Tuesday, April 28, 2015.
Katie’s With Eat Clubbers.
We have entered the month before the Eat Club cruise to the Mediterranean, and that means it’s time to start pulling on the organizational straps. In two weeks, we have the dinner in which our forty travelers get to meet one another and us, ask questions about how it all works, and reassure everyone that we will have smooth sailing.
Katie’s dining room.
A few people from other parts of the country are always among our cruise passengers. Some of them come to New Orleans for other reasons. Barney won’t be around for our main pre-cruise dinner, but he is here for Jazz Festival. So we meet for dinner at Katie’s, along with two of Barney’s jazz-loving friends. Barney is in the music business. He likes food, too. His first idea was Mandina’s, but that’s a hard place to penetrate in the days between Jazz Fest weekends. Katie’s, on the other hand, is managed by Scot Craig, who is always telling me that I don’t eat in his neighborhood café nearly often enough, and who will make a table of six for us.
Oysters Slessinger at Katie’s.
We gorge ourselves, first with a large mixed platter of oysters Slessinger and grilled oysters. The former is topped with cheese, herbs, and spinach. It’s no oysters Rockefeller, but great in its own way.
Terranova pizza at Katie’s,
Seafood platter.
Now a Terranova pizza, topped with Italian sausage from the little grocery that specializes in it. And with the Provel cheese that Scot orders specially from St. Louis, MO. It’s better than we expect. In some ways, Katie’s does what both Mandina’s and Venezia do.
Mary Ann and our travel agent Debbie Himbert split a seafood platter. It casts a shadow the size of a French bread loaf on the table, with enough seafood, fries, and buttered toast to feed at least three. The girls gasp in horror as the boat ties up in between them, even though they both knew damn well how much food this will carry.
I had long heard about The Barge at Katie’s, but never seen one. Well, here it is: a whole loaf of poor boy bread, filled with roast beef, ham, and too many other ingredients to take a sure inventory. It’s held above the heads of three servers who bring it into the dining room sideways, making sounds like a nautical bell and a foghorn. “Make room for The Barge!” they yell.
Scot Craig.
I have a normal roast beef poor boy, because the last one I had here four years ago was very good. It wasn’t at the beginning, then Scot made a deal with Sammy’s on Elysian Fields to buy and cook the beef for Katie’s. Sammy’s does a lot of that sort of work.
I have heard rumors for many months that Katie’s will soon open upstairs. Scot says he’d love to show us the much-needed new dining room, but they just put down the floor coating that morning, and it can’t be walked upon.
We depart very full, and with the knowledge that Barney will be a good guy to have a drink with on board the Queen Victoria where, after three days in London, we will board the ship at Southampton, and sail for eight days thereafter. It’s only three weeks from now.
Katie’s. Mid-City: 3701 Iberville. 504-488-6582.
Wasabi
Marigny: 900 Frenchmen. 504-943-9433. Map.
Casual
AE DS MC V
Website
West End & Bucktown: 8550 Pontchartrain Blvd. 504-267-3263. Map.
Casual
AE DS MC V
Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
The seller’s market for sushi seems to have peaked. With seventy-three sushi bars around town, I think I detect a few net sushi bar closings, and a much smaller, less ambitious menu in most of the new places. While I’ve never seen a big crowd at either Wasabi, the food has always been excellent, and the place seems solid.
WHY IT’S NOTEWORTHY
Both in the Marigny Triangle and Lakeview, Wasabi brought sushi to neighborhoods bereft of the delicacy. In both places, there are a lot of people who go for Japanese dining, which makes one wonder why it took so long. That clientele also knows from quality, and Wasabi put forth excellent fish and a big menu of other beautiful food from the outset.
WHAT’S GOOD
The sushi bar takes its work seriously, a fact attested to by the goodness of the specials on the markerboard. Fresh versions of seafood usually found frozen in other Japanese places are present enough that you could make an entire meal out of those items. The fine points–temperature, moisture content of the rice, judicious use of sauces–are all observed. The non-sushi entrees are limited to the basics of the cuisine–tempura, teriyaki, noodles, and the like. Nothing like sukiyaki. On the other hand, the appetizer selection is unusually varied.
BACKSTORY
Wasabi’s original location in Marigny opened in 2002. It was well enough received that it opened a second location on Canal Boulevard, near the cemeteries. That was wiped out by Katrina, but in 2009 Wasabi had returned to Lakeview, taking over the former Windjammer on Pontchartrain Boulevard, across from the marina. The name is, of course, that of the pale-green horseradish/mustard that comes with sushi and sashimi and blasts your nasal passages wide open when you eat too much of it at one time.
DINING ROOM
The Marigny location doesn’t seem right for a sushi bar, but it works. It’s an old store built in an antique Creole style from the early 1800s, with few windows and a blindingly saturated exterior color scheme. Inside, the two rooms have been adapted well. The sushi bar is in the rear, brighter room, but tables are in both. The front room sports a bigger, older bar than we’re used to seeing in a Japanese place; it’s a popular hangout. Jazz plays on the sound system. The Lakeview restaurant is bigger and sports a spacious, modern main dining room and another large bar.
FULL ONLINE MENU
BEST DISHES
Starters
Tempura shrimp and vegetables
Baked green mussels
Beef tataki
Baked seafood, mushrooms, onions, smelt roe sauce
Curry mussels
Sauteed soft shell crab
Shrimp-stuffed shiitake mushrooms
Mussels with black bean sauce
Frenchmen scallops (garlic butter)
Beef negimaki (green onions or asparagus)
Seafood salad
Salmon skin salad
Entrees
Chicken teriyaki
Una don (broiled eel)
Sushi and sashimi to order
Rice paper roll
Salmon skin roll
Tuna avocado roll
Frenchmen roll
Noodles
Nabeyaki udon
Gyoza noodle soup
Desserts
Tempura cheesecake
Red bean ice cream
Ginger ice cream
Capppucino ice cream
FOR BEST RESULTS
Even if you have a standard sushi order, ask about everything on the specials board. These really are special. They seem to have fresh sea scallops more often than I see in other sushi bars. The selection of sake is very good.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The service is a shade too brisk.
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
Value +1
Attitude
Wine & Bar +1
Hipness +2
Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
Romantic
Open Sunday lunch
Open Monday lunch and dinner
Open most holidays
Open after 10 p.m.
Open all afternoon
Historic
Quick, good meal
Easy, nearby parking
Reservations accepted
Duncan McCarthy’s Chicken Adobo
Duncan McCarthy and his wife Dudley have been frequent attendees at our Eat Club dinners and have traveled with us on several cruises. Duncan is an interesting and interested gourmet who’s traveled widely and loves exotic flavors. He’s also a delightful raconteur–a fun person to travel with. Adobo is a dish with an interesting history that combines Spanish and Asian influences. It’s best known in the Philippines, but the original idea came from Mexico, which in colonial days administered the Philippines for Spain. It has aspects of curry, Chinese and Mexican cooking. Great stuff, this.
10 lbs. bone-in chicken, assorted parts (no wings)
1/4 cup adobo seasoning (or 1/4 cup Creole seasoning plus 1 tsp. turmeric and 1/2 tsp. cumin)
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 cup Chinese oyster sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
5 whole bay leaves
3 Tbs. Asian-style pureed ginger
1 1/2 cups Spanish red onions, minced
3/4 cup chopped garlic
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, chopped
2 Tbs. dark brown sugar
2 Tbs. freshly-squeezed lemon juice or 1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 Tbs. ground white pepper
2 bunches green onions, tender green parts only, finely snipped
1. Remove skin and fat from the chicken parts. Cut breasts into three pieces and thighs into two. Sprinkle adobo seasoning all over the chicken and allow it to penetrate the chicken for at least thirty minutes.
2. Combine in a bowl one cup of coconut milk (save the rest for later), oyster sauce, soy sauce, bay leaves, ginger, 4 Tbs. white pepper, chopped red onion, garlic and jalapeno.
3. Stir the ingredients in Step 2 well, and put half the mixture into a stainless-steel or enamel saucepan big enough to hold all the chicken. Add the chicken, then top with the remaining Step 2 ingredients.
4. Bring the saucepan to a light boil and hold it there for 20 minutes.
5. Stir in the brown sugar, lemon/orange juice, and about half of the vinegar.
6. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for another 20-25 minutes, until the chicken begins to fall away from the bone.
7. Remove the chicken. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Pour all the pan contents into a food processor and process to a rough puree. Add about half the green onions and puree until smooth. Taste the sauce and add more vinegar and white pepper and salt to your taste.
8. Return the sauce to the pan. Stir in the remaining coconut milk. Bring to a simmer for about three minutes, then return the chicken to the saucepan. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and cook about another ten minutes.
Serve the chicken with plenty of the sauce and garnish with the remaining snipped green onions.
Three-Way Enchiladas @ Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant
Mexican combo platters are usually a mess, designed to appeal to those who believe that a plate with five items is better than a dish with three or two, by definition. However, I couldn’t resist this: three enchiladas, each one stuffed with different fillings (chicken, beef, and cheese) and each topped with a different sauce (queso, tomato, and chipotle). The three had enough in common that the mingling at the borders resulted in good flavor–sort of like the Mexico-US border itself. Cute little place in a funny corner of downtown Lacombe.
Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant. Lacombe: 27718 Main. 985-882-2251 .
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
May 5, 2015
Days Until. . .
Mother’s Day 5
New Orleans Wine And Food Experience 16
Food Throughout The Americas
Today is Cinco de Mayo, celebrating the surprising Mexican victory over a well-trained French army in the state of Puebla. Originally a date celebrated only regionally, it has come to be a day for partying by anyone of Mexican descent. And anyone who likes things Mexican, especially beer and tequila. In Texas and the rest of the Southwest, it’s a big deal for Mexican restaurants, where a celebration roughly comparable to what happens in Irish taverns on St. Patrick’s Day takes place. Somebody hand me a taco.
Food Calendar
It’s being Cinco de Mayo, and the event’s having taken place in Puebla, it’s entirely appropriate that this is Pan-American Mole Poblano Day. “Mole” (pronounced “MOE-lay”) comes from a Native Mexican word meaning “sauce.” While many moles are made in Mexico, when the word turns up in America it usually means the style made with chocolate and chiles. That’s the Puebla style–hence the name “poblano.” Perhaps the most distinctive sauce in all of world cookery, mole is not at all sweet. The chocolate lends a bitterness and depth of flavor to all the other ingredients. Recipes for mole poblano tend to include two or three dozen ingredients and take a long time to prepare. The sauce is most often served with chicken, but can turn up in other places. It’s incomparably delicious when made well, and it’s a shame that it seems to be getting rarer in Mexican restaurants.
Deft Dining Rule #381
If mole sauce appears on a Mexican menu, the chances of the restaurant’s being excellent rise by an order of magnitude.
More Latin American Culinary Observances
It’s probably an American who declared today National Hot Tamale Day. Hot tamales as we know them are a mixed-breed dish. Most pure-bred Latin American tamales are much larger than the tamales sold from windows and the old street-corner carts. They’re a porridge of corn meal wrapped in a corn husk and steamed, with meat in the center–or not. One of those makes a meal.
The American hot tamale is about the size of a fat hot dog, made of ground beef, masa meal, red pepper and cumin, among other seasonings. They’re simmered in the fat released by the beef and colored by the seasonings. They’re gross to describe, but hard to stop eating once you start.
The most famous hot tamales in New Orleans were the ones sold from the window at Manuel’s on South Carrollton Avenue for decades. The hurricane and the age of the lady who owned it (she took it over when her husband died) brought Manuel’s story to a close. Perhaps the recipe will be revived some day and it will return. I keep thinking that the Tex-Mex tamale is a dish that some creative chef should take a look at, with a mind to developing a new dish.
Deft Dining Rule #809:
You may well be able to eat a dozen hot tamales, but one Central American tamal should do you.
Annals Of Food Writing
Today is the birthday, in 1903, of James Beard. He became one of the most famous and respected American authorities on cooking because acting and singing opera weren’t supporting him in New York City. He began catering in the 1930s, and found an audience so receptive that he soon published the first of his many cookbooks. He had a way of presenting cookery as fun, sophisticated, and satisfying. The fact that he was a large (both tall and wide) man who looked like a gourmet advanced that career. What else set him apart was his insistence that American food was as good as any other, and deserving of the greatest care and best ingredients. His recipes tended to the elemental, simple side.
I had lunch with James Beard once, in 1984, at the Caribbean Room in New Orleans), he talked about what pleasures could be coaxed out of a good potato, without butter or salt, even, if you knew how to cook it. After Beard died in 1985, the house in Greenwich Village where he lived and taught became the headquarters for an educational foundation named for him. It’s become the leading awarder of prizes to American chefs, cookbook writers and others in the food biz. His name carries so much stroke that restaurants all over America willingly pay all the expenses for doing a dinner at the James Beard House in New York City, the proceeds going to the organization.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Chili Hill is a foothill of the High Sierra in Calaveras County, California, sixty-eight miles southeast of Sacramento. It rises to 1408 feet, just above a spring and Chili Gulch. All of that can only be reached by hiking or all-terrain vehicle. The chili must be packed in. If that’s too inconvenient, come on down and head three miles south to San Andreas, where lunch is waiting at the Pickle Patch.
Edible Dictionary
poblano, Spanish, adj.–A variety of chile pepper native to the state of Puebla, in Mexico. (“Poblano” means “from Puebla.”) It’s about six inches long and three inches wide at the stem end; it tapers to a point. It has a mild heat, and so is often used for chiles rellenos (stuffed peppers). Its pepper-fruit flavor makes it a good ingredient to flavor a salsa. It is an essential ingredient in the chocolate-based sauce mole poblano. Poblanos are also dried into the crisp, black, powerfully flavored (although still mild) called the ancho chile.
Food In Show Biz
Spencer Tracy was born today in 1900. He made a lot of great movies, including Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? . . . Alice Faye, singer and actress, was born today in 1912. She was comedian and bandleader Phil Harris’s wife. She has a New Orleans connection; one of her daughters married a local guy. . . Ann B. Davis, who played the housekeeper on the Brady Bunch television show, was born today in 1926. Imagine having a live-in cook and maid without being wealthy. It was common until the 1960s. Now it seems preposterous.
Music To Drink By
Eric Burdon, the lead singer of the Animals, was born today in 1940. The Animals made a hit out of a song whose first line is, “There is a house in New Orleans, they call the Rising Sun.”
Food Namesakes
Ron Snook, a rower for Australia in the 1996 Olympics, was born today in 1972. A snook is a great eating fish caught mostly on the Florida Gulf Coast, but it turns up here now and then. Good for grilling. . . Canadian singer James LaBrie gave forth his first note today in 1963.
Words To Eat By
“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.”–James Beard, born today in 1903.
Words To Drink By
“My dad was the town drunk. Most of the time that’s not so bad. But New York City?”–Henny Youngman.
Believe It Or Not!
Several odd food reports from Ripley’s daily panel (still around after decades of weirdness). The one about the beautiful women who eat free in restaurants in China. . . well, that goes on here, too, but not in exactly the same way. The French dandy wearing high heels. . . he could make a great maitre’d. As for the item in the lower right-hand corner. . . if only there were a way to make this happen faster.