Saturday, May 30, 2016.
Dubious Celebrity Waiter.
The gloomy weather continues. We pick the perfect place for seeing just how bad it looks: the patio in front of Forks & Corks in Covington. A big spread of undeveloped lawn gives onto a big view of the darkening sky. On a sunny day, this would afford a view as cheerful as today’s is forbidding. Soon enough, it is actually raining, with the drops and the menus blowing around. All this so Mary Ann may sit outdoors!
We are joined by our friends Chuck and Desiree Billeaud, whose grown-up kids are around the same ages as ours. When all the kids were at Our Lady of the Lake School, we saw a lot of one another. Now they, like us, are keeping track of their daughters’ progress while figuring out what else life holds in the future.
We could very easily move indoors with our lunch, but we brush away the raindrops while the girls eat various salads. I begin with a bowl of F&C’s great turtle soup. I see that they’ve changed the bowl so that the serving is closer to normal than the half-buckets of soup they originally served.
I am the only one here who likes turtle soup. I’m surprised that Chuck–who is an undeniable Cajun from Broussard–doesn’t go for it. Later in our conversation, Chuck lets on that he is not really a true Acadian, but a descendent of a French family that moved to Cajun country long after the big Acadian exile in the 1700s. Desiree, on the other hand, says that she does have some Cajun blood.
To find out all this after all these years!
Desiree looks terrific, having lost many pounds. MA is jealous, sort if, but she has her own program going, and it seems to be working. That subject fills a lot of time.
Back to eating, I have as my entree a dish called barbecue shrimp in the headline of the menu, but shrimp and grits in the fine print. No problem: I like both dishes, if not equally. I think barbecue shrimp is one of the four or five best dishes in all of New Orleans cookery. Shrimp and grits–a recent borrowing from the Carolinas–is good, but not as good as BBQ shrimp the way Mr. B’s or Emeril’s cook it. However, a lot of restaurants in these parts–Forks and Corks included– make shrimp and grits using a barbecue shrimp sauce. That adds a new and delicious dimension. I must have liked it, because when MA forked around in my bowl, she found no uneaten shrimp. And I almost always save lots of shrimp for her.
I am surprised to see Forks & Corks open for lunch on a Saturday, when most restaurants above the quick-eats level are closed. They weren’t very busy. I have been suggesting that they open on Sunday night instead, when few if any first-class dining rooms are open–not even Osman Rodas’s other restaurant Pardo’s.
I have no radio show this week. The NFL Draft pre-empts me, but what doesn’t? I’d cut the grass, but it’s too wet–not even considering the new rainfall this dark afternoon.
At five, I cross the lake to the Hilton Hotel at the Airport–a long-running property I remember as being under construction when I lived four blocks away at age seven. It’s bigger than I thought, and it’s a good thing it is, because tonight’s event takes up the entirety of the Hilton’s grand ballroom, and all the adjacent meeting rooms.
A few weeks ago Brother Gale Condit–the president of Archbishop Rummel High School–called me to ask if I would be a celebrity waiter at the annual fundraising gala and auction. Brother Gale, who has crossed my path many times over the years, is the kind of guy who starts a conversation by asking if he could interest me in helping with this or that undertaking. By the end of the meeting, I am all but begging him to allow me to take part.
Besides that, Rummel took me in for my senior year after Jesuit rightfully booted me. I had a great year at Rummel, and for that I am grateful.
The celebrity waiter concept is interesting. They invite their friends, and cut up with them at the table all night long, asking for “tips” for doing things like actually giving the guests their food. It’s all a joke, really, but it is effective. One celebrity waiter set the record by collecting $50,000 in “tips” from his table. I don’t know how much I was able to bring in–certainly nowhere near that figure–but it was more than I would have guessed.
There was no band, but they did let me sing a song. The Rummel Fight Song has the same melody as the LSU Fight Song. And that one was copied from composer Cy Coleman, who wrote it for a play called “The Wildcatters.” In the Broadway run, the person who sang the song was Lucille Ball. The lyrics start like this:
Hey! Look me over
Lend me an ear
Fresh out of clover
Mortgaged up to here
And that’s how I sang the familiar anthem. I’ll bet not many people knew that. I get no “tips” for my performance.
The most entertaining part of the evening is in reuniting with a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time. Not many of those were from Rummel, oddly. I was very happy to be introduced to Kenny Francingues, the star-footballer little brother of one of my very best friends during my years at Jesuit. I’d never met Ken before, except perhaps when he was a little kid hanging around the house with his brother Alan, Alan’s famous stereo system and me. Alan is no longer with us, having been brought down by an insulin pump.
I didn’t get home until after eleven, but at least no thunderstorms attack me en route to the Cool Water Ranch.
Sunday, May 1, 2016.
It Was A Dark And Rainy Day.
Another fantastically stormy day. The Jazz Festival, which in recent years has put on its show, rain or shine, shut down for at least a day because of the winds, rain, lightning and hail. In my block-long walks to and from St. Jane’s and my car this morning, lightning was all around me. What does it mean if you get hit by a thunderbolt en route to Mass?
The dark skies bring such threatening weather that it even chases Mary Ann indoors at The Chimes, one of her favorite places for outdoor dining. It may have been the influence of our friends the Fowlers who–quite sensibly–preferred dining indoors. If it had been just MA and me, I’m sure we would have been exposed to the elements.
I am not a fan of The Chimes, but I recognize a few things they do well. Oysters, raw or grilled, are at the top of that list. The Sunday brunch menu in general is another, although I would not have them on par with Mattina Bella, Abita Roaster, or the Fat Spoon for fancy eggs.
Favorite Salad @ Chimes.
It can’t be the food that draws Mary Ann to The Chimes. There’s that salad with the grilled chicken in front of her again. The Fowlers eat more or less the same things.
My dinner begins with turtle soup. Again? Well, turtle soup is a relative rarity, and I order it wherever I encounter it. So I eat it two days in a raw. Sue me. This one was meatier and less complex than yesterday’s, with a bit more tomato. Good, though.
After that, I have poached (well, one of them was really more like soft-boiled) eggs with fried oysters, grits, hollandaise, and bacon. Bacon? What was that for? Other than the well-known restaurant trick of adding bacon to any dish that needs help? I see through this ruse.
Back at home, I return to the depressing computer situation. John, my computer fixer, says that the power supply and the motherboard on the old unit are shot, and replacing them will cost more than getting a new computer. (And I already have a new one, ready to go.) The good news is that all the files have been rescued. (Computer geeks may now chastise me for not having a complete image of my file system. I do, however, have good copies of almost all my critical documents.)
Also depressing is the state of the dog Susie. She alternates days in which she gets around reasonably well for a dog with a broken leg and when she hardly moves all day. Pain pills seem to have no effect one way or the other. I get many emails from people pulling for Susie. I reassure them that we don’t plan to let her loose in the woods to die, even though that’s how she originally arrived. She’s still the senior pet. (Not counting the fat, lazy blob that is the cat Tumbler, who is fourteen and spends twenty-three hours a day sitting atop the toolshed, waiting for the next meal.)
Crabmeat Enchiladas Criollo
Most Hispanic restaurants in these precincts include a seafood-stuffed dish or two on their menus. Not many of these are especially good. The problem is that the seafood is overcooked and doesn’t interact well with the sauces.
Here is my version of a seafood enchilada, using a few ideas from our own local cuisine (“Criollo” in Spanish). I go against common local practice in resisting the temptation to use every kind of seafood in this. Use shrimp, crawfish, crabmeat, scallops, flaked fish, even oysters. . . but just one of those, not all.
Also, you will never convince me that seafood and melted cheese are a good combination, but you may like to add some Monterey jack cheese into the sauce or the filling.
1 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. finely chopped garlic
1/4 cup finely diced red and green bell pepper
1 lb. white crabmeat, medium peeled shrimp, or Louisiana crawfish tails
1/2 cup dry white wine (best: Sauvignon Blanc)
1 cup shrimp or crab stock
1 tsp. Tabasco jalapeno pepper sauce
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup finely diced tomato
2 tsp. salt
12 small, thin flour tortillas
Sauce:
1 cup whipping cream
4 oz. sour cream
1 small jalapeno, all seeds and inner membranes removed, chopped
6 sprigs cilantro, leaves only, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. Creole seasoning
1 Tbs. chili powder
1/4 tsp. cumin
Salt
1. Melt the butter in a skillet. Saute the garlic and bell pepper until the garlic smells good (about a minute).
2. If using shrimp, add them to the pan and cook until they turn pink. Crawfish and crabmeat are already cooked; add them, and proceed immediately with the rest of the recipe.
3. Add the wine and bring it to a boil for about a minute. Then add the shrimp or crab stock and the Tabasco green pepper sauce, and return to a light boil.
4. Add the green onions, tomato, and salt. Lower the heat and simmer, agitating the pan to mix the contents. Cook only long enough to heat everything through, then stir in all the other ingredients. Remove from the heat and keep warm.
5. To make the sauce, bring the whipping cream to a light boil in a saucepan and reduce by half. Stir in the sour cream until well blended. Add the remaining ingredients and cook for about another minute. Add salt to taste.
6. Warm the tortillas in the microwave oven. Spoon the filling into the tortillas and roll closed, seam side down, on the serving plate. Nap with the pepper cream sauce.
Serves twelve appetizers or six entrees.
Paneer Seenk Kebab @ Nirvana
The idea sounds strange: the house-made, fresh white cheese called paneer is cut into cubes and strung on a skewer, roasted in the super-hot tandoor oven, and served with a very spicy collection of condiments and herbs. Eat one cube, and you won’t be able to stop, despite the aggressive but pleasant burn from the pepper. It’s big enough to split as an appetizer, but you might not want to.
Nirvana. Uptown: 4308 Magazine. 504-894-9797.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
May 4, 2015
Days Until. . .
Mother’s Day 5
New Orleans Wine And Food Experience 24
Annals Of Popular Cuisine
The Big Mac was introduced at McDonald’s today in 1968. It sold for forty-nine cents, a big jump up from the fifteen-cent standard McDonald’s hamburger of the time. The chain’s brilliant advertising people infected everyone’s mind with the datum that a Big Mac consists of two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun? (See? I still remember that and I didn’t even like Big Macs!) The Big Mac big-time nonconformity is that it has three bun segments, not two. The middle one is there to keep the thing from sliming apart. However, it’s a bun surplus, unbalanced from a flavor perspective.
Food Calendar
Today is National Orange Juice Day. At this time of year, those of us who squeeze oranges every day find ourselves with California navel oranges, whose only drawback is skin so thick that it sometimes tears when you push down in the juicer. Florida juice oranges this time of year are Valencias. Unfortunately, Florida barely keeps up with the demand for its frozen orange concentrate, and unless you live in the state or nearby you almost never see their extra-juicy oranges in stores.
It is also Candied Orange Peel Day. In conjunction with National Artisan Gelato Month, we can observe that a cannoli, contains candied orange peel. So we can observe two things at once.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Spooner, Wisconsin is halfway from Minneapolis and Duluth, taking the long way. It’s a town of 2700 people, and considers itself (sez its website) the perfect small Northern town. Woods, lakes, rivers, good fishing, and (at a certain time of year) snow and ice galore. And bratwurst, I’m sure. Get it at Nick’s Family Restaurant, right in the middle of town.
Edible Dictionary
oysters Mosca, n.–A registered trademark for the popular New Orleans Italian baked oyster appetizer. Sometimes its served in a shell, other times in a small casserole. Either way, the oysters are covered with a bread crumb stuffing seasoned with garlic, oregano, grated parmesan cheese, olive oil, and (sometimes)lemon juice or white wine. It’s baked until aromatic, and is quite irresistible. In other parts of the world the dish goes by the name oysters (or clams) areganata. It was popularized in New Orleans by Mosca’s (which never did use its name on the dish) and the extinct Elmwood Plantation, where chef Nick Mosca did attach his ID to it.
Deft Dining Rule #782
When a menu mentions the presence of gremolata, micro-greens, or any other minor ingredient used as a finishing touch, it’s because the main ingredients aren’t impressive enough on their own.
Fine Dining At Sea
Cunard Steamship Lines was founded today in 1839 by Samuel Cunard in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It became the quintessence of luxurious sailing, and kept its standards through the times when ocean-crossing ships were almost extinct. The Queen Elizabeth 2 was the ne plus ultra of sailing for decades. It successor, the Queen Mary 2, is a stunning ship, but whether it duplicates the style of yesterday is open to question. It is the only line in which passenger classes are still rigidly enforced.
Food At War
Today is the day in 1942 that food rationing began in the United States. It was very serious business at first, but within months it gave all the radio comedians a great new source of jokes.
Music To Eat Dessert By
The song “If I Knew You Were Coming I Would Have Baked a Cake,” sung by Eileen Barton, hit Number One on the music charts today in 1950. Which should tell you something about the state of popular music in that post-jazz, pre-rock period.
Food Namesakes
James Lance Bass, a singer in the pop group ‘N Sync, was born today in 1979. . . Edward Toner Cone, a composer, pianist, and musicologist, was born today in 1917. . . Sir William Fothergill Cooke, one of the inventors of electric telegraphy, was born today in 1806. . . Sidney Lamb, linguist and grammar expert, was born today in 1929. . . Doctor and novelist Robin Cook experienced Page One today in 1940. His novel often have medical undercurrents, but not much cooking. . . Colin Bass, who coincidentally plays bass with the English rock group Camel, plucked his first E string today in 1951.
Words To Eat By
“She set about preparing her supper. It would have to be one of those classically simple meals, the sort that French peasants are said to eat and that enlightened English people sometimes enjoy rather self-consciously–a crusty French loaf, cheese, and lettuce and tomatoes from the garden. Of course there should have been wine and a lovingly prepared dressing of oil and vinegar, but Dulcie drank orange squash and ate mayonnaise that came from a bottle.”–Barbara Pym, English novelist of the mid-1900s.
Words To Drink By
“Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.”–Graham Greene.
Using Spam In A Seafood Dish.
And it’s not even in a Hawaiian recipe!
Click here for the cartoon.