The New Orleans Menu

An Expatriate Does The Town

Here's a series of reports from Mike R., a visitor who spent half his life living in New Orleans, but left before he was old enough to do a lot of dining in restaurants. So he's a tourist with an unusual perspective. Interesting!

Tujague's

September 13. Had the five-course dinner for $36: Shrimp remoulade, gumbo, brisket, chicken Creole, and bread pudding. Each was delicious. The remoulade, brisket, and chicken had three distinct tomato-based sauces. The shrimp were big; I was surprised that they seemed to be just boiled in water or maybe steamed. The brisket was fork-tender and flavorful even without the sauce. The seafood and sausage gumbo was great. (I had five gumbos over the course of three days.) It had a back-fin of a crab which added authenticity, but no okra.

The chicken Creole was nice, except for the tiny bones that seemed to be in nearly every bite. Can't they take the bones out before serving? I know they are integral to the flavor of the dish, but the hassle of pulling them out of my mouth was quite annoying.

I was surprised how many people came in, were greeted, sat down, considered the cost, and left without ordering. They were tourists, obviously. Perhaps before the storm Tujague's had a waiting line, and as a result non-committed diners didn't make it to the table in the first place. It was kinda depressing. I talked to the waiter who told me that for the first time since its opening in 1856, the restaurant is not open for lunch. Bummer.

Galatoire's

September 14. Walked in, asked for a table for two. The hostess said the wait would be an hour. I announced that I had a reservation, and she welcomed me to go directly upstairs. We were seated in one of the interior rooms behind the front room. The clientelle was nice: a birthday party, a business meeting, a reunion of two twenty-somethings who appeared to be old friends. I had the COOLinary menu, augmented with a cup of gumbo. I tried escargot for the first time. I found it to be a very good excuse to eat butter. They had a smokey flavor, and a pork-y flavor, and the texture of mushrooms. The more I ate, the more they reminded me of my mother's version of rumaki, which is just a piece of chicken liver wrapped in bacon.

The gumbo was different from Tujague's: it contained okra. Then fried softshell crab. This is a dish I never had in a restaurant, although I think I may have had it prepared by my grandmother at our fishing camp in Pointe au Chene many years ago. (She just celebrated 89.) I feared softshell crab dishes at other restaurants because I believed it requires some skill to prepare correctly. At Galatoire's. It was fine, but mostly tasteless. My friend had oysters Rockefeller and the stuffed eggplant. The Rockefeller sauce had a very nice flavor and texture. The stuffed eggplant was not at all what I was expecting, and left me questioning what was the point of it.

Finally I had the cup custard, which was very good. We saw the neighboring table enjoying café brulot, and decided to have some of that ourselves. Very good. A great show, a great taste, and the flavor of the cloves and cinnamon were present in my palate for an hour after the meal, pleasantly.

Cochon

September15. I had, you guessed it, gumbo. It was meaty, unlike anything I was expecting. My friend from Biloxi seemed to know that it would come with potato salad in the gumbo, so we were able to avoid that tragedy and order it on the side. I ended up mixing the gumbo and potato salad in a few bites, and it cut the meatiness and was quite nice. My two friends shared the boucherie, which wasn't impressive to me. The wait staff was so eager to remove the plates from our table that I swear that they must be paid only in leftovers. It was aggressive. I asked my friend from Biloxi what was his assessment of the clintele: locals or tourist? He said fifty-fifty; I thought it was more tourists. Most people were arriving in taxis. In the men's room there was a framed illustration of how to skin a squirrel, and why gray squirrels were better than their red counterparts.

Antoine's

Sunday Brunch, Spetember 16. Nice trio jazz band playing and singing periodically. The main dining room was less than half full. Some of the customers were inappropriately dressed, and other customers expressed their disdain with their facial expressions. Nevertheless, the pecking order was readily apparent: among the customers, and among the wait staff. The experienced wait staff were assigned to those who were appropriately dressed and were regulars. The inexperienced wait staff were assigned to those of us who were not regulars (but appropriately dressed) or to those who were not appropriately dressed. The waiter was pleasant, unassuming, mild, unhurried, but green. I have never encountered a young man in a service industry position who was completely focused on the customer and did not appear to be concerned with what his girlfriend was doing or where they were going out that night. He focused on us in an unagressive manner that was unfamiliar but well received by us. His name was Steven, I think.

I ordered gumbo and my friend ordered the bisque. Both were excellent, although some of the kernels of rice in my gumbo were crunchy. I ordered the eggs Sardou and my friend ordered the veal with grits and Espagnole sauce. The hollandaise sauce was flavored with lemon in the most pleasing way. The artichoke seemed to be fresh. We ordered the pommes souffles, but it did not arrive at our table, and we could not have eaten more food if it had arrived. I ordered meringue glacee, and my friend ordered the bread pudding--both nice.

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