Dining Club Brightens Chalmette This Monday
The excellent Creole bistro MeMe’s in Chalmette continues its series of wine dinners, staged every month or two on Mondays–specifically, this Monday, November 17. Chef Lincoln Owens has a five-course menu featuring the wines of Washington State’s Chateau Ste. Michelle. He and the restaurant’s owners (two couples, the Williamses and the Catalanottos) continue to bring serious dining to St. Bernard Parish, when has never had this kind of cookery and service before.
MeMe’s wine dinners are a little different from most in that you can make a reservation at any time during the evening, with open seating starting at 5 p.m. A representative of the winery will be there to tell what went into the bottles. The menu speaks for itself:
Red and Gold Beet Salad
Mixed greens, goat cheese, drizzled with balsamic reduction topped with Cajun spiced pecans.
Grilled Atlantic Swordfish
Sweet potato hash, andouille, roasted corn, peppers, chipotle aioli
Wine: Château Ste. Michelle Mimi Chardonnay
Cabernet Braised Short Ribs
Carolina stone ground grits, mango chow chow
Wine: Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon
Seared Pork Tenderloin
Sweet potato puree, Steen’s cane syrup, Bourbon glaze, micro greens
Wine: Château Ste. Michelle Indian Wells Merlot
Mini Chocolate Doberge
Frangelico freeze
The price for this is a mere $70, inclusive of tax, tip and wines. Reservations are essential at the number below.
MeMe’s
St. Bernard Parish: 712 W. Judge Perez Dr. 504-644-4992. www.memesbarandgrille.com.
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Bourbon House
French Quarter: 144 Bourbon. 504-522-0111. Map.
Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT’S NOTEWORTHY
While seafood houses are among the most popular restaurants in New Orleans, there aren’t many of them in the French Quarter. Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House answers that call, with fried platters, gumbo, and an oyster bar. It goes one step further by cooking some classic Brennan family dishes, including a number of items from days gone by at Commander’s Palace. They’ve adopted bourbon (the spirit) as a specialty, and not only make great cocktails, but also mount major dinners around the great small-batch bourbons.
WHAT’S GOOD
Everything’s fresh, everything’s distinctly Creole in flavor. Although fried seafood is here in all the usual forms, the kitchen is at least as adept at grilling, sauteeing, and broiling. Here are one of the best version of barbecue shrimp in town, and a great example of that recent hit dish, redfish on the half shell (grilled on the skin and scales with garlic butter). The oyster bar is one of the best around, as are the baked oysters.
BACKSTORY
The Bourbon House opened in 2002 as the main restaurant of the new Astor Hotel. After creating a runaway success with their steak house half a block away, Dickie Brennan and Steve Pettus thought they’d have good luck with an upscale seafood place. They were right. Although the excellent oyster bar hasn’t shortened the line at the Acme very much, this is as fine an oyster bar as any, in the densest concentration of oyster bars in the city. The name Bourbon House has a historic precedent: through the 1960s, it was the name of a restaurant on the corner of Bourbon and St. Peter (now the Embers steakhouse).
DINING ROOM
An expansive room with large windows and interior balconies, the Bourbon House stands just close enough to the Bourbon Street strip to have a strong sense of place, but enough separated from its louder aspects to make dining here pleasant. The lighting fixtures look like gigantic peeled satsumas.
DOZEN BEST DISHES, DESCRIBED
Starters
»Raw Louisiana oysters on the half-shell
»»Oysters on the half-shell with caviar
»Fruits de mer (oysters on the half-shell, caviar, boiled shrimp, mussels, marinated crab fingers, seafood salads)
Charbroiled oysters
Crab fingers bordelaise
»Fried calamari, chipotle aioli, Romano cheese
»Alligator boudin, hot sauce beurre blanc
Red bean hummus**
Bourbon barbecue shrimp
»Seafood gratin (shrimp, crabmeat, bechamel, artichokes
»Tuna ceviche, avocado, tomato, and lime juice
Cheese plate
Soup du jour
»Corn & crab soup
»Seafood gumbo
BLT wedge salad
»Spinach salad, pecan-molasses vinaigrette, feta
Bourbon House salad (tomato, cucumber, onions, crouton, Maker’s Mark bourbon vinaigrette)
~
Entrees
»Fried seafood platters (shrimp, catfish, oysters, or combinations, pommes frites, cole slaw, cornbread)
Seared crab cake, bourbon corn sauce
Spiced molasses barbecue duck
»Five-spice crusted tuna, avocado-lime vinaigrette
»Redfish on the half-shell
»Blackened Gulf fish, corn salsa, shrimp gastrique, mcilhenny beurre blanc, potato cake
Gulf fish du jour
»Catfish pecan, shrimp, popcorn rice, Creole meuniere
Crab crusted fish, deviled crab dressing, lemon herb butter
Shrimp Creole
Roasted chicken, pepper jelly, jambalaya risotto
»Pannee veal & crab, lemon butter and jumbo lump crabmeat
Petit filets, marchand de vin sauce
~
Dessert
Chocolate banana bread pudding
Pumpkin and white chocolate cheesecake
Chocolate pecan crunch
New Roads pecan pie
Crème brûlèe
Seasonal gelato or sorbet 6
FOR BEST RESULTS
Make a reservation and let them know you’re a local. If you’d like raw oysters, get them at the bar. I’ve been served oysters at the tables here that were obviously shucked long in advance.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The food at the Bourbon House has been a shade inconsistent during the past few years, for no apparent reason. Same chef, more or less the same menu, same management. What gives?
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 +1
Consistency -1
Service+1
Value
Attitude +2
Wine & Bar +1
Hipness +1
Local Color +2
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
Good view
Good for business meetings
Many private rooms
Open Sunday lunch and dinner
Open Monday lunch and dinner
Open most holidays
Open all afternoon
Oyster bar
Good for children
Easy, nearby pay parking
Reservations recommended
Eggs Bitoun
“Kosher eggs Benedict” is what chefs Andre and Maurice Bitoun called this dish. Made with a single egg and smoked salmon in place of the ham of a standard Benedict, it was an appetizer at the Bistro Steak Room in Westwego, an excellent French-Creole restaurant the brothers ran in the 1970s and 1980s.
The trickiest part is poaching the eggs. You need the freshest eggs available. Only then will you be able to make the yolks stand up like spheres instead of blobs. The hollandaise should also have some body, and enough cayenne to keep all that richness of cloying. A garnish of fried capers completes a real original derived from a familiar classic.
Hollandaise:
2 egg yolks
1 Tbs. red wine vinegar
1 stick butter, softened
1 tsp. lemon juice
Pinch cayenne
Garnish:
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. small capers
2 Tbs. salt
2 Tbs. vinegar
8 very fresh jumbo eggs
8 slices cold-smoked salmon,about 1/4 inch thick
4 English muffins, split and toasted
Hollandaise:
1. Whisk the egg yolks and the vinegar briskly in a metal bowl set over a saucepan with about an inch of simmering water at the bottom. If you see even a hint of curdling in the eggs, take the bowl off the heat, but keep whisking. Keep going back and forth from the heat until the mixture turns thick and lightens in color. Whisk in a tablespoon of warm water.
2. Begin adding the softened butter, a pat at a time. After about a fourth of the butter is in there, you’ll begin to see a change in the texture of the sauce. At that point, you can step up the addition of the butter a bit, and keep going till all the butter is incorporated.
3. Whisk in the cayenne and the lemon juice. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a bigger bowl of warm (not hot!) water.
Garnish:
Heat the olive oil until fragrant. Add the capers and fry in the oil until crisp–about a minute. Drain on a paper towel and keep warm.
Eggs:
1. Use a large stainless-steel skillet filled with water about an inch and a half deep. Bring it to a boil while dissolving the salt into it and adding the vinegar.
2. The hard part of poaching eggs is keeping them together as you add them to the pan. The best trick is to use a coffee cup–the kind that narrows at the bottom. Break one egg into each of four cups. (Or eight, if your skillet is big enough to fit all those eggs.)
3. When the water comes to a boil, lower the heat to the lowest possible setting. Slide the eggs carefully into the pan, two (or four, even) at a time. Let them simmer for three to four minutes, depending on the size of the eggs.
4. The best tool to remove the eggs with is a round skimmer with holes in it, or a large slotted spoon. Carefully remove one at a time, and let the excess water drip off.
5. Place a slice of smoked salmon atop each English muffin half, then top with an egg. Cover with a generous flow of hollandaise. Garnish with the fried capers.
Serves four entrees or eight appetizers.
Lasagna @ Katie’s
Through most of recorded history, lasagna was made in a large baking dish, the better for the sheets of pasta, layers and cheese and meat, and flowing tomato sauce to bake to lusciousness. The problem with this for restaurants is that a large number of orders must be made at one time, and held until an order for lasagna comes in. Katie’s got around this by buying small casseroles (or large ramekins–they’re about the size of soufflee dishes). The standards lasagna ingredients are stacked in it, and not baked until ordered. Because of the small size, these can be baked to order, coming out rich and bubbly and nicely encrusted at the top layer.
Katie’s. Mid-City: 3701 Iberville. 504-488-6582.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
November 14, 2014
Days Until. . .
Thanksgiving–13
Christmas–41
New Year’s–48
Food Calendar
Today is National Guacamole Day. The word translates from the language of the aboriginal Mexicans as “avocado sauce.” They were eating it and avocados–a pure American food–long before the arrival of the Spanish. Although guacamole carries with it a sort of secret-recipe cachet, in fact it’s easy to make. The key is in limiting the recipe to ingredients that the Aztecs would have used. The originators seem to have had it down cold. So we’re talking about native American plants: avocados, chile peppers, cilantro, onions, and tomatoes. No dairy products. No black pepper. Two ingredients of non-Aztec origin that can pass are olive oil and lime juice, both used in small proportions and mainly to keep the concoction from spoiling too fast.
Guacamole is everywhere in restaurants, and much of it is even good. Only recently has the spectre of pre-made guacamole reared it’s ugly head; avocados have until recently resisted all efforts at packaging. On the other hand, some restaurants (notably Sun Ray Grill, in New Orleans) now make their guacamole to order, sometimes right at the table. In Mexico, guacamole is almost always made to order, even in the tourist-pitched restaurants.
The only problem with guacamole is that good, ripe avocados are not always available. One must plan ahead, buying the avocados days before you’ll serve them. If I can only get Florida avocados or stone-hard, underripe Hass avocados, the dish is off the table. Guacamole is a house specialty of mine. My guests expect to find it when they come over, even for Thanksgiving.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Fritters Corner, Virginia is forty-seven miles south of Washington, DC, about a half-mile west of the Potomac River. It’s just south of the Quantico Marine Corps Base. The suburban development is creeping up to Fritters Corners, and the traffic on I-95 nearby is heavy, but so far it’s still a rural crossroads in a densely-wooded area. It’s six miles away from the Log Cabin, the nearest restaurant, in Stafford.
Edible Dictionary
mizithra, (Greek), n., adj.–A fresh cheese made in Greece, Cyprus, and Crete (and copied elsewhere). It’s made of the milk of sheep or goats (or both), traditionally unpasteurized. It’s very white, and visually resembles fresh-milk mozzarella. But the flavor is much tangier, and the texture is more like that of aged ricotta. It breaks easily but doesn’t crumble. The name “mizithra” is almost as generic as “cheddar” is in this country. It has no defined place of origin, and there are wide variations from one mizithra cheese to another. It is not as common as it once was, perhaps because similar but better Greek cheeses have taken its place. On the other hand, the Cretan and Cypriot mizithras are held in great esteem on those islands.
Deft Dining Rule #523
Adding a layer of guacamole to a Mexican dish that already has three or more ingredients inside the tortilla cannot be guaranteed to make the dish better.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
When making guacamole, combine all the ingredients except the avocado first. Then scoop out the avocados and add them as quickly as possible. Mix only until the avocados are chunky, not a mash.
Annals Of Food Writing
Prosper Montagne was born today in 1865. He was one of several brilliant French chefs who remade French cuisine in the early 1900s, and streamlined kitchen operations by organizing cooks better and simplifying presentations. But his finest legacy is the creation of Larousse Gastronomique, an encyclopedic treatise of French cookery, still being published in many languages. It’s considered the last word on the subject.
Today’s Worst Flavors
Today in 2003, a bunch of people were sickened with hepatitis A after eating at restaurant in Pittsburgh. Three died. Green onions proved to be the vector. Always wash your vegetables and your hands before eating. And never eat your hands. . . On the very same day, a man in Chennai, India ate two hundred live earthworms in just over twenty seconds, beating the previous record of ninety-four worms in thirty seconds. That achievement was by an American named Hogg–no joke. C. Manoharan’s feat was performed in front of official observers for Guinness. Earthworms are edible, but who would want to? Some years ago McDonald’s was accused of substituting earthworms for beef. It disproved the charge by noting that earthworms are much more expensive than beef is.
Food Namesakes
Today is the birthday (1954) of Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State in the Bush II admin. . . Prince and the NPG had a number one hit on this date in 1991 with a song entitled Cream.. . . Accordionist Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural of Buckwheat Zydeco was born today in 1947. . . John Steuart Curry, who was a painter and maker of lithographs, was born today in 1897. . . Harrison Salisbury, long-time New York Times journalist, was born today in 1908. . . British wrestler Shirley “Big Daddy” Crabtree, who had a sixty-two-inch chest, wrestled his way into the world today in 1930. . . Leo Hendrik Baekland was born today in 1863. He was the inventor of Bakelite, which is considered the first plastic.
Words To Eat By
“To be always intending to live a new life, but never find time to set about it–this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking from one day to another till he be starved and destroyed.”–Sir Walter Scott.
“In the last analysis, a pickle is a cucumber with experience.”–Cookbook author and wit Irena Chalmers. Today is alleged to be National Pickle Day.
Words To Drink By
“When I find someone I respect writing about an edgy, nervous wine that dithered in the glass, I cringe. When I hear someone I don’t respect talking about an austere, unforgiving wine, I turn a bit austere and unforgiving myself. When I come across stuff like that and remember about the figs and bananas, I want to snigger uneasily. You can call a wine red, and dry, and strong, and pleasant. After that, watch out.”–Kingsley Amis.
Hot Sauce In The Days Of King Arthur.
If only those caravans from the Silk Road would show up with more pepper.
Click here for the cartoon.