Tuesday, July 27, 2010
1107 Restaurants Open Around Town
Year after year, the summer specials at the Pelican Club are among the most attractive in the field. Chef Richard Hughes pushes the start button tonight for his $35, three-course summer menu. It is a startling value, especially considering that jumbo lump crabmeat, appears three different places in it. Also in there are filet mignon, lobster, and fresh fish. This is available every night through August at least. (They usually keep it going through the first dead weeks of September, too.) On a few scattered days, the summer menu won't be available; when you make a reservation, check to make sure.
Lump Crabmeat and Shrimp Cakes
With a fried green tomato and pineapple-jalapeno chutney and remoulade sauce
~or~
Fresh Mozzarella Bruschetta
With vine ripened tomatoes, arugula, extra virgin olive oil and garlic
~or~
Seafood Martini
Maine lobster, jumbo lump crabmeat, gulf shrimp with potato salad and eight-herb ravigote, served “up”
~or~
Hearts of Romaine Salad
Served with blue cheese crumbles, toasted spicy pecans, croutons and Alecia’s tomato chutney vinaigrette
~or~
Shrimp, Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo
Crispy Parmesan Chicken Breast Paillard
With arugula and creamy goat cheese dressing
~or~
Panéed Gulf Fish With Jumbo Lump Crabmeat
Roasted new potato, baby vegetables, Creole meuniere sauce and jalapeño hollandaise
~or~
Dwaeji Galbi
Korean style boneless grilled baby back ribs with Boston lettuce for wrapping, jasmine rice, house made pickles, cilantro, mint, kimchee, chili sauce and miso aioli
~or~
Whole One-Pound Lobster
With seared diver sea scallops and sauteed jumbo shrimp baby vegetables, corn maque choux and roasted new potatoes (add $5)
~or~
Filet Mignon with Crabmeat and Shrimp Cake
With truffle mashed potatoes, buttered asparagus, haricots verts and béarnaise
~or~
Seared Sashimi Grade Tuna and Chinois Salad
With napa cabbage, greens, mango, avocado, tomato and crispy won tons in a sesame ginger vinaigrette
White Chocolate Bread Pudding
~or~
Vanilla Bean and Brandy Crème Brulee
Pelican Club. French Quarter: 615 Bienville, 504-523-1504.
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.
Sunday, July 18. Sesame Inn. Two Of The Five Hundred People. Late lunch at the Sesame Inn in Mandeville, curiously located a block from Trey Yuen. As usual, we got The Treatment from Steve, who with his staff is always working on a dish you wouldn't expect to find. (He does this for all his regulars, not just restaurant critics.)
Most of Steve's creations are designed for the ethnic Chinese palate, and for those attached to open minds. Today, he had something called "Chinese ham." I couldn't tell which part of the pig it came from, although my guess would be shoulder. It was cured to a flavor reminiscent of corned beef. Steve thought that was a legitimate comparison. Since it was an appetizer, it could also have been called Chinese antipasto.
We ordered the lettuce wrap, made here with chicken, savory vegetables, and a dark brown sauce. The meaty part of the dish is finely chopped, almost to the texture of coarse cole slaw. You spoon it into firm, cup-shaped leaves of iceberg, wrap it up, and indulge. The temptation (as with moo shu pork) is to put too much filling into the lettuce, making it fall apart.
The classical main ingredient in a lettuce wrap is squab or quail, but that's too much to expect in a restaurant with these prices--and chicken is probably more popular anyway. Regardless of all that, I will now add lettuce wraps to the order whenever I'm sharing this table with anyone else. This was as good as I've had. I include the few times I've had it with quail in that consideration.
Steve next sent out a plate of what he called Szechuan spaghetti. Add "bolognese" to the end of that, and you have it. The noodles were covered with a sauce made of ground meat, carrots, and green onions. It was milder than I expected at first taste, but after a few seconds the red pepper bloomed, and made you look back at the dish to see where the fire was coming from.
Two familiar faces appeared. Sonny and Nel Lauga, all the way in from Carriere, Mississippi. The Laugas were frequent Eat Clubbers until Katrina made them move out to the country. They've also been among our favorite companions on our cruises. What were they doing here, at this time of day, yet? Come to think of it, how is it that we're always running into them? Pure chance? No, I'd say it's more evidence supporting my theory that there are only five hundred people in New Orleans. Perhaps in the whole metro area.
We moved to a bigger table so the Laugas could join us. We caught up on things and continued devouring the food, beginning with a second order of lettuce wraps. Sonny remembered them from a previous visit, and favored them as much as we do. And then came the Singapore noodles and the General's chicken that Mary Ann and I ordered for entrees, and suddenly there was a tremendous oversupply of food on the table. (I don't think I mentioned the several bowls of hot and sour soup in the mix, either.)
Well, that was pleasant.
Then a pleasant surprise at the grocery store: Florida oranges, at less than five dollars per five-pound sack. Not only is this kind of late in the season for Florida citrus, but it was the first time since 2004 (it might even have been since 2003) that I've found Florida oranges at retail. And believe me, I've looked. The groves were hit first by a bad freeze, then by two consecutive years of enormous, damaging hurricanes. I greatly prefer Florida oranges to California (or South Africa, where a lot of them come from this time of year.) Florida fruit have thinner rinds and are heavier with juice. I will jam my refrigerator with these while they're hear, which I expect won't be long.
Sesame Inn. Mandeville: 408 N. Causeway Blvd.. 985-951-8888. Chinese.
Click here for the Dining Diary entry before the one above.
Click here for an index to the last five years of entries.
Thai.
Covington: 1531 US 190. 985-809-6483. Map.
Lunch and dinner seven days.
Casual.
AE MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
The best demonstration of the health of Thai cookery on the North Shore is that this one coexists with a related but different and equally good Thai restaurant across the highway. Although both were put together by the same guy and appear to have the same menu, in fact the cooking style of Thai Spice is noticeably different. I go back and forth from one to another, doubling my pleasure.
WHY IT'S GOOD
If I had to pick out one outstanding characteristic of Thai Spice's food, it would be the excellence and quantity of the vegetables it uses in many of its dishes. The meat components, while not ungenerous, take a back seat to these vividly flavorful, crunchy veggies, all awash in well-made Thai sauces.
BACKSTORY
Thai Spice was originally on the other side of the highway, operated by Ricky Seubsanh. A family squabble caused Ricky to move to the other side of US 190, taking the name with him. He brought in his nephew to help run the place, but wound up returning to the other side to open Thai Thai. The nephew and his family continued on at Thai Spice. If there's been a change in the food here after all that, I haven't detected it.
DINING ROOM
It's a space in a strip mall, originally built as a Mexican fast-food operation. Although Thai decor was added wherever it would fit (since two walls are completely of glass, there aren't many such places), the restaurant is still rather spare, but gets a good feeling from the brightness and high ceilings. Most of the staff is family and serves quietly and well.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Soft spring roll
Crispy spring roll
Cheese roll
Steamed dumplings or fried dumplings
Chicken satay
Thai chicken wings
Calamari
Tom yum soup (chicken or shrimp)
Tom kha soup (chicken or shrimp)
Items marked with * available with chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, or tofu
*Fried rice
Pineapple fried rice
Yum woon sen (salad with shrimp and pork)
Thai beef or chicken salad
*Pad thai
*Pad woon sen
*Pad kee mow
*Thai curry: red, green, Panang, or musuman style
*Thai stir-fry with basil, ginger, cashews or garlic
*Jungle curry (heavy on vegetables)
Duck with Thai basil
Paradise shrimp (with lemongrass)
Siam Ocean (a seafood stew)
Spicy whole fish
Sweet rice pudding with coconut
FOR BEST RESULTS
You can get any meat with any dish, but ask the waiter what he recommends with the sauce you're interested in, and go with his suggestion.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The enormous windows catch too much sunlight at times. Some kind of blinds would help.
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 -3
- Consistency
- Service -1
- Value +2
- Attitude +1
- Wine and Bar
- Hipness
- Local Color
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Good for business meetings
- Open Sunday lunch and dinner
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Open most holidays
- Unusually large servings
- Quick, good meal
- Good for children
- Easy, nearby parking
Mandarin Chicken
Mandarin chicken is fried chicken with a brown sauce--one made essentially with a roux and soy sauce as the main ingredients. How it became as popular as it is in New Orleans Chinese restaurants is hard to fathom. In the dark days when people were afraid of Chinese food, the Chinese restaurants came up with a dish that the round-eyes found unchallenging. People can get used to anything, and many of them developed a taste for this. So many people ask me for this that, in a weak moment, I got tips from a few chefs and concocted this. (Besides, my wife and daughter love it. Sigh.)
- 8 chicken tenders
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 Tbs. milk
- Flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
- Vegetable oil
Sauce:
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- 1/3 cup chopped celery
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 cups chicken or turkey stock
- 2 Tbs. soy sauce
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 Tbs. cornstarch
1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Pass it through the beaten egg mixed with the milk. Shake off the excess, then pass through the seasoned flour to coat.
2. Heat the vegetable oil to 375 degrees. Fry the chicken until golden brown. Remove and slice on the bias about a quarter inch thick.
Sauce:
1. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and celery and cook until well browned.
2. Add the flour and continue to cook until a light-brown roux forms.
3. Add the stock, the soy sauce, and the garlic. Cook until the garlic is aromatic. Turn the heat off.
4. Mix the cornstarch with a tablespoon of water till well blended, and stir into the sauce.
5. Add salt and Tabasco to taste. If you like, toss the chicken with the sauce, or serve on the side. It's equally bad either way.
Serves four.
