Court Of Two Sisters
The nice weather through most recent Decembers has made the Court’s marvelous outdoor dining areas unusually inviting for the indulgence of its Reveillon menu. The restaurant’s antique style makes it feel like Christmas all the time. It’s Reveillon menu starts with a turtle soup that matches any other, then moves on to some other good dishes selected for the season’s tastes. Best possible starter: the best Sazerac in town.
Four Courses, $45.
Turtle soup au sherry
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❉Fried green tomato salad
Boiled shrimp, greens, rémoulade sauce
~or~
Court of Two Sisters salad
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Crab Benedict
English muffin topped with poached egg, Louisiana crabmeat & hollandaise
~or~
❉Grilled pork chop, sauteed apples
Kale & brown butter
~or~
❉Redfish Creole
Poached redfish in Creole sauce, steamed rice
~or~
Grits & grillades
Veal medallions braised in gravy, served over yellow corn grits
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Eggnog crème brûlée
French Quarter: 613 Royal. 504-522-7273.
FULL REVIEW
All the Reveillon menus can be perused here. We’ll feature one every day throughout the Reveillon season, which runs in most of the Reveillon restaurants until December 31.The snowflake ratings are for the Reveillon menu, not the restaurant in general. Dishes marked with the symbol » are my recommendations.
Dozen Best New Restaurants Of 2015.
It’s not only the Feasting Season, but also the Listmaking Season. Although the number of restaurants in the New Orleans area has remained about the same as it was this time last year, quite a few openings and closings occurred, with the openings being more substantial than the closings. Almost all of these are well within the casual zone. Only the top entry on this list can be called a grand restaurant.
Here are my choices for the year and a third (or so) just passed. Restaurants that have only just opened as I write this will show up on next year’s Best New Restaurants list. Some places below opened in late 2014. (I hold to my tenet that going to brand-new restaurants is a bad idea. )
The new main bar at Brennan’s.
1. Brennan’s. French Quarter: 417 Royal. 504-525-9711. The story of Brennan’s bankruptcy, followed by its takeover by a different arm of the Brennan family, was the big story of 2014. This year we saw the reality, after more than $22 million spent on the stunning restoration of this 1700s building. Also a resounding success is the reworking of the menu, which blends classic dishes from Brennan’s deep files and new method from the mind of Chef Slade Rushing. The only mistake a diner can make is to go to Brennan’s wanting it to be exactly as it was before its year-long closing. It almost every case, it’s better now.
Hummus with lamb ragout.
2. Shaya. Uptown 2: Washington To Napoleon: 4213 Magazine St. 504-891-4213. When I heard that Esquire named Shaya the best new restaurant in America, my reaction was that it was impossible, because that would imply that it’s the best new restaurant in New Orleans. But how could that be? Surely the best new New Orleans restaurants must spring from local food and cultural resources, right? But after my second and subsequent visits to Shaya, I was so wowed by Alon Shaya’s unique approach to Middle Eastern cuisine that I have to admit that the Esquire guys were onto something. Shaya’s pita bread is certainly the best imaginable.
3. Franklin. Marigny: 2600 Dauphine. 504-267-0640. Franklin is among very few restaurants in the Marigny-Bywater restaurant boomtown that isn’t a funky old joint. Instead, it’s a handsome place with sophisticated cooking, service, wine list and bar. It’s almost as if a major Uptown bistro had been transported whole downstream.
Dining room in the crook of an L-shape, with the oyster bar on the left.
4. Compere Lapin. CBD: 535 Tchoupitoulas. 504-599-2119. The buzz here is that the owner/chef hit it big on one of those chef competitions on television. That surely was good for business, exposing the many would be diners in the busy Tchoupitoulas restaurant row to this interesting mix of Creole, Cajun, Southern, and Caribbean cooking. The abbreviated menu is a little offputting, but that can be solved by finding out what the specials are about. Then it is clearly excellent.
5. Meauxbar. French Quarter: 942 N Rampart. 504-569-9979. The original Meauxbar is gone from its very useful location across the street from the Mahalia Jackson Theater, on the rim of the French Quarter. In its place is the relocated Ste. Marie, formerly of Poydras Street. (The Meauxbar name remains to puzzle first-timers. It’s not a bar, but a full-bore restaurant.) This French-Creole bistro found a more appreciative clientele in the new site, where chef Kristen Essig’s menus have blossomed into much more interesting prospects than she had on Poydras. Always busy, usually with locals and Quarterites.
6. Forks & Corks. Covington: 141 TerraBella Blvd. 985-273-3663. Restaurant Number Three for Osman Rodas, owner of Pardo’s and Tchoupstix in Covington. Forks & Corks (not enough time spent on the name) took over the former Bosco’s in Terra Bella. (The original Bosco’s is still in business in Mandeville.) The F&C has an interesting idea: to create something along the lines of Clancy’s, Galatoire’s, and the Upperline, of which there is little on the North Shore. Fortunately, Osman has Chef Marvin Tweedy on staff, who not only fully groks oysters Rockefeller and turtle soup, but spins such things deftly. Handsome dining room in an interesting retro community.
First floor dining room ay Balise.
7. Balise. CBD: 640 Carondelet St. 504-459-4449. The first major new opening of 2015 took over an old lunch house and invented a fascinating, historically accurate milieu and kitchen. How can a dish be inventive and homely at the same time? They somehow do that here.
8. Trenasse. CBD: 444 St Charles Ave. 504-680-7000. Surprise of the Year: In a corner of the first floor of the Hotel Inter-Continental came this new Creole-Cajun seafood house, an extension of a Gulf Coast restaurant named Stinky’s Fish Camp. Perhaps because I expected very little from this, I was astonished by the eating. Only a handful of top-end restaurants match the stock of fresh fish in Trenasse’s kitchen. They do more with an oyster bar than we’ve encountered any where else. The menu is further riddled with a wide assortment of other dishes.
9. Kin. Uptown 4: Riverbend, Carrollton & Broadmoor: 4600 Washington Ave. 504-304-8557. A minuscule restaurant just off the triangle made by Earhart, Washington, and Jefferson Davis, this place is jammed with a hip young crowd. Two restaurant in one: at lunch, the menu is dominated by Vietnamese and other Asian eats, reflecting the origins of the owners. In the evening, the efforts shift to Contemporary Creole cookery, with the same staff. Can’t get in without a reservation.
10. Avo. Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 5908 Magazine. 504-509-6550. The number of possible isotopes of Italian cooking seems to be infinite, even when the range is limited to Sicilian. That’s the origin of the owners, whose ancestry includes Lama’s Seafood in the old St. Roch Market. The cooking is different enough from what we’re used to to make statement. The courtyard of the former Martinique has been weatherproofed, but still feels al fresco. Great service staff.
Ceviche and salad.
11. Johnny Sanchez. CBD: 930 Poydras. 504-304-6615. John Besh had a busy year, opening both Shaya (see above) and this partnership with well-known Mexican chef Aron Sanchez. Johnny Sanchez is a wild-looking place, the murals making many references to obscure south-of-border icons. The menu is equally scattershot, with a dizzying number of options.
12. Messina’s Runway Cafe. New Orleans East: 6001 Stars and Stripes Blvd (Lakefront Airport). 504-241-5300. The Messina family, which came to prominence with its restaurant in Kenner in the 1960s, has in more recent times become more of a caterer and food-service operator. The food at Zephyrs Field, for example. They were brought in to create a breakfast-and-lunch place and a catering hall at the newly restored Lakefront Airport. In a part of town bereft of good restaurants, the Runway Cafe kicks up a lot of excitement with this handsome place and its New Orleans neighborhood-cafe menu.
Cajun Smothered Duck
This is an old-fashioned Cajun way of preparing duck and other wild fowl. It’s so full of flavor as to be almost rich, but the spice level is moderate (not all Cajun food is lip-blisteringly peppery). This is another one of my mother’s recipes, although she would never call this (or herself) a Cajun.
2 farm-raised ducklings or 4 wild ducks, cleaned
2 Tbs. Creole seasoning
1 cup flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped
2 large bell peppers, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 bay leaf
1. Wash the ducks and pat dry. Season inside and out with Creole seasoning, then dust the outside lightly with flour.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a roasting pan or large, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Brown the ducks in the oil, turning frequently, until the skin begins to crisp on all sides. Remove and keep warm.
3. Pour off all but about 1 Tbs. of the oil in the pan. Over medium-low heat, sauté the onions, bell peppers and celery until soft–about two minutes.
4. Turn the oven on to 300 degrees. Return the ducks to the roasting pan. Add a cup of water or chicken stock and the bay leaf. Cover the pan and put it in the 300-degree oven for about two hours. Every half hour, open the pan and turn the ducks over. Add a little water if the pan juices begin to dry out. The ducks are cooked when the meat begins to fall from the leg bones.
5. Remove the ducks from the pan and keep warm. Let the pan contents stand for a few minutes; the fat will rise to the top. Skim and discard the fat. Bring the remaining pan contents to a very light simmer, and reduce until it thickens to a gravy consistency.
6. Add the green onions and the parsley, and add more Creole seasoning or salt and pepper to taste.
7. With a large knife, cut the ducks in half from end to end. Remove and discard the backbone and the rib cage, and serve the rest with the sauce. This is great with dirty rice dressing and yams.
Serves four to six.
Lobster Dumplings @ GW Fins
These are a staple on GWFins appetizer list. In appearance they’re reminiscent of Chinese steamed dumplings, but in every other way they are much more elegant, stuffed with lobster and fish mousseline. A lobster butter sauce finishes it off. Sometimes this is the first course in a four-course lobster dinner that Fins runs in season. It’s almost always available otherwise.
Lobster dumplings.
GW Fins. French Quarter: 808 Bienville. 504-581-3467.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
December 17, 2015
Days Until. . .
Christmas–8
New Year’s Eve–15
Lucky Dogs In Literature
Today is the birthday, in 1937, of John Kennedy Toole, the author of the novel Confederacy of Dunces. The story of a character (in every sense of the word) named Ignatius J. Reilly takes place in New Orleans in the 1960s. Ignatius (for whom a Magazine Street sandwich shop is named) pursues a very odd agenda while downing Lucky Dogs and washing them down with Dr Nut–a real local soft drink from those times. Toole committed suicide in 1969, after having no luck in getting the book published. It has since become a local classic, and plans to make it a movie have been advanced but never completed. My radio colleague John “Spud” McConnell portrayed Ignatius often enough that a statue of him in character stands in front of the old D.H. Holmes location, where the book begins.
Today’s Flavor
Today is National Maple Syrup Day. Maple syrup of the best quality is such a flavor revelation that it’s a wonder why more of a cult hasn’t grown up around it. It certainly has its fans, but most people have never tasted a real maple syrup, let alone a good one. The best maple syrup is the lightest in color, and comes not from Vermont but Canada. That country makes at least three-fourths of the maple syrup sold worldwide, and the maple syrup you find on your supermarket’s shelf is probably from there.
Maple syrup is made by collecting the sap that runs up from the roots of a maple tree in the spring to begin the growth of the year’s crop of leaves. It’s about ninety-five percent water, which must be either boiled away or removed by reverse osmosis. As is true of most reduction processes, the faster the stuff is boiled the more the flavors suffer. If you’re ever in Canada, ignore the high price of light maple syrup and buy it. Like a good wine, a lot of work goes into making the best maple syrup, and a marvelous flavor comes out.
Deft Dining Rule #992:
Filling each square of a waffle with syrup seems to be the right measure of syrup, but that’s far too much, especially if it’s good maple syrup being used.
Gourmet Gazetteer
There are two Lemon Streets in Metairie, the suburb of New Orleans just west of the city limits. The longer of the two begins at Argonne Street (a block south of West Napoleon) and ends at West Esplanade. It’s interrupted three times along the way as it parallels Transcontinental Blvd., one block east. The best restaurants near Lemon Street are Cypress (a block west, just north of West Esplanade. The other Lemon Street runs east-west for two blocks in Old Metairie, from the Seventeenth Street Canal to Carrollton Avenue.
Edible Dictionary
picnic, n.–The lower part of a pork shoulder, below the Boston butt. A picnic has much more bone and far than the Boston butt does, and is neither as tender nor as useful for barbecuing or roasting. Indeed, it’s quite difficult to cook it so that it’s tender enough to eat as is. The muscles are smaller, with a good deal of fat and connective tissue in between the sections. Its most common use is to flavor a soup, a pot of beans or greens, or to make sausage. It can also be cut up into small cubes for stir-frying, or run through the grinder.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez:
The trick of beating egg whites and cream separately, then incorporating other flavorings and small bits into the mixture, almost never fails to produce a striking dessert.
Food Trademarks
Today in 1974, the one millionth U.S. trademark was awarded to the Cumberland Packing Company, the creator of Sweet ‘n’ Low. The patent was for the product’s logo, a treble clef invoking the musical connotation of the stuff’s name. It was only a coincidence that it was number one million, but Cumberland points to it with pride.
Annals Of Flying And Food
Today in 1903, the Wright Brothers made their first flight at Kitty Hawk, proving their design for the first airplane. The flight was twelve seconds long, which didn’t allow enough time for the snack and beverage service.
Music To Eat Gumbo By
This is the birthday (1937) of Art Neville, the elder statesman of the Neville Brothers and the Meters. We first heard Art’s voice in 1954 on the Hawkettes’ perennial Carnival hit, Mardi Gras Mambo.
Food Namesakes
Émile Roux, a French bacteriologist who was such an early participant in that field that he worked with Louis Pasteur, was born today in 1853. . . Kofi Annan was named Secretary General of the United Nations today in 1996. . . The late Paul Butterfield, who led the blues band that bore his name, was born today in 1942. . . Jim Bonfanti, lead singer for the 1970s rock group The Raspberries, was born today in 1948.
Words To Eat By
“A waffle is like a pancake with a syrup trap.”–Mitch Hedberg, American stand-up comedian.
Words To Drink By
“Drink wine every day, at lunch and dinner, and the rest will take care of itself.”–Waverly Root, American food writer of the mid-1900s.
Always Eat Local.
Q.: What about when the local cuisine is very limited? Can a burger or a pizza now and then do much harm?
Click here for the cartoon.