Tujague’s
Serving a Reveillon dinner in the way it was a century ago is no stretch for Tujague’s. It was around to serve exactly such a meal in the 1800s. Regular customers who missed Tujague’s Reveillon last year will be pleasantly surprised this time around. Mark Latter, taking over the restaurant after the unexpected death of his father in 2013, has not only performed a bright renovation, but expanded the menu into new dimensions, without diluting the essence. The menu is quite appealing, and the price is a bargain. And if you want to eat shrimp remoulade and boiled brisket, you still can.
Four courses, $45.
Apple & blue cheese salad
Pecans, baby greens, cranberry vinaigrette & black-eyed pea croutons
~or~
❉Crispy pork belly
Oyster & andouille cream with cracklins, corn chow-chow & root beer glaze
~or~
❉Oyster brochette
Garlic croustade topped with meunière sauce
~~~~~
❉Soup du jour
~~~~~
❉Pan-seared duck breast
Foie gras dirty rice, squash & zucchini medley, pepper jelly sauce
~or~
Redfish on the half shell
Pan-seared local redfish, roasted pecan butter, squash & zucchini
~or~
Six-ounce filet mignon
~or~
❉Seafood courtbouillon
Gulf fish, oysters, shrimp & tomato sauce
~~~~~
Chocolate pecan pie
~or~
❉Banana bread pudding
Chocolate pecan pie
French Quarter: 823 Decatur. 504-525-8676.
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 snowflake symbol ✽ are my recommendations.
Thursday, December 10, 2015.
Smoke, A New Barbecue Joint. Dress Reversal.
I work at home–I’d never make it from downtown to the NPAS rehearsal tonight if I didn’t. This opens the possibility for lunch. Mary Ann throws out a few places that interest her. We are shortly agreed on Smoke, a new barbecue specialist on the north side of Covington. In a building that looks like a trailer (it isn’t, just shaped that way) Chef Jeff Hansel from Oxlot 9–the cool restaurant in the equally hip Southern Hotel–operates the place with his wife. It’s a spare dining room with a colorful interior. A line of outdoor tables fronting a large lawn is interrupted by a gigantic three-unit sign saying only “BBQ.” It’s hard to miss.
I am there ahead of time, and I order what reads to me like fresh-cut smoky fries with a scattering of bacon and brisket. Mary Ann loves good fries. But what comes out is essentially cheese fries. I know that a lot of people like cheese fries, but I find that the idea ruins good fries, which these appear to be. We both eat far too many of these things, which are served in a portion enough for four or even more.
The barbecue platter I order is more promising. Pulled pork shoulder, smoky but not extravagantly so, served with cole slaw and collard greens, both of which are excellent. On the table are five bottles of barbecue sauce, representating all the major varieties: vinegar-based, mustard-based, sweet and smoky, and extra-spicy. Mary Ann is even more a fan of barbecue than I am, and she has only one problem with all this: it’s so good that she eats much more than she planned on doing. She is making good progress with her dieting, so this is a problem.
I fit in a walk and a nap before radio time. We have a very busy show, again with a lot of commercials for me to speak. Then I’m off to the dress rehearsal for NPAS’s Christmas Concert this Sunday. I am already a bit hoarse from the radio show. My solo song is one of the last pieces, and I start thinking that I might not have it straight in my mind. I start thinking I might get a case of the yips, and, of course I do, pronouncing some words wrong and forgetting others. It’s like recording a radio commercial: if I don’t get it perfect the first time, I screw it up multiple times more. But you can’t do that on stage. I looked pretty incompetent, but my fellow singers are sympathetic. After the rehearsal, they let me run it a few times. All of these attempts are fine. Conductor Alissa tells me to slow it down a little. One of the basses says I should step up to the mic with the sheet music in hand. “Don’t look at it, just have it,” he says. “You won’t need it.” Confidence.
Smoke. Covington: 1005 North Collins Blvd. 985-302-5307.
Balise
CBD: 640 Carondelet St. 504-459-4449. Map.
Nice Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
The Central Restaurant Frontier in New Orleans has pushed noticeably upstream in recent years. Large new buildings and renovations of old ones invite sophisticated new places to eat in a part of town where there were only blue-collar lunch houses for decades. The entire process can be summed up by what became of Ditcharo’s, at the corner of Carondelet and Girod. “The Ditch,” as the place was called by its regulars, was a utilitarian lunch place with a bar full of regulars for many years. But absorbing energy from many new restaurants in the area, it has become a gourmet bistro, complete with an original menu and a two columns of specialty cocktails and wines. And a five-star chef-owner: Justin Devillier, of La Petite Grocery fame. This is real progress.
WHY IT’S NOTEWORTHY
For me, the memory of Maylie’s restaurant–a remnant of another era of dining in the CBD–casts a wonderful spell around Balise and the similar restaurants that opened in this long-underused part of town. In some ways, it’s like the French Quarter dining scene, but without the tourists. You have to be a local to appreciate places like this.
From the dining room to the bar.
BACKSTORY
The first French explorers who came to the mouth of the Mississippi River three hundred years ago found that a diagram of the river looks like a bird’s foot–“balize” in the French dialect of these pioneers. To this day the vicinity of the mouth of the river is called by that name by geologists. This suggestion enters the menu both as an anecdote (explained at length on the restaurant’s web site) and in the rustic style of much of the cooking.
DINING ROOM
The dining rooms–some of which are at the top of a steep stairway–were not remade to any great extent by the renovation. The floors are a mixture of tile and concrete, reminiscent of more than a few old restaurants around town. While this suggests a very casual cafe, in fact the kitchen is painstaking and the service staff polished.
REVIEWER’S NOTEPAD
More ruminations appear in our Dining Diary. Click on any of the dates below for those reports, each written a few days after a meal at Balise.
10/17/2015 ~ 11/17/2015 ~
FULL ONLINE MENU
Braised lamb.
BEST DISHES
Most of the menu makes feints in the direction of rural home style, Creole cookery. A lot of comfort food here, even among dishes that would strike the average diner as innovative. Another way of putting it is to say that here are a lot of forgotten culinary ideas ripe for revival. The chef has done a lot of homework in this direction.
It is the nature of Balise that the menu changes constantly, with at least half of the menu turning over in the course of a month. There are also several specials every day. Here is the whole menu, with the » symbol marking recommendations.
Cold Starters
Long stem broccoli (piave vecchio), sauce gribiche (like a white, mustardy remoulade with a bit of egg)
Local radishes, amber honey, chive, yogurt butter
»Beef tartare, pumpernickel, horseradish, buttermilk, dill
»Raw oysters, spicy mignonette, nuoc cham, cocktail sauce
Cobb salad (pickled shrimp, bacon, haricots verts, avocado, cherry tomatoes, hard-boiled egg, blue cheese, buttermilk dill dressing
Pickled quail eggs, hot sauce
»Chilled roasted beets, almonds, tarragon & brown butter
Pickled poached carrots, house-made feta, mint, fresh chickpeas, olive vinaigrette
Hot Starters
»Crispy veal sweetbreads, celery, blue cheese, pickled red onion, hot sauce
»Chicory rubbed cobia (lemonfish), apples, smoked cipollini onions, roasted cauliflower puree
»Baked rigatoni, ragout of beef cheek, shiitake mushrooms, Fontina cheese
»Fried smoked oysters, marinated field peas, pecans, oyster-parsley emulsion
Entrees
Hamburger, sharp cheddar, caramelized onions, pickles, comeback sauce (a heavy-mayonnaise variations of remoulade)
Chipped pork on toast, grilled brioche, chow chow, onion rings, charred onion mayonnaise, mustard jus
»Lamb & canellini bean stew, oyster mushrooms, kale, acorn squash, pistachios, rosemary, juniper jus
»Barbecue Gulf shrimp, grilled rustic bread, roasted garlic puree
Cornmeal fried Gulf fish, charred napa cabbage, celery root remoulade
Grilled hanger steak, baby broccoli, grilled mushrooms, salsa verde
»Twice cooked chicken half, potato puree, roasted vegetables, chicken jus
Daily vegetarian selection
Sides
»Hand cut fries, malt vinegar aioli
»Roasted brussels sprouts, peanut romesco
Buttermilk biscuits, chicken liver mousse, red onion jam
»Spiced roasted cauliflower, satsuma yogurt
Fingerling potato & leek gratin, sherry, Gruyere cheese
Shishito peppers, cream cheese aioli, bacon bread crumbs
Desserts
»Chocolate pots de creme, white chocolate panna cotta, chicory-milk chocolate soft serve
Sticky toffee pudding, salted pecans & smoked vanilla ice cream
»Apple fritters, cinnamon sugar, vanilla sour cream
Autumn spice cake, cream cheese mousse, frozen pumpkin custard, pumpkin seed honeycomb, candied sage
Barbecue shrimp at Balise.
FOR BEST RESULTS
Reservations are essential. This restaurant is still in its honeymoon period, and it stays busy at dinner.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
At some time in the future, a new floor and a less rigorous climb to the second floor should be added. The rest rooms are sub-optimal, also.
Apple fritters (suggestive of beignets).
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 +1
Service+1
Value +1
Attitude +2
Wine & Bar +2
Hipness +2
Local Color +2
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
Romantic
Good for business meetings
Open Sunday lunch and dinner
Open Monday lunch and dinner
Open all afternoon
Easy, nearby parking
Reservations honored promptly
Italian Oysters
After Bienville and Rockefeller, this garlic-and-bread-crumby concoction is the most popular in the pantheon of local oyster dishes. The famous dish along these lines is Oysters Mosca, named for the restaurant that made it popular. Every restaurant that’s even slightly Italianate makes a version of it, plus plenty of others. My version is a little spicier than most, inspired by the recipe they use at La Cuisine. The ideal side dish with this is spaghetti Bordelaise.
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
24 large oysters, partially drained
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 Tbs. finely chopped garlic
1 Tbs. lemon juice
2 Tbs. chopped Italian parsley
2 cups bread crumbs
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbs. Italian seasoning
1. Pour a little of the olive oil in the bottom of a baking dish of almost any size, from a small au gratin dish to a pie plate. Arrange the oysters with about a half-inch between them in the dish.
2. Sprinkle the oysters with the crushed red pepper, garlic, lemon juice and parsley. Combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and Italian seasoning. Cover the oysters with the blend.
3. Put the dish into a preheated 400-degree oven, uncovered, for ten to fifteen minutes (depending on the size of the dish) until the sauce is bubbling and the bread crumbs on top brown.
Serves six.
Corned Beef Hash With Eggs @ Coulis
This great breakfast specialist (it’s where the Bluebird Cafe used to be) makes the best version of corned beef hash in town. It sits on rounds or fried mirlitons, and is the underlayer for a couple of poached eggs. Hollandaise over all, of course. If you can tear yourself away from the huevos rancheros, you’ll find something even better. Especially on St. Patrick’s Day.
Coulis. Uptown: 3625 Prytania. 504-304-4265.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
December 11, 2015
Days Until. . .
Christmas–14
New Year’s Eve–20
Today’s Flavor
It’s Shepherd’s Pie Day. A casserole with layers of ground beef, mashed potatoes, and cheese, it has roots in Greece and the Balkans. There, dishes like moussaka show family connections. In Britain, where the dish is most popular, it’s called cottage pie. There, it’s often made with lamb or mutton (as you would imagine it would be, given the name). In America shepherd’s pie is best known as a dish in the regular rotation in the school cafeteria. Some love it, some hate it. I was in the first category, and have managed to infect the rest of my finicky family with this taste. We start with a layer of corn or squash or something else crunchy on the bottom, then the ground beef (cooked with onions and celery), then mashed potatoes, then a crust of Cheddar cheese. We make it when we have too much ground beef or mashed potatoes in the house. My recipe is here.
Edible Dictionary
souvlaki, souvlakia, Greek, n.–Souvlaki is to Greece what hamburgers are to the United States, but with much more variety of form and flavor. Souvlaki is a sandwich on pita bread of grilled or roasted meats, usually served with tsatziki–a thick white sauce made primarily of yogurt and cucumbers. The meat can be almost any kind, but beef and lamb are the most common–along with a kind of “mystery meat” made by grinding two or more meats together and forming them into a large roast. This is best known in this country (and in Greece too) as gyro. That’s also the name for the vertical roaster with a revolving spit from which souvlaki is sliced. But the word also refers to meats cut into chunks, run up on skewers and grilled to result in what’s also known as kebabs. These too wind up on pitas with tsatziki, lettuce, tomatoes, and whatever else sounds good to the buyers, who can be seen eating these things all over Greece. One interesting note: they almost never have cheese on them.
Deft Dining Rule #772:
You should never be able to finish an entree of shepherd’s pie, moussaka, or lasagna without being made uncomfortably full.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez:
Dishes baked in layers
Draw many naysayers
But aroma persuades them
And savor parades them.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Sweet is the name of a small farming town thirty-nine miles north of Boise, Idaho. It was founded in 1885. It enjoyed some boom years during a gold rush around 1900. Three hotels! Three saloons! A newspaper and a bank! A real Old West town. Four hundred people live there now. That’s not big enough to support a restaurant. You have to drive seven miles to the Triangle Restaurant to hear that friendly “Come and get it!”
Dining In The House Of Windsor
Today in 1936, King Edward VIII abdicated the British throne so he could marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. She meant more to him than being a king. Not to gainsay that, but we are intrigued by the gourmet possibilities of being a monarch. The expression “eat like a king” is no myth. Even if a serious king had no budget for fine dining, he would still eat as well as he wanted to. What restaurant would present a check to a king? Or fail to show him the utmost hospitality?
People with elevated places in society are commensurately well treated. A physician friend says he finds it ironic, given his substantial success, that he should constantly receive free dinners, bottles of wine, trips, and other offers from companies wooing his attention, patients and friends of patients. The higher up one goes, the easier it is to go even higher, and to enjoy life even more. That thought has never failed to get me going in the morning.
Annals Of Cheese
James Lewis Kraft was born today in 1874. He founded the Kraft Cheese Company, which renamed itself Kraft Foods in the 1940s. His flagship product was an inexpensive processed cheese with a long shelf life. He named it “American cheese.” At first, the public rejected it, but after Kraft sold six million pounds of the stuff to the Army, a taste for it grew. The Depression increased its popularity even more, because of its low price and nutritional value. And it remains everywhere.
Food Namesakes
Our list is dominated by music people today. David Gates, the lead singer of a soft-rock 1970s band called Bread, came out of the oven today in 1940. Tony Basil hit Number One on the pop charts with her song Mickey. . . Today in 1946, the Kay Kyser Orchestra had a top hit with Ole Buttermilk Sky, sung by Mike Douglas, who’d be a talk show host later. . . The creamy-throated vocalist Sam Cooke was shot to death today in 1965. . . Apple, the Beatles’ recording company, signed its first outside act today in 1967. The group was called Grapefruit. . . Sir David Brewster, the inventor of the kaleidoscope, was born in Scotland today in 1791. . . Justin Currie, a singer and songwriter from Scotland, was born today in 1964.
Words To Eat By
“Many are the ways and many the recipes for dressing hares; but this is the best of all, to place before a hungry set of guests a slice of roasted meat fresh from the spit, hot, seasoned only with plain, simple salt. . . All other ways are quite superfluous, such as when cooks pour a lot of sticky, clammy sauce upon it.”–Archestratus, ancient Greek writer on food and drink.
Words To Drink By
“I hate things that are diluted—I mean, you don’t mix Jack Daniel’s with Coke. That’s a sin!”–Nikki Sixx, bass player for Motley Crue, born today in 1958.
How Bad Food Is Made Out To Be Good Food.
It’s the hypnotic power of television screens showing football games, is my theory.
Click here for the cartoon.