Monday, January 4, 2016.
Beans And Fried Chicken: What New Orleans Is Made Of.
This morning I took a look at what the weather would be like during my visit to son Jude, daughter-in-law Suzanne, and grandson Jackson in Los Angeles. I was taken aback by forecasts for inches of rain and feet of snow, along with forty-ish high temperatures, mudslides, and floods. These conditions will begin the moment my flight arrives in LAX, and will end the day I fly back out again. I cancel the trip. Driving in L.A. is bad enough when it’s warm and sunny for me to look forward to doing it in floods and snow. I’m also wary of flight cancellations and other inconveniences.
Jude, who has been eager to introduce Jackson to me, is disappointed but understanding. He is working on a new project and can’t chauffeur me around anyway. Then I learn that Jackson’s christening will be next month, and I’ll certainly be there for that.
I feared that Mary Ann would disapprove of my shrinking away. In fact, she’s happy to hear about it, since it allows her to drive up to Virginia with another load of Mary Leigh’s stuff. ML and her fiance moved up there a couple of months ago, but you’d never know it to look at her room here at the ranch.
We have lunch at the Camellia Café, which on Mondays has a small buffet of fried chicken (made only a few pieces at a time, to work around the problems of fried foods on steam tables). I don’t get the chicken, but I do like the red beans here. And red beans actually improve in flavor as they sit for a couple of hours in the gentle heat of the bain-marie. Indeed, the beans were unusually good today, as was the bread pudding. Fourteen bucks apiece. Filled the house, but an all-you-can-eat offer has to be really terrible to fail.
The radio show rolls right along with lots of good conversation until sunset, when the signal is attenuated. That’s the bad news. The good is that the time when that happens moved forward to five-fifteen. Yes! We already have gained fifteen minutes of daylight as we work our way to summer again.
Camellia Cafe. Abita Springs: 69455 LA 59. 985-809-6313.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016.
I Show Up. Rough Night At Salu.
The predictions of heavy rain, snow, and cold in Los Angeles this week keep climbing up the newscasts. Jude tells me that he is buying sandbags to keep his (really, her) house–which is on an incline–from getting spanked by a flood or a mudslide.
I head into town for the radio show, which is busy off and on, but which attracts more than fifty percent women to our on-air phones. That’s unusual, since the rest of WWWL’s programming is sports of the detailed kind–which coaches are getting fired, which players are disabled, and the like. That kind of stuff attracts the boys more than the girls. But nothing can be done.
Mary Ann has come into town to hang out with one of her friends, but she saves time for me and dinner. I suggest Salu, where I have not been in some time. It was about two-thirds full, but that’s not very good for them, since a lot of their customers prefer the sidewalk tables. Too cold for those during this season.
The original idea of Salu was to be a modified tapas restaurant. Not just with little plates, but with Spanish cooking. The Spanish aspect is now limited to a few small dishes and paella. The major specialty is mussels, which can’t really be pinned down to one country. I’ve had many different versions of mussels here, all of them good.
Wish I had ordered them today. After a starter round of fried artichoke hearts and tomato-basil soup–both pretty good–we are faced with disappointment. Prawns (a useless word, because no two people agree on what is a prawn and what is a shrimp) wrapped in bacon are uninteresting. Chicken stuffed with stuffing (that’s as far as I could distinguish by taste alone) is tough as breast meat goes, and no great shakes in terms of flavor.
I thought MA would like the short ribs risotto. She found the sauce sweet–something she is sensitive to and hates. I would add that the risotto was much undercooked. I end this eating with a hard bread pudding topped with ice cream that was somehow gooey.
My guess: the top kitchen staff is catching up with off-days after a busy holiday season. This is not the restaurant I remember from previous visits.
Across the room from us is a man I would estimate as about forty. He looks exactly the way I did at that age. I am tempted to go over there to tell him this, and suggest that he take a good look at me for a glimpse of his future. Mary Ann says this is a very bad idea, especially since the guy is with a date. So I let it be.
Salú. Uptown: 3226 Magazine St. 504-371-5809.
Haiku
Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 4430 Magazine St.. 504-301-0850. Map.
Casual.
DS MC V
Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
By Thomas Pearce
Haiku is unlike any other Japanese restaurant I’ve tried around town. It has a sort of hybrid feeling, reminiscent both of the highest-caliber sushi bars and the quirky neighborhood joint. You get a relaxed, classy experience, but at prices that won’t break the budget of anyone who has a budget. (How’s yours?) The a restaurant’s multiple dining areas give adaptable moods. The menu caters to both the novice and the hard-to-please sushi palate, with excellent, very fresh daily specials and custom orders.
WHAT’S GOOD
I’ve had two very successful meals at Haiku, taking different routes through both the premises and the menu. That still left areas to be explored, with the help of the knowledgeable wait staff. On our first visit, I asked the a very friendly server Chris for a bottle of Black & Gold sake. He suggested I try a newer, cheaper, and better unfiltered sake. It was much tastier and a better option for what we were getting into.
That started with something off the menu: an uni shooter. If you’re the adventurous type, try it. Chef laid down a raw quail egg, salmon roe, and uni (sea urchin). Then, also off the menu, some top-end king salmon. We continued on to a variety of sashimi and sushi, followed by another customized idea from Chris. “What do you guys like in a sushi roll?” he asked. We wound up with a fresh tuna and mango tartare roll with tuna tataki and avocado on top. One of the best sushi rolls I’ve had anywhere. After a bit more sake and some red bean mochi for dessert, we I were hooked.
I returned about two weeks later to see if that first experience held up. I sat down at the bar and asked chef to give me his best cuts of sashimi. Well prepared to enjoy myself, and the expectations were fulfilled. The fish was very fresh and cut ideally. These guys know their fish.
BACKSTORY
The building, a couple of blocks off Napoleon on Magazine Street, used to be the Courtyard Grill, a regrettably extinct Turkish restaurant.
DINING ROOM
A shotgun house with a large, offset covered porch to the right, The dining areas offer a flexibility that you don’t often see in sushi restaurants, notably the patio seating. The back of the patio opens up to the sushi bar. You can really cater your experience by where you sit. The interior is a bit ostentatious with lots of low, colorful soft lights. The music varies it seems based on the staff at the time but it never really hit the mark for “universally accepted.”
FULL ONLINE MENU
BEST DISHES
Shrimp shumai
Soft shell crab
Beef negimaki (sautéed beef rolled around green onions)
Spinach scallop
Tuna tataki
Salmon poké
Ginger salad
Avocado salad
Seaweed salad
Sushi and/or sashimi deluxe
Spicy hamachi hand roll with avocado, smelt roe, green onion
Salmon skin hand roll
King cake roll (cream cheese, coconut shrimp, tuna, eel sauce, almonds)
Hidden dragon (spicy tuna, mango, salmon with torched spicy mayo and eel glaze)
FOR BEST RESULTS
Go in with an open mind, and ask for the specials.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The whimsical environment is not for everybody, with distracting music and lighting. It’s not Las Vegas, but the setting is a bit less serious than the food served.
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
Hipness +1
Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
Courtyard or deck dining
Open Sunday lunch and dinner
Open Monday lunch and dinner
Open some holidays
Open all afternoon
Easy, nearby parking
Reservations accepted
Gumbo Z’Herbes
The name is a contraction of “gumbo aux herbes.” It’s made with greens, and it’s very different from any other kind of gumbo. The more different greens, the better the gumbo z’herbes. Tradition says you must have an odd number of greens, and that the number will equal the number of new friends you’ll make in the coming year.
More gumbo z’herbes is served during Holy Week than all the rest of the year combined. Depending on family tradition, one cooked gumbo z’herbes on either Holy Thursday or Good Friday. My inspiration for this recipe is the gumbo z’herbes made by Leah Chase, who goes through many gallons of gumbo z’herbes at her restaurant Dooky Chase every Holy Thursday. She uses quite a bit of meat in it. Other cooks affirm that there should be no meat in gumbo z’herbes; the purists say there shouldn’t even be seafood.
The most eclectic, authentic ingredient in gumbo z’herbes is “pepper grass.” This is a weed that grows in the neutral grounds of New Orleans avenues, the more hostile the better. Pepper grass has tight flowers that look to me like tiny cauliflowers.
1 bunch mustard greens
1 bunch collard greens
1 bunch turnips with greens
1 bunch watercress
1 bunch beet tops
1 bunch carrot tops
1/2 head lettuce
1/2 head cabbage
1 bunch spinach
2 medium onions finely chopped
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 lb. smoked sausage
1 lb. brisket, cut into large cubes
1 lb. chaurice (hot sausage)
5 Tbs. flour
1 tsp. thyme leaves
1 Tbs. salt
1 tsp. cayenne
1 Tbs. filé powder
4 cups cooked long-grain rice
1. Clean all vegetables in running water, making sure to pick out bad leaves, heavy stems, and grit. Cover with three gallons of water and boil for 30 minutes. Drain the vegetables but save the water. Chop all the vegetables fine.
2. Cut sausages into bite-size pieces. Put them and the brisket into a kettle with two cups reserved vegetable stock. Bring to a light boil for 15 minutes.
3. Cook the chaurice in a skillet until all the fat has been cooked out. Remove the chaurice and drain. Stir in the flour and cook over medium heat for five minutes, stirring constantly, to make a light brown roux. (Add a little vegetable oil if necessary.) Stir in enough vegetable stock to dissolve the roux, and add the pan contents to the kettle.
4. Add vegetables and about a gallon of the reserved vegetable stock. Simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Add chaurice, thyme, salt, and cayenne pepper; stir well. Simmer for 40 minutes more. Stir in filé powder, then remove from heat. Adjust seasonings, and serve in bowls over rice.
Serves 12-18.
Roast Beef Poor Boy @ Parkway Poor Boys
The search for the best roast beef poor boy can’t help but devolve into a multiple-choice question. But it’s pretty certain that this one is one of the choices. The line to be served certainly makes that clear. The a priori evidence is that the kitchen buys first-class products, cooks it all in house, slices it correctly (across the grain of the meat, a technique a lot of would-be roast beef vendors don’t seem to know), and makes the gravy from the abundant trimmings, from scratch. Parkway has just finished a new kitchen and added a good deal of parking, removing some of the few obstacles to visiting the old (1911!) shop at the tip of Bayou St. John.
Parkway Poor Boys. Mid-City: 538 Hagan Ave. 504-482-3047.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
January 6, 2016
Observances
Although some calendars say that yesterday evening was the Twelfth Night of Christmas, for some reason that observance is tonight in New Orleans. It comes on the evening of the Feast of the Epiphany or King Day, commemorating the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus. Here, the date has greater importance than in most places, because it not only ushers out the Christmas season but commences Carnival. The official deed is performed by the Lord Of Misrule at tonight’s ball of the Twelfth Night Revelers, one of the oldest organizations in the New Orleans Carnival hierarchy. Its characters and rituals predate New Orleans by centuries in Europe. Shakespeare wrote a play about it.
The central ceremony at the Twelfth Night Revelers ball is the cutting of the king cake. The debutantes in attendance at the ball each have a slice of king cake, each with a silver bean inside–except one. She is the Queen, and her slice has a gold bean. (It’s supposed to be a surprise, but she probably knew about it in advance.)
The king cake spread from there to become one of the culinary icons of New Orleans. It’s not long before an icon graduates to an obsession, then to commercialization. King cakes have indeed spun completely out of control, being available everywhere throughout the Carnival season. Variations on king cakes have begun spreading out into the Christmas season, and I’ve even seen them made in green for St. Patrick’s Day.
The New Orleans-style king cake is a ring of sweet yeast dough–often made in the style of brioche–decorated with coarse granulated sugar colored purple, green, and gold–the colors of Mardi Gras. Sometimes the dough is braided, with cinnamon between the layers. The cake is frequently topped with white icing, and some versions are filled with fruit or custards. An essential ingredient is a small plastic baby. The person who gets the slice with the baby inside is required by tradition to give the next king cake party. Hundreds of thousands of them are baked and shipped throughout the year to people elsewhere who want a piece of New Orleans culture, but don’t know (or care about) the tradition behind it.
Our Legendary Culinarians
Today is the ninety-third birthday anniversary of Leah Chase, the reigning queen of Creole cooking in New Orleans. She was born in 1923 in Madisonville, and came to New Orleans in 1937. Miss Leah, who made Dooky Chase restaurant into a mainstay of local dining, started her cooking career at the old Coffee Pot restaurant in the 1940s, and she keeps at it today. In fact, one of her cookbooks is very appropriately entitled And I Still Cook. Her most recent cookbook is another one of her favorite lines: Listen, I Say Like This. Dooky Chase is back open at last, serving mostly lunch and early dinner. What a wonderful lady. To know her (or even to just meet her) is to love her.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Sugartown is a crossroads in the vast rice-growing prairies of southwest Louisiana. They grow sugar there, too, though not as much as they once did. In fact, nothing in Sugartown is as big as it used to be. The town was founded in 1816, and was the first significant town in that part of the state. Its first big business was lumber, with major stands of virgin pine trees to harvest. It began to decline in the late 1800s, when the railroad lines were built north and south of but not through Sugartown. Now it’s best known as a place where watermelons of unusual quality are grown. The nearest restaurant of note is Tiger Pride Cafe, nine miles north in Pitkin.
Edible Dictionary
Creole gumbo, n.–A gumbo made with a medium-dark roux, with both seafood and meat. The two principal categories of gumbo in its homeland of southern Louisiana are seafood okra gumbo and chicken filé gumbo. These taste very much different from one another, and allow for an almost limitless range in the ingredients. Creole gumbo has aspects of both those gumbos, in approximately equal degrees. A typical recipe contains shrimp, crab claws, sausage, and chicken, with both okra and filé powder. It is historically the dominant variety of gumbo in New Orleans restaurants with an African heritage. It’s at least as delicious as any other kind of gumbo out there.
Looking Up
Today we turn the final corner on the way to summertime. This morning’s sunrise was the latest of this year (by standard time, anyway). The earliest sunset was about a month ago, and the shortest day two weeks ago. Everything will look a little brighter each day from now until the summer solstice, when winter will be long forgotten. Now, all we have to do is get through the chilly nights.
The Saints
Speaking of local saints, today is the traditional birthday, in 1412, of Joan of Arc, the patron saint of New Orleans. She was born in Domremny, France, and became a French hero in the Battle of Orleans when she was only 19. Our namesake French city adopted her as their patron, and so did we. A statue of St. Joan stands in the triangle on Decatur Street at St. Philip.
Alluring Dinner Dates
British cookbook author and food writer Nigella Lawson was born today in 1960. Her two best known books are How To Eat and How To Be A Domestic Goddess, both of which sold in the hundreds of thousands. Then she went to television, first in England and now on the Food Network. She grabs attention with lusty, borderline sexy commentary about the pleasures of cooking and eating. She claims no particular training in cooking; she does what comes naturally. She seems to know what many food writers and TV people don’t: what tastes good. Being very attractive has helped, too.
Annals Of Cereal
Today in 1880, Tom Mix was born. He was the original movie cowboy, going back to the silent movie era. A radio show sponsored by Ralston Cereals featured Tom Mix as the lead character, but portrayed by other actors. The jingle comes to my mind, sung to the tune of “When The Bloom Is On The Sage.” Here are the lyrics:
Shredded Ralston for your breakfast
Starts the day off nice and bright
Gives you lots of cowboy energy
And a flavor that’s just right
It’s delicious and nutritious
Bite-sized and ready to eat
Take a tip from Tom*, go and tell your mom
Shredded Ralston can’t be beat.
*Tom Mix, not this Tom. Maybe I’ll sing this on the radio show today if somebody asks. One more bit of trivia: Tom Mix is the cowboy on the cover of the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
Restaurants On Television
Vic Tayback, who played the memorably the grumpy cook-owner of Mel’s Diner on the TV show Alice, was born today in 1929.
Food Namesakes
Pro football player Robert Bean walked onto the gridiron of life today in 1972. . . He was followed by fellow pro Bubba Franks in 1978. . . Theoretical chemist and winner of the 1999 National Medal of Science Stuart Alan Rice conducted his first experiment–breathing air–today in 1932. Theoretical chemists are being consulted by some avant-garde chefs lately. . . Allan Appel, who writes novels about time travel (among other things) came to us from out of 1945 today. . . Pro baseball pitcher Brian Bass stepped onto The Big Mound today in 1982.
Words To Eat By
“In taking soup, it is necessary to avoid lifting too much in the spoon, or filling the mouth so full as almost to stop the breath.”–St. John Baptist de la Salle, the founder of the Christian Brothers.
Words To Drink By
Stir the eggnog, lift the toddy,
Happy New Year, everybody.
—Phyllis McGinley, American poet and writer of children’s books.
In Heaven All Hands Are Washed After Any Trip To The Bathroom.
And in hell. . .
Click here for the cartoon.