Flaming Torch
Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 7 p.m.
Uptown: 737 Octavia @ Magazine
$79 per person, inclusive of tax, tip, & wines`
Click here to reserve.
The Night Of Roses and Nightingales
The Flaming Torch is a French restaurant, but its longtime owner Zohreh Khaleghi is a native of Iran, as was her late husband Hassan. After he passed away, Zohreh held a few gatherings of friends, both Iranians and not, serving the food of that ancient country. I attended two of these, and thought they were fascinating enough that we’ve talked about having a Persian Eat Club dinner ever since.
And here it is, five courses of flavors familiar only in that part of the Middle East. Four of the five wines are Shiraz –also known as Syrah, the world’s oldest wine grape variety, grown and vinified around the Persian city of Shiraz since prehistoric times.
Rack of lamb, medium and rosy inside.
At our last Flaming Torch Eat Club, the party was one of the best ever had. In Zohreh’s private parties with some of these same dishes, I discovered not only a lot of good food, but met many Iranians. I’m sure we will have quite a few this night. They are highly literate, friendly, fascinating people, and I can assure you the last thing they will want to talk about is politics, especially those of Iran.
Family-style Appetizers
Veal Sweetbreads Sauté
Mirza Ghasemi (a classic Persian eggplant dish)
Shirazi Salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, spices and lime juice
Wine: Yves Cuilleron “Sybel” Syrah Rose 2014, Northern Rhone, France
Ashe Reshteh
Soup made with flat Persian noodles, pulses (ancient beans), vegetables, fried mint and garlic– believed to bring good fortune, especially for those embarking on something new
Wine: Qupe Syrah, Central Coast, CA 2012
Fesenjan
Chicken with walnuts, pomegranate sauce, saffron rice
The Gatekeeper Shiraz, South Australia 2013
Wine: The Gatekeeper Shiraz, South Australia 2013
Roasted Rack of Lamb
Grilled Saffron-rubbed baby lamb, Persian rice (the original Rice-A-Roni from 3,000 years ago) , fava beans
Wine: Graham Beck “The Game Reserve” Shiraz, South Africa
Pistachio Saffron Ice Cream
Pomegranate Champagne Cocktail
Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 7 p.m.
Uptown: 737 Octavia @ Magazine
$79 per person, inclusive of tax, tip, & wines
Friday, October 9, 2015, Part 2
Remotely Celebrating Frank’s Fiftieth.
I broadcast the radio show from the upstairs dining room at Frank’s Restaurant across from the French Market. The streets for a block in each direction are blocked off for a big bandstand and a larger crowd than I expected. The music starts with Harvey Jesus, and ends with Benny Grunch and the Bunch. Benny comes upstairs during a break and we talk for a few minutes. As usual, he’s hilarious. On the stage, he let loose with a parody of “Graduation Day,” the perennial local lament for the end of schooltime happiness. Benny’s title tells the whole story of his parody: “Evacuation Day.” Benny then jumps from one quip to the next, each one a laugher. He could do stand-up comedy.
Also coming up to be interviewed is one of the members of the band that created “Graduation Day.” Singer Stark Whiteman is no longer with us, but one of his band members is here to tell the backstory.
The Gagliano brothers make hundreds of muffuletta wedges and just as many plates of rigatoni with marinara sauce, all given away free to the people helping them celebrate.
When the Frank’s party ends at six, I make my way over to Jackson Square, where Mary Ann is waiting for me to go to dinner. En route, I run into some of the management team at Tujague’s. The big issue there lately has been whether to remove the famous boiled beef brisket from the menu. Mark Latter, the owner, wonders if it’s relevant to the much improved menu that the old place installed a few years ago with great success. Mark asked me about it, and I said he ought to keep the dish but upgrade it. It doesn’t seem to me to be as good as it once was–but that might just be my aging palate talking. Ralph Brennan may have made the ultimate decision when he–a competitor– was asked what he thought of the brisket: “If you take it off your menu, I will immediately put it on mine.”
My first thought for dinner is Muriel’s. But MA has an aversion to old, dark buildings, regardless of the goodness of the food, wine and service. We cross Jackson Square to Tableau. We have not had good luck there. One excellent meal out of five, so far. The place is one of the handsomest restaurants in the city, but I find the menu uninspiring and abbreviated. Mary Ann is miffed by something that happens almost every time we’ve dined here: we are treated like tourists. It must be said that the way Dickie Brennan and company take care of customers from out of town is very good.
But Mary Ann is astonished that we don’t know anybody there, nor do they know us. I wish that would happen in every restaurant, but even when I go to little ethnic places for the first time, somehow I am spotted before we’re halfway through the meal. Tonight’s episode: the hostess gives us a table in the doorway of an empty room on the second floor. It’s a beautifully finished space, but it is Siberia, with no other customers in sight, even though the place is fairly busy.
The waiter–a pleasant man, handsome enough to be a model or or a movie star–starts in explaining dishes and ingredients about which even a parvenu New Orleans native would know everything. And if I can slip in and remain anonymous almost every time I’m here, how do the other locals like it?
I look over the menu once again while MA fumes about this. All the dishes I’d be interested in eating are those I’ve had here before. Again I say, this menu is too narrow. (Literally as well as analytically.) We apologize to the waiter, saying that this wasn’t the menu we were thinking about for tonight. We move on.
MA’s next idea is Kingfish. We haven’t been there since Chef Greg Sonnier left. Besides, right across the street is the spot where MA’s parking-witch powers provide us with a legal space on Chartres Street.
We check in and find a jammed bar and a nearly-jammed dining room. “This looks like a full house,” I tell the young woman at the door. “Totally,” she says. “It will be forty-five minutes for a table.” She doesn’t know me, either, but I get a nod from the piano player and one of the servers. I don’t want to jump ahead of anyone waiting for a table. I don’t play that game. We move on.
Café Giovanni has a sparsely-populated dining room. We pop in and find Chef Duke at the bar, shooting the breeze with staff and local customers, and then with us. Chef Duke greets us with, “What are you two doing together?” He is intrigued by the relationship MA and I have, and keeps hinting that he’d like to hear the real story. But what you see is what you get: two highly opinionated, talkative people who don’t agree on the little things, but concur totally on the big issues. Although one of the little issues is which matters are the small ones and which the large. I was advised about this before we got married by the late Dick Brennan Sr., the great sage of my life. He told me back then, “My wife and I decided that I would handle all the big decisions and she would take care of all the little ones. We have been married for thirty-seven years, and so far, no major question has come up yet.”
MA and I agree to stay at Café Giovanni, whose dining room fills substantially during the next hour. The new female singer there sounds better than any other mezzo-soprano I’ve heard here in the last ten years. And the pianist is fantastic, focusing on jazz and doing a lot of inspired improvisation. Turns out that he’s from Italy, and auditioning for the Café Giovanni gig. I enthusiastically vote for him.
Mary Ann tells Chef Duke not to send us a tableload of food. “Nah, just one thing,” he says. Then we get both kinds of bruschetta, a loaf big enough for a table for six. Then a cup of minestrone each. Mary Ann really loves that, and so do I, but I am distracted with the thought that I haven’t seen a minestrone on a menu on a long time. I remember when it was a marker of an ambitious Italian menu.
Then we get Tuscany asparagus: a bundle of spears held together with prosciutto around the outside and cheese in the center, then more or less panneed. I’ve always loved this. It’s another portion that could be split three or four ways.
The fourth course brings the entrees we’d actually ordered. Mary Ann is wild about Duke’s bolognese sauce. It comes over a big pile of spaghetti. I see that the fish of the day is sheepshead, making an automatic order for me. I love that fish. It’s topped with a bunch of crabmeat and stuff.
Duke comes over to discuss all things. His bartender brings my second double Negroni. I amaze him by leaving it alone after one sip. But my limit is one cocktail. I don’t like what the second one does to me.
Cafe Giovanni. French Quarter: 117 Decatur. 504-529-2154.
Abita Springs Stuffed Quail
Abita Springs, where I live, is famous for its Quail Farm. In honor of that, I submit this quail dish, which I recommend as an appetizer in a meal in which you’ll be having a seafood entree. It works best if you debone the birds, but this is not the easiest thing in the world to do. Some butchers will do it for you. If deboning is a challenge, you can butterfly the quails and put the stuffing underneath each half. In that case, it will cook a bit faster, so adjust accordingly. The fried eggplant underneath the quails is optional but makes for a grand presentation.
Stuffing:
1/2 lb. andouille or smoked sausage
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
4 green onions, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. marjoram
1 cup chopped chicken
1 cup chicken stock
1 1/2 cups plain bread crumbs
8 quails, rib and back bones removed
4 slices lean bacon
1 small eggplant, peeled
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 Tbs. Creole seasoning
1/4 cup olive oil
~
1 green onion, tender green parts only, sliced thinly
1. In a skillet over medium heat, sauté the andouille, bell pepper, green onion and basil until the sausage is lightly browned. Pour off any excess fat.
2. Add the chopped chicken and the stock and bring to a boil. Stir lightly to combine. Reduce the liquid over medium-high heat by about one-third.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the bread crumbs to make a thick stuffing. Cool the stuffing in the refrigerator until cool (but not cold) to the touch.
4. Cut the bacon slices in half. Fry the bacon until it begins to curl, but not turn crisp. Drain and blot with a paper towel.
5. Stuff each of the quails and set on a roasting pan, breast side down. Drape a half-slice of bacon over each quail, like a saddle. Roast for 10-12 minutes on the top rack of a preheated 400 degree oven, until golden brown. (If you have a convection oven, use it.)
6. Slice the eggplant into eight rounds about 1/2 inch thick. Combine egg and milk in a bowl and dip eggplant into it. Combine the flour and Creole seasoning and dredge the eggplant.
7. Heat olive oil in a skillet over high heat and sauté the eggplant until golden brown. Drain eggplant and keep warm.
8. Place an eggplant round on each plate, and top with a quail. Garnish with sliced green onions.
Serves eight.
Crabmeat Salad On Fresh Beets @ Bistro Daisy
The first time I ran into the collision of crabmeat and beets was at Peristyle, during the Anne Kearney era. It sounded crazy: the beautiful whiteness of jumbo lump crabmeat, bloodied up with the juice of fresh, baked, marinated beets. But the flavor was a bullseye. The two unlikely partners were perfect together. The idea lives on at Bistro Daisy, the fine little restaurant owned by Tony and Diane Schulte. Who both worked at Peristyle and later La Petite Grocery in the day. They’ve operated their own place longer than both of those put together, now.
Bistro Daisy. Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 5831 Magazine. 504-899-6987.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
October 13, 2015
Days Until. . .
Halloween 18
Restaurant Milestones
The Bistro at the Maison de Ville opened today in 1986. A minuscule dining room with a microscopic kitchen in a small hotel might not be expected to become a seminal local restaurant, but this one was. The first chef was Susan Spicer. She’d cooked around town for a few years, but she came to prominence at the Bistro. When she left to open Bayona, John Neal took over the Bistro’s kitchen. He left after a few years to to open Peristyle. That established the Bistro as a place to enjoy the works of future chef superstars on their way up. Greg Picolo was the longest-serving chef, remaining at the bistro until a problem with the lease shut it down. Patrick Van Hoorebeck ran the dining room and the wine cellar for along time; he was good enough at that to have opened his own wine bar. Greg is now at Redemption, and the Bistro is now extinct. But its influence lives on.
Music To Blow Out Candles By
Today in 1893, a copyright was issued to Mildred and Patty Hill for the melody of the song everybody sings on birthdays. Its real name is Good Morning To All. Until a few months ago, it was under copyright protection, which theoretically required that anyone singing it in public was liable to a licensing fee. Some big restaurant chains had their own songs for birthdays, to avoid such payments.
Drinking Through History
Molly Pitcher was born today in 1754, near Trenton, New Jersey. Her real name was Mary Ludwig. Her nickname grew from her job carrying water to the American soldiers fighting in the Revolutionary War. When her husband was wounded, she took over his cannon, and became famous for that deed. What is less known is that she refused to ask the soldiers whether they wanted still bottled water, bottled water with bubbles, or just the tap water.
Food And Cars
Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby starred in a big television special today in 1957, sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. The commercials introduced the Edsel, soon to become the laughingstock of the auto world. Later, it became a classic. Food connection: Richard Collin–the New Orleans Underground Gourmet, the city’s first restaurant critic–owned an Edsel in the 1970s.
Today’s Flavor
Today is National Popover Day. A popover–not to be confused with a turnover–is a tall, muffin-shaped, nearly-hollow bread made with a very eggy batter. You bake them with butter in the pockets of the popover tin. They are best eaten immediately after emerging from the oven. You will eat a popover quickly. Its marvelous flavor, aroma, texture, and hollow middle grab you. The only restaurant in memory to serve them was during the brief hegemony of Tom Cowman in the kitchen of Lenfant’s when the Marcello family ran it, in the 1980s. They brought the popovers to the table when you sat down, and they were irresistible.
Edible Dictionary
baby carrot, n.–Some small carrots really are harvested at a younger age, and are therefore smaller. But the overwhelming majority of little carrots you see in stores are actually full-size carrots that were damaged in harvesting, and whittled down to resemble a small carrot. There’s nothing wrong with them, but they’re no different in texture or flavor than big carrots. If there’s no evidence of a stem, it’s probably a “baby-cut” carrot, as the industry calls them.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Bar Harbor, population 4912, is a port on the central coast of Maine, forty-seven miles southeast of Bangor. It became an incorporated town in 1796, when it was a fishing port. That activity still goes on, but pleasure yachting, charter fishing boats, and even cruise ships give the place a tourist economy. It’s a beautiful place in summer, with rocky islands rising from the ocean. The local pronunciation of the town’s name is “bah HAH-bah.” Say it that way when you show up for lunch at the Carmen Verandah, right in the middle of the town. Have a mahtini at the bah.
Deft Dining Rule #18:
Unless the goodness of the food and service are of secondary concern, never ask a restaurant for a table for more than eight people. Six is even better. If you have a larger number, divided it in to sixes and eights. At larger tables, the people at opposite ends won’t be able to talk with one another, anyway.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
After you cook ground beef or sausage to make a stuffing (i.e., for lasagna or stuffed peppers), use the end slice from a loaf of white bread to soak up the excess fat thrown off by the meat. (Do this after removing from the pan.) The dog will love that piece of bread, too.
Food Namesakes
Pro football star Jerry Rice was born today in 1962. . . Pro baseball pitcher Tim Crabtree hit the Big Mound today in 1969. (I wish crabs grew on trees!). . . British actor Wilfred Pickles was born today in 1904. . . British politician Edwina Currie was born today in 1946. She created a stir when she blew the whistle on English egg producers, noting that their eggs sometimes contained salmonella.
Words To Eat By
“In any world menu, Canada must be considered the vichyssoise of nations—it’s cold, half-French, and difficult to stir.”–J. Stuart Keate, Canadian writer, born today in 1913.
Words To Drink By
“No animal ever invented anything so bad as drunkeness–or so good as drink.”–Lord Chesterton.
Cocktails And Health.
Lets begin by adding fruit juices to the repertoire. Of course, froot jusses R goood fro U, and. . . uh. . .
Click here for the cartoon.