Thursday, July 22, 2010
1106 Restaurants Open Around Town
24 Spirited Dinners Tonight
Tales Of The Cocktail Mixes It Up
For the eighth year, Tales of the Cocktail launched its five-day schedule of tastings, dinners, and seminars yesterday. It gets into high gear today, with its Spirited Dinners. Two dozen restaurants have paired with the country's best-known authorities on mixology to present major expositions of food and cocktails. (They're like wine dinners, except with cocktails with each course instead of wines.) Quite a few of them are sold out, but some openings remain here and there. The entire list of Spirited Dinner venues can be seen here. The dinners range in price between $85 and $100, inclusive.
That's only the beginning. Friday through Sunday, it's one event after another, as this fantastically successful new summertime extravaganza keeps getting better with each year. All the details are at www.TalesoftheCocktail.com.
All The Summer Menus So Far
NOMenu has a page listing not only all the summer specials we know about, but all the menus, too. I'm adding new ones daily.
That list is now online here.
Wednesday, July 14. La Thai Cuisine. It takes just as long for me to update a restaurant review as to write a new one. I not only edit, but add a lot more data. Lately, that includes almost the whole menu. One of my projects for this summer is to perform that work on every review from a year ago or older. This will slow down progress to another goal: to have 400 full, detailed, current reviews on the site. I have 379 as of today. I hope to have both projects finished by the end of the year.
Dinner at La Thai Cuisine, one of the restaurants whose review will not change much but needs updating. Their new Uptown location has been a tremendous success. As it was tonight. The restaurant was full, pushing me into the worst table in the house. It's in a bit of floor space too big to leave empty but too small for comfort. It jams up against a room divider, on the other side of which is a table that could not possibly be as close to mine without the divider. But what else is a restaurateur or customer to do? The alternative is to wait at the bar.
The table was in a dark spot. Nevertheless, my presence was discovered before the first course appeared. I was visited by both Diana and Merlin Chauvin, brother and sister, authentic Thai Cajuns. They are the second generation of the family that opened New Orleans' first Thai restaurant. (The Mai Tai on the West Bank, back in the 1980s.)
The first course illustrated perfectly what they're up to at La Thai. A bowl of Canadian mussels in a Thai green curry broth--but with a side order of French fries, like in the bistros. Two menu directions in one, and a brilliant match. I went through the two dozen mussels and far too many fries (who can resist?). I finished up the broth, opaque with coconut milk, with a spoon.
Merlin showed up with a delayed but welcome amuse-bouche: a seared scallop, cleft in twain, atop eggplant, drizzled with a sweet chili glaze. Well, now.
I could have quit right there, but needed material for this paragraph. The big deal dish at La Thai right now is (and get a load of it) a large crab cake, topped with a soft-shell crab, topped further with jumbo lump crabmeat. A layer of sauteed vegetables lines the plate, and the chili glaze performed the same function it did for the scallops. The waiter, a few radio callers, and Merlin himself (his name is on the dish) said this was not to be missed. I said, okay, but leave off the soft-shell. (I've had it here before.)
This crabby platter was still too big to finish comfortably, even after its allure had expanded my appetite. Classic Thai cuisine? No. But an exceptional coming together of the Thai flavor palette and the best local ingredients. That dish cinched a fourth star for La Thai.
For the second day in a row, somebody told me I never change. Diana Chauvin said it this time. She remains beautiful, and her star is rising. She won the seafood-cooking contest at NOWFE's Grand Tasting this year, and will represent the state in the national seafood competition. Mama must be proud.
La Thai Cuisine. Uptown: 4938 Prytania. 504-899-8886. Thai.
Click here for the Dining Diary entry before the one above.
Click here for an index to the last five years of entries.
Italian.
CBD: 709 St. Charles. 504-558-8986. Map.
Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday. Dinner 3-10 p.m. Sunday, and before Saints and Hornets games.
Casual
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Leonardo's posture is that of a casual Sicilian restaurant (trattoria=bistro), and it captures that style reasonably well. The style of the pastas and red-saucy dishes will be very familiar to New Orleanians. But the menu is full of little-seen dishes, some of which are very welcome (arancini, for example). They're heavier in the roasted-meat department than most local Italian restaurants--and I mean that in both senses of the word. There's a good bit of fish, most of it grilled or broiled. But. . .
WHY IT'S GOOD
Although the rest of the menu seems to beg for most of your attention, the the major specialty here is pizza. It emerges from a wood-burning brick oven, and it's in the top rank. The crust is thin, crisp at the bottom, lightly burned and bubbled here and there, and covered with an unimpeachable sauce and excellent cheeses and other ingredients. The rest of the menu is good and ample, but if you pass on the pizza, you've missed it.
BACKSTORY
After spending a number of years in first-class restaurant in Las Vegas, chef-owner Leonardo Daniele opened this restaurant in 2008. This space has hosted restaurants--many of them Italian--for almost a hundred years.
DINING ROOM
The old building was only lightly renovated for Leonardo's, and its brick walls wear their age well. The tables and booths form an L around the oversize bar. The tiles in the high ceiling look like a gigantic chessboard. The busiest tables are always those on the sidewalk, even in the summer heat. Service is always lagging a beat or two behind one's dining rhythm, but the servers make up for this with eager accommodation.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Bruschetta with tomatoes.
Mozzarella in carozza (a kind of sandwich).
Caponata.
Roasted peppers stuffed with cheese, garlic, and bread crumbs.
Fried calamari.
Antipasto assortment.
Arancini (fried rice balls stuffed with meat and tomato sauce).
Swordfish carpaccio.
Panzanella (bread salad).
Mozzarella salad Caprese.
Fettuccine Alfredo.
Spaghetti carbonara.
Rigatoni with meat sauce and mushrooms.
Pansotti (stuffed pasta with ricotta and spinach, like a rolled lasagna).
Ravioli with beef.
Cheese tortelloni with peas.
Fettuccine with seafood.
Fish (especially tuna) fra diavolo (spicy tomato sauce).
Fish piccata.
Chicken or veal medallions with fennel, Marsala, piccata, or parmigiana.
Lamb shank osso buco
Scottadito (lamb shops with rosemary)
Wood-fired oven pizzas.
Cannoli.
Tiramisu.
FOR BEST RESULTS
The restaurant is eight blocks from the Superdome and Arena, and they open two hours before all Saints and Hornets games. Did I mention that pizza is essential?
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The pasta dishes in my experience need to go on a diet, both in the sauce and noodle department.
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
- Consistency
- Service -1
- Value +1
- Attitude +1
- Wine and Bar +1
- Hipness +1
- Local Color +2
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Sidewalk tables
- Romantic
- Good for business meetings
- Small private room
- Open Sunday dinner
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Open all afternoon
- Unusually large servings
- Good for children
- Reservations accepted
Spicy Garlic Shrimp
Every summer the Upperline Restaurant has a Garlic Festival--a terrific menu of original dishes using garlic in all its delightful gustatory guises. This dish is from the event's early days, and the deft hand of the late Chef Tom Cowman. It's a rather spicy taste, all the better for the garlic to work its wonders with the shrimp.
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 Tbs. chili powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne
- 1 tsp. chopped garlic
- 1/2 lb. small to medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1/2 medium onion, sliced thinly
- 1/4 cup garlic mayonnaise (below)
- 4 two-inch squares jalapeno cornbread
Garlic mayonnaise:
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 Tbs. Dijon or Creole mustard
- 1 Tbs. vinegar
- 2 Tbs. chopped garlic
1. Mix the vegetable oil, spices and garlic in a stainless steel bowl. Add the shrimp and marinate for one to two hours, covered and refrigerated.
2. Make the garlic mayonnaise by combining all the ingredients and blending with a whisk. It's better if you make it a day ahead of time and refrigerate, to let the flavors blend.
3. Heat a medium skillet and in it sauté the shrimp in its marinade plus the sliced onions. Cook until shrimp are pink and firm--four to five minutes, depending on the size of the shrimp.
4. Split the cornbread and spread both halves with garlic mayonnaise. Place on serving plates and top with the shrimp.
Serves four.
