Tuesday, February 24, 2015.
Dinner At Café B With Old Friend..
A few months ago an email came in from a high school classmate of mine, although I didn’t realize it was him at the time. He wanted some suggestions as to where he could arrange a lunch for a group. He emailed a few weeks ago to say that the idea worked out perfectly, and that now he felt he owed me a lunch. A few days ago, after having to postpone a half-dozen times, we finally got together this evening.
I think this is only the third time he and I met in the forty-seven intervening years since graduation day. Until the end of junior year, he and I were better friends than I was with most other classmates. He and I shared a common quality in our schoolwork. Neither one of us was destined to become the 1968 valedictorian, although I was much farther back in that line than he was. After all, he ended up becoming an attorney. I still have not made it to network radio news announcer.
Like many other Blue Jays of our vintage–perhaps a majority–he has grandchildren. Hearing about that always startles me a moment, the way that Rex, King of Carnival surprises me during the past decade by being younger than I am. How did it happen that I am old enough that many contemporaries of mine have two generations ahead of them?
We compare notes about our progeny. As always, I wish I had let him go first in outlining these things. I keep forgetting that Mary Ann and I have had extraordinarily great luck with our children throughout their lives. When I start talking about them, I slip into bragging quickly.
Cafe B’s crabmeat Beignets.
Fortunately, this is shortly abbreviated by the arrival of food, which can’t help but grab our attention. The venue was my idea: Café B, which is always better than I expect. We start with crabmeat beignets, the signature dish of the restaurant. They’re shaped more or less like the familiar French Market doughnuts, but the likeness ends there. There’s nothing sweet about the dish. The crabmeat is at the core, and a gribiche sauce is there for dipping.
I’d say that this was only a little better than the oyster special ofthe night. They are baked on the shells (that’s enough to get my interest) with a Crystal hot sauce, Parmesan cheese and bacon topping. Both of these are good enough that we’re tempted to get another round. But we’re both trying to lose weight, and we don’t.
He gets fish with crabmeat and pronounces it excellent. I wonder how many times a year someone sitting at the same table with me has that crab-on-fish combination. Many of them would be credited to Mary Ann.
The waiter is hot on the scallops, squirted with a gastrique of coriander, citrus and chili peppers. It is indeed excellent.
By this time the subject of Jesuit High School comes up. We both have many tales and thoughts about the place. He is a regular at Manresa, as I am. I recall an episode involving him in junior year. It was just something funny he said, and for some reason I remember it vividly. He doesn’t, not at all. I wish I could remember important things this well.
Making a point about our alma mater, he waves his hand and accidentally knocks a glass of water into my lap. Well, that suit was ready for the cleaners, anyway. And even brighter perspective: I now have another point to make in re the disappearance of tablecloths from restaurants. If our table had a tablecloth, it would have collected the spillage and left me much less damp.
We finish by bringing up the matters that old men always do. Can it really be three more years until our fifty-year reunion? Isn’t it amazing how few of our classmates have died recently? And can you believe how many of those guys are well past retirement already?
We shake hands, and he says, “You come across as a warm person.” I am almost positive that he’s the first who ever said that to me.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015.
The Marys Almost Fly To Germany, But Drag Me To Cheesecake Factory Instead.
Mary Ann’s on-again, off-again plan to travel to Germany makes a run for the airport. It is raining, and it will shortly get very cold. When she checks in–only an hour and fifteen minutes late!–she finds that most of the Eastern half of the country is being snowed or frozen in. Among the most affected airports is Atlanta. But that’s where they connect for the jump across the pond! No planes are going there, she is told. It will later turn out that one flight–with nineteen empty seats, a critical matter for MA’s buddy-pass flying habits. This will give her reason to stomp around cursing her bad luck.
We head for home with lots of time for lunch. The usual impasse as to where we will dine begins, but I destroy it by suggesting that we try the Cheesecake Factory. It’s a national chain, highly esteemed by a lot of well-trained regular customers, as well as many business-minded restaurateurs. The managers of Lakeside Mall were certainly proud that they were able to woo the Cheesecake Factory to their complex. The CF is very choosy about its locations, always in the glitziest shopping areas.
The Marys love the place, of course, and have been there a half-dozen times, or more. I have held to my fuzzy policy of waiting awhile before dining in a new restaurant, but I think I’ve waited long enough.
It is still cold and windy. (Shreveport has snow and ice!) After a short wait, we get a nice warm spot in a corner booth. The menu is extraordinarily long, but a close study reveals this to be sleight of hand. A lot of the same dishes and ingredients show up in more than one presentation. And the CF still runs ads for outside businesses right there on the menu. I noticed that the first time I encountered the chain, many years ago. Something about this mortgaging of its customers irks me, but I must say that it’s a good idea from the restaurant’s point of view.
The Marys get a bowl of guacamole. Fresh and pretty, but mild in flavor. To fight off the chill in the air, I ask about the soup of the day. It is wild mushroom, they tell me. It is served in a very large bowl, and it’s good and filling. Would have made a lunch unto itself.
I ask which wild mushrooms are used. The server checks with the kitchen, and reports that they are shiitake and portobella. Mary Ann beats me to the punch and says that neither of those is likely to be wild in the strict sense of the term. I guess that somewhere in the world they must grow and be foraged, but. . .
They have shepherd’s pie here. Twice: once in the main run of the menu, and again under a list of lunch specials. I order the lunch, and have a portion so oversize that I strain to imagine how big the full-sized version is. The layered concoction is made with either steak cubes or hamburger cubes (we can’t decide), topped with mashed potatoes and melted white cheese. The bottom layer combines a variety of vegetables. It’s very complicated, but the dish is more filling than good.
The Marys are having a fine time, ordering the dishes they get everywhere they go. Which is easy to do in a chain. They keep trying to get me to say good things about the place, even though I have intentionally kept it positive since I sat down.
The service staff is efficient and knowledgeable, but I can actually feel an urgency emenating from them to get this table turned. I don’t think I am imagining this. The last time I felt it was at the Houston’s on St. Charles Avenue, which is in the same category.
Okay. So I’ve done the Cheesecake Factory. I hope the Marys will allow our dinners to return to more interesting places.
Cheesecake Factory, The. Metairie 2: Orleans Line To Houma Blvd: 3301 Veterans Blvd. 504-837-1818.
#23 Among The 33 Best Seafood Eateries
Mandina’s
Mid-City: 3800 Canal. 504-482-9179. Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
For at least two generations of New Orleanians, the joys of restaurant dining were introduced in restaurants a lot like Mandina’s. Or at Mandina’s itself. Until the gourmet bistro era began in the 1980s, restaurants like this were in every New Orleans neighborhood. By then Mandina’s had become not only a rarity but seemed to be every Orleanian’s idea of what a neighborhood restaurant should be. Then Katrina came though and reminded us how important restaurants like this are to our cherished dining practices.
WHY IT’S NOTEWORTHY
Mandina’s is rivaled only by Pascal’s Manale as the archetype of easygoing, Creole-Italian eating out. You can order almost any familiar local dish and get at least a pretty good version of it, from poor boys to trout with fancy sauces. Mandina’s has never been entirely consistent and its ingredients could be better. But any remediation of either of those matters would take something away. Low prices and the enormous portions usually take the edge off most dissatisfaction.
WHAT’S GOOD
Mandina’s cooks certain dishes so well that it’s easy to ignore the lame items. You come here for red beans and Italian sausage, a roast beef poor boy or beef stew, spaghetti and daube or a fried seafood platter. Soft-shell crabs amandine, oyster-artichoke soup. The pile of shrimp remoulade. Or a dozen or more other specialties. You leave happy. Especially if you had a drink or two at the bar while waiting for a table. Don’t start trouble by asking whether the trout is fresh or frozen, or whether that’s real turtle in the turtle soup. If it tastes good, it is good. And it does.
BACKSTORY
Mandina’s began in 1898 as a grocery store operated by Sebastian Mandina, a Sicilian immigrant. It evolved into a pool hall and sandwich shop. In 1932 Sebastian’s two sons turned the building into a restaurant, with their families living upstairs. Italian food was the mainstay and still is, but since the 1960s Mandina’s has been as much Creole as Italian. Hurricane Katrina put five feet of water into the building. Customers persuaded third-generation owner Tommy Mandina to repair the old place instead of building a new one. Waiting for that to be done (it took a year and a half). In the meantime, Mandina’s opened two franchises, one in Baton Rouge (now closed) and another in Mandeville. The latter started erratically, but its food has evolved into a pretty good approximation of that on Canal Street.
Chicken Parmigiana.
DINING ROOM
The layout and look changed with the renovation, but the essential elements are still in place. You enter from the side door into the bar, there to find a bunch of older guys in suits, talking to one another. (They may well still be standing there after you’ve dined.) The main dining room expanded by eliminating the stark old back room. Windows onto Canal Street are blocked only by the neon signs. A smaller dining room tacked on in the 1990s is pleasant but lacks the soul of the front room. Some of the old waiters are still there, but for the most part the staff is younger and less crotchety.
FULL ONLINE MENU
BEST DISHES
Starters
Eggplant sticks, marinara
Fried calamari
Shrimp remoulade
Shrimp cocktail
Turtle soup
Seafood gumbo
Oyster and artichoke soup
Italian salad
Entrees
Filet mignon
Hamburger steak
Ribeye steak
Broiled or fried chicken
Fried oyster, shrimp, trout, catfish, soft-shell crab or combo platters
»Trout meuniere or amandine
»Catfish meuniere or amandine
»Soft shell crab meuniere or amandine
Grilled shrimp over pasta bordelaise
Meatballs, italian sausage, or panneed veal with spaghetti
Veal or chicken parmesan and spaghetti
Sandwiches
Fried oyster, catfish, shrimp, soft shell crab, or trout poor boy
Grilled shrimp poor boy
Meatball poor boy
Hot roast beef poor boy
Italian sausage poor boy
Club sandwich
Muffuletta on French bread
Desserts
Cup custard
Bread pudding
Cheesecake
FOR BEST RESULTS
The best food on any given day will be the either the seafood platters or the home-style specials. To avoid a wait for a table, dine between standard meal hours, or later in the evening. Come with a thirst for a cocktail. Greatest danger at Mandina’s: that you will eat an entire loaf of the free garlic bread.
Soft-shell crabs amandine at Mandina’s in Mandeville.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Although many people like them, I have never found the red sauce dishes at Canal Street here to be especially good. Oddly, the Mandeville Mandina’s has improved greatly on the sauce and now makes it better than the original.
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
Consistency +1
Service+1
Value +2
Attitude +1
Wine & Bar
Hipness -2
Local Color +2
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
Good view
25-75
Open Sunday lunch and dinner
Open Monday lunch and dinner
Open all afternoon
Historic
Unusually large servings
Quick, good meal
Good for children
Easy, nearby parking
No reservations
Pickled Okra
Sounds peculiar, but these thigns have a lot of uses, from sparking up a salad to looking good in a bloody mary or other cocktail. This is a canning routine, which I’ll assume you know how to execute. (If not, there are many references.)
4 lbs. small (3 inches), whole, unblemished okra
16 large cloves garlic
1 large onion, sliced
16 fresh hot red peppers (or the bottled kind)
1 jar celery seed
1 jar dill weed
1 bunch fennel, tops only, sliced
1 quart vinegar
1/2 cup kosher salt
1. Leave the okra whole, although trim the stem to a minimum. Wash the okra well. Jam them (alternating tip and stem ends) into sterilized canning jars with a couple of cloves of garlic, a few slices of onion, a couple of hot peppers, 1/2 tsp. celery seed, 1/2 tsp. dill weed, and a stick of fennel.
2. Boil a quart of vinegar thinned with a cup of water, and stir in the kosher salt until dissolved.
3. Pour the hot vinegar mixture into the jars to cover the okra. Seal the jars with new lids and store in a pantry.
The okra will be ready to eat after about two months, and will keep a long time unopened.
Makes 8-10 pints.
This sounds irresistible and insane at the same time. It works, because it’s basically all crabmeat, but in several forms. It starts with a soft-shell crab, topped with jumbo lump crabmeat. Nothing too far out. But than here’s a crab cake underneath that. And a Thai-style chili glaze amplifies all the flavors. For crab fanatics with good taste.
Merlin’s crab stack under construction, with the crab cake foundation in place.
La Thai Cuisine. Uptown: 4938 Prytania. 504-899-8886 .
We find this dish to be among the 500 best in New Orleans area restaurants.
March 4, 2014
Days Until. . .
St. Patrick’s Day 13
St. Joseph’s Day 15
Easter 29
Our Historic Restaurants
Today in 1979, Archie Casbarian closed on his purchase of Arnaud’s Restaurant from Arnaud Cazenave’s daughter, Germaine Cazenave Wells. The old restaurant, once the city’s finest restaurants, was in such a poor condition that it would take Casbarian most of the rest of the year to get it ready for reopening.
Our Celebrated Chefs
Chef Gerard Maras was born today in 1952. Maras was the opening chef and tastemaker of Ralph’s on the Park and the now-gone Table One. But he first came to our attention as chef at Mr. B’s during its greatest years in the 1980s. Their matchless barbecue shrimp recipe is his. He’s not currently cheffing, exactly; and his wife run a farm raising gourmet vegetables and herbs near Franklinton. Maras was one of the first local chefs to encourage local growers to raise better produce, and we have him to thank for the improvements in that market. He occasionally teaches cooking classes at the New Orleans Cooking Experience.
Today’s Flavors
It really ought to be put off until tomorrow, but this is National Whole Fish Day. The number of fish that come to the table still looking like a fish–with the head, tail, fins and everything in between still intact–is growing. For a long time, the only fish served whole was the West End-style whole flounder. Thank our Asian restaurants for making other large whole fish popular. Most people who enjoy fish that way first had it fried or steamed in a Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant.
Whole fish fall into two categories. Some weigh a two or three pounds, and are presented at the table, usually for more than one person. The most common fish prepared that way in New Orleans are redfish, drumfish, red snapper, and Dover sole. The other category is fish designed to be served to one person, who will pull the fish apart as he eats. The most famous of these is the Gulf flounder, fried or broiled whole. During the past few years, Mediterranean sardines have appeared, usually two or three to an order as an appetizer.
The best whole fish of all is a whole pompano of about two pounds. Hardly anything needs to be done to it besides gutting. It can walk across the grill and onto the plate, becoming the most delicious of all fish dishes.
It is also alleged to be Pound Cake Day. A pound cake is so called because it classically uses a pound each of flour, sugar, and eggs. Which is actually not a particularly good formulation. You also want to add a few things like vanilla and lemon peel.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Macaroni Lake stands at 8380 feet in the mountain fifty-five miles southeast of Butte, Montana, halfway to Yellowstone National Park. It’s in a pristine wilderness called Beaverhead National Forest. Macaroni Lake is an isolated basin that catches and hold snowmelt, only overflowing its clear gravy in wet years. Just below it is Indian Creek, whose canyon through the mountains makes for spectacular hiking. If you neglected to pack in some pasta for lunch at Macaroni Creek, it’s nine miles downhill to the Prospector Restaurant, in Sheridan.
Regional Flavors
Vermont became a state today in 1791, the first to be admitted after the original thirteen. Vermont is a rough, infertile place for farmers, dominated as it is by the Green Mountains that gave the state its name. Dairy farming is a big deal, creating excellent cheeses. Vermont’s most famous food product, of course, is the syrup that comes from its sugar maples–even though most maple syrup comes from Canada.
Annals Of Game
Today in 1909, the Unites States banned interstate transport of game birds. That was the first of a variety of laws that make it impossible for restaurants and grocers to sell pheasants, ducks, geese, and other avians killed in the wild. To this day, every duck, quail, or squab you eat in a restaurant is farm-raised.
Edible Dictionary
concassee, French, n.–The meat of a tomato, with the seeds, pulp, and skin removed. It’s usually chopped into cubes, the size being dependent on the use. The word comes from the French word concasser, which means to crush or chop. Although it almost always involved tomatoes, the word concassee can also be used to describe the same operation applied to other vegetables. Sometimes spelled concasse.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez:
One of the great mysteries of taste is why a fish that tastes “fishy” is considered undesirable by most people. This is like complaining that strawberries taste too strawberrylike.
Music To Dine By
This is the birthday in 1678 of Antonio Vivaldi, whose classical work The Four Seasons is almost certainly the most often-heard piece of classical music in restaurants. That’s because everybody likes the first part of it. The second movement, while still a chef d’oeuvre, is less suitable as background. I once heard a restaurateur order that it be removed from the system for that reason. It seems to me that classical music is being played much less often in restaurants these days, giving way to smooth jazz (aaauugh!), sappy soft rock, or even grunge band music (somebody shoot me).
Music To Blow Out Candles By
The song most often heard in restaurants was published in sheet music form today in 1924. Happy Birthday To You–which evolved from a song called Good Morning To All–came under copyright protection in 1934. Public performances of the song still generate royalties for the Hill family, and will for another decade or so years. That’s why chain restaurants have their own birthday songs instead of singing that one. Independent restaurants are a little too hard to persecute for celebrating their customer’s birthdays by having waiters sing four lines of the ditty badly.
Food Namesakes
Early American racecar driver Buck Baker put his foot on the Big Gas Pedal today in 1919. . . Comedian John Candy had a fatal heart attack today in 1994. He was only 43. . . Folk singer Nancy Whiskey was born in Scotland today in 1935. . . Punk rocker Scott Sturgeon (stage name Stza–good luck pronouncing that) screamed for the first time today in 1976. . . Baseball pitcher Lefty O’Doul was born today in 1897. He founded a restaurant with his name on it in San Francisco; it’s still there. But he has no connection with the non-alcoholic beer of the same name.
Words To Eat By
Robert Orben, one of the most quoted people in the world, was born today in 1927. He’s still on the lecture circuit, still performs as a magician, and still writes funny speech material. He began writing gags for comedians, but his lines have such resonance that they’re at least as popular among motivational speakers. He has quotable lines on every imaginable subject. Here are some about food:
“I always wondered why babies spend so much time sucking their thumbs. Then I tasted baby food.”
“I understand the big food companies are developing a tearless onion. I think they can do it–after all, they’ve already given us tasteless bread.”
“Remember the days when you let your child have some chocolate if he finished his cereal? Now, chocolate is one of the cereals.”
“Old people shouldn’t eat health food. They need all the preservatives they can get.”
Words To Drink By
“Then trust me, there’s nothing like drinking
So pleasant on this side the grave;
It keeps the unhappy from thinking,
And makes e’en the valiant more brave.”
–Charles Dibdin, English writer, born today in 1745.
Where It All Began.
And where it all ends. Unless a chicken crosses the road.
Click here for the cartoon.