Another boil-water alert makes New Orleans look stupid.
If we can take a break from what Donald Trump says about Drew Brees’s shoulder, may I be permitted to express outrage over the latest shutdown of the New Orleans water system?
In case you haven’t heard, last night the Sewerage and Water Board once again discovered that the electric power system that keeps the pressure steady in New Orleans’s dropped out. It always seems to happen at night. We found out about it in the middle of our Eat Club dinner at Richard Fiske’s. We were all drinking water at the time. Most people kept on drinking water, unless the good Burgundy wines had all their attention. After all, we’ve come through other alerts on the same subject before.
The outage isn’t a major disaster. You know what to do. Boil any water you’re going to drink, brush teeth with, make ice from, or wash dishes with. No big deal. In a day or two, the crisis will have passed.
But what is unlikely to go away is the impression this will make on anyone who happens to be visiting New Orleans to dine in our restaurants or conduct business. What does a hotel guest who wants a sip of water or a shower do? Will he or she ever come back to New Orleans? Lots of other cities have good restaurants. Maybe not quite as good as ours, but given a choice between eating a five-star dish while wondering whether one will get sick or a three-star dish without those threats, what should you do? Stay here and cross your fingers, or never come back?
Meanwhile, the high-handed attitude of the S&WB makes things even worse. Where is the web site explaining what’s going on, what to do, and how long the problem will last? We don’t even get Vic Schiro’s famous false rumors.
How hard is it, really, to fix this permanently? Should we all get portable decontamination kits? Or should we just let the North Shore, Metairie, and the West Bank take over the future of living around here?
It’s making us look like morons.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015.
Frank’s, Between The Muffulettas.
A busy Round Table radio show, one in which my brain is slightly addled. For some reason, I keep confusing two upcoming special events. Anila Keswani–the co-founder with her late husband Har of the Taj Malal and Nirvana Indian restaurants–is here to talk about a new series on Indian food on WYES-TV. The Keswanis opened the first permanent Indian restaurant in New Orleans, back in 1982. She says that the Taj Mahal has expanded a bit, and that its sign is easier to see. And that they are featuring more of the dishes of southern India these days, particularly the stuffed crepes called dosa.
I would not possibly confuse Anila with Holly Barret-Johnson, who is touting a tour of ten major French Quarter homes and their kitchens. It’s called Cirque de Cuisine, it’s Sunday, October 4 at noon, and you start at Tableau, on the corner of Chartres and St. Peter. You buy a ticket from SoFab (Southern Food and Beverage Museum) ,u>here. Then you walk around to the homes, each one of which will have a chef preparing a dish for you to sample and a beverage. The restaurants involved are mostly very new establishments–an intentional theme. This is not the same event as the Garden District kitchen tour, but the idea is good enough to spread around.
Colin Provensal (sic; no “ç”) and Skip Murray do their food work at Dis & Dem, on Banks Street near S. Broad. Skip was one of the original partners of Dat Dog, the hot dog phenomenon of the past few years. Now he’s turning his imaginative powers on hamburgers. Colin, who works at Dis & Dem through the week, also assembles a breakfast every morning, in sort of a pop-up–although the breakfast operation doesn’t have its own name. They’re nuts to talk with–and I mean that in the entirely good sense. New Orleans seems to demand its restaurants a bit goofy these days, and you’ve got to go with the flow. Colin and Skip are among the few Round Table guests who take seriously my invitation that they just blurt out whatever’s on their minds.
Dis & Dem. Mid-City: 2540 Banks. 504-909-0458.
Taj Mahal. Old Metairie: 923-C Metairie Rd. 504-836-6859.
Dining room at Frank’s.
Mary Leigh is back in town, after all. I thought that she and Dave (formerly known as “The Boy”) would be settling into a house in the Northeast, but apparently not all the ducks are in a row just yet. Will this result in her going back to work for Sucre or La Provence? No. There are forces in motion, but not on a schedule. The only settled matter is that she has a beautiful diamond on her ring finger.
Mary Ann wants to go to Frank’s, the Italian restaurant across from the French Market. Frank’s is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in a couple of weeks. We are having an Eat Club dinner and a street party on two consecutive says, on the eighth and ninth of October respectively.
Frank’s menu is a little offbeat. Its major stock in trade is muffulettas (after all, it is in the same block as the Central Grocery and the extinct Progress Grocery). But they have a big menu of the Sicilian-Creole standards. We start with a stuffed artichoke, fried calamari, and a cup of Gagliano sauce–the house specialty. It’s a spicy, seafood-tinged sauce with big shrimp. It’s designed to go over pasta and various proteins, and light enough in texture that you could eat it as a soup. Which MA does.
Fried calamari at Frank’s.
I am interested in nothing much more than a small plate of fettuccini Alfredo, which has been on my mind all day. Before I get to that, I figured I’d have a salad–a little Italian salad with the olives and the rest of the standard ingredients. What comes out is a platter about a foot across with a handsome assortment of greens, olives, dressings, tomatoes, and then some.
Italian salad for the table at Frank’s.
It’s enough salad for at least four people–perhaps six. But at eleven dollars I can’t complain. Mary Leigh has chicken parmesan and some of my Alfredo. Mary Ann eats a quarter of a muffuletta. She gets it hot, of course–just the opposite of the way I like it. I have excellent tiramisu for dessert. Third tiramisu in one week.
Chicken parmesan at Frank’s.
Physically, Frank’s reminds me of some restaurants I’ve dined in while traveling in southern Italy. The place is jammed with tables, each of which is topped with roses. Interesting atmospheric treatment. The Marys are less than enthusiastic about it, but I don’t think they understand the backstory.
Frank’s. French Quarter: 933 Decatur. 504-525-1602.
Cherries Jubilee
The first time I ate at Antoine’s, this is what I had for dessert. From that time to this, I’ve always wondered how good this would taste if it were made with fresh cherries instead of canned. I found out a few years ago: it’s great. Since I didn’t have the cherry juice from the can, I substituted Cherry Kijafa, a fruit wine from Denmark.
2 lbs. fresh cherries, or 2 standard cans black cherries packed in water
1 1/2 cups Cherry Kijafa
1/2 cup fresh orange juice, strained
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 cup brandy
1/2 gallon vanilla (or cherry-vanilla!) ice cream, hard-frozen
1. Wash and stem the cherries. On a cutting board with a paring knife, roll the cherries under the knife to cut them in half cleanly, and remove the pits. Save 16 of the best-looking cherries whole, with stems, for garnish.
2. Put the cherries into a non-stick or stainless-steel skillet with the Cherry Kijafa, orange juice, and vanilla. Over medium-low heat, cook the cherries for about ten minutes, until they’ve softened. Taste a few of them; if they seem very sour, add up to 2 Tbs. sugar.
3. Spoon the ice cream into bowls and place two of the perfect stemmed cherries in each for garnish. Serve the bowls at the table, but tell everyone to wait for the sauce.
4. Pour the brandy into a measuring cup, and then carefully into the pan. Bring it to a boil and hold it for about a minute. If you like, and you’re very careful, and are ready for the possibility of firem touch a match to the pan and flame it. While the brandy is still flaming, bring the pan to the table (if this can be done safely) and spoon the still-flaming cherries over the ice cream, along with some of the pan juices. (The flames will go out after one or two servings, but the point will be made.)
Serves eight.
Chirashi Sushi @ Megumi
Chirashi means “scattered,” and it’s an interesting variant on sushi. All the rice is pressed into the bottom of a deep rectangular dish, and topped with tobiko caviar or bonito flakes. An assortment of fish, cut in the sashimi style, goes over the top of the rice. In the standard chirashi assortment, there’s three or four kinds of fish, shrimp, squid, and small wedges of the sweetened, cold Japanese omelette. Here, all the fish come out in a separate dish that fits into the top of the rice dish. That not only makes it much easier to eat, but also gives room for bigger pieces of better fish–and they take advantage of the opportunity. (If anything, the slices of fish here are too big.) As for the omelette, they crumble it up and scatter it atop the rice–a better place for it. It’s more expensive than chirashi in most places, but at least twice as good as any other I’ve had.
Megumi. Mandeville: 4700 Hwy 22. 985-845-1644.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
September 24, 2015
Days Until. . .
Halloween 37
Today’s Flavor
Today is widely noted as Cherries Jubilee Day, celebrating a dessert that’s all but gone from restaurant menus, living on only at historic establishments like Antoine’s. (Which, in fact, makes the definitive version.) It’s pretty simple: cherries are cooked down in a syrup made right there in the pan, then flamed with kirsch, and served over ice cream. It is believed to have been created by no less than Auguste Escoffier, the arbiter of classic French cooking, on the occasion of Queen Victoria’ s fiftieth jubilee. Escoffier’s original recipe didn’t have ice cream, but that was such a natural addition that it’s now universal.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Potato Mountain is about eighteen miles from the westernmost tip of mainland Alaska. It’s on the peninsula that reaches into the Bering Strait toward a matching peninsula on the Russian side of the strait. The first humans to enter the New World passed this way when a land bridge existed from Asia into North America. Potato Mountain is in a hilly wilderness, just a mile on the Arctic Ocean side of the Continental Divide. No restaurants anywhere near, of course, but the nearby Tapioca Creek is only 300 yards from a landing strip, so you can fly to Nome and eat some salmon.
Edible Dictionary
pulque, Spanish, n.–A beverage of low alcoholic content made from the juices extracted from agave plants in Northern Mexico. Specifically, the agave classically used is the maguey or century plant. It’s usually still cloudy, to the point of being milky. It’s also a little on the thick side. The agave juices are what’s used to make tequila. It could be said that pulque is to tequila what wine is to brandy, in that the first could be distilled to make the second. Pulque has been made and drunk by Native Mexicans for hundreds of years, originally as a sacred beverage drunk by the most prominent people. Pulque doesn’t travel well, so it doesn’t show up in this country much. It’s worth trying if you find it in Mexico.
Cocktails On Television
Today in 1977 was the launch date for The Love Boat, the situation comedy-drama set on a Princess cruise ship. The series tremendously boosted the popularity of cruising as a mainstream vacation. Previously, the average age of cruisers was “deceased.” The Love Boat showed people of all ages having all kinds of fun on a spiffy, glamorous ship. What I remember most about The Love Boat was that no matter where you were on the ship, no matter what time it was, if you ordered a cocktail it would be mixed by Isaac, played by Ted Lange. He appeared to be the only cocktail server on the whole ship. Also at odds with our experience on cruise ships was the ease with which one could arrange to have dinner at the captain’s table.
Annals Of Coffee
Riccardo Illy was born today in 1955. He joined his family’s coffee company in Trieste, Italy, where he greatly expanded the marketing reach of Illy Caffe. He wrote an influential book about how to make espresso, starting with the unroasted beans and finishing in the cup. He then went into politics, where he’s still a major player in that field.
Annals Of Brewing
Arthur Guinness, who founded the Guinness Brewing Company, was born today in 1725, in Dublin, Ireland. Members of his family worked as brewers, but Arthur got into the business on the entrepreneurial side. He started out making ales, but then moved to porter–the higher-alcohol, darker beers for which Guinness eventually became famous. Guinness is now the leading brand name of such beers, as well as the sponsor of the Book of World Records. The latter began as a means of settling arguments that may well have started over glasses of Guinness Stout.
Annals Of Restaurant Advertising
Today is the birthday, in 1870, of Georges Claude, the Frenchman who invented the neon lighting tube in 1910. Restaurants have been among the best customers of neon signmakers, and still use them heavily. Imagine the Acme Oyster House, Mandina’s or Tujague’s without neon!
Music To Eat Pie By
Today in 1967, Jay and the Techniques hit Number Three with their biggest record, Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie . It was about a girl!
Eating Around The World
Today is Heritage Day in South Africa, a holiday celebrating the ethnic diversity of that country. It is also known as National Braai Day. A braai is a barbecue, the kind you’d have with family and friends. Since it’s early spring in South Africa, it’s sort of the kickoff of that season.
Food And Drink Namesakes
We begin with food-named twins: Paul and Morgan Hamm, both American Olympic gymnasts, born today in 1982. . . Today in 1865, James Cooke walked a tightrope from the original Cliff House in San Francisco to the Seal Rocks, well out into the Pacific Ocean and covered with sea lions. . . Actor Don Porter, whose most famous role was as Sally Fields’s father in the television show Gidget, hit The Big Stage today in 1912. I wonder if he knew that he shared a birthday with the most famous name in porter, Arthur Guinness (see above).
Words To Eat By
“Time’s fun when you’re having flies.”–Kermit the Frog, the Muppet created by Jim Henson, who was born today in 1936.
Words To Drink By
“First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.”–F. Scott Fitzgerald, born today in 1896.
A New Herb May Be Coming To Restaurant Kitchens.
In certain parts of the U.S., a familiar herb has been working its was into restaurant recipes. And in the most unlikely places, too.
Click here for the cartoon.