Oktoberfest All Month Long At Crescent City Brewhouse
Wolf Kohler’s Crescent City Brewhouse is not German in its cooking, but Wolf himself is. He comes from a line of six generations of German brewmasters, and makes all his own beer in this busy, fun restaurant on the riverfront in the French Quarter. That’s all reason enough for a celebration of Oktoberfest at the Brewhouse.
Here’s the three-course dinner menu for the first week. It ranges between $27 and $29 for the whole package.
House Cured Salmon
Chilled marinated potatoes, shaved fennel, olives and capers
~~~~~
Veal Schnitzel
Breaded and fried veal, French fries, asparagus and lemon
~or~
Slow Roasted Duck
Slow cooked duck quarter with bacon and beer braised red cabbage, crispy crushed fingerling potatoes with Red Stallion vinegar pickled onions
~or~
Grilled Louisiana Redfish
Napa cabbage and crawfish, roasted potatoes and a warm bacon and black eyed pea vinaigrette
~~~~~
Black Forest Cake
Chocolate cake layered with cherries and chocolate ganache finished with caramel and raspberry sauces and whipped cream
The menu changes every week. Live music every night, too. The place looks touristy, but all tourists should eat and quaff as well as they (and we locals, too) do here. One more thing: the special Oktoberfest beer is ready for you to try. It’s a copper-colored brew with a light hoppiness.
Crescent City Brewhouse
French Quarter: 527 Decatur. 504-522-0571. www.crescentcitybrewhouse.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, September 27, 2014.
The Yat Pack Invades Mandeville. Impastato’s Cellars Fills Up.
A token hour-long radio show keeps the continuity going, but it’s just a matter of time before I become a voice on the scheduling room floor as regards the Saturday WWL gig. After that, I won’t be heard on Saturdays for months. Just as well. I need to take off at least three of them for my retreat, Thanksgiving, and Jude’s wedding. A busy but wonderful fall season lies ahead.
Mary Ann sees that the Yat Pack is performing at the Mandeville Trailhead this evening. A relic of the railroad that used to pass through the town, the trailhead has become the center for weekend celebration in recent times, with the farmer’s market by day and musical events in early evening.
The Yat Pack performs for a nice crowd in Mandeville.
Both the Marys are big fans of the Yat Pack. Mary Leigh has come out and said that she thinks Tim Shirah–the younger of the two singers who front the nine-piece band–is quite the handsome blade. (The Boy acts miffed by this, but I don’t think he has anything to worry about.)
I claim to be the Yat Pack’s first fan. I saw them at one of their first appearances, in a now-defunct Mandeville restaurant that Andrew Jaeger used to run. They were just figuring out their repertoire then, but I thought I saw something interesting in the idea of these two guys–neither of whom is old enough to remember Frank Sinatra and his ilk in the day. I’m just barely old enough myself, but they let me join the act for a few songs that night. Next time I ran into them, a year or so later, the act had gelled and they were getting attention.
Dancing and The Yat Pack.
Now they can fill all the green space at the Mandeville meeting place, leaving room only for a dance floor. That was kept busy with people in their sixties and seventies and just as many little kids dancing better than I can. Mary Ann, who loves such wholesome Americana, is delighted.
The Pack does a two-hour set as darkness falls on the trailhead. (Imagine a Sons of the Pioneers song in the background now.) The rest of the Cool Water Ranch gang is ready for chuck. For that, we adjourn to Impastato’s Cellars in Madisonville. The place is jammed, but it’s approaching eight o’clock, and most of the diners were at their ends of their 6 p.m. suppers.
Shrimp au gratin at Impastato’s Cellars.
Everybody at the table but me protests that he or she wants only a little supper. I call their bluff and ask for the big appetizer of shrimp au gratin, which I know will be mostly devoured by the time it comes back to me. The young couple went through a pile of cheese ravioli with red sauce. For me, Italian sausage and capellini. Is it just me, but is the amount of anise flavor in Italian sausage diminishing every day? (I think the answer may be, yes, it is just me.)
Impastato Cellars. Madisonville: 240 Highway 22 E. 985-845-4445.
Sunday, September 28, 2014.
Blackened Ribs. Some Like It That Way, But. . .
We awaken to a darkish sky that remains overcast all day, then sends a well-timed, large, mild shower over our precincts. That holds up just long enough for me to make one lap of the ranch with the dogs before we started getting unambiguously washed out.
Mary Ann wants to grill pork ribs. Her recent attempts to cook on the Big Green Egg were hampered by anemic heat, owing to her not wanting to bother shoveling out the ashes from her last overloading of the pit. Today she has the opposite problem. The fire is roaring when she asks me to check on it. By that time, the upside of the ribs are at 200 degrees, a good 40 degrees higher than ideal. The bottoms are burned black. They aren’t as bad as they look. . . but they look inedible to me. This is, however, the way Mary Ann likes to cook everything. Way overcooked for me, but I had three ribs anyway.
I spend an hour writing a long letter to a woman interested in writing restaurant reviews for NOMenu. I have looked for someone to help me out with that insuperable task for years. She seems to be serious, and has done a bit of that sort of work. Best of all, her favorite kinds of restaurants are the ones about which I am least enthusiastic. But there has never been another voice in this publication except mine, for thirty-seven years.
The rest of the daylight hours go into compiling the Thanksgiving page for the NOMenu.com website. I have a hard time finding more than fifty restaurants that I feel good about recommending to those who want a real Thanksgiving dinner. But that’s a lot more than anyone else will publish, and I am already getting thanks from readers.
Basil In Winter
Q.
I grow basil in my garden, and it’s starting to look a little raggedy. How I can pick the best leaves off and freeze them or otherwise preserve them? Especially before the really cold weather comes?
A. This is a question I get repeatedly every year at this time. Even a light freeze can be doomsday for even a lush, healthy-looking stand of basil. Tragic situation. There is no good answer. Basil does not freeze well. When you attempt to use it you’ll find that its aroma and texture have been seriously compromised. The same is true (perhaps even more so) for drying the leaves.
About the only strategy for preserving that inimitable flavor and aroma is to make a big batch of demi-pesto sauce. Use fresh chopped garlic, butter, olive oil, and the basil. I call it demi-pesto because you must omit the pine nuts that are part of the classic recipe. (You can always get pine nuts in jars, fortunately, and add them when you make the dish.)
As for the rest of the pesto, put it in an airtight container and freeze it. It will be little harmed by the procedure, and the pesto will continue to provide a goodly supply of fresh basil flavor.
Otherwise, fresh basil is one of those things that we must enjoy while it’s growing, and long for when it isn’t. That makes the first basil of the season taste even better.
Asian Barbecue Sauce
This is great with red meats, especially brisket. It’s also very good with thick fish steaks, such as tuna or swordfish. It’s also a great glaze for any grilled meats or fish done in an Asian manner. Drizzle it over pot stickers or Chinese-style ribs for something different. Like my standard barbecue sauce, I make a lot of it at a time and can it in big jars. They last a long time on the shelf, unopened. I give a lot of it away to friends.
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 medium onions, chopped
1 medium head garlic, chopped
1 ginger root, about an inch long, grated
2 cups very strongly-brewed Lapsang Souchong tea
2 28-ounce cans tomato puree
2 tsp. dry mustard
2 Tbs. Tabasco
8 oz. hoisin sauce
2 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. coriander
2 tsp. Chinese five-spice powder
3 Tbs. cinnamon
8 cloves
1 Tbs. freshly-ground black pepper
2 Tbs. salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 32-oz. bottle cider vinegar
1 16-oz. bottle commercial barbecue sauce (not smoky)
1/2 cup (or to taste) Sriracha Vietnamese hot sauce
1. Heat the oil in a big saucepan over medium heat and saute the onions, garlic, and ginger together until some of the onions begin to brown. Stir every minute or two. This will take about fifteen minutes. (The ginger may turn the mixture pale green. Ignore this.)
2. Add all the other ingredients except the vinegar, bottled barbecue sauce, and Sririacha. Bring to a light simmer, the lower the heat as low as it will go. Simmer, covered, for eight hours, stirring thoroughly every fifteen minutes or so, scraping the bottom of the pot thoroughly when stirring. After four hours, add in the vinegar.
Oysters Rockefeller @ Galatoire’s
Although Antoine’s invented oysters Rockefeller, other restaurants are not constrained by the need to stick with the original recipe. Some have improved on the idea. Galatoire’s includes spinach with the other greens Antoine’s uses in its recipe, and may have been the first to do so. (Antoine’s never had spinach in its version.) I also get a more pronounced anise flavor in Galatoire’s. It comes out on the shells, the green sauce blasted with enough heat that it gets a little browned and crusty on top. A great starter to split. (Who can eat half a dozen of these things and keep on going?)
Galatoire’s. French Quarter: 209 Bourbon. 504-525-2021.
We find this dish to be among the 500 best in New Orleans area restaurants.
October 6, 2014
Days Until. . .
Halloween 25
Today’s Flavor
Today is National Seafood Chowder Day. In the Northeast, this means clam chowder, so widely available in restaurants that, with a New England sound, it’s known as “cuppachowdah.” Here in New Orleans, we don’t have good clams (despite the millions of them in Lake Pontchartrain). So when we make chowder, it’s usually with leftover fish and shrimp and crabmeat. I like it and think it’s an underutilized idea, because it’s good and contrasts with gumbo, bouillabaisse, and bisques.
A chowder contains, in addition to seafood, three essential ingredients: potatoes, bacon (or something like bacon–pork cracklings, for example), and fish stock (or something like fish stock). I make mine with oyster water, which I beg from my friends in the oyster business. The rest is easy. The recipe is in today’s newsletter.
When I find myself in New England, I eat clam chowder at almost every meal. They make it very thick. One cookbook says it should be almost as solid as mashed potatoes. I don’t go along with that. Nor do I like the very mild seasoning you find in New England chowder–but that’s a New Orleans palate talking.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Clam, Virginia is on the narrow southern end of the Delmarva Peninsula, three miles wide between the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay. In Pokomoke Sound on the bay side, there probably are a lot of clams, and certainly lots of oysters. The crossroads that is Clam seems more involved with farming than clamming, though. If there is chowder to be had, it will be found two miles away in Parksley, perhaps at the Lunch Box or the Club Car Cafe.
Deft Dining Rule #860
No matter what anybody tells you, New England clam chowder is incomparably better than the tomato-based Manhattan clam chowder.
Edible Dictionary
egg drop soup, Chinese, n.–A universal soup offering in Chinese restaurant for over a century. Egg drop soup is made of chicken broth with just enough herbs and savory vegetables to add flavor, but not much solid matter. The major part of the mouthfeel comes from beaten eggs stirred into the near-boiling soup. The eggs immediately congeal into raggedy shreds. Everything about it is light,including the taste. The same technique is used in other soups from other cuisines, notably the Italian stracciatella.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
The two methods for lessening the work of shucking clams are exactly the opposite of one another. Either put them into the freezer for a half-hour, or drop them in boiling water for ten seconds. With way, they give up a lot quicker.
Annals Of Food Marketing
Cream of Wheat was introduced today in 1893. It was a desperate effort to save a near-bankrupt flour mill in Grand Forks, North Dakota, during the financial panic of that year. Thomas Amidon, the head miller, used the “middlings”–the prime part of wheat grains, also called farina–to make a hot cereal that could be packaged dry and sold in stores. The owners of the mill sent a sample of it to their broker in New York. The broker famously responded, “Never mind shipping us any more of your flour, but send a car of your ‘Cream of Wheat.'” The original logo with its cartoonish black cook was used because the printer of the label found it in a pile of old plates in his plant. Cream of Wheat is a bigger deal elsewhere than in New Orleans, where we’re more likely to fill that space on the menu with grits.
Music To Eat Crawfish Pie By
Today in 1952, Hank Williams had the top country hit with Jambalaya, which forever united that dish with crawfish pie and filé gumbo. Not a bad combination, really, and one found on more than a few Cajun menus.
Lounges Through History
Today in 1889, the original Parisian song-and-dance bar opened. At Moulin Rouge (“red windmill”–the building really was one) one could not only have a glass of wine or an absinthe, but also see a live show. It spawned an entirely new genre of hangout in Paris. Its fame continues not only because it’s still in business, but because of the many posters advertising its shows. The most famous were drawn by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a seminal figure in Art Nouveau graphic design. There’s hardly a French bistro anywhere that doesn’t have a Toulouse-Lautrec poster for the Moulin Rouge somewhere on its walls.
Food Namesakes
Actress Anna Quayle hit the Big Stage today in 1936. . . Singer and songwriter Matthew Sweet was born today in 1964. . . Mets pitcher David Cone struck out nineteen batters today in 1991, tying the National League record. . . Olympic marksman Lloyd Spooner was born today in 1884. . . Long-time South Dakota Congressman E.Y. Berry was born today in 1902. . . New Hampshire Congressman Perkins Bass, whose son Charles also held that post, was born today in 1912. . . Movie and television actor Jerome Cowan was a big hit with his mom today in 1897. (“Cowan ” is a French-Cajun word for an alligator snapping turtle, the kind used to make soup.)
Words To Eat By
“Clam chowder is one of those subjects, like politics or religion, that can never be discussed lightly. Bring it up even incidentally, and all the innumerable factions of the clam bake regions raise their heads and begin to yammer.”–Louis P. De Gouy, French chef and cookbook author of the early 1900s.
Words To Drink By
“A man that lives on pork, fine-flour bread, rich pies and cakes, and condiments, drinks tea and coffee, and uses tobacco, might as well try to fly as to be chaste in thought.”–Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, early health nut, brother of the cereal magnate
But who wants to be chaste in thought?
How The Beavers Approach Fine Dining.
I never thought about this before, but it turns out that there may be more than one course.
Click here for the cartoon.