Delmonico Has A Taste Of Summer, $45.
All three of Emeril’s New Orleans restaurants rolled out their summer menus in July, leading the charge into the distressingly slack weeks of August and September. This is, of course, great news for avid diners. Each of the restaurants offers a different menu, but for the same price: $45 for four courses. Also available is a wine-pairing option for $25 extra. They’re not officially in the Coolinary, but the idea is the same. The menu is subject to change. Indeed, it’s really just a sampling of the kinds of dishes that the Taste Of Summer menu will show.
Jumbo Lump Crab ‘Nduja Deviled Eggs
Pickled peppers
~or~
Shrimp and Eggplant Stuffed Pepper
Blue crab, roasted tomato butter
~~~~~
Watermelon Gazpacho
Marinated gulf shrimp, garlic croutons
~or~
Grilled Georgia Peach
Blair grocery arugula, Point Reyes blue cheese, bourbon bacon vinaigrette
~~~~~
Gulf Shrimp a la Creole
Okra and rice, plantain fritters
~or~
Grilled Lamb Loin
Ratatouille, chickpeas, tapenade, marsala jus
~~~~~
Almond Cherry Trifle
Almond pound cake, cherry compote, chantilly whip, almond florentine
~or~
Turtle Brownie Ice Cream Sandwich
Dulce de leche ice cream, chocolate sauce, toasted pecans
Delmonico
Uptown 1: Garden District & Environs: 1300 St Charles Ave. 504-525-4937. www.emerils.com/restaurant/3/Emerils-Delmonico/.
NOMenu invites restaurants or organizations with upcoming special events to tell us, so we might add the news to this free department. Send to news@nomenu.com.
Four Weeks Since Hurricane Katrina
Monday, September 26, 2005
All Three Emeril’s Restaurants Will Reopen. Chef Emeril Lagasse says, “I have focused on making sure my family, my friends, and my staff are safe. New Orleans is my home and it is a place that I love. I am completely dedicated to rebuilding this great city.”
He says that Emeril’s, Emeril’s Delmonico, and NOLA will all return as soon as it’s physically possible to do so. He will also keep Emeril’s Homebase on St. Charles Avenue. That’s where his restaurant headquarters are, as well as test kitchens, cookbook and product sales, and his other non-TV operations. None of the properties suffered from flooding. No word about looting, but the less we think about that, the better.
Emeril’s staff, like Orleanians of all kinds, were displaced everywhere. Some went to work for other Emeril’s restaurants around the country. They’re looking for the rest of them. Here’s the phone number: 1-877-578-8884.
“The New Orleans restaurant industry has an unbelievable spirit,” the famous chef says. “I have no doubt that it will be a struggle, but I look forward to building a new New Orleans and an even better food city in the future.”
Louisiana Bistro Waiting In The Wings, Too. This fine little restaurant, across the street from Bayona on Dauphine, is run by Chef Mars (I’ve never heard him use any other name), who checked in with me over the weekend. Says he, “I expect we’ll be open in a limited capacity, with a pared-down Creole menu by the first of October. I am still in upstate New York with friends, but I expect repatriation this week. The restaurant has not suffered much damage.”
Controversy Over Ruth’s Chris. On my web messageboard a bunch of people are taking Ruth’s Chris to task for moving its corporate offices to Orlando after the hurricane. We ought to calm down about things like that. Consider this: Ruth’s Chris runs almost 100 restaurants around the country. Its offices here, in Mid-City, was very badly flooded, and we all know about the problems with electricity, water, sewage, and the rest of it. How can such a place continue to operate, when there’s no guessing when it will become usable again? The corporate offices had little impact on the local economy. The important thing is that the two steakhouses will reopen. Let’s not give grief to others who have to take desperate measures to keep body and soul together. I’d like to be in New Orleans myself, but I would not be able to write this newsletter or do anything else there. (Even though it’s on the North Shore, my home still is without power, phones or water.)
National Radio Show. While waiting for my New Orleans radio show to return, I have been working on a project that’s been on my mind for awhile: The National Feed. It’s a version of The Food Show that covers all of American dining, one city at a time. This week I’m recording the prototype, focusing on the food of Washington, DC. However, I’d like to have callers on any subject. You can’t call me directly–I don’t have the equipment for that. But if you have a question or comment about any aspect of eating anywhere, e-mail me at radio@nomenu.com, and I’ll call you to record your call. Give me your phone number and a time to call you, and we’ll set it up.
For all those who have asked me about the New Orleans radio show, WSMB is still simulcasting emergency information with the United Broadcasters of New Orleans, largely out of necessity. Our studios (and those of the other five radio stations in the Entercom group) were damaged during Katrina, and we can’t get back in, anyway. But it is my expectation that we will return someday.
Believe It Or Not, The Eat Club Cruise Is Still On. You might remember that we were promoting a Mardi Gras cruise to the Eastern Caribbean (Bahamas, St. Thomas, St. Maarten) for next February 26-March 6, sailing out of Miami. (I’m glad we didn’t do it on the Conquest, as we were considering; the ship has left New Orleans for now.) We’re almost full with 38 people; we have three cabins (in most classes) still available. More information is at http://www.nomenu.com/cruise.
Great Dining In Washington, DC. Earlier in this journal, I opined that Washington (where I am holed up, more literally than you might imagine) did not strike me as an especially good food city. That brought howls of protest from readers who live in DC, whose numbers surprised me greatly. I said the scene is overwhelmed by chains; they said that’s only because I’m parked here in the suburbs. Fair enough. In recent days, I’ve been looking off the main streets and have found the tremendous richness of ethnic restaurants that Washingtonians brag about. I haven’t been to an Ethiopian restaurant yet, but I did have good lunches at an Indian restaurant and a Thai place. Lots of both kinds around here. One day I had some Middle Eastern food that seemed very ethnic, but it turned out to be a chain. Lots of those.
The best repast of all came from the place where we’ll soon have our Eat Club dinner (date, menu, and price not yet set): Acadiana. This is operated by Chef Jeff Tunks, who was the best chef in recent memory at the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans for a few years in the early 1990s. He put on a feed for us, starting with buttermilk biscuits with Creole cream cheese and pepper jelly on the side. Then thin-sliced fried catfish in the style of Middendorf’s. Three convincing soups: gumbo, turtle, and oyster Rockefeller potages. Deviled eggs remoulade, with crawfish in one, crabmeat in another, and Louisiana caviar on a third. Natchitoches-style spicy meat pies. Crawfish etouffee. Barbecue shrimp. Even a Mother’s-style debris roast beef poor boy. Not only was all of this delicious, but it actually caught the New Orleans flavor in every dish. That’s something I’ve experienced on time in ten at out-of-Louisiana Creole-Cajun restaurants. It’s a great-looking restaurant in a flatiron building in a part of Washington that’s being transformed from a shabby old warehouse area to a chic district.
Chow-Chow
Chow-chow, a condiment widely used throughout America (although not to the extent that Qit was, say, fifty years ago), was made by Zatarain’s and other companies until the hurricane. Zatarain’s appears to have left chow-chow out of their product line when they returned. Rex, the other local brand, is still out there, as is the very chunky Crosse & Blackwell version. For some reason, in recent months people have asked me about Zatarain’s chow-chow often. Here is a recipe that at least approximates the stuff. Use it on sandwiches or as a relish for vegetables.
1 head cauliflower
2 cups vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup salt
2 small onions, quartered
1/2 green cabbage, core removed, roughly shredded
2 small green tomatoes, peeled and seeded, coarsely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 16-oz. jar whole sweet pickles
3 16-oz jars yellow mustard
1. Slice the florets off the cauliflower, breaking them into pieces the size of the tip of your little finger. Discard the branches and core.
2. Over medium heat, bring the vinegar, sugar and salt with one quart of water to a light boil in a large saucepan.
3. Add the cauliflower, onions, and cabbage. Cook four or five minutes. Add the green tomatoes and red bell pepper and cook two or three minutes. Turn the heat off and let the vegetables cool in the boiling liquid for about a half-hour.
4. While waiting, drain the pickles and chop them into small dice (about 1/4 inch) by hand. When the vegetables are cool, drain and chop them about the same size as the pickles.
5. Combine the pickles and vegetables in a large bowl. Add the mustard and stir to blend.
6. Sterilize canning jars of whatever size you prefer. Fill the sterilized jars with the chow-chow mixture. Cap and process according to standard canning procedure. It’s best to let the chow-chow rest for a week or more before using.
Makes about eight eight-ounce jars.
Rotisserie Chicken With Roasted Corn Grits @ Zea
Zea is a locally-based chain operated by the Taste Buds–Gary Darling, Hans Limburg, and Greg Reggio, all chefs. The menu is eclectic, but the finest work on it is very basic. Rotisserie-roasted chicken is not only simple, but certainly the best way to cook a chicken. It stays moist, as the juices that would otherwise break loose stay on the surface of the chicken, and intensify the flavors. They make three versions: one a French-style garlic-scented bird, another Italian-style pesto-coated, and a relatively simpler barbecue-seasoned job. All are excellent. They come with a choice of eight or so side dishes, of which the most notable is the stone-ground yellow grits, rich with cream and cheese, studded with corn kernels stripped off cobs roasted on the grill first. The prices are very low. The only problem is getting a table, which is especially challenging in the Zea in the Clearview Mall.
Zea. Harahan: 1655 Hickory Ave.. 504-738-0799.
||Kenner: 1325 West Esplanade Ave. 504-468-7733. ||Lee Circle Area: 1525 St Charles Ave. 504-520-8100. ||Metairie: 4450 Veterans Blvd (Clearview Mall). 504-780-9090. ||Covington: 110 Lake Dr. 985-327-0520. ||Harvey: 1121 Manhattan Blvd. 504-361-8293. ||Slidell: 173 Northshore Blvd. 985-273-0500.This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
August 27, 2015
Today’s Flavor
Coolinary Summer Specials End 4
Deft Dining Rule #815
It’s not a myth: bananas whose skins are thoroughly speckled with black spots are the most delicious bananas.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
Overripe bananas are best for banana bread or banana pudding. If you don’t have time to make those right now, puree the bananas in a food processor with a little lemon juice, put it into a food storage bag, squeeze all the air out, and freeze it.
Deft Dining Rule #193
Bananas are easier to peel from the bottom to the top–that is, from opposite the stem end. Try it and you’ll see.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Fish Creek is a little town in the extreme northeast corner of Wisconsin, on the peninsula that separates Green Bay from Lake Michigan. A small cove off Green Bay makes a natural spot for docks; logically enough, Fish Creek is a haven for people with boats. It has been so since 1853, when the first docks were built. The Alexander Noble House in the town was built in 1874, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. No fewer than eleven restaurants are clustered in one block, with the Cookery in Fish Creek being the most interesting. I wonder what’s on the menu.
Edible Dictionary
speck, German, Italian. n.–A dry-cured, smoked ham most popular in extreme Northern Italy and Austria. It is becoming more common in this country, however. Speck is almost identical to prosciutto, with the addition of the natural smoke flavor. So it has characteristics of both the Italian style of salt-curing ham and the German tradition of smoking it. Like prosciutto, speck is so intense in flavor that it’s usually sliced paper thin. It’s used in sandwiches, but sparingly. It also turns up with melons and other sweet fruits as an appetizer.
Unusual Food Celebrations
Today in 1977, the first Burning Man Festival was held in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno, Nevada. A tall effigy of a man (nobody in particular) is built and burned. The event seems to be a spontaneous celebration of itself, and is otherwise hard to explain. (Here’s the web site that leaves no stone unturned in the effort to do so.) This year’s festival began August 25 and runs through Labor Day. Our interest in it concerns the Burning Man sushi roll, served by many Japanese restaurants across the country. It has spicy tuna inside, with seared peppered tuna, avocado, and salmon on the outside. It’s one of the better big rolls we’ve had.
Annals Of Cookies
Today in 1940, the Nestle Company registered a trademark for Toll House cookies–the original chocolate chip cookies. They rolled out the chocolate chips a few months earlier, and saw that it would be a huge new product for them. The cookies were invented at a 1709-vintage inn (and actual toll-collecting point) on the road from Boston to New Bedford, Massachusetts. In the 1930s, Ruth Wakefield, who owned the inn with her husband, made a batch of cookies with chunks of chocolate in them. They were so popular that Nestle made a deal with her: if she would turn over the rights to the recipe, she would get all the chocolate she wanted for the rest of her life. After awhile, to save people the trouble of chopping chocolate bars, Nestle created the familiar chocolate chips.
The Saints
Today is the feast day of St. Monica. She is most remembered as the mother of St. Augustine, but her own life was such that she’s the patron saint of homemakers. She’s also a patron saint of alcoholics; Augustine was one of those in his young days, and so was Monica. In a roundabout way, she’s also the namesake of crawfish in a spicy cream sauce over pasta, locally called crawfish Monica. It was invented by Monica Davidson, who keeps her recipe a secret and has the name under trademark.
Weather Report
This is the birthday, in 1965, of Hurricane Betsy, the first really bad hurricane in the memory of most New Orleanians, and the first hurricane in America to do over a billion dollars in damage. It hit town September 7.
Food Namesakes
Jeff Cook, singer and guitarist with the country-rock group Alabama, wailed for the first time today in 1949. . . Pro hockey center Adam Oates hit The Big Ice today in 1962. . . Charles Stewart Rolls, one of the founders of the luxury automobile maker Rolls Royce, took to The Road today in 1877. . . Catfish Hunter pitched his sixth win of the month for the Yankees today in 1978; no losses that August. . . Peanuts Lowrey–speaking of baseball–was born today in 1917. He played mostly for the Cubs. . . Hickory Smoke won the 1957 Hambletonian Stakes, a harness race with trotting horses, this day that year.
Words To Eat By
“I want cold pizza for breakfast
And a pinch of cold spaghetti will do
But there’s nothin’ in the world that I like better than
Eatin’ cold pizza with you.”–Christine Lavin, American singer.
“All critics should be assassinated.”–Man Ray, art photographer, born today in 1890.
Words To Drink By
Here is to loving, to romance, to us.
May we travel together through time.
We alone count as none, but together we’re one,
For our partnership puts love to rhyme.
Irish toast.
Where The Binge Begins.
On the other hand, the amount of tequila used by a lot of restaurants to make those margaritas demands a bathtub of margaritas for something like this to happen.
Click here for the cartoon.