Juvenile Diabetes Benefit, Charlie’s Steak House
Wednesday next week, November 5, Charlie’s Steak House hosts its annual dinner in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Little more that needs to be said, right? Anyone who’s known a child with diabetes can sympathize. And it’s too common. I have a niece and two nephews who suffer, and one of my best friends in high school died of it.
Anyone who’s ever been to Charlie’s knows what this dinner will consist of. Yes, a big pile of the best onion rings in town, a wedge salad with blue cheese, a large filet mignon, potatoes au gratin, mushrooms bordelaise, mammoth French fries, dessert, coffee, tea, wine, beer, cocktails, and soft drinks. It’s the classic Charlie’s dinner, with all the sizzle for which the old Uptown beefmonger is famous.
The price is $75, inclusive of tax, tip, and all beverages. All the proceeds will benefit the JDRF and its search for a cure. Here’s the organization’s website if you’re curious as to what it’s about.
Two seatings: 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Reservations are essential: 504-895-9323.
Charlie’s Steak House
Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 4510 Dryades. 504-895-9323. www.charliessteakhousenola.com.
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.
Saturday, October 18, 2014.
Refills. Perfect Grass. Moonlight With Lola.
A good case could be made that men were created to refill the toilet paper and paper towel spools. I decide this morning that I’ve had quite enough of our twenty-year-old, flimsy plastic dispenser and its inconvenient location inside the compartment under the sink. Today, I buy a new one–the kind that stands on the counter with the towel roll on end. That’s where and how new rolls of paper towels wind up, anyway. I figured that a dispenser so configured would be so easy to refill–just remove the old core and drop the new roll onto the upturned post–that nobody would fail to do so.
I am wrong. The towel roll still stands in the surrounding mess, all alone, two feet away from the empty dispenser.
I ease through two hours on WWL Radio starting at noon. Then I head out on the lawn tractor to give the acreage one last trim for the year. I cut everything that we mow (we have a lot of ground covered with trees), including a few spots that only get service three or four times a year.
Then, a trivial miracle ends the 2014 grass-cutting season. All finished, I back the tractor into the garage, and just as it inches into its assigned space, the engine sputters and dies, completely out of gas. There’s something very satisfying about this.
For dinner, I suggest we try a steakhouse called Prime By C3. When it opened in the spring, it made two claims: one almost universal, the other unique. First, they say they buy the best beef in the market, including a lot of Louisiana-bred cattle. Second, all the profits will be funneled into the charitable entity of the month.
But the restaurant appears to be closed. It is in darkness, and the telephone is been disconnected. This is another reason I don’t go to new restaurants: a premature review has a way of becoming obsolete in the worst way. Given the amount of money it costs out of my own pocket to research these reports, it’s frustrating.
Our second idea is one we should think of more often. Lola is the creation of Keith and Nealy Frentz, chefs who worked together at Brennan’s until they decided, just after Katrina, to open their own restaurant and get married. (I don’t remember which came first.) The dining rooms are in the antique train depot in the center of Covington. The kitchen is in a caboose on the adjacent track stub.
Lola gets a lot of lunch business from the St. Tammany courthouse a block away. It’s open for dinner only on Fridays and Saturdays, with a contemporary Creole menu with more polish than one expects given the location.
Fried oysters with feta at Lola.
The food here has come a long way since our last dinner. I begin with a cocktail called a Black Manhattan. A bit sweet, dark in color, with what I think is a black currant in place of the usual cherry. Then the oyster special–fried, covered with a zippy sauce, and sprinkled with feta cheese. Big enough to split, on the rich side in a pleasant way.
Spiced carrot soup.
The soup du jour is spiced carrot. What were the chances that this was the also came up last time I was here? Not a deterrent. It was very good and original then and now.
Seared sheepshead with crabmeat at Lola.
One of the fish specials is pan-seared sheepshead with crabmeat, savory herbs, and beurre blanc. Sheepshead is uncommon enough on menus that I order it whenever it turns up. Great fish.
Hamburger and fresh-cut fries at Lola.
Meanwhile, living up to the caricature I draw of her, Mary Ann had a hamburger. It’s unusual in being served on a more or less crustless bread. Good, though, she says.
This is the busiest I’ve seen Lola for dinner. We had to sit outside, and barely got a table even there. Mary Ann is a devotee of Al Fresco, however. And the moon is shining down in the cool of evening. So much to discuss. Jude’s wedding. The dogs. Repeat, and repeat again.
Sunday, October 19, 2014.
Ment’or Competition At Emeril’s.
A few days ago Emeril’s p.r. agency asked if I would help create some anticipation for a culinary competition there today. It’s the first of a series of four cookoffs around the country that test the culinary mettle of some up-and-coming chefs. It’s called “Ment’or,” an offshoot of the Bocuse d’Or–the the most renowned competition among chefs around the world. Ment’or’s organizers and board include some of the most famous names in American cheffery. Daniel Boulud from Daniel in New York City, and Thomas Keller, of Napa’s French Laundry and New York’s Per Se, to name two.
Steven Stryjewski, Daniel Boulud, and Richard Rosendale at the 2014 Young Chefs Competition.
The event itself, the food served, and the admission price ($50!) struck me as something worth showing up for. I put the word out to my readers and listeners, and thereby pulled in over a dozen people. That’s not many, but all I had were three days to gather attendees. The Eat Club make up the largest general admission group to show up.
We are well taken care of. Two dozen appetizers circulate under the hands of waiters with trays. Little crab cakes and marinated crab claws. Chicken andouille gumbo and crab and corn bisque. Tuna crudo and barbecue shrimp. Chicken strudels and vegetables en brochette. Seared steak and fried oysters. Six desserts. And more. By the end of the affair, I am thinking about what a great dinner this would be, without any further additions or entrees. It would be like Square Root but with familiar food. I’ll bet $150 per person could easily be had for it.
Chefs at work in Emeril’s kitchen.
The young chefs are busy in Emeril’s kitchen, turning out their masterpieces. None of them were familiar to me or local, but that’s the whole point of the competition. The six judges are all chefs themselves, with several local figures of note: Susan Spicer of Bayona, Steven Stryjewski from Cochon, Tory McPhail from Commander’s Palace, and Adolfo Garcia from La Boca. (Emeril was not there, busy with something in New York. But he did his part by hosting the event, probably for free.)
Chef David Slater of Emeril’s, and Susan Spicer of Bayona.
If one had parked at Emeril’s food bar, one could watch the contestants prepare their dishes. But the chairs were blocked off for judges only. And there wasn’t that much to see. Nor did the guests get a chance to taste the contending dishes, but that would have been chaotic. Instead, we shot the breeze with one another, with topic A being what a fantastic bargain this was for $50. Good wine, too.
The winning dish, a chicken roulade, from Krystyn Navarro, of Bouchon in Beverly Hills.
The winner is Krystyn Navarro, Chef du Partie at Bouchon in Beverly Hills. (Which is the host of the second heat of the competition.) Her dish was right in with the current trends–the smear of sauce across the plate being the most obvious one. The centerpiece of her handsome concoction was a roulade of chicken that showed off a lot of skill. Daniel Boulud certainly seemed moved by it. She is now in the running to spend time in one of the great kitchens of the world–a credential that she will be able to trade on for many years to come.
If they ask me to help next year and put forth the same program, I guarantee here and now a hundred people will show up. The money all goes to various efforts in culinary education for those who can’t afford it on their own.
Raw Oysters Mignonette
This cold sauce–it’s more like a relish, really–takes you just a short step away from eating raw oysters with nothing at all on them. The flavors don’t get in the way of those of the oyster, and the contrast between the metallic brininess and softness of the oyster and the acidity and crunch of the sauce is very pleasant. Don’t chop the shallots in a food processor; use a sharp knife to make tiny cubes.
1/4 cup finely diced French shallots
2 Tbs. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
2 Tbs. dry white wine
4 sprigs parsley, leaves only, chopped
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
1. Combine everything up to the olive oil in a small bowl. Whisk in the olive oil in a thin stream until blended. Add salt and pepper to taste.
2. Spoon about a teaspoon of the sauce over raw oysters on the half shell.
Makes enough for about four dozen oysters.
Pizza @ Ciro’s Cote Sud
The pizzas are New York-style pies with thin crusts with a thinner crisp layer at the bottom. The sauce is lusty in its use of garlic and herbs, and the cheese and toppings are first-class. The funny thing is that the owners had no intention of serving pizza when they took over the old pizzeria with the idea of serving French bistro food–which they do, very well. But the longtime customers kept asking for the pizza, and the pizza oven was still back there, so. . . why not?
Ciro’s Cote Sud. Riverbend: 7918 Maple. 504-866-9551.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
October 27, 2014
Days Until. . .
Halloween 4
Today’s Flavor
Today is National Baked Potato Day. The world’s greatest food authorities love baked potatoes as well as the common man does. James Beard told me once, “Most people don’t understand how good a perfect baked potato can be, without even any butter or salt. When it’s very fresh and plucked at the perfect time, of course.”
Paul Prudhomme said the same thing. When he was growing up, the kids in the big Prudhomme family went to the garden too pull up potatoes. When they had enough, they’d run inside to start cooking them. He said you could easily tell the difference between those and store-bought.
Few of us have enjoyed these brink-of-goodness revelations. But we still like our baked potatoes. Restaurants rarely serve them well, because it takes over an hour to properly bake a potato, and it’s only at peak right as it comes out of the oven. As a result, baked potatoes in restaurants are usually overbaked, or kept at a decent state by being steamed rather than baked.
To bake potatoes at home, the starting point is critical: large russet potatoes, without any hint of green in the skin (lightly scratch the skin with your fingernail to check this). And no hint of sprouting, of course. While preheating the oven to 375 degrees, scrub them under cold running water. Then put them right on the oven rack in the center of the oven. If you have a convection oven, use the convection feature. Bake them for between an hour and an hour and fifteen minutes (longer for bigger potatoes). That temperature is lower than what most people use, but I prefer it because it allows a bit more margin for error, and it makes the skin better for eating. (I always eat the skin of a baked potato. Do you?)
Gourmet Gazetteer
Baked Mountain–which sounds like a dessert to me–is in the lastplace you’d expect to find a feature with that name: in Alaska. Specifically, near the top of the Alaska Peninsula, in Katmai National Park and Preserve. Baked Mountain rises to 3800 feet, nearly 2000 feet higher than the bottom of the Valley Of Ten Thousand Smokes just two miles away. A fair-size glacier pours down that valley. Nothing baking around there. If you didn’t come with food, you’re in trouble: no towns,let alone restaurants, are anywhere within 75 miles.
Edible Dictionary
potatoes O’Brien, n.–A potato casserole that has qualities of hash brown, Lyonnaise, and gratin potatoes, with (perhaps) onions and bell peppers added to the mix. It’s a classic dish for using leftover baked or boiled potatoes. As such, there’s a potluck aspect to the recipe. No two formulas are alike. It comes close to the truth to say that you can make O’Brien potatoes almost any way you want, as long as the potatoes are chopped up, and combined with a few other ingredients, and baked in a pan. Who is O’Brien? Nobody seems to know.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
If you’re pressed for time and need baked potatoes, you can speed the process by starting the cooking process in a microwave oven. The formula is two minutes for each large potato in the microwave. Turn them over and repeat the nuking. Then finish the baking in a 400 degree oven for about a half-hour.
Deft Dining Rule #644
Baked potatoes should only be ordered in restaurants where at least six baked potatoes can be seen on other tables.
Physiology Of Eating
Today in 1975, the American Medical Association endorsed Dr. Henry Heimlich’s method of delivering assistance to people choking on food. The rescuer puts his arms around the victim from behind, clasps his hands, positions this double fist right between the navel and the sternum, and gives a sudden, upward-diagonal jerk. This often pushes a blast of air from the lungs into the windpipe, blowing out the food caught in the throat. It can also crack a rib, but that’s a lot less serious than the death that comes very quickly if the victim can’t breathe. If you don’t know how to do this, learn.
Annals Of Popular Cuisine
Planet Hollywood opened its original New York location today in 1991. It got a lot of publicity because among its owners were Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Demi Moore. A New York friend who should have known better told me he stood in line for two hours to eat in the place then. We had a Planet Hollywood in New Orleans for awhile, but it died a well-deserved death. We only go for real restaurants here.
Food In Sho-Biz
John Cleese was born in England today in 1939. He was one of the original writers and performers in Monty Python’s Flying Circus, but he may be even more famous as Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, the insane show about a hotel pretending to be a first-class operation while failing at everything, especially food.
Annals Of Etiquette
Emily Post was born today in 1872. She grew up amidst wealth and refinement in Baltimore and New York. In the summer, she spent her time (very appropriately) at Tuxedo Park, a New York resort developed by her father. She went on to write a newspaper column about manners, and Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage, published in 1922. The book is now in its seventeenth edition, currently being written by Emily Post’s great-great-granddaughter Peggy Post. Here’s a website.
Food Namesakes
James Cook, the British sea captain who discovered the Sandwich Islands (we now call it Hawaii, but still this qualifies the guy for a double food name award), was born today in 1728. He also discovered Australia and many other places in the South Pacific. That’s why his name comes up more often in this department than any other. . . Actress and Donald Trump wife Marla Maples was born today in 1963. . . Astronaut Michael Baker blasted off his life today in 1953.
Words To Eat By
“Bread that must be sliced with an axe is bread that is too nourishing.” –American writer Fran Lebowitz, born today in 1950. She has a few other good food quotations:
“Breakfast cereals that come in the same colors as polyester leisure suits make oversleeping a virtue.”
“Cheese that is compelled by law to append the word ‘food’ to its title does not go well with red wine or fruit.”
“Large, naked, raw carrots are acceptable as food only to those who live in hutches eagerly awaiting Easter.”
“My favorite animal is steak.”
Words To Drink By
“Civilized adults do not take apple juice with dinner.”–Fran Lebowitz.
The Modularity Of Everything.
Civilization tries to use the same designs in many different ways, even for food.
Click here for the cartoon.