in spoonfuls.)
6. Bake 45 to 55 minutes until golden brown, and the sides of the torte are pulling away from the pan. Cool ten minutes. Remove the sides of the pan and allow to cool completely.
Serves eight.
Hazelnut Semifreddo, Cafe Au Lait Ice Cream, Bourbon Sauce, Popcorn @ Patois
Throughout Europe, confectioners are forever playing with hazelnuts. It is slowly catching on here. If you need an example of why this is worth pursuing, sample this rich dessert at the bistro on Laurel at Webster Streets. The flavor dimension brought by the hazelnuts to the intensity of coffee-tinged ice cream is nice, the bourbon adds an interesting smoky snap. The popcorn is just a joke. Because hazelnuts lower the melting point of almost anything to which it is added, eating this has a unique cooling sensation beyond what you’d already expect from semifreddo and ice cream.
Patois. Uptown: 6078 Laurel. 504-895-9441.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
June 26, 2015
Days Until. . .
Fourth Of July 8
Today’s Flavor
It’s Chocolate Pudding Day, which brings up the question: What’s the difference between chocolate pudding and chocolate mousse? Answer: chocolate pudding is usually thickened with gelatin (in the case of the instant mixes you buy in a box) or with flour (if you make it from scratch). Chocolate mousse is so easy to make and so much better in texture and flavor that it’s what we always do around here when we’re in the mood for such a dessert. Chocolate mousse also has the advantage of being ready to eat the moment you finish mixing it; it doesn’t need to set up in the refrigerator, although some think that the refrigeration improves the texture of the mousse. But many people grew up eating chocolate pudding and still love it.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Doughnut Lake is in Rocky Mountain National Park, ninety miles northwest of Denver, Colorado. It is one of the Gorge Lakes, in a rocky valley at about 11,000 feet surrounded on three sides by craggy mountains towering about 1600 feet higher. They are covered with snow in the winter, hiding the reason for Doughnut Lake’s name: there’s a small peak sticking up in the center of it. The doughnut looks as if a few bites have been taken out of it. If that makes you hungry, descend to the town of Grand Lake, a nine-mile hike, and have lunch and the amusingly named Pancho and Lefty’s.
Edible Dictionary
cherrystone clam, n.–The common hard-shell Atlantic clam used for cooking most of the clam dishes we commonly eat in America have different names depending on teir size. Cherrystones are defined as being those about half the size of a full-grown (or “quahog”) clam. Because clams get tougher the bigger they are, the little ones are more desirable. The smallest you’re likely to see are littlenecks. Cherrystones are the next size up. Among clam connoisseurs, cherrystones are derided, but they make wonderful clam chowder and are not bad fried or baked.
Annals Of Food Writing
Today is the birthday of Milton Glaser, in 1926. He is best known as a trend-setting graphic designer and illustrator from the 1960s onward. But in our narrow outlook he is distinguished as the New York Underground Gourmet, a reviewer of hidden, often ethnic restaurants in that city. He wrote a weekly column under that name in New York Magazine for many years, as well as the first of a series of Underground Gourmet books. Richard Collin was the Underground Gourmet here in New Orleans.
Food Inventions
Roy J. Plunkett was born today in 1910. While working for DuPont, he discovered a new polymer that led to his invention of Teflon. DuPont saw the possibilities for cookware immediately and the first Teflon-coated pots and pans rolled out in the 1960s. Nothing sticks to Teflon, which is both its advantage and disadvantage. How do you make it stick to the thing it’s coating? To this day that remains a problem, and the flaking off of Teflon and other non-stick coatings vexes all who use them. From a cooking perspective, I find that there are better ways to keep most things from sticking. And that for many dishes you want the food to stick a little (as when searing meats). However, there’s nothing like a Teflon pan for cooking omelettes, or a Teflon muffin tin for making popovers.
Everything But The Oink Department
Today in 1498 is reputed to be the day the toothbrush was invented. It happened in China, when the stuff bristles from a back of a hog were attached to either a bone or wood handle. Hog bristles continued to be used for toothbrushes well into the twentieth century. One wonders how successful the invention was before the introduction of toothpaste. Especially flavored toothpaste with stripes, which my children tell me is essential or no go.
Food Games
Candy Land, the board game for kids, was patented today in 1951. My kids liked it when they were little, because it involves no reading or counting to play. However, even they were grossed out by the fantastic amount of sticky-gooey candy that one moves through. Playing it always made me feel like I did after making the first pass through the trick-or-treat bag on Halloween night.
Food And The Law
Today in 1848, the first federal legislation designed to regulate the purity of food and drugs went into effect. The Drug Importation Act was as much about raising the standards of foreign drugs as about getting domestic makers to also improve their products. It worked, and more such laws began being enacted.
Annals Of Barcoding
The first grocery store item to be scanned for its price barcode was a ten-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum. It went across the scanner today in 1974, at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
Words To Eat By
“Blessed be he that invented pudding, for it is a manna that hits the palates of all sorts of people; a manna better than that of the wilderness, because the people are never weary of it.”–Francois Maximilien Mission, French writer of the 1600s.
Words To Drink By
“There’s nothing serious in mortality.
All is but toys; renown and grace is dead,
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
—William Shakespeare, Macbeth.
What Happens When The Tip Is Forgotten.
Is it a result of the failure to fully appreciate the server? Or did the server call this creepy person into the situation? Remember when dining out was simple?
Click here for the cartoon.
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