Friday, September 4, 2009
1032 Restaurants Open Around Town
Eating Around New Orleans Today
The excellent wine store Cork and Bottle, in the American Can apartments on Orleans Avenue and Bayou St. John, added a wine bar some time ago. It's called Clever. And, as Jon Smith has done with the retail store, something new is always turning up there. Clever now has live, local bands--Johnny Angel tonight, and Max Eaton's Earworms--a blues band--tomorrow. On Tuesdays they have a full-fledged tapas bar. Meanwhile, this place is very serious about its wines and has tastings going on virtually all the time.
Cork And Bottle. Mid-City: 3700 Orleans Avenue 504-483-6314.
Eating Around America
Today is the anniversary, in 1781 of the founding of Village of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Little Portion. It evolved into Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles is widely considered one of the best restaurant cities in the country, although that is a relatively recent development. The proximity of the California produce and wine growing areas is a big plus. The wealthy customer base, which places great emphasis on socializing and the trappings of uniqueness, support a broad array of restaurants, with lots of financial lubrication for the most ambitious and expensive restaurants. It's very seductive and slick.
Annals Of Food Writing
Craig Claiborne was born today in 1920. A Mississippi native, he was the food editor of the New York Times for decades, beginning in the late 1950s. He was the first male to hold that position. In the early 1960s, he inaugurated the restaurant review column in the Times. He wrote that with such authority that he set the standard for everyone else writing such a column ever since. His depth of knowledge and taste were unassailable. He appeared on my radio show in 1988, while the station was still in the Maison Blanche Building. Very nice man, extremely knowledgeable. If you want to know all about him, read his book A Feast Made For Laughter. He left us in 2000.
Namesakes Of Great Dishes
This is the birthday, in 1768, of François-René de Chateaubriand, French writer and political figure throughout the years before and after the French Revolution. His name is best known as the common term for a double (or larger) filet mignon, roasted or grilled in one piece and then carved at the table. There's some dispute as to which cut of beef should be used for Chateaubriand. Some authorities say that it refers to the butt end of the tenderloin, and others the sirloin. If you order a Chateaubriand in most restaurants, however, you will be served a five- or six-inch piece of tenderloin cut from its center. It's grilled or roasted, then carved tableside, for two or more diners. That approach gives the beef a different, juicier texture than would come from cutting steaks first then cooking them. Bearnaise sauce is the classic accompaniment, but Perigourdine sauce is also favored. This was the signature dish at Chateaubriand Steakhouse, operated on North Carrollton at Bienville by the brilliant French chef Gerard Crozier until the hurricane. (Chef Gerard is now retired from cooking, in Knoxville.)
Food Calendar
This is National Baked Oysters Day. It's about four decades past the heyday of baked oysters, when fancy restaurants all over America (especially New Orleans) served oysters Rockefeller and its like as appetizers. They were almost always made by placing an oyster on a shell, topping it with a thick sauce, then baking them until they were so hot you had to hold back from eating them lest you burn your tongue.
Baked oysters went out of fashion in the 1980s, largely because restaurants got careless with their preparation. Cooks had a habit of piling too much sauce atop the oysters, making it impossible for a diner to eat the standard half-dozen and then go on to eat anything else. But there's a resurgence of these dishes on local menus--not only of the classics like Rockefeller and Bienville, but also some original baked oyster concoctions. The range of what can top an oyster on its shell is almost infinite. The current vogue is much lighter than the old one. So we see, for example, oysters Tommy at Tommy's, with a bit of prosciutto, a few leaves of spinach, and enough butter to pull it together.
Another interesting innovation has been to leave the oyster out when the sauce is baked on the shell, frying it instead and re-installing it on top of the sauce--perhaps with a spoonful of something like mornay sauce. Now that oysters are back in season, this is the perfect time of year for a grand platter of baked oysters on a bed of rock salt. By the way, the rock salt is there to keep the shells from rocking. In case you wondered.
I see that it is also National Macadamia Nut Day. See Edible Dictionary at left.
Restaurants Through History
Today in 1885 in New York City, the first recorded self-service restaurant anywhere opened. It was the Exchange Buffet, at 928 Broadway. For some reason, it was open only to men.
Food Namesakes
William Colby was sworn in as director of the CIA today in 1973, by Richard Nixon. . . Smashing Pumpkins won seven MTV Video Music Awards today in 1996. . . Actor Leonard Frey was born today in 1938. . . Actress Jennifer Salt was born today in 1944. . . Anthony Weiner, Congressman from New York, was born today in 1964. (Yes, I know a hot dog is spelled "wiener.")
Words To Eat By
"Cooking is at once one of the simplest and most gratifying of the arts, but to cook well one must love and respect food."--Craig Claiborne, born today in 1920.
Chef John Besh's Sixth Restaurant
Domenica Opens In The Reborn
Roosevelt Hotel
After a few quiet days of run-throughs with friends, Chef John Besh's new Italian trattoria Domenica opened in the Roosevelt Hotel this week.
The concept is intriguing, and one that fans of the food of Italy (as opposed to the Italian food we're used to) hope will be long-term. Domenica (that's the Italian word for Sunday) has been curing and aging its salumi (Italian cold cuts, of which prosciutto is the most famous) for several months. Much of it is being made with locally-raised pigs--which is what they'd do in Italy. The flavor of each region's salumi is different as a result.
The restaurant also has a wood-burning oven with a stone turntable for making pizzas. We are promised that the heat is so intense that it will produce the crackly crust for which Italian pizza is celebrated. The oven weighs five tons.
The executive chef is Alon Shaya, who has spent the last year investigating the foods and techniques of Italian cookery and buying the equipment. He is also a partner in the business. The fact that Domenica will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week tells us that it will be on the casual side--probably a good thing. So do the several communal tables in the center of the restaurant. The pizza will grab people, who will discover all the rest of it.
Domenica is on the Baronne Street side of the Roosevelt, in the space formerly occupied by Bailey's.
Domenica. CBD: 123 Baronne. 504-648-6020.
Windsor Court Grill Room
CBD: 300 Gravier 504-522-1994.
Dinner $30
Sweet Corn Soup
Corn salad
~or~
Baby Lettuces
Spiced pecans, grape tomatoes, Champagne vinaigrette
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scottish Salmon
Couscous, Raineri olive oil, zucchini, squash, cherry tomatoes
~or~
Ashley Farms Chicken
Boudin dirty rice, crispy chicken livers, sausage gravy
~or~
Grilled Filet of Angus Beef
Mascarpone potato puree, garlic spinach, vincotto
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Key Lime Crème
Fillo square, grapefruit reduction
~or~
Bananas Foster Bread Pudding
Bananas Foster sauce, vanilla ice cream, hot buttered rum
Thursday, August 27. A Surprise At Neely's Pizza. The renovation of the NOMenu website is driving me a little nuts. I kept the radio show at home today to use the three commuting hours to lessen that effect a little.
After the show ended, I suggested to the girls that we drive to Slidell and have a pizza at a restaurant numerous callers have raved about. In fact, the owner of Neely's has called and written me on a few occasions to make sure I knew about his place. Apparently that technique works.
Finding Neely's was tricky. The address is on a side street unknown to me. They'd be better off if they gave their location in relation to Young's Steak House: it's about a mile up Robert Boulevard from there. (Of course, this assumes one knows where Young's is. It has a sign now, but it's made of wrought iron, and is invisible at night.) We passed Neely's three times before seeing it, and then only because we had Mary Leigh talking us in on the phone, with the help of MapQuest.
When we pulled up to the place, our hearts sank. It was a dumpy little storefront with nobody in it except one guy picking up a take-out order. Mary Ann says that any tips I get from radio listeners are ipso facto worthless. Indeed, we have been sent to many bad restaurants by my listeners. I think this is because I already know almost all of the good restaurants; when someone tells me of a place I've never heard of, chances are high that it's obscure for a reason.
But we'd put so much work into getting here that we stayed anyway. The dining room wasn't much: a few tables, with a counter that made it clear that most of the business Neely's does is take-out.
Discouragement kept coming. The salad was odd: shredded lettuce (good on a poor boy but really hard to eat in a salad), jumbled with olives, surrounded by a ring of pepperoni slices, topped with a pile of shredded mozzarella. A bit much, really--more meat and cheese than salad. The dressing came on the side in a little plastic cup. Why couldn't they toss it? And the inventory of drinks was scant. Only two beers--both lights. Pah. They need Abita.
The pizza options here are unusual. They range from the typical personal size all the way up to a twenty-eight-inch pizza. That's more than twice the square area of an eighteen-incher, which is as big as most shops go. Mary Ann thought we should get two small ones: a kitchen-sink version for her, and whatever I want. Of course, my taste is just the opposite: especially when I'm trying a new pizzeria, I get a straight cheese pizza. With fresh garlic, of they have it--as they did here.
I ordered an eighteen-incher, for two reasons. First, the price increment was so small that I couldn't resist. (And the price was $13.50, the magic number.) Second, I like having leftover pizza around the house.
All the misgivings we had about Neely's went away when the pizza came. This was a first-rate New York style pizza. The ingredients weren't overloaded onto the crust, which was everything I hope for in a pizza. A little crisp at the very bottom, a little bready just above that, and sauce above that. All told, it was just over an eighth of an inch thick, with a nice rim to add substance. Hot, bubbly, well-balanced. Great pizza.
I ate two slices of the cheese and garlic job, and Mary Ann ate another. We got the rest to go. The pizza boxes here have ads on them--for computer equipment, on the one we got. That's a new one on me. I hope they get the boxes for free.
Neely's Pizza. Slidell: 196 Audubon Dr 985-641-2443. Pizza.
Friday, August 28. Peppermill. I extracted a slice of that pizza that we took home from Neely's last night and applied my revival method. I heat up the flat-top grill for about five minutes. Then I put the pizza right on top of it. About four minutes later, when I see that the cheese has melted, I take it off. The only damage done is that it does make the bottom of the crust get a bit darker. But that's a tradeoff for the right-out-of-the-oven crispness that this lends. And I like a few patches of char on a pizza crust, anyway. It was delicious.
I noticed, however, that it wasn't very cold when I took it from the refrigerator. Mary Ann also registered a potential problem: the ice in the bin was wet, and the ice cream was like soft-serve. I looked it over and decided that the coils must have frozen up again, from all the humidity. I know how to fix that. Another job for my already-full weekend.
Dinner at the Peppermill. I wanted to have dinner there ten days ago, but that was a Tuesday, when they're closed. The itch still needed to be scratched. They were fairly busy tonight, which surprised me. The Peppermill's somewhat senior customer base dines early. I was running late, because I had to stay after the radio show to record some commercials. Almost everybody at the Peppermill was nice enough to stay until I was almost finished my meal, so I wouldn't have to dine alone.
I started with my favorite of the Peppermill's specialties: oysters Riccobono. This is an excellent version of Italian baked oysters, with a crust of garlicky, herbal, olive-oil-rich bread crumbs. What makes it a little different from other imitations of oysters Mosca is the presence of a few mushrooms among the oysters. It was as delicious as ever.
I was tempted to pick up the plate when it arrived and show it to the man sitting with his wife behind me. He kept up a dialogue with her and the waitress in which he speculated on the goodness of these oysters and of a shrimp entree. He somehow had the idea that pasta was involved, and the waitress kept explaining this over and over. His wife said the same thing very softly in response to his every question: "I don't know." He couldn't seem to dope it all out. Finally, he said, "Just bring me what she's having." I'd say I hope I'm not like that when I get to be that age, but Mary Ann would say that I'm already that way.
My entree was the pair of crab cakes, covered with a rich, creamy peppercorn sauce. These seem to have replaced the superb stuffed crabs they used to make here. I hope that's not true, but I imagine it may be. Crab cakes keep knocking stuffed crabs off menus all over town. That's too bad. A good stuffed crab is wonderful, and it's a local dish. Crab cakes are an idea we took from Baltimore.
Peppermill. Metairie: 3524 Severn Ave. 504-455-2266. Creole. Italian. Breakfast.
Contemporary Creole.
French Quarter: 1001 Toulouse. 504-522-8800. Map.
Dinner Tuesday-Saturday.
Dressy
AE DC DS MC V
www.lemeritagerestaurant.com
WHY IT'S ESSENTIAL
The menu concept is a striking departure from anything we've seen before. Instead of sections for appetizers, entrees and the other standard courses, the dishes are divided according to which style of wine they'd best match. The wines of that style appear right alongside the suggested dishes. Every dish is available in either a small or large portion; the wines can be had by the full or half-glass. This allows one to dine conventionally, or to create a tasting menu by ordering many small courses.
WHY IT'S GOOD
Although the preparations and presentations are entirely contemporary, Chef Michael Farrell adheres to an unambiguously Creole flavor. Few ingredients are off the list of familiar local products, and all are sourced carefully enough that the oysters are large and meaty (even in late summer), the crabmeat is in big lumps,and the shrimp are big and vivid. It all comes out in well-composed plates, whether small or large.
BACKSTORY
This is the major restaurant of the Maison Dupuy Hotel, which when it opened in 1975 sported no less an eminence than the then little known Chef Paul Prudhomme in the kitchen. It was Chef Paul's first New Orleans restaurant. Since he left, the space has seen so many other concepts come and go that I've lost count. Two of the most interesting were the city's first all-appetizer restaurant (in the early 1980s) and Dominique's, the home of Chef Dominique Macquet for many years, which ended abruptly in early 2009.
DINING ROOM
The dining room has a separate entrance from Burgundy Street, through a small patio that gives the illusion of disconnect with the hotel and its bar, which is much more casual. The dining room is expansive, with windows into the courtyard as well as the entrance patio. The service staff is unusually well versed on not only the food but the wines, which Le Meritage takes seriously.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Fried oysters on the half shell with horseradish, citrus zest.
Crabcake with crawfish.
Smoked salmon napoleon with caviar.
Arugula, apple and pine nut salad.
Pan roasted redfish with fried green tomatoes.
Shrimp and grits with tasso.
Corn and crab bisque.
Rabbit tenderloin with tagliatelle pasta.
Sea scallops with beluga lentils.
Tuna tartare.
Duck two ways (grilled breast, foie gras-topped confit).
Grilled quail with andouille and cornbread stuffing.
Pork tenderloin with molasses glaze.
Flatiron steak.
Braised beef short ribs.
Herb crusted lamb chops with hash of sweet potatoes, apples, and bacon.
Filet mignon with blue cheese tartelette.
Apple bread pudding with ice cream.
FOR BEST RESULTS
Forget about the entree-size portions, and construct a dinner from several small plates, with half-glasses of wine as appropriate.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The servers could ease back a touch on their admiration of the chef and the menu concept. Something must be done to fill more of the chairs in the dining room.
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 +2
- Consistency +1
- Service +2
- Value +1
- Attitude +2
- Wine and Bar +2
- Hipness +1
- Local Color +2
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Many private rooms
- Open Sunday lunch and dinner
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Open most holidays
- Free valet parking
- Reservations honored promptly
Squid, Octopus, And Other Cephalopods
Ten-tentacled animals seem so bizarre to a lot of people that, when they finally get around to eating them, they get a special thrill from doing so. (Compare with the way people get worked up about eating sushi.) The era of fried calamari--once found in every Italian restaurant in town--seems to be in a slump. All the formerly best places (notably La Riviera) are gone, or they don't do as fine a job as they once did. Moving into the breach are other chefs with other dishes made with these monsters.
1. Patois. Uptown: 6078 Laurel. 504-895-9441. Grilled baby octopus with olives, served cold.
2. Korea House. Metairie: 3547 18th. 504-888-0654. Spicy squid with vegetables. Enormous hot dish.
3. Royal China. Metairie: 600 Veterans Blvd. 504-831-9633. Salt and pepper squid, a spicy stir-fry.
4. Jamila’s. Uptown: 7806 Maple. 504-866-4366. Stuffed calamari with shrimp and bulgur wheat.
5. Bombay Club. French Quarter: 830 Conti. 504-586-0972. Asian-style fried calamari, with a sweet-heat finish.
6. Bosco’s. Mandeville: 2040 La. Hwy. 59. 985-624-5066. Sauteed calamari with garlic, an unusual take on the dish.
7. Acropolis Cuisine. Metairie: 3841 Veterans Blvd.. 504-888-9046. Fried calamari--lots of it, light, and tender.
8. Rambla. CBD: 221 Camp. 504-587-7720. Grilled octopus with chickpeas and chili oil.
9. Shogun. Metairie: 2325 Veterans Blvd. 504-833-7477. Octopus sushi or sashimi. Every sushi bar in town has this, and the differences are slight, but it's never less than perfect here.
10. Cafe 615 (Da Wabbit) . Gretna: 615 Kepler. 504-365-1225 . Fried calamari, a little overcooked but greaseless, which not many versions of this are.
Have I missed a good one? If you know of a great calamari or octopus that belongs on this list, post it on our messageboard. (You'll also find other people's suggestions there.)
An index to all our top-ten lists is here.
Roast Tenderloin Of Beef
With Zinfandel Sauce
A few times a year, I cook big, festive dinners for people who bought my services at auction for one charity or another. This dish is one I often include in those dinners. My guests seem to be impressed that I turn a whole bottle of wine into about a cup of sauce. That's an easy trick, though.
- 1 bottle Zinfandel (or other full-bodied red wine)
- 1 whole beef tenderloin, trimmed of silverskin and fat
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 2 Tbs. chopped French shallots
- 1 bottle Zinfandel (or other full-bodied red wine)
- 1 tsp. dried tarragon
- 1 tsp. black peppercorns
- 1 cup rich beef stock
- 1 heaping Tbs. orange marmalade
- 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
1. Pour yourself and your partner each a glass of Zinfandel, then pour the rest of the bottle into a saucepan. Bring it to a light boil and let it reduce while you perform the rest of the steps.
2. Cut off two or three inches from the narrow end of the tenderloin, and save them for another dish. (It's good, but it will cook faster than the rest of the tenderloin.)
3. Generously salt and pepper the tenderloin. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, then add the tenderloin. Brown the beef all over, then remove the pan from the heat.
4. Transfer the tenderloin to a rack on a roasting pan and put it into the center of the oven at 400 degrees. (Alternatively, you could grill it, either indoors or outdoors.) However you cook it, take it off when a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part shows 130 degrees. That will still be rare, but the heat held by the meat will take it up to medium-rare after about ten minutes. Don't slice it until the beef has rested that long.
5. While the beef is in the oven or on the grill, add the shallots to the skillet in which you seared the beef. Cook for for about a minute, then add the reduced wine. Whisk to dissolve the browned bits and juices in the pan into the wine, and return to a light boil. Add the tarragon, peppercorns, beef stock, marmalade, and Worcestershire. Reduce to one cup of liquid. Remove the sauce from the heat and strain.
6. Whisk the remaining butter into the sauce while it's still hot, a tablespoon at a time. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. After the beef has rested for ten minutes, slice it about three-quarters of an inch thick. Spoon the sauce onto the plates and top with the tenderloin.
Serves eight, with lots of leftover steaks.
Missing something from the old format? I've moved some departments to the column at left. Click here to go back to the top.
