From A Past Issue Of The New Orleans Menu Daily Originally published June 21, 2006 Ten Best Cold Dishes (Other than salads, sushi, and raw oysters) Today is the first full day of summer. In the next few issues, we'll search for the best cold food around town, with special categories for the obvious things mentioned above. 1. Crabmeat maison, Galatoire's. Jumbo lump, light mayonnaise dressing with capers. 2. Steak tartare, Arnaud's. Hardly anybody makes tartare anymore. This one is classic, made from a recipe purloined from the "21" Club in New York. 3. Shrimp remoulade, Brigtsen's. Great version of remoulade, served with various sides. Sometimes it's deviled eggs, sometimes avocodo, sometimes other things. It's almost always on the menu. 4. Crabmeat Louis, Clancy's. Jumbo lumps, set in the middle of a little salad, with the horseradish-mayonnaise Louis sauce on the side. The crabmeat was good and sweet enough to eat all by itself, but the sauce makes the flavors detonate. 5. Vitello tonnato, Andrea's. Roasted tenderloin of veal, chilled down and served with a tuna-flavored mayonnaise. Much, much better than it sounds, and a Northern Italian classic. 6. Gravlax, Broussard's. Chef-owner Gunter Preuss has a thing for gravlax, the cured fresh salmon from Scandinavia. He's had it on the menu at all his restaurants over the years. And here it is again, as silky and mellow as ever. 7. Crabmeat salad, Alberta. Hard to resist: a reasonably generous pile of crabmeat alongside a tower of greens, blue cheese, and bacon. All parts are just about perfect, and the ensemble is wonderful too. 8. Carpaccio of beef, Dakota. Good cold beef, seared at the edges, served over a salad. They also make a superb salad with tuna prepared much the same way. On occasion, I've had them make a hybrid of the two for the best treat of all. 9. Vichyssoise, Antoine's. Antoine's makes the richest and best vichyssoise in town. The potato-and-leek soup is enriched here with more than a little sour cream. They used to serve it in a special bowl set into a container of crushed ice, but I think that's a thing of the past now. 10. Grilled beef on cold noodles, Pho Tau Bay. Vietnamese restaurants have a wide assortment of dishes in which roasted meats are served atop noodles that are cool to outright cold. This is a great example of that. © 2006 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com