Wednesday, January 20, 2016.a
An Unique Wine Dinner In The Old Jax Brewery.
“Did I tell you we have a dinner engagement tonight?” Mary Ann asked me yesterday. No, she didn’t. She only thought she had. But, she says, I am wrong about that. But surely I would have remembered that we are to dine with Vickie Bayley.
Vicky is involved in another classy food operation to append themselves to a long list of previous restaurants. A few: Desi Vega’s Steakhouse, the Lakehouse, Mike’s on the Avenue (both iterations) and Artesia.
The new place is Jaxson, on an upper floor of the old Jax Brewery. It’s in the the part of that old building where beer actually was made, not merely referred to. It became touristy real estate in the 1970s, and never has quite accomplished what was widely expected. The part of the building where Jaxson is was at one time the French Quarter location of Trey Yuen. Or was that Roy Guste, Jr.’s short-lived restaurant? I can’t quite recall which big restaurant was on which floor.
There is no doubt that the Jax Brewery has possibilities. It’s the only event space in town with a view of the Mississippi River, since Galvez closed. Vickie’s taste is so adventuresome that something good may come of this.
Tonight, they’re showing off some of that potential with a pop-up wine dinner orchestrated by Chef Robert Vasquez–he of the tiny but brilliant café in Mandeville. Robert and Vickie worked together before, and one is more sophisticated and forward-looking than the other.
I’ve attended hundreds of wine dinners over the decades, but I can’t recall anything quite like what Chef Robert has planned for tonight. Two wine dinners will progress simultaneously in the same dining room. Same tables, in fact. The guests find that they are served different food and wine from what the people they’re sitting next to get.
In an act of astonishing bravado, Chef Robert cooks all of the eats and drinks in one motion. The plates reach the tables all at the same time, too. The wines are similar to one another, but Group A has wines from around Europe, while Group B has some premium California juice from one winery.
As confusing as this may seem, it was a tour de force. Most of the diners shared their platters, bringing the five-course repast up to ten. In only a few instances was one dish clearly better than the other. The A Group got a creamy soup with lobster, while Group B had a tomato soup with a fried cheese croquette. A: Fried oyster. B: Empanada. A: Brisket (amazingly tender, best dish of the night) atop a potato cake. B: Ballottine of chicken. A: Lost bread. B: A luscious pile of berries covered with a sauce anglais.
On the other hand, the advantage distinctly went to the wines from Europe–particularly the Chateau St. Didier-Parnac, from the Cahors region of France. The wines from there–most made from Malbec–lately have been talked up by those who enjoy browsing for little-known vintages.
By the end of the evening, all palates were much entertained. Robert and Vickie promised there will be more such adventuresome events. In fact, the dates are known: February 17 and March 16. One can sign up at info@opalbasil.com.
The dual-service aspect aside, this was also unusual in being a pop-up event for most of us. I had never been to one. The idea in intriguing: A chef from an outside restaurant (or, maybe, one with no regular kitchen at all) comes in and cooks his food in the hosts’ eatery’s kitchen.
This idea–very much a current trend–engenders a great deal of talk. I can’t say I think it’s a good idea. How does one choose a restaurant when you don’t know what exactly is going to happen there? Exciting for some, I guess. . . but not for me.
Vickie was thrilled to hear that Mary Leigh is getting married later this year. And when she heard that we just nailed down the reception venue, she asked us to get in touch with her, and that the Jason might be able to do it at a good price. With a river view, yet.
I don’t think that will happen. Today we received the detailed plan from John Besh’s new Pigeon and Prince–formerly La Foret. The bottom line officially passed five figures. I take a deep breath and decide that this is my daughter we’re talking about.
Opal Basil @ The Jaxson. French Quarter: 620 Decatur St. 985-257-0707.
Thursday, January 21, 2016.
Meeting The Big Boss.
David Field is the president of Entercom, the fourth-largest radio station group in America, and the owner of the stations on which I broadcast. I’ve met him a couple of times. He is a gourmet, and on previous visits I made short lists of places he should try. He is in town today to meet with the staff. “There were enough people who wanted to be there that we had to take over an empty room on a floor above ours.
After twenty-seven years, this is only the second such gathering I attended. In the past I was always on the air during the meetings. Today, all I had to do was leave for the South Shore early to attend. I was glad to be there. Field is completely upbeat about everything. All the bugbears of the radio business–much of which freaks out when there are major changes in its world–seem to have no effect on our company. Radio, says Field, currently reaches a bigger audience than any other medium. And that while we were supposed to have taken a major hit from satellite radio, Ipads, smart phones, and the internet. But we’re still here.
After this uplift, I settle into my new office and commence to finishing the day’s newsletter. But I am missing a web address without which I can’t post the diary. So we are short one article this day. I hope this doesn’t set off a wave of cancellations. [Report from Real Time: It didn’t.]
With two hours free before showtime, I have lunch at the Café At The Square. The Square in question is Lafayette Square, where none of the statues (Henry Clay and John McDonough) offend anyone. This is a breakfast spot for the guests in the hotel at the corner of St. Charles and Poydras, and a lunch room for the many people (most in the law business) who work in this neighborhood. So we have a menu full of salads and sandwiches. The latter keep their distance from the poor boy style, leaning more in the direction of American deli eats.
It’s a cold, windy day, which fires up a desire for a hot soup. I don’t like the du jour, but here on the permanent menu is French onion soup. Ordering that is risky, I have discovered over the years. But I got lucky today. This is a very good version, with a nice flavor of caramelized onions and a melted-cheese crouton in an advanced state of sinking. It was a lot of soup, and I could have made a mail of it.
But no. I continue with a Cobb salad. It is big enough to serve three, perhaps four people. The ingredients are layered out, as in the classic presentation. The only thing missing is blue cheese. But had it been there, where would I have put it?
Although the kitchen did a fine job on everything and the prices were attractive, I’m glad I don’t live in a place where this kind of restaurant dominates the scene. When I was in Seattle a few months ago, I observed menus like this one everywhere we went. This is how New Orleans is different, and enhances our lives.
On the other hand, I’m glad I stuffed myself. A cold, windy weather system that set off warnings about tornadoes during my show, moved me to leave for home as soon as the show was over. I hope the squalls are finished by tomorrow, when Mary Ann is leaving for Los Angeles and another visit with our son and grandson and family. I still have not seen Jackson face to face.
Cafe At The Square. CBD: 500 St Charles Ave. 504-304-7831.
Raspberry Tart
What a combination: red berries with chocolate. This version involved raspberries, but blackberries or ripe strawberries would also come out nicely. The recipe was sent to me by a radio listener, but I think she got it from a Pillsbury refrigerated pie dough box. That’s what I used to make it (the dough, not the box). I hate making pie shells. I love this pie.
Chocolate tart with raspberry on wooden table
Crust:
1 refrigerated pie crust, softened as per instructions on box
1 egg white
2 Tbs. ground almonds
Filling:
6 oz. semisweet baking chocolate, broken into chunks
1/4 cup butter
2 egg yolks
1 Tbs. Chambord liqueur
2 cups fresh raspberries
Topping:
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
1/4 tsp. almond extract
Heat oven to 375 degrees for 15 minutes
Crust:
1. Blind-bake pie crust as directed on the box for a one-crust shell in a nine-inch tart pan or a nine-inch glass pie pan. Trim edges to make round. Fill the pan with pie weights (or dried red beans), and bake six to eight minutes. This will not completely bake the shell, but it will be enough to carry on the next steps. Leave the oven on.
2. Remove the crust from oven. Lightly brush crust the inside of the crust with egg white, then sprinkle with ground almonds. Bake six to ten minutes longer, until golden. Remove the crust from the oven and let it cool.
Filling:
1. In a two-quart saucepan over very low heat (best way: in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water), combine about four-fifths the cut-up bittersweet chocolate with the butter. (Save the rest of the chocolate for garnish.)
2. Stir the chocolate and butter until smoothly melted. Remove from heat.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the beat egg yolks lightly. Stir in liqueur.
4. In a two-quart saucepan over very low heat (best way: in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water), combine about four-fifths the cut-up bittersweet chocolate with the butter. (Reserve the rest of the chocolate for garnish.)
5. Stir the chocolate and butter until smoothly melted. Remove from heat.
6. In a small bowl, whisk the beat egg yolks lightly. Stir in liqueur.
7. Whisk the egg yolk mixture into the warm chocolate, and keep whisking lightly for three or four minutes until the mixture is thick. Pour the chocolate filling into the cool baked shell.
Topping:
1. Arrange raspberries over filling.
2. In a saucepan, melt jam over low heat. Stir in the vanilla extract. Brush this mixture over the raspberries.
3. In another saucepan, melt the reserved 1 oz chocolate with the oil over low heat, stirring frequently, until smooth. Drizzle over raspberries. Sprinkle with sliced almonds. Refrigerate until the filling is set–about a half-hour. Garnish with mint leaves. Store in refrigerator.
Montaditos Di Chorizo @ Pupuseria La Macarena
Montaditos are thin slices of bread–something like the bottom of a roll–topped with a range of ingredients that approaches limitlessness. At Pupuseria La Macarena, the ones I’ve had were mounted with chorizo, salami, shrimp, meatballs, filet mignon, or shredded beef, each with a light sauce and garnishes. Great starter to a meal, or part of a combo entree.
Pupuseria La Macarena. Riverbend: 8120 Hampson. 504-862-5252.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
January 25, 2016
Days Until. . .
Mardi Gras–15
Valentine’s Day–20
Today’s Flavor
Today is Irish Coffee Day. A shot of Irish whiskey and a float of whipped cream isn’t too terrible an idea on a cold evening. It’s not all that great an idea, either, which is why waiters rarely offer Irish coffee at the end of dinner the way they used to twenty or so years ago. It ruins both the coffee and the Irish whiskey.
An older and better coffee-and-spirits drink is a New Orleans original: cafe brulot. Invented at Antoine’s in the late 1800s, it starts with lemon peel, cloves, and cinnamon flamed in brandy. While it’s burning, the waiter pours the stuff on the tablecloth, where the blue flames burn harmlessly but dramatically. Then the coffee is added. A special rig evolved for cafe brulot, involving a brass panholder held up by well-dressed demons, and thin, tall cups for serving the potion.
Cafe brulot has become a universal end-of-dinner item in most of the traditional grand New Orleans restaurants, and has spread well beyond its boundaries. The best version is at Arnaud’s, where they stud an orange with cloves, then cut the skin away from the fruit in a spiral. The waiter pours the flaming brandy down the spiral, which not only is quite a show but brings the oils in the peel into play, adding flavor as well as making the room fragrant.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Duck, West Virginia is right in the center of the mountainous state, on the east bank of the Elk River. It’s mostly woods in those hills, with some farming here and there and plenty of coal mining. Maybe the name is a reference to what you do when entering a coal mine. The nearest restaurant is Granny’s Kitchen in Frametown, four miles away.
Edible Dictionary
pasta fazool, Italian, n.–Italian-American slang for pasta e fagioli (fah-JOE-lee), literally pasta and beans. It a soup, made with small pasta tubes and various beans, all cooked down with herbs in a stock. It’s not customarily made with meats, although it can be. Pasta fagioli has the reputation of being the cheapest dish on an Italian menu, and the kind of thing that a poor Italian immigrant might eat. This is doubly unfair, because a well-made pasta fagioli is quite delicious and certainly healthful fare, despite its inexpensive provenance. You hear the expression “pasta fazool” mostly in old movies these days.
Food Inventions
Today in 1870, one Gustavus Dows patented a soda fountain that became the standard for drugstore soda counters. The works involved a tank that combined carbon dioxide with water. The soda water then went under its own pressure into an ornate double spigot that would add bubbly water slowly or in a thin, forceful stream.
Food In Literature
Scottish poet Robert Burns was born today in 1759. His most famous verses were the words to the New Year’s song Auld Lang Syne, but for our purposes we note his poem Ode To A Haggis. Haggis is a sausage-like meatloaf made of parts of cattle and sheep you’re better off not knowing about. It makes hogshead cheese look like filet mignon.
This is also the birthday, in 1874, of British novelist, playwright and spy William Somerset Maugham. His most famous work was Of Human Bondage. From our limited perspective, three works stand out: Cakes and Ale, The Alien Corn and The Breadwinner.
Food Namesakes
Eliakim Spooner patented a machine for seeding fields today in 1799. . . Auto racer Buddy Baker was born today in 1941. . . Wilson Kettle, a Newfoundland fisherman, died at 102 on this date in 1963. At the time of his death he had still living 11 children, 65 grandchildren, 201 great-grandchildren and 305 great-great-grandchildren, for a total of 582 living descendants. That’s still a record. . . Twin Canadian actors and clothes designers Chip and Pepper Foster were born today in 1964. How great it would be if they had a brother named Bananas! . . . Former U.S. Senator from Washington Homer Bone was born today in 1883.
Music To Dine By
Two Italian operas, composed by two men whose names are famous in the restaurant world, both premiered on this date, 17 years apart. The first, La Cenerentola, was written by Gioacchino Rossini and opened in Rome in 1817. Rossini not only gave his name to the still-popular dish tournedos Rossini but actually invented it. He was quite a cook and gourmet. The second opera was by Vincenzo Bellini: I Puritani. Its opening day was this date in 1835. The Bellini cocktail (champagne, orange juice, and peach nectar) is probably not named after the composer, though some sources say it was. (The real namesake is, I think, the painter Giuseppe Bellini).
Words To Eat By
“It is illegal to give someone food in which has been found a dead mouse or weasel.”–Irish Law.
Words To Drink By
“A cup of coffee–real coffee, home browned, home ground, home made, that comes to you dark as a hazel-eye, but changes to a golden bronze as you temper it with cream that never cheated, but was real cream from its birth, thick, tenderly yellow, perfectly sweet, neither lumpy nor frothing on the Java: such a cup of coffee is a match for twenty blue devils and will exorcise them all.”–Henry Ward Beecher.
“Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups — alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat.”–Alex Levine, collector and author of Irish wit and wisdom.
‘Tis The Season To Get Rid Of A Bathroom Fixture
As every New-Year’s diet that has any sense of reality at all will tell you, forget about reducing during the holidays.
Click here for the cartoon.