Sunday, April 26, 2015.
Third Time Is Charm @ Zea. Grass Here, I Shear.
Three members of the human population of the Cool Water Ranch are engaged with all-afternoon activities. No rain yesterday or today. A walk around the grounds tells me I might be able to cut grass without literally getting bogged down. I buy gas, clean up the lawn tractor, check the tires. Insert the key and, on the third try, the engine turns over and I begin the first grasscutting job for the 2015 season. Not a moment too soon.
That done, I strut my standard laps around the property, then take a nap. When I awaken, Mary Ann inquires about dinner. She has spent the day lolling around the swimming pool of a friend of ours, and has an appetite. She wants to try Mandeville Seafood, which a few months ago took over the restaurant formerly known as Petunia’s (no connection with the also extinct breakfast specialist off Bourbon Street). It’s still a little new, I think, but I can’t win them all, so there we go–to find that it’s closed for dinner on Sundays. Second idea (my turn): Tchoupstix. We have been there on Sunday, but hours are always changing, and it’s not open either.
Tuna stack at Zea.
We wind up where I wanted to go in the first place. We complete the thirty-mile loop at Zea, where I have exactly what I had last week at this time: the tomato bisque, the house salad with peanut-ginger dressing, and a small raw tuna stack. Yum, yum. But for the Marys, Zea has gone out of vogue, as it has in the past. Cycles.
If I ever start moving in the direction of retiring, the first step will be to eliminate a lifelong habit of working on Sunday evenings. I find I can kick off a round of deep nostalgia by recalling what I did and what played on the radio on Sunday nights at various times in my life. In the years I lived in the French Quarter, there I am, sitting at my drafting table, assembling an ad that will run in the Times-Picayune next week for the Sleep Factory. On the radio: Doctor Demento for an hour, then three hours of jazz hosted by a disk jockey who went only by the name Michael. It was on WNOE-FM, in the days when that was a rock station most of the time. Then I’d move to WTUL, as I worked on writing my five two-minute radio restaurant reviews. I’d finally go to bed at around two a.m.–my norm then.
Compared with life now, I could as well be a different person–except for the persistence of my Sunday night work routine. It starts and ends earlier, but it’s still there. I now know that the motivation is that I am stealing time by working when most people are relaxing. After all these years, that is obviously untrue. If Mary Ann would let me have a recliner or a big rocking chair, I would make the shift tonight.
Monday, April 27, 2015.
Downpours. Pontchartrain Po-Boys For Beans.
It rains ferociously all day. This is good. The mud tracks I left around the grounds when I cut the grass yesterday are all washed away. So are the piles of cut grass. I see that the New Orleans area so far this year has taken over three times the normal amount of rain.
Tonight is dress rehearsal night for NPAS’s Carmina Burana performance tomorrow. Both are in Hammond, before 7 p.m. There is no way I will make it there from downtown tomorrow, and I’d be late today. This is too bad, because I’m almost to the point of having the whole work memorized.
So I have the evening free for dinner. Once again, the Marys and The Boy are across the lake. I go to Pontchartrain Poor Boys in Mandeville with red beans and rice on my mind. It is enough for at least two people. Or would be, if they were not so tasty. Those of us who only eat the good things often find ourselves eating more of it than we really need to. (By contrast, bad food is easy for gourmets to ignore.)
I get the beans with a hot sausage patty and a side salad. A great way to begin the week’s eating.
Pontchartrain Po-Boys. Mandeville: 318 Dalwill Dr. 985-626-8188.
And Click Here For The Rest Of The Top 100.
Mother’s Day is second in popularity only to birthdays as a reason for dining out. Around forty percent of us will treat our mothers (or our wives) out to dinner on the second Sunday of May.
Every day’s a birthday. But there’s only one Mother’s Day. That makes it the busiest day of the year for restaurants. Fortunately, a large array of restaurants waits to serve the mothers and their families. Many restaurants normally closed on Sundays usually open for Mother’s Day. It may be the only Sunday they open all year.
So the answer to “Where do I take my mother on Mother’s Day” can start not with “Who’s open?” but “Where would Mom like to dine?” Here is a list of a dozen restaurants that most of the mothers I know would find very nice. And if that’s not enough, we also have a list of the 100 best for you to peruse, along with some thoughts about Mother’s Day dining that you might find helpful.
Commander’s Palace.
Uptown 1: Garden District & Environs: 1403 Washington Ave. 504-899-8221. Contemporary Creole. The most beautiful, most engaging environment for dining anywhere in New Orleans, with the world’s original jazz brunch, a menu full of trend-starting dishes and classics too, and a matchless wine cellar. Only problem is that reservations are hard to come by.
Arnaud’s.
French Quarter: 813 Bienville. 504-523-5433. Creole French.The best Sunday brunch in town, served in the most marvelous antique dining rooms around (which is saying something), makes Arnaud’s a logical choice for Mother’s Day. An advantage: a lot of people think of it at touristy. That’s a little bit true, but only a little. The rest of the experience is pure pleasure.
Brennan’s.
French Quarter: 417 Royal. 504-525-9711. Contemporary Creole.The return of Brennan’s to the New Orleans dining scene is the best (and most interesting story in the current decade. With Ralph Brennan in charge, a staggering amount of cash was spent restoring the old (1700s!) building. Meanwhile, the menu–including the famous breakfast–has been brought up to date. And here’s the funnies thing: the prices have gone down from those of the previous regime.
Emeril’s.
Warehouse District & Center City: 800 Tchoupitoulas. 504-528-9393. Contemporary Creole.Emeril led the most powerful current local trend in cooking: finding the best local ingredients and making everything from scratch. His flagship restaurant innovates consistently without leaving the New Orleans flavor palette or ignoring the preferences of diners. Also here: the best restaurant pastry shop in town, with fresh breads and an amazing dessert list. For younger moms, it’s an exciting place to be.
La Provence.
Lacombe: 25020 US 190. 985-626-7662. French.If another of those freak cool spells hits on Mother’s Day, La Provence–the best fireplace-intensive restaurant in the area–will be ready to face it. More important, the food of Chef Erik Loos not only pleases the palatee but fulfills its name, and the legacy of the late founder Chef Chris Kerageorgiou.
Pelican Club.
French Quarter: 615 Bienville. 504-523-1504. Contemporary Creole.It’s rare that food good enough to make it to the top of the ratings comes in a restaurant that also offers table d’hote dinners in the bistro price category. Its location (across the street from the Monteleone Hotel’s parking entrance–is offbeat enough to keep the crowds down.
GW Fins.
French Quarter: 808 Bienville. 504-581-3467. Seafood.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. The owners of GW Fins have pulled it off, thereby creating the best seafood restaurant in New Orleans. Your mom (or wife) like pristine, delicious, original seafood?
Restaurant August.
CBD: 301 Tchoupitoulas. 504-299-9777. Eclectic.Chef John Besh took the gourmet restaurant game to a new level in 2001, and his flagship dining room remains one of the city’s best places to dine. Perfect for the mother with an adventuresome palate, perhaps a bit much for moms who like gumbo, baked chicken and bread pudding. that game to the next level. The rather formal dining rooms has friendly, efficient service.
La Petite Grocery.
Uptown 2: Washington To Napoleon: 4238 Magazine. 504-891-3377. French.The French bistro menu has become so overdone around town, with so many excellent practitioners, that such a place has to be brilliant to stand out at all. La Petite Grocery turns that trick.
Antoine’s.
French Quarter: 713 St Louis. 504-581-4422. Creole French.Antoine’s remains the backbone of the New Orleans culinary body. It began offering a Sunday jazz brunch when it come back after Katrina. Antoine’s many private dining rooms into a wildly successful bar was also a big hit. The restaurant’s 175th anniversary has brought some very agreeable changes, without losing the essence of this unique establishment.
Pardo’s.
Covington: 69305 Hwy 21. 985-893-3603. Contemporary Creole.”It makes you feel like you’re Uptown,” was the first comment I heard about Pardo’s. That captures this Covington restaurant exactly. Something else I heard at the beginning: “It’s a little expensive.” Not by Uptown standards, but noticeably higher than Northshorinians are accustomed to. You get paid back in the food and service. And it’s Mother’sDay!
Annadele Plantation.
Covington: 71518 Chestnut St. 985-809-7669. Contemporary Creole.A real plantation in an 1830s mansion in the woods next to Covington, Annadele’s is second only to La Provence in the pleasantness of its dining rooms. The menu here is so retro as to seem genteel. It’s perfect for the. The only challenge is finding it. “Turn off Causeway Blvd. a block past the Popeyes” is not a seemly direction, but is the most accurate.
Mussels in Ghent-Style Wine Sauce
The best mussels I ever ate were in a big restaurant (I don’t remember the name, but it was in the former town hall) in the center of Ghent in Belgium, on the third day of our honeymoon. They were awash in what they called a wine sauce, although it seemed more like a cream sauce to me. It’s a Belgian classic, and no place in the world is more enthusiastic about mussels than the Belgians.
Mussels are very inexpensive, so buy plenty of them. The best are the black-shell mussels from Prince Edward Island in Canada. (I do not recommend the green-lipped mussels from New Zealand.) Mussels should be tightly closed; if the shell gapes a little, tap it. If it doesn’t close, pitch it. Although most of the mussels I’m finding in stores these days are pre-washed, scrubbing them and removing the byssus (“beard”) is essential. After they pop open in the pan, check them to see whether they need to be washed inside even a little more, as sometimes they do.
Mussels cook very quickly, and they shrivel up if you cook them too long. So get them out of there at the first sign that they’re heated through.
8 dozen mussels
1 onion, chopped coarsely
1 Tbs. coarsely-cracked pepper
1 tsp. thyme
Stems from 1 bunch parsley
2 cups dry white wine
Sauce:
1/2 stick butter
1 heaping Tbs. flour
1 onion, pureed roughly
2 cloves garlic, pureed roughly
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. saffron
4 sprigs flat parsley leaves, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1. After cleaning the mussels well, put them into a very large heavy pot with all the other non-sauce ingredients plus 1/4 cup of water. Put the pot over high heat and bring the liquid to a boil. After a couple of minutes, vigorously shake the pot to allow the unopened mussels to work their way to the bottom and open. Steam for about four minutes, or until all the mussels have opened.
2. Remove the mussels to a strainer over a bowl to catch all the juices. After they cool for three or four minutes, rinse the inside of the shells in a bowl of water, and remove any beards that may remain.
3. Add the collected mussel juices back to the pot and strain through the finest strainer you have or cheesecloth.
4. To begin the sauce, heat the butter in a large saucepan until it bubbles, and make a blond roux with the flour. Add the onion, garlic, and crushed red pepper. Cook for about two minutes–until the garlic is fragrant.
5. Add the mussel juices and, over medium-low heat, bring to a light boil and hold there for about eight minutes. Add the cream, saffron, and parsley, and return to a light boil for about three or four more minutes. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
6. Place a dozen mussels in a large broad-rimmed soup bowl, and ladle the sauce over them. Top with chopped green onions. Provide hot loaves of French bread, damp towels, and a bowl for the shells.
Serves one mussel fanatic or four normal people.
Pho @ Kim Anh’s Noodle House
The passion held by many New Orleans diners for the Vietnamese beef and noodle soup called pho runs to illogical extremes. More than a few non-Vietnamese people eat it several times a week, and to hear them talk you’d think it was the rarest, most wonderful food on earth. We’re talking here about beef broth with noodles, sprouts, herbs, and various forms of beef–or other meats. Really, there’s not much to it. And then one encounters the version they make at this teeny café in Harahan–never a town known for its food. Kim Anh’s pho could hardly be better. The broth has a depth of flavor you don’t quite notice until you’re about a third of the way into it. It’s translucent and lacks the muddiness I find in many other phos around town. All the additives are of great quality and freshness. It’s as delicious on a hot summer day as on a freezing winter night.
Kim Anh’s Noodle House. Harahan: 6624 Jefferson Hwy. 504-739-9995.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
May 4, 2015
Days Until. . .
Mother’s Day 6
New Orleans Wine And Food Experience 17
Annals Of Popular Cuisine
The Big Mac was introduced at McDonald’s today in 1968. It sold for forty-nine cents, a big jump up from the fifteen-cent standard McDonald’s hamburger of the time. The chain’s brilliant advertising people infected everyone’s mind with the datum that a Big Mac consists of two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun? (See? I still remember that and I didn’t even like Big Macs!) The Big Mac big-time nonconformity is that it has three bun segments, not two. The middle one is there to keep the thing from sliming apart. However, it’s a bun surplus, unbalanced from a flavor perspective.
Food Calendar
Today is National Orange Juice Day. At this time of year, those of us who squeeze oranges every day find ourselves with California navel oranges, whose only drawback is skin so thick that it sometimes tears when you push down in the juicer. Florida juice oranges this time of year are Valencias. Unfortunately, Florida barely keeps up with the demand for its frozen orange concentrate, and unless you live in the state or nearby you almost never see their extra-juicy oranges in stores.
It is also Candied Orange Peel Day. In conjunction with National Artisan Gelato Month, we can observe that a cannoli, contains candied orange peel. So we can observe two things at once.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Applejack Creek–named for the brandy made from distilled apple cider–is in central Idaho. It’s usually a dry wash, descending from 5234 feet down the heavily-forested slope of Mineral Mountain. It ends up three miles later in the Muddy Creek. Through intermediate rivers Applejack’s waters wind up in the Pacific Ocean through the Columbia River. It’s a thirteen-mile hike from the source of the Applejack to the nearest restaurant, Wild Bill’s in Garden Valley.
Edible Dictionary
oysters Mosca, n.–A registered trademark for the popular New Orleans Italian baked oyster appetizer. Sometimes its served in a shell, other times in a small casserole. Either way, the oysters are covered with a bread crumb stuffing seasoned with garlic, oregano, grated parmesan cheese, olive oil, and (sometimes)lemon juice or white wine. It’s baked until aromatic, and is quite irresistible. In other parts of the world the dish goes by the name oysters (or clams) areganata. It was popularized in New Orleans by Mosca’s (which never did use its name on the dish) and the extinct Elmwood Plantation, where chef Nick Mosca did attach his ID to it.
Deft Dining Rule #782
When a menu mentions the presence of gremolata, micro-greens, or any other minor ingredient used as a finishing touch, it’s because the main ingredients aren’t impressive enough on their own.
Fine Dining At Sea
Cunard Steamship Lines was founded today in 1839 by Samuel Cunard in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It became the quintessence of luxurious sailing, and kept its standards through the times when ocean-crossing ships were almost extinct. The Queen Elizabeth 2 was the ne plus ultra of sailing for decades. It successor, the Queen Mary 2, is a stunning ship, but whether it duplicates the style of yesterday is open to question. It is the only line in which passenger classes are still rigidly enforced.
Food At War
Today is the day in 1942 that food rationing began in the United States. It was very serious business at first, but within months it gave all the radio comedians a great new source of jokes.
Music To Eat Dessert By
The song “If I Knew You Were Coming I Would Have Baked a Cake,” sung by Eileen Barton, hit Number One on the music charts today in 1950. Which should tell you something about the state of popular music in that post-jazz, pre-rock period.
Food Namesakes
James Lance Bass, a singer in the pop group ‘N Sync, was born today in 1979. . . Edward Toner Cone, a composer, pianist, and musicologist, was born today in 1917. . . Sir William Fothergill Cooke, one of the inventors of electric telegraphy, was born today in 1806. . . Sidney Lamb, linguist and grammar expert, was born today in 1929. . . Doctor and novelist Robin Cook experienced Page One today in 1940. His novel often have medical undercurrents, but not much cooking. . . Colin Bass, who coincidentally plays bass with the English rock group Camel, plucked his first E string today in 1951.
Words To Eat By
“She set about preparing her supper. It would have to be one of those classically simple meals, the sort that French peasants are said to eat and that enlightened English people sometimes enjoy rather self-consciously–a crusty French loaf, cheese, and lettuce and tomatoes from the garden. Of course there should have been wine and a lovingly prepared dressing of oil and vinegar, but Dulcie drank orange squash and ate mayonnaise that came from a bottle.”–Barbara Pym, English novelist of the mid-1900s.
Words To Drink By
“Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.”–Graham Greene.
Remember The Home Plate?
It was on Tulane Avenue near Carrollton, across the street from the old Pelican Stadium. It was a great hangout, full of people reminiscing about the twenties, thirties, forties, and beyond. It lived on long after the stadium was torn down (replaced by the now-extinct Fontainebleau Motor Hotel). Imagine you are there, eating a roast beef poor boy, reading this comic strip from the funniest cartoonist I know.
Click here for the cartoon.
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