Saturday, April 11, 2015.
Unexpected Failure To Rain.
Day Three of the French Quarter Festival, and Show #2 of my appearance there. Rain–a lot of it–is expected. But when I strike out for the French Quarter from Abita Springs, the sun is shining. It does get cloudier as we cross the puddle, but Mary Ann is at the wheel, and we arrive with plenty of time to spare. I walk the eleven blocks from the radio station to Jackson Square and commence talking at noon.
Someone has arranged for the food vendors four blocks away in the Old U.S. Mint to come over to our microphones. Daniel Esses of Three Muses is the first of them. I don’t know why, but I keep forgetting he is there in the Marigny Triangle, with a restaurant that fills the place every evening. I do know his food–he ran the kitchens of a couple of other places I liked over the years.
Looking over the list of chefs for the Mint, it seems that it’s the place to be this year. The Galley, Rue 127, Squeal Barbecue, and Café Reconcile, for instance. Also, if it did start raining, one could always duck into the Mint, a solidly-roofed place.
Mary Ann co-hosted the show, and also went around getting chefs to visit. It never did rain, near as I can tell. It did yesterday: they actually shut down the festivities for a couple of hours to get people out of the lightning. The crowds are much attenuated from those of a typical French Quarter Festival. But you can’t count on any day in New Orleans as not having rain.
Acme’s famous wedge salad.
Back at the ranch, Mary Leigh and I go out to dinner at the Acme. The usual: wedge salad with blue cheese, raw and grilled oysters, oysters remoulade. We have a joyous visit with one another. Maybe it’s my imagination, but it seems to me that more of our daddy-daughter times are reverting to the way they were when she was a little girl, and Daddy could do no wrong. But we had to get through that teenage-young woman phase, during which most parents are regarded as fools, no matter how much their kids love them deep down inside.
Sunday, April 12,2015.
The Opera. Galatoire’s 33.
On my way out of church this morning, the pastor told me that I could have given a reprise performance of the Easter Sequence I sang last week. The major Caholic holidays are celebrated as octaves–eight days, of which today is the last for this Easter. Hmm. I could have sung it an octave higher or lower, I suppose. I’ll remember that next year, unless the others in the parish remember it, too.
Mary Ann says that she has always wanted to see a live performance of The Marriage of Figaro. She has never been to an opera, nor had any other interest in it. Today is the last performance of the season for the New Orleans Opera–which, we should be prideful to know, is the oldest opera organization in the Western Hemisphere. We decide to go.
Getting tickets was a surprising endeavor. The diagram online seemed to indicate that the Mahalia Jackson Theater was nearly sold out. It wasn’t, but there were a lot more people there than we expected.
The cheap seats at $51 looked terrible. We wind up with a pair of ducats which, with all the surcharges, come to an even $100 per person. I bought them without MA weighing in. She would have struggled with that decision all day long, and for the rest of her life if we wound up not going.
I knew that someday I would develop an interest in opera. But this was my first time, too. (Not counting solo performances of major opera stars I have attended.) Because a number of friends are opera buffs, I know more than nothing about it. Mary Ann, however, was surprised to learn that the production went on for well over three hours. I decided not to tell her that, either.
We are there early, despite the rain and because she was driving. We have glasses of bubbly wine. But we are not allowed to take them into the theater, where an explanation of the plot and other things to watch out for was being given. We slug the wine down and learn that that the singer playing Figaro is making his debut. Had I not known that, I would not have guessed it. Indeed, he was the most impressive singer on the stage. And that was saying something. This was quite a performance by all involved, including the orchestra and maestro Robert Lyalls. We were studying the musicians especially because one of them is a friend: Daniel Lelchuk, the Gourmet Cellist.
I don’t know how anyone with even a slight interest in singing wouldn’t love this. I know I did. Mary Ann isn’t into singing, but she is happy she now knows what it was all about. And, she declared, she’s finished with the opera for the rest of her life.
Mary Leigh is in town working at her new job at Sucre. She gets off work just as Figaro’s wedding gets under way. I make a suggestions that I know both the Marys will like: dinner at Galatoire’s 33 Cocktails And Steak. This is the first-class steakhouse in the building next door that Galatoire’s bought a couple of years ago. Excepting some early meals there, the place has been pretty good.
The rain has dialed up a bit, and we hustle along to Bourbon Street. I look through the window of the flagship Galatoire’s, and see that it is largely empty at sixish. Must be the rain. Even fewer people are at the steakhouse, but I expected that.
Crabcake at 33.
MA has a crab cake that she says is superb. It certainly looked that good, but she didn’t save me a taste. That alone tells me all I need to know. ML has a salad. I get turtle soup, which is clearly the same as next door, and very good, at that.
Galatoire’s 33 strip sirloin.
The Marys split a filet mignon, and send it back for more cooking twice. It’s still not right. I guess the kitchen assumes that anyone sharing a table with me would not possibly want a well-done steak. But they don’t know Mary Ann.
I have a very good. medium-rare, Pittsburgh-style strip sirloin, with New Orleans bordelaise. That’s butter, garlic, and olive oil. Next time, I will ask to have this made with the same garlic butter they put on snails. Otherwise, the steak was exactly what I had in mind.
ML doesn’t care about opera, and shows little interest. She tells what she did at the bakery all day. She is well on her way to becoming a great dessert maker.
I have only one complaint to voice about the opera. I encounter only three or four people I know among the hundreds who are there. I suspect the New Orleans Opera gets a lot of audience from out of town. How many places even have an opera company, let alone one this good?
Galatoire’s 33 Bar & Steak. French Quarter: 215 Bourbon St. 504-335-3932.
Cochon
Warehouse District: 930 Tchoupitoulas. 504-588-2123. Map.
Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
Visitors to New Orleans walk away from Cochon satisfied, as do younger New Orleans diners. Both groups may be eating these dishes for the first times in their lives. Those of us who grew up with the stuff might be less impressed. There is no question that Cochon makes credible versions of the country-style Cajun meat dishes. I love beans and ham hocks as much as anybody else born on Mardi Gras. I love poor boys, too, but there’s only so far up the ladder that everyday dishes can go. I guess what I’m saying is that Cochon–despite its popularity, is not the kind of dining experience I’d call unforgettable. You’d have a better shot at that in Cochon’s deli-like junior partner next door, Butcher.
Cochon and cracklings.
WHY IT’S NOTEWORTHY
Cochon fills a niche that, in New Orleans, went begging for attention for decades. Inspired by the many small butcher shops found throughout in Cajun country (but rare in the New Orleans area), it cures and smokes its own meats and sausages. With that resource Cochon creates a unique menu. It’s related to but different from barbecue. This is home-style Cajun cooking, but the kind made from smoky-cured meats. There are seafood dishes, but they’re in the minority on the menu. The result is convincingly Cajun and distinctive, if not memorable.
Hamhock, okra and beans.
WHAT’S GOOD
The French word “cochon” refers to the pig, particularly the tender young pigs that Cajun cooks relish in their cookery. Cochon’s kitchen starts with the best possible pork and other meats, and carefully performs with great care the time-consuming, careful process of turning it into andouille, boudin, cochon de lait and dozens of other specialties. The abbreviated menu is riddled with high miscellany: pig’s ears (really–not the pastries called pig’s ears), rabbit livers, pork cheeks, and alligator, to name a few. Preparations and sides are thoroughly country in style. All of this convinces visitors from other places that they are eating real Louisiana food–and they are.
Stephen Stryjewski, co-owner and chef.
BACKSTORY
Co-owner and chef Donald Link grew up in westernmost Acadiana, and from the day he began cooking (in his teens) he wanted to build a menu around the Cajun butcher shop. Before he finally did, he went back and forth in the 1990s between New Orleans and San Francisco, winding up as sous chef at Bayona. In 2000, Susan Spicer and Link partnered in Herbsaint, a very successful French-Louisiana bistro that Link now owns–along with Cochon, Butcher, and Peche. He was assembling Cochon when Hurricane Katrina brought everything to a halt. He finally opened it in 2006–the first major new restaurant in New Orleans after the storm.
DINING ROOM
It’s a former factory, with floors of bare concrete and a battered brick wall along the sidewalk. The rest of the design has an almost Scandinavian look, with varnished, horizontal wood along the back walls. Tall ceilings, interesting lighting, an open kitchen with a food bar, and even a nice treatment of the sidewalk at the entrance (with a few tables out there) complete a handsome, casual environment. The chairs, with their slatted, flat seats, are not comfortable for long dinners.
FULL ONLINE MENU
BEST DISHES
Starters
Wood-fired oysters, chili garlic butter
Fried livers with pepper jelly and toast
Smoked pork ribs, watermelon pickle
Fried boudin, pickled peppers
Panneed pork cheeks, creamed corn & shaved chilies
Boucherie plate
Carrot, cauliflower, raisin salad, curry mayonnaise & pecans
Entrees
Catfish courtbouillon
Smoked ham hock, stewed peas, green beans, onions
Louisiana cochon, turnips, cabbage and cracklings
Rabbit and dumplings,
Oven-roasted Gulf fish, fisherman’s style
Braised beef short rib, horseradish potato salad
Oyster and bacon sandwich
Desserts
Butterscotch pudding, toasted pecan shortbread
German chocolate cake
Pineapple upside-down cake, cherry sherbet, dulce de leche
Lemon meringue pie, crème fraise crust
FOR BEST RESULTS
Listen carefully for specials, which can increase the range of the menu substantially. A meal made entirely from small plates and sides is a good plan. The restaurant has received so much national attention that it’s very busy in time of heavy tourism. I would not come here at any time without a reservation.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The menu needs more variety in the entree department. More than a few dishes here seem to be more about making a menu statement than providing a good eat. (The smoked hamhock with okra and blackeye peas is a prime example.)
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 +2
Service+2
Value
Attitude +1
Wine & Bar +1
Hipness +3
Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
Sidewalk tables
Many private rooms
Open Monday lunch and dinner
Open till 11 p.m. FR SA
Open all afternoon
Reservations recommended
Duck Tacos with Lentils
I got this amazing little dish from Patrick Perie, an Alsatian chef who ran a couple of kitchens here before returning to France. Remember this next time you have a turkey or duck with leftover slivers and morsels of meat. The taste and look is decidedly French if you make crepes, as in Patrick’s original. But making crepes is a lot of work, often frustrating. The recipe also comes out well (perhaps better) if you use small, thin flour tortillas. It’s filled with either smoked or roasted duck, mellowed with lentils. It makes a great appetizer or light lunch.
1 cup cooked lentils
3/4 cup roast duck (or chicken or turkey) breast, diced
1 Tbs. chopped French shallots
1 Tbs. chopped green onions
2 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup vinaigrette dressing
8 six-inch, thin flour tortillas
Sprigs of fresh herbs and bitter salad greens for garnish
1. Combine all ingredients except tortillas and herb garnish in a skillet and heat through to warm.
2. Divide four ways and spoon into centers of crepes. Close tortillas like little bags, and tie the tops with strips of green onions or chives. Or roll them up.
Makes four entrees or eight appetizers.
Peking Duck @ Café East
One of the grandest dishes in the Mandarin cuisine, Peking duck looks simple enough. But the preparation is involved. The duck is hung up to age for a few days, coated with herbs and sometimes honey. Then it’s slowly roasted for a long time, after which the heat is turned up to crisp the skin. Out comes the whole duck on a big platter, for the diners to ogle and approve. It returns to the kitchen, where it’s cut up into skin and meat portions.
When it returns to the table, each diner gets thin “pancakes” (most restaurants now use flour tortillas for this). You spread hoisin sauce on the pancakes, add pieces of skin or meat or both, and some green onions. You roll it up and eat it like a burrito. It makes a magnificent first course for six people or so, or an entree for two to four. The Café East performs all these feats very well, plus one more. The parts of the duck that don’t usually make it into the final presentation are turned into an extra stir-fry dish, making another course entirely. The Peking duck does not need to be ordered in advance; it’s on the menu all the time.
Café East. Metairie: 4628 Rye. 504-888-0078.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
April 20, 2015
Days Until. . .
Jazz Festival 4
Mother’s Day 20
Annals Of Food Research
Today in 1862, Louis Pasteur proved the effectiveness of the process that bears his name. In glass jars, he sealed several liquids notable for their ability to turn truly foul. He then heated them to a high temperature, but below the boiling point, and held them for over a month. The liquids were as nasty as when they went in, but no more so. No fermentation or decomposition occurred. The first major use of pasteurization involved beer. Next was milk. Pasteur’s method doesn’t stop deterioration entirely, but slows it so much that these products, and many more to come, had what came much later to be known as a longer shelf life.
Today’s Flavor
Today is National Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Day. When I was a kid, my mother always made two birthday cakes: a regular birthday cake with regular icing, and a pineapple cake. I think it’s because she liked the latter. I still do. Pineapple upside-down cake is out of vogue in these days, and served by few restaurants. Too bad.
Today also is Respect Lima Beans Day. I never disdained limas. My parran (godfather to you) was fond of the small green ones, and perhaps because of that I am too. My most memorable plate of limas was at lunch in the famous old New Orleans soul food restaurant Buster Holmes, in 1971. They were the big limas–butterbeans, as we called them. I still remember how delicious they were, and the jet propulsion they provided the rest of the day.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Sardine, Alabama is is in the south central part of the state, not far from the Florida state line, off I-65. It’s in rolling farmland with some swampy river plains nearby, where they probably catch freshwater fish–but not sardines. The closest place for whole fish (or any restaurants) is in the town of Atmore, eight miles away, and the Dixie Catfish Shack.
The Saints
Completely by coincidence, this is the birthday of St. Rose of Lima, the patron saint of Peru. 1586.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez:
When the beans are too big to fit in your ear
You’ve found the best kind to eat with a beer.
Edible Dictionary
drawn butter, n.–Another name for clarified butter. It’s the clear liquid fat left over after butter sits in a saucepan over a low heat. After a time, all the water in the butter boils off, and the milk solids that make butter opaque precipitate. The latter both rises to the top and sinks to the bottom of the pan. The floating milk solids are spooned out. Then the clear butter is poured–“drawn”–away from the solids at the bottom. Clarified/drawn butter has many uses, the most familiar of them being the accompaniment for boiled lobster or other big shellfish. The stuff is shelf-stable. In India, it’s called “ghee,” and is used in a host of dishes. Clarified butter can be made much hotter than unclarified melted butter, and is terrific for cooking.
Food Namesakes
Speaking of jet propulsion, Harold Graham made the first flight with a rocket belt today in 1961. I remember seeing that on TV. It didn’t take off, did it?. . . The embarrassingly sappy song Honey, sung by Bobby Goldsboro, was Number One today in 1968.
Deft Dining Rule #745:
It’s never a good idea to eat those fried noodles Chinese restaurants bring out with the soup.
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, best-selling American author and former waitress.
Words To Drink By
“The drink is slipping its little hand into yours.”–J. Bryan III, pseudonymous American writer.
A Necessary Element Used In Restaurants To Raise Prices
Even the ones that try to break away from the posture find that their customers insist on it anyway.
Click here for the cartoon.
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