Tuesday, February 21, 2017.
Fighting My Way Through A Lull.
I go to the sleep clinic and drop off the gizmo that read my breathing patterns for seven hours last night. I’m told that they’ll be in touch to make sure the data are usable. From there I head straight to the radio station, where I am needed to record not one but five commercials. One of these is for the Eat Club dinner on March 9. It will be an interesting test of the new radio transmitters. And the radios that people are buying so they can hear me and The Food Show.
One such test of the new gear is unimpressive. We didn’t get the first listener-caller until a half-hour into the show. This is far from setting a record, but it don’t make me happy. On the other hand, two people with have legitimate perspectives on this–Mary Ann and Scoot–both say that shouldn’t worry about it, and just keep talking. One of the best program directors I ever worked with told me the same thing back when. “You are a better talker than most of the people on the telephone,” he said. “Calls you go to in desperation are rarely very good. I’d prefer to listen to you than to them.”
I’m glad I remembered that advice, even though it was first given to me in 1978. It didn’t step up the volume of calls, but it
did make me feel better.
When the show ends, I call Mary Leigh to see whether she’s available for dinner. I have to wait for her to change out of her work togs into something merely very casual. She is a member of the We Don’t Dress Up As Much As Our Parents Did Generation.
As for the venue, she suggested Boulevard. That’s the restaurant that took over the building where Houston’s was for decades. Houston’s was always busy, but not long ago relented on its no-reservations policy. ML takes advantage of this to stack up points with Open Table.
Houston’s regular customers were very upset when the Metairie branch closed less than a year ago. (The one on St. Charles Avenue is still there,unchanged.) But the new owners (they are from the Creole Culinary Concepts, which also bring you Broussard’s, Kingfish, Bombay Club, both Maspero’s, and a good many more) had the good sense to keep the restaurant a lot like what it had been. It wasn’t as busy as I remember. On the other hand, Carnival parades are rolling, which surely takes a piece out of business.
I had not been to a Houston’s for something like ten years, but it doesn’t seem much changed. The menu is still centered on grilling a large percentage of its items. Hamburgers, ribs, grilled fish are central.
Boulevard’s snapper with crabmeat.
I begin with fried oysters attempting to be reminiscent of oysters Rockefeller. Not bad, but not reminiscent of Antoine’s. The entree I chose was to break away from the grill. Instead, I have a red snapper with a panko crust, almost panneed. This is good but makes no big statement. Which was what I expected.
Wedge salad at Boulevard.
ML is still a fan of wedge salads with blue cheese. We have never seen one as large as this one, enough for two people. It’s also significantly more expensive than we’re used to. Indeed, the whole menu seems notably dearer than I recall. However, both Houston’s and its successor Boulevard hit the sweet spot for people who don’t like the idea of being a gourmet. That’s my daughter’s taste. And, come to think of it, the palate of the typical Millennial. ML approves the salad.
Boulevard American Bistro. Metairie: 4241 Veterans Blvd. 504-889-2301.
Louisiana Seafood Pasta
Here’s my take on the very rich, Creole-seasoned, chock-full-of-seafood pasta dish that became popular in the early 1980s. It remains very popular today. When crawfish are in season, use them instead of the scallops.
Pasta salad with shrimp, crabmeat, crawfish, or whatever else tastes ood in a creamy sauce for pasta.
2 Tbs. butter
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 Tbs. chopped French shallots
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 cups heavy cream
Pinch saffron threads
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper
Pinch ground ginger
Pinch cayenne
1/2 tsp. fresh tarragon (or 1/4 tsp. dried)
1 lb. sea scallops, cut in half crosswise
1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 dozen oysters
1 lb. lump crabmeat
2 lbs. pasta, cooked (I like farfalle)
1. Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté the green onions and shallots until they’re limp.
2. Add the wine and bring it to a boil. Reduce until most of the liquid is gone. Add the cream, saffron, salt, pepper, cayenne and ginger, and bring to a light boil. (Also add tarragon at this point if using dried.)
3. Add scallops and shrimp. Cook for four minutes, then add oysters and fresh tarragon. Cook until edges of oysters are curly, then add the crabmeat. Throughout the process, agitate pan to slosh the sauce over the seafoods.
4. Taste the sauce and add salt if necessary. You can also spice it up with a bit of Tabasco or crushed red pepper. Remove from the heat.
5. Add the cooked pasta to the pan and toss with the sauce ingredients to coat the pasta and distribute the seafoods.
Serves eight.
Ham Poor Boy with Debris @ Mother’s
The finest ham sandwich in town (an understatement as far as Mother’s is concerned; they claim it’s the world’s best) starts with a Chisesi ham, baked on site with the secret glaze. The recipe for that may have been worth as much to the Landry brothers as the building.
The line in front of Mother’s almost never ends.
The ham is sliced on the thick side and stratified onto New Orleans French bread. Also there is Mother’s unique dressing of shredded cabbage, pickles, mayonnaise, and both yellow and brown mustard. And then comes the roast beef gravy, studded with the “debris” left over when they slice the beef. Its flavor is completely different from the roast beef gravies at other poor boy shops around town, and it’s delicious in its own way. It also warms up the sandwich. Jerry tells me that what I am eating is, in fact, the original Ferdi, but if you ask for a Ferdi they substitute some of the ham with sliced roast beef. And that’s not quite as good. Mother’s ham is where the magic is.
Mother’s. CBD: 401 Poydras. 504-523-9656.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
February 26, 2017
Days Until. . .
Mardi Gras–1
St. Patrick’s Day–19
St. Joseph’s Day–21
Easter–46
The Day Before The Big Day
In New Orleans today is Lundi Gras–Fat Monday. Its celebrity relies entirely on that of the next day. Sort of like Christmas Eve. A suburb of a holiday. While a few pre-holidays have become more famous than the holiday itself (Halloween, New Year’s Eve, for example), Lundi Gras will be forever sandwiched between the Sunday before Mardi Gras–when the Carnival Season peaks–and Mardi Gras itself tomorrow. Few people work in New Orleans on Lundi Gras, but I do–writing this.
Today’s Flavor
Today is allegedly National Pistachio Day. The best use of pistachios in New Orleans is the dipping of the ends of cannoli in them at Angelo Brocato’s. Which, like most makers of ice cream, makes bright green pistachio flavor. (It’s the green part of spumone, too.) That flavor is so delicious that I wonder why it’s not more often used. As in pistachio sno-balls. Pistachio bread pudding. (I think I’ll try that myself.) Or in savory dishes. Indeed, I couldn’t think of a non-sweet use of pistachios, other than eating them right out of the shells. (Remember when there used to be gum machines filled with red-shelled pistachios? I can’t remember the last time I did, but it has to be twenty years.)
The more I thought about this the more intrigued I was. So started looking through a few cookbooks. Finding nothing there, I did a web search and came up with a bunch of grower organizations that seemed to be quarreling with one another about aflatoxins and the difference between machine-shelled and hand-shelled nuts. Nuts!
Pistachios originally came from Iran, which produces more pistachios than any other country. The United States (you could say California) is a close second. They’re very good for you. Eating them in the shell is so slow that you stop before you can eat the equivalent amount of peanuts.
Annals Of Closing Time
Today in 1945, as World War II was in full tilt, a midnight curfew went into effect for all bars and nightclubs everywhere in America. Wow. That must have been rough here in New Orleans. I’ll bet that gave the restaurant business a boost.
The Physiology Of Eating
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was born today in 1852. He ran a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, and promulgated many offbeat theories of health. One of those was vegetarianism. Another was “fletcherization,” in which one chewed each biteful of food a hundred times before swallowing. He thought people should eat a diet that was primarily grain, and his brother William K. Kellogg created the famous cereal company to make that easier. About half of Dr. Kellogg’s radical ideas actually make sense. But plenty of them were as nutty as a pistachio.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Hot Coffee, Mississippi is literally a wide spot in MS 532, some 20 miles west of Laurel. The place got its name from an old grocery store where farmers on their way to market stopped for hot coffee and cakes. The name has become a matter of fun for the people in those rolling farmlands. A sign that says “Entering Hot Coffee” is followed a few yards later by one that says “Entering Downtown Hot Coffee.” After a few yards more, you’re advised that you’re “Leaving Downtown Hot Coffee” and then “Leaving Hot Coffee.” All that in about a quarter mile.
Edible Dictionary
cowan, [coe-WANH], Cajun French, n.–The common name used in the Louisiana bayou country for the alligator snapping turtle. This is the prime species for all Cajun and Creole turtle dishes. It’s one of the largest freshwater turtles in the world, living in streams and rivers throughout the Southeastern United States. With its hooked beak and strong jaws, it can devour almost anything its size, and has a predilection for fish. It lures them with a pink, worm-like appendage on its tongue, which it extends while lying on the bayou bottom with its mouth open, ready to bite down.
Food Namesakes
Antoine “Fats” Domino, a major figure in early rock ‘n’ roll, was born today in 1928. He has both a food nickname and two restaurant names. And he had a hit song with a food name: Blueberry Hill. But he’s known for his music more than his eating. He’s not very fat anymore–hasn’t been for a long time. A true-blue Orleanian, he still lived in the Lower Ninth Ward when Katrina hit. He lost everything there, but he rebuilt. Good old Fats! . . . Theodore Sturgeon, an American author of science fiction, was born today in 1918. . . Charles D. Baker, the mayor of Las Vegas during that city’s Rat Pack boom years of the 1950s, was born today in 1901. . . Big-league pitcher Preacher Roe took The Big Mound today in 1915. . . Currie Graham–who has a rare double food name–was born today in 1967. He played the station commander in NYPD Blue.
Words To Eat By
“You think that I am cruel and gluttonous when I beat my cook for sending in a bad dinner. But if that is too trivial a cause, what other can there be for beating a cook?”–Martial, ancient Roman author.
Words To Drink By
“Well, as he brews, so shall he drink.”–Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour.
The Paradox Of Popularity.
What does it mean when it’s tough to get a reservation in a restaurant? Does that mean that it’s good? Or. . .
Click here for the cartoon.