The Perfect Wine Dinner For A Warm Evening
The wines of Trimbach–one of the leading producers in the Alsace region of northeastern France–have long been enjoyed by New Orleanians. A lot of them with French roots trace their lineage to Alsace. But a better reason for liking these wines is that they’re better with food than most bottles. Almost all of them are white and dry, although our dinner will feature one rare Pinot Noir. (It will be the lightest Pinot you’ve ever had, I betcha.)
The dinner is this Tuesday night at Antoine’s. I am reserving a largish table for listeners and readers who might care to join me. It’s not an official Eat Club event (whatever that means), but it will feature the same kind of camaraderie we usually enjoy. Here’s the menu with all the wines:
Hors d’Oeuvres
Soufflee potatoes, shrimp canapes, shrimp remoulade
Wine: Trimbach Pinot Blanc
Fresh Spinach and Scallops au Gratin
Wine: Trimbach Riesling
Oyster and artichoke soup
Wine: Trimbach Gewurztraminer
Pork Loin “Trimbach”
Crabmeat and andouille stuffing, pannee eggplant, Pinot Noir wine sauce
Wine: Trimbach Pinot Gris Gold Label and Trimbach Pinot Noir
Baked Alaska
Chocolate sauce
Wine: Trimbach Poire William Brandy
Cafe
The dinner begins at 6:30 a.m. The price is $120, inclusive of tax, tip and wines. Reservations should be made with Wendy at 504-581-4422.
Antoine’s
French Quarter: 713 St Louis. 504-581-4422. www.antoines.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.
Wine Dinner: Best New Restaurant On North Shore
After making the rounds of the contemporary gourmet restaurants around New Orleans, Osman Rodas opened his own a couple of years ago. Each visit we made there was dramatically better than the time before. After a particularly memorable evening a couple of months ago, I raised the rating to five stars. On the way out, I asked Osman whether we could hold an Eat Club event at Pardo’s. It took awhile to pull it together, and the regular customers filled up most of the seats rapidly. We have a few left for our group. The menu is a collection of Pardo’s best specialties. Here they are:
Passed Appetizers
Asian tuna tartare, wonton crisp, wasabi aioli
Dijon salmon relish, crostini, crisp dill
Cured duck breast, toasted brioche, apple chutney
Tempura Lane Snapper
Edamame hummus, raspberry hoisin
Pan Seared Diver Scallop
Watercress & peach couscous, crispy parsnips, saffron gastrique
Panneed Rabbit Tenderloin
Cipolinni risotto, wild mushroom duxelles, sweetbread crouton
Truffle Braised Veal Cheek
Port salute polenta, sauce naturelle, melted leeks
Roasted Pear & Marscapone French Crepe
Reisling & pear jus, pear crème fraiche, pear tuille
Pardo’s
Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014.
Covington: 69305 Hwy 21. Map.
$75, wines included, plus tax and tip.
We don’t have the identities of the wines just yet, but I will post them as soon as I get them. This promises to be a sold-out dinner, so please reserve soon.
Click here to reserve.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014.
The Third Generation Of Dick & Jenny’s.
The weeks before and after Labor Day are the best for dining in restaurants for people who refuse to wait in line, or who dislike crowds. Dick & Jenny’s has long been the kind of restaurant where one looks for respites from those conditions. At least until recently. A wildly successful phenom in the pre-Katrina years, after things settled down at Dick & Jenny’s following the storm, so did the mob scene. One of the changes in that era was the departure of Dick and Jenny Benz, who left town (they’re in Buffalo, I think; that’s where Dick came from).
Dick & Jenny’s.
The management after that had been part of the restaurant from the beginning, and it was possible not to notice any changes at all. Still, people didn’t call me about the place as often. You still had to wait for a table, but not as long.
Earlier this year the people who own Martinique (as well as Christiano’s in Houma) bought Dick & Jennie’s. This time the rotation of staff and customers was felt more deeply.
And that’s where things are when I have dinner at the restaurant tonight. I didn’t have to wait. In fact, I got the best table in the house in a room with only a few other tables seated. The attendance would grow through the evening. But it was decidedly a Tuesday in late August.
Dick & Jennys Summer Salad
I ask the waiter for a couple of variations from the menu items and specials, all of which sound good. (My cook’s instincts sometime make me wonder “what if?”.) I start with the summer salad, which is well described: lots of tender greens (as opposed to the thick, crisp ones you get when it cools off) and small tomatoes (the big ones are about done for now). The chef, who somehow hears I am in the room, sends an amuse-bouche of a single big head-on shrimp, with a few puddles of a thick white sauce made pink with tomato. “The chef noticed that you have tomatoes in every course you ordered, so we thought you’d like this one too,” says the waiter. He is correct.
Dick and Jenny’s pasta Alfredo variation.
The third course is half an order of one of the pasta dishes. It is hard to describe, being sort of a hybrid of Alfredo and pesto. The fresh basil is torn into large strips. Cubes of eggplant here, capers there, chunks of tomato all around. Very fresh and good, lighter than it sounds.
Grilled wahoo with tomato corn sauce at Dick & Jenny’s.
The fish of the day is wahoo. Sold! That’s a terrific but seldom-encountered (in restaurants, anyway) Gulf fish that lends itself especially well to grilling. The sauce is predominantly made with tomato puree, with corn scattered throughout. One of my theories gets another proof: I think it’s a bad idea to combine tomatoes and seafood, but sometimes it’s good, and when it’s good it’s fantastically delicious. That is certainly true here.
Bread pudding at Dick & Jenny’s.
I wrap up with a small cube of bread pudding with a butter-creamy sauce underneath and blueberries on top. Rich, good, but I have eaten too much, so I’m not jumping up and down.
Why did I eat a dinner like this when tomorrow I will face a fourteen-course repast at Square Root? I really love my food, is why.
Dick & Jenny’s. Uptown: 4501 Tchoupitoulas. 504-894-9880.
Dozen Best French Restaurants
When I began describing the restaurants of New Orleans, French cooking was king here. Even unarguably Creole restaurants like Arnaud’s, Antoine’s, and even Tujague’s said they served French food, and used the French language heavily (exclusively, in the case of Antoine’s) in their menus. The few non-Creole French restaurants tended toward the most formal end of the dining spectrum, and were among the most expensive and ceremonious restaurants in town. That condition peaked in the early 1980s, when palatial restaurants like Louis XVI, the Sazerac, L’Escale, Les Continents, and Maison Pierre created a buzz in gourmet circles.
But not for long. Suddenly, all of those were gone, with no more of their ilk to take their place. The restaurants people went to for a Big Occasion were the new kind of chef-driven Creole restaurants. The French restaurants that survived the mass extinction were all bistros like La Crepe Nanou, Chateau du Lac, and Cafe Degas. Escargots, onion soup gratinee, mussels mariniere, poulet a la grandmere, steak and frites, and tarte Tatin were everywhere. Restaurants along those lines blossomed all around New Orleans in the 200s, but now they seem to be on the downswing in terms of numbers. As for the big, expensive, formal French restaurant, it never came back, and I don’t expect it ever will. It’s dying even in France.
La Provence dining room.
1. La Provence. Lacombe: 25020 US 190. 985-626-7662. The unique goodness of La Provence is that of the rustic but sophisticated country inn, the kind you find all over Europe. It’s better now than it’s been at any time since the hurricane, and founder Chris Kerageorgiou must be smiling down on it.
Chef Justin Devillier.
2. La Petite Grocery. Uptown 2: Washington To Napoleon: 4238 Magazine. 504-891-3377. The Grocery’s menu reads like something from the French Riviera. The flavors are big and rustic, and although most of the menu is French, you get some Italian flavors, too. Chef-owner Justin Devillier is now firmly in charge of the restaurant’s style.
Charcuterie at Chateau du Lac.
3. Chateau Du Lac. Metairie 1: Old Metairie: 2037 Metairie Rd. 504-831-3773. Chateau du Lac is one of the few restaurants anymore with a French chef-owner cooking classical French dishes. Jacques Seleun hails from Brittany–something that shows n his cooking. The sauces in particular reach deep into the French repertoire.
4. La Crepe Nanou. Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 1410 Robert. 504-899-2670. Long before French bistros were all over New Orleans, La Crepe Nanou felt and tasted like a dislocated slice of Paris. The food is classic bistro fare: fresh, French, inexpensive, and more delicious than you anticipate.
5. Lilette. Uptown 2: Washington To Napoleon: 3637 Magazine. 504-895-1636. In a time when the city is full of French bistros, this one is unique. The menu is unlike any other hereabouts, using offbeat ingredients in polished recipes. If you want boidin noir, you have to come here.
6. Cafe Degas. Mid-City: 3127 Esplanade Ave. 504-945-5635. Café Degas makes you feel as if you’re on vacation in the Loire Valley. No other restaurant makes it so clear how interwoven with France our food culture is. Time seems to go by more slowly. You may as well have another glass of wine.
Baie Rouge dining room and bar.
7. Baie Rouge. Uptown 2: Washington To Napoleon: 4128 Magazine. 504-304-3667. The many new openings on Magazine Street in the past year include this unexpectedly excellent, inexpensive French-and-Spanish bistro. It looks like a neighborhood cafe, but the food is ambitious and creative, with a sure sense of taste.
8. Meauxbar. French Quarter: 942 N Rampart. 504-569-9979. The original Meauxbar closed early in 2014, but its owners sold it and the mis-name (it’s decidedly a restaurant, not really a bar) to the owners of Ste. Marie. They were looking for a new location, and this one across from the Mahalia Jackson Theater suited them well. Same menu they had on Poydras Street–basic French bistro fare, with a New Orleans accent.
Pheasant at Patois.
9. Patois. Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 6078 Laurel. 504-895-9441. Chef Aaron Burgau built out his menu with the close-to-the-ground French country flavors in mind. The New Orleans touches are from so long ago that they were much more Gallic than they are now. Yet it feels innovative.
Brisket at Luke.
10. Lüke. CBD: 333 St Charles Ave. 504-378-2840. Lüke is the most eccentric yet most successful of Chef John Besh’s group of six restaurants. It’s patterned on the bistros of Alsace, France, including the flavors there that have a decidedly German quality. You find dishes here found nowhere else in New Orleans.
Courtyard at Martinique.
11. Martinique. Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 5908 Magazine. 504-891-8495. Martinique is one of the surprisingly few restaurants in New Orleans that serve respectable, interesting food in an outdoor setting. Although the space is distinctly Uptown, the menu is that of a French bistro, but in a fresh, slightly island-influenced style.
Moules et frites, Ciro’s Cote Sud.
12. Ciro’s Cote Sud. Uptown 4: Riverbend, Carrollton & Broadmoor: 7918 Maple. 504-866-9551. Pizza and French food came together here as an accident, but new trends in cooking and dining caught up with them. Now the idea of pizza and moules et frites sharing the same menu doesn’t seem strange at all.
Dried Mushrooms. Any Good?
Q.
I bought a package of mixed, dried mushrooms at the store, thinking I could use them almost like fresh. I didn’t like the results. What exactly can these be used for?
A. Dried mushrooms have been widely used for a long time, especially in Asian cooking. They offer one distinct utility: while fresh mushrooms–especially the exotic or wild varieties–are only available when they pop out of the ground, you can get the same species in dried form much more often. For example, we don’t find morel mushrooms growing around New Orleans, but you can usually get dried morels.
The essential first step is to soak the ‘shrooms in warm water, sometimes for hours, before you use them. At which point you can almost use them like fresh–but with a loss of a certain something. (Freshness, I guess.) Remember to save the water the mushrooms soaked in, which will be a great addition to the sauce.
Some chefs put dried mushrooms in a food processor, grind them up, and use them as a coating. (There’s a great chicken dish made that way at Bistro Daisy on Magazine Street.)
In other words, try them again, doing all the tasks above before just throwing them into the pot.
Cataplana With Mussels And Shrimp
Cataplana is the Portuguese version of what in France is called bouillabaisse, in Spain zarzuela, and in Italy cioppino. With regional differences, of course. The only restaurant I’ve ever found it was at La Cote Brasserie in its early days. They took it off the menu, so I had to do some research to develop my own slightly Creolized recipe, which pleased me. (If only my family were more adventuresome.)
I know this looks like a long, complicated recipe, but it’s not really as hard as it appears. You have the whole weekend to have fun.
1/2 lb. chorizo sausage
4-5 oz. tasso
1/4 cup olive oil
3 onions, sliced thinly
1/2 cup chopped fresh fennel (or celery)
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 cup dry white wine
1 28-oz. can whole Italian tomatoes
6 dozen mussels in the shell, scrubbed and debearded if necessary
2 lbs. 21-25 count (jumbo) shrimp in shell
8 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Rouille:
2 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Tabasco
6 cloves garlic
1 1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup tomato puree
1. In a large skillet over medium heat, saute the chorizo and the tasso until the chorizo is cooked. Drain on paper towels and pour off any excess fat.
2. Add the olive oil and heat until it shimmers. Add the onions, fennel, crushed red pepper, and black pepper. Cook until the onions are transparent. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Let the skillet simmer for about five minutes.
3. Crush the tomatoes by hand or in a food processor, and add it and all the juice from the can (remove the basil leaf) to the skillet. Bring the skillet to a boil, stir, then lower the heat to a simmer. Add the chorizo and the tasso, cover the skillet and let it simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring now and then.
4. Place about one and a half cups of the sauce into a Dutch oven over medium-low heat. When the sauce begins to boil, add the shrimp and the mussels into the pot and cover with the remaining sauce, plus about 1/4 cup of water. Cover the pot and simmer for 12-14 minutes.
5. While waiting, make the rouille. Puree the garlic in a food processor or a mortar and pestle. Whisk the egg yolks, salt and Tabasco in a bowl until the mixture begins to turn fluffy. Add the olive oil a few drops at a time while whisking. When the mixture begins to thicken, you can begin adding the oil a bit faster, but never more than a thin stream. When all the oil is whisked in, add the tomato puree and whisk. Taste the rouille, and add cayenne to taste.
6. Open the pot and stir the contents mussels around. Put the top back on and cook another few minutes. Any mussels that have not opened should be removed and discarded.
7. Divide the mussels and shrimp among large bowls. Add the parsley to the sauce and stir the sauce to blend. Add salt if necessary to taste. Spoon the sauce over the mussels and shrimp. Serve the rouille either on croutons or right into the middle of the bowl.
Serve with extra bowls for the shells and extra napkins. White wine is a must with this.
Serves eight.
Veal Chop @ Le Foret
Veal chops have never been among my favorite dishes, but the very best of them excite me anyway. When I first had the one at Le Foret, I’d had another impressive one elsewhere a few days before. Even with that comparison going against it, I found this thick chop the best I ever had. Which is to say simply grilled or seared, with a blush of pink in the center. (Rare veal chops are not a good idea; not enough fat or gelatin is thereto keep them tender.) It didn’t even need a sauce.
Le Foret. CBD: 129 Camp. 504-553-6738.
We find this dish to be among the 500 best in New Orleans area restaurants.
September 5, 2014
Days Until. . .
Summer ends 18
Gourmets Through History
Today in 1638 was the birthday of Louis XIV, king of France for fifty-two years. “The Sun King” built the Palace at Versailles, which set a standard that continues to be copied by autocratic rulers around the world. The regal court also defined the French aristocracy’s ideas of high living, hauteur, and corruption. As a rare good result, French cuisine rose to previously unimagined heights. Louis demanded feasts that would last all day. From that came the new idea of serving food in courses. Table etiquette became important, with forks emerging as de rigueur tableware for the first time. All of this was The Sun King’s strategy for keeping the rest of the nobility off balance, and so to enhance his power. It worked.
Annals Of New Orleans Hangouts
Today in 1964, The House Of The Rising Sun climbed to Number One on the pop music charts, where it would remain for three weeks. It was a dark song that began:
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it’s been the ruin of many poor boy
And God, I know I’m one.
The original House Of The Rising Sun was a brothel that operated at 826-830 St. Louis St. from 1862 (when New Orleans was occupied by Union troops) until 1874, when it was closed due to complaints by neighbors. It was next door to the Hermann-Grima House. It was named for Madame Marianne LeSoleil Levant (the last two names mean “rising sun” in French). The British invasion group The Animals–led by Eric Burdon–performed it. When the song came out, there was no business by that name here, but there is now–a bar at 333 Bourbon. I’m concerned about those ruined poor boys in the song. Was the gravy burned, the meat tough, the mayonnaise curdled, or what?
Edible Dictionary
crumpet, n.–A round breakfast cake, similar to both a pancake and an English muffin, but much thicker. It starts with a thick but flowing batter made with both yeast and baking powder. The batter goes onto a hot pan or griddle, spreading out and flattening a bit before it sets. Air bubbles from the baking powder come up through the top, leaving small holes that will remain in the finished crumpet. The dough is a little sweet. Sometimes it contains fruit. Crumpets are a familiar breakfast and tea-time snack in Great Britain and some British colonies. They date back to Anglo-Saxon times at least, and perhaps to Celtic times.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Oven Fork, Kentucky has a rare name: both parts of it have a food connection. It’s in that wellspring of towns with food-related names, the western slopes of the Appalachians, where Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky meet. It’s a small community of farms in a mountainous, coal-mining district, right on the twisting, pristine Cumberland River. It’s a scenic area–except for the strip mines in the distance. The Poor Fork of the Cumberland is a Class 1 scenic river whose large population of brook trout draws a lot of fishermen. The people in the area are fighting the expansion of the strip mines, which could ruin the fishing and the tourism. The nearest lunch spot is the Pine mountain Grill, four miles away in Whitesburg.
Annals Of Funny Cookbook Authors
Justin Wilson died today in 2001. The Cajun comedian evolved into a Cajun cook, and one of the earliest and still most-watched television chefs. His cookbooks remain best-sellers.
Annals Of Beef
Today in 1867, a small herd of cows entered the first railroad cattle cars, and took a train trip from Abilene, Kansas to Chicago. This was the beginning of Chicago’s business as the major beef-packing town in the United States. Although the Union Stock Yards are now gone, Chicago’s renown as a steak town remains. (Although New Orleans is, I’d say, on a par with it for our quality of steak-eating.)
Food In The Movies
Today in 2008, a new comedy film called I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With premiered, written and directed by one Jeff Garlin, who was also the star.
Food Namesakes
Jerry Rice caught his 127th touchdown pass today in 1994, setting the record. . . Blind track star Graham Salmon (who possesses a rare double food name) was born today in 1952. . . Daniel Mace, Tennessee Congressman, was born today in 1811. . . Former Arkansas governor Francis Adams Cherry was born today in 1908. . . Frank Farina, Australian soccer pro, kicked off today in 1964.
Words To Eat By
“Food, love, career, and mothers: the four major guilt groups.”–Cathy Guisewite, creator of the just-ended comic strip “Cathy,” born today in 1950.
“When I saw the dancing chicken, I knew I would create a grand metaphor—for what, I don’t know.”–Werner Herzog, film director, born today in 1942.
Words To Drink By
“It’s like gambling somehow. You go out for a night of drinking and you don’t know where your going to end up the next day. It could work out good or it could be disastrous. It’s like the throw of the dice.”–Jim Morrison, lead singer for The Doors.
Mom Always Knows Best.
And when Mom says that a certain kind of dinner will be served at a certain time and place, your wishes are not likely to be exactly fulfilled.
Click here for the cartoon.