Tuesday, June 1, 2010
1086 Restaurants Open Around Town
Extraordinary Italian Wine Dinner
At A Mano Tomorrow Night
An Italian food magazine called Gambero Rosso (red shrimp?) ranks wines in its pages, with the highest accolade being tre biccheri--three glasses. (They use glasses instead of stars.) Wednesday night A Mano is holding a wine dinner in which all the wines served get tre biccheri. Swirl Wine Market--the good wine store off Esplanade Avenue--has brought together these wines. A Mano's chef Joshua Smith assembled a menu to go with them. It's six courses, presented by Antonio Molesini. Antonio is not only an expert on Italian wines, but very entertaining. (He's spoken at a number of our Eat Club dinners.)
The dinner begins at 6:30 p.m..The price is $100, inclusive of tax, tip, and wines. Here's the menu:
Fish Crudo
With citrus and fennel
Wine: Castello della Sala Cervaro della Sala, Umbria
Cured Duck Breast
with seasonal berry conserve
Wine: Michele Chiarlo La Court Barbera d'Asti
Sformato di Porcini
Savory mushroom mousse/custard
Wine: Castello di Fonterutoli Chianti Classico, Toscano
Fresh Pasta With Lamb Ragu
Wine: Feudo Maccari Saia Nero d'Avola, Sicilia
Red Wine Braised Wild Boar
With polenta
Antinori Guado al Tasso, Tuscany
Bittersweet Chocolate Budino
With hazelnuts, olive oil, sea salt
Sella & Mosca Villa Marina Cabernet, Sardegna
A Mano. Warehouse District: 870 Tchoupitoulas. 504-208-9280.
Saturday, May 22. The Oil Thing. Maple Street Books. Ciro's Cote Sud For Mussels. The BP oil spill in the Gulf is deep, in more ways than one. Some people are very much worried. I'm worried too, but more mildly. Since I am frequently asked for my opinion on the matter (both by individuals and news organizations), I formulated one. It is not the same as the one most often heard. Indeed, it carries the risk of making me seem like a fool. But it's where my hunches point. I believe that by Thanksgiving, we will be wondering what we were so worried about.
This is not to say that the situation is less than a disaster. We'll clean up beaches and marshes for years, yes. And (we hope) we will change the way deep-water drilling is regulated. And people who believe that being angry makes them sound smart will throw blame around ad nauseam.
But those are for others to discuss. My focus is on the native seafood. I think we will have it all back, more or less as it was before the spill, by Thanksgiving. Including oysters. Without exception, people tell me, "I hope you're right!" I hope so, too. I'm no more sure about this than they are. But someone has to emphasize the positive here. My prediction is well within the realm of possibility, and I really do think it's the likeliest outcome.
Diane Newman, the operations director of the radio station and my boss, ordered me to include interviews with experts about the oil spill on my show today. Harlan Pearce--chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Marketing Board--was on. And Tenney Flynn, the chef of GW Fins, a restaurant that is a major user of first-class local seafood. Both spoke of virtually no interruption of seafood supplies, and only spot increases in prices.
Tommy Cvitanovich from Drago's had the most downbeat thoughts. "We're experimenting with char-broiled mussels," he said. "I see the shutdown of all the oyster beds as a possibility. And I don't want to buy oysters from Apalachicola Bay or Texas. If I can't have Louisiana oysters, I won't have oysters!" Strong words from a restaurateur whose star attraction is oysters. But holding to principles is what that family is all about.
After the show, I crossed the lake for a book signing at Maple Street Books. The good old independent shop has been fighting the stupids (to quote their slogan) for decades. They were serving Sazeracs to would-be buyers. The lady who owns the new Maple Street Patisserie a block away brought an assortment of cannoli, petits fours, and fruit tarts. I've been hearing a lot of good things about this place, and now I understand why.
We didn't sell an enormous number of books compared with the signings at the big suburban stores, but that's what I figured would happen. Although you can find almost anything you'd want there, Maple Street is to bookselling what a little corner cafe is to the restaurant world. It has its regulars, and that's mostly it. But they couldn't have been more helpful.
After the signing, Mary Ann agreed to join me for dinner at Ciro's Cote Sud. I continue gathering information for a long-overdue review. I was there early enough to get one of the two tables in the windows up front, the prime seats. I ordered a plate of pates and saucisson. Mary Ann usually likes such things, but wasn't wild about this very French charcuterie. On the plate was a coarse pork and duck country pate and a mousse of what I think was chicken liver. The saucisson--it looks but doesn't taste like a well-made salami--was also good with a little mustard and cornichons.
While I finished off that plate, Mary Ann indulged in a nice little vol-au-vent of crawfish in a delicious, pretty sauce. The patty shell (the local name for vol-au-vent) blew onto the top
of a few leaves of salad. She said it looked better than it tasted, but I think she was expecting spicy crawfish, and the French don't really cook them that way. This was more like Nantua style.
I knew when I walked in here I was having mussels for an entree. Last time, I was intrigued by the several sauces available for the bivalves, particularly the one described as "curry." This, I thought, might be mussels mouclade, with a cream sauce thickened with a bit of egg and curry spices. The owner said he'd have to look up that word, and that there was no egg in this one. The sauce was exactly what I was hoping for: rich, spicy, full of the flavor of the mussels. Some three dozen of them were in the bowl, nice and plump.
Mary Ann's entree was a slab of grilled salmon with wild rice pilaf and a butter sauce with spinach--or was that sorrel? (The latter would have been really good.) It made her happy enough.
Dessert: poire Belle Helene. Can't say I've ever had it this way, with the wine-poached pear cut into slices and intermingled with ice cream and a little chocolate. But it was tasty enough.
To pay for the meal, I had to dig out the $100 bill I always carry in my wallet for emergencies. This wasn't an emergency, just a fantastic inconvenience. They don't take credit cards here, a problem about which I've already written. Maybe they enforce that to keep the crowds down. The food here is in the top ranks among French bistros locally.
Ciro’s Cote Sud. Riverbend: 7918 Maple. 504-866-9551. Pizza. French.
Sunday, May 23. Hot Words Over Crawfish Cakes. No Grass Cutting. Breakfast with MA at Mattina Bella got off on the wrong foot. We are lucky most of the time there, arriving just before a big crowd. Today, the mob beat us, and we had to wait fifteen minutes for a table. So what did we expect in a place this popular? It had to happen sooner or later.
The breakfast was good, though. Mary Ann dug into her usual Country Boy omelette--all the meats in the house rolled into a pillow of eggs. I don't know why she eats that--with a big bowl of grits, yet--when she's trying to lose weight. (Although she has lost quite a few pounds.) I tried the new crawfish cakes with poached eggs and hollandaise; those were Brennan's quality, including the sauce, which they make extraordinarily well here.
During the brunch a political matter came up. I don't even remember what it was. We were on opposite sides, of course. It escalated all the way home. Once we were there, it escalated into a genuine shouting match--the loudest one I think we've ever had. This sounds much worse than it actually was. We are two strong, dramatic talkers (Mary Ann was a radio talk show host for years) with dramatically opposing views that will never be changed by any amount of discussion. It's a wonder explosions like this don't happen more often. I guess down deep our marriage is more important than politics. But if we could air this kind of stuff on the radio without killing one another, it would be very compelling listening.
Regardless of all that, it cast a pall over the day, one further darkened by a rainstorm. It wrecked my plans to cut the grass, which wouldn't have been a big deal except that MA was already leaning on me to get it done--what with the Graduation Festival Big Party next weekend.
There was nothing for me but to lock myself up in my office and get a head start on the week's work, so I can do the grass tomorrow. If it doesn't get done, there will be hell to pay, and hell has been sending out more bills than usual lately. I didn't even eat anything but random snacks pried loose from the refrigerator.
Well into the evening, Mary Ann entered my cave, came up behind me, and gave me a hug. She said that we have raised two wonderful kids, and if we did that things couldn't be all that bad. And that she really did love me. My feelings coincide with hers.
Monday, May 24. Acme. Sudden Rainstorm. Whenever I get ahead on my work, instead of staying ahead I begin projects that have been waiting in the wings, and I wind up losing all my buffer. And it's back to a deadline every minute, to quote the old UPI slogan. Today's extra assignment was getting the grass cut before today's line of thunderstorms came through. We are into that pattern now: clear in the morning, blazing hot by noon, mini-typhoon in the afternoon, and clearing and steamy as the day ends.
Mary Leigh is home with nothing to do. I asked her to cut the grass for me. Mary Ann thought that was a very good idea. Mary Leigh used to do the job gladly. But as soon as she got a real car the thrill of driving the little tractor ended. (This also happened to Jude, who I could barely pry off the tractor until he got his license.) She said she would, but the next thing I knew she and MA were leaving for lunch and shopping. So much for that. It took me a little over ninety minutes to trim everything.
But then, I kinda like doing it myself. There's something satisfying about cutting grass, something I felt the first time I did it, with an old non-motorized reel mower when I was about nine years old. I cut a lot of grass in my early teens, too. In our early years at the Cool Water Ranch, I did the job with a power mower that needed to be pushed. Cutting all of the two acres that we keep mowed took seven hours. I only did that a few times--the job was usually split over several days--but I can't say it didn't make me feel good.
The Marys didn't return until after the radio show. ML was up for the Acme Oyster House. We haven't been there in many weeks, and I was in the mood for red beans. I asked them to make a pretty plate of them so I could take a picture, since I'd never done so before. I learned that no matter what you do, it's impossible to make a photo of red beans and rice look appetizing.
Japanese.
Metairie: 2325 Veterans Blvd. 504-833-7477. Map.
Lunch and dinner seven days.
Nice Casual
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Shogun was New Orleans's first sushi bar, and only the second restaurant to serve sushi at all. It thereafter set the standard for all that would follow. Calling it the best sushi bar in town will inevitably start an argument, but it's a credible thing to say. The restaurant is large enough to cover all the other Japanese culinary bases, from beautiful multi-course dinners to the hibachi foolishness with the showoff chefs, flames, and applause.
WHY IT'S GOOD
The quality, temperature, and presentation of the fish is consistently a little bit better than you're probably accustomed to getting. The menu of classical Japanese cooked dishes (other than the hibachi stuff) is also highly various and very well executed, particularly the bento boxes for both lunch and dinner. The ingredients in these are as fine as what shows up on the sushi bar. This is a restaurant I would trust to cook any Japanese dish, no matter how complicated. Even after going there practically since the place opened, I feel as if I've not come close to trying everything they can do.
BACKSTORY
Shogun opened in 1981 in a smaller restaurant down Veterans Highway. It was perfect timing: the taste of Baby Boomers had become sophisticated, and the boldness of the generation behind them allowed sushi to become a phenomenon. That they were there first with a great product put them at the top of the list. Shogun got so busy that it moved to an enormous former Shakey's Pizza House, with what is still the city's longest sushi bar. When Benihana closed its French Quarter restaurant, Shogun bought the teppanyaki tables and started doing hibachi cookery, thereby attracting the mainstream.
DINING ROOM
The entrance passageway cuts the big restaurant in half. Conventional tables are on the right, hibachi tables on the left. The place is not heavily atmospheric, but the customers come for the food.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Shrimp, squid, soft-shell crab, or vegetable tempura
Baked mixed seafood appetizer
Marinated octopus
Edamame
Beef or chicken skewers
Gyoza dumplings
Miso soup
Broccoli or cabbage salad
Sushi (tremendous variety)
Sashimi
Hibachi chicken, beef, scallops, giant squid or shrimp dinners
Teriyaki chicken, beef, tuna, salmon, lobster, scallops, squid or shrimp dinners
Chicken or beef sukiyaki (prepared at the table)
Chicken or seafood nabe (prepared at the table)
Shabu shabu (prepared at the table)
Teishoku dinners (complete dinners of eight small dishes in an enameled box)
Eel kabayaki (marinated and broiled)
Grilled smelt (tiny fish)
Salmon or yellowtail "neck"
Steamed monkfish liver
Beef tataki (seared and rare, with ponzu sauce)
Grilled octopus with ponzu
Mackerel sashimi and fried head and tail
FOR BEST RESULTS
Like all sushi bars, this one saves its really fine product for its many regular customers. Come regularly, ask questions, look avid, and you'll get it too. There is no way to overestimate the range of possibilities.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The hibachi aspect of Shogun adds less than nothing to its goodness, but what would they fill all that space with?
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 +2
- Service
- Value +1
- Attitude
- Wine and Bar
- Hipness +2
- Local Color
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Good for business meetings
- Medium private room
- Open Sunday lunch and dinner
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Open all afternoon (Saturday-Sunday only)
- Historic
- Quick, good meal
- Good for children
- Easy, nearby parking
- No reservations
Ten Best Restaurants For Escargots
Eating snails, after languishing as passe for a decade or two, has become popular again. Here are the best snails in town right now. Although a few innovative versions are on the list, most of them are bubbling (we hope) in garlic butter. There's nothing like garlic butter.
1. Antoine’s. French Quarter: 713 St. Louis. 504-581-4422. Not New Orleans Bordelaise, but a
thick brown sauce made from red wine and garlic. Great for
bread-dipping.
2. La Crepe Nanou. Uptown: 1410 Robert . 504-899-2670. Garlic butter and lot so bread with a few snails, all
bubbly. Perfect.
3. Nuvolari’s. Mandeville: 246 Girod St.. 985-626-5619. Escargots and crawfish with demi-glace? Yes. Call them "snails and tails," or "slugs and bugs." More than a little garlic and pepper in there.
4. Chateau Du Lac. Old Metairie: 2037 Metairie Rd.. 504-831-3773. They usually make them four different ways, classic to unusual. (I like the one with the wine sauce especially.)
5. Brennan’s. French Quarter: 417 Royal. 504-525-9711. This is the garlic-and-herb butter
again, green from the herbs. What makes this striking is that it's the
only serving of snails in New Orleans that uses actual snail shells.
6. Keith Young’s Steak House. Madisonville: 165 LA. 21. 985-845-9940. The standard garlic-herb butter, best on the North Shore. It's a light appetizer (if you don't eat too much bread), leaving room for the steak.
7. Pelican Club. French Quarter: 615 Bienville. 504-523-1504. They've always served their snails with a sort of
Asian-inspired sauce, although there's no lack of garlic either. They're
topped with what the restaurant calls puff pastry "hats." Cute, and
good.
8. Steak Knife. Lakeview: 888 Harrison Ave. 504-488-8981. Classic, always served bubbling, great French bread to go with it.
9. La Provence. Lacombe: 25020 US 190. 985-626-7662. A nice minor change in the standard: it's served "au pistou," which brings basil to bear with the garlic butter.
10. Ciro’s Cote Sud. Riverbend: 7918 Maple. 504-866-9551. The very French bistro and pizza maker brings the classic bourguignonne version out smelling great, with more than the average amount of butter.
Have I missed a good one? If you know of a great version of snails that belongs on this list, post it on our messageboard. (You'll also find other people's suggestions there.)
Nuoc Cham
(Vietnamese Dipping Sauce)
This is that sauce you see served with spring rolls in Vietnamese restaurants and with a number of dishes in Thai restaurants. It was sent in by a reader/listener who did not add her name to the end of her letter (or I’d mention it). She says it keeps for a month in a refrigerated jar. You may use more or less of the chilis or chili paste, to your taste. I love splashing this stuff over anything from a hamburger to grilled fish to chicken/
- 2 to 3 Thai bird chilis (or 1 small jalapeño or serrano chile), cored, seeded, and minced
- 1/2 tsp. Thai ground chili paste
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup fish sauce (nuoc mam)
- 2 Tbs. lime juice
- 2 Tbs. shredded carrots
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
Bring 2/3 cup of water to a boil and add all the ingredients. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour the contents into a canning jar and screw the top down securely. Let it cool for an hour, then put it into the refrigerator.
