[title type="h5"]Thursday, July 12, 2014.
From The Cellar To The Porch.[/title]
Our current kitchen crisis (aside from the perennial one in which the cat Twinnery jumps onto the counter) is a lack of refrigerator space. Mary Leigh has two major cakes to bake and decorate. They are so involved that they have to be kept cold during the days they take to build. One of the two will be a personal best for her: the buyer is paying $700 for it. It can't have any nicks from people reaching around back of it to get the butter dish, or from strong aromas of barbecue ribs.
We annex the old refrigerator, mostly full of bottles of beer we never get around to drinking, sacks of oranges, and half a watermelon that has been in there for weeks. I attempt to open the freezer compartment to move a few items there, but it's frozen shut. After it thaws overnight, I find a good-sized block of ice behind the door. Nobody put it there; it just formed from humidity admitted when the last user didn't close the door well enough. This antique is not self-defrosting, but you don't have to see its icebergs to know it dates back to the mid-1970s. Its color alone communicates that fact: Avocado.
Maybe we can ship some of this to Antarctica, to alleviate the polar cap melting there.
The vote for dinner is Impastato Cellars in Madisonville. The last time we were there, I remember, it was cold outside. Now it's hot, but they have air conditioned the porch in the rear of the dining room (and much to the rear of the wine cellar, from which you can buy bottles at retail).
I don't understand the way my family eats anymore. It was their idea (I forget which one) to come here. But once the menus arrive, they wind up getting salads, a small order of pasta, or some other minimal feed. Except Mary Leigh, who gores crazy with a filet mignons.
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Shrimp Capri (or remoulade, if you prefer).[/caption]
I hold up my end with the famous Impastato's five-course dinner for $32. I start with shrimp Capri, which could as well be called a shrimp remoulade, with a very good, tangy white sauce over many, many chilled Gulf shrimp. Then a small plate of fettuccine Alfredo, which is essential here.
The entree is pork spiedini, one of my favorite dishes from the Metairie Impastato's. This batch is so generous I can't come close to finishing it. Whoever made it put too much ham and not enough garlicky breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese in the center. (It's something like a bracioloni, but with pork instead of beef, and no red sauce.)
ML was eager to get back to her cakes, and we're home early. I go through my emails, piled up for the last couple of days because of backlogs in other arenas. I find a report from Ralph Brennan's press connection with the official announcement of what we who follow the restaurant scene closely already know. At the court-ordered auction yesterday, Ralph and his partners bought all the intellectual property of the old Brennan's, Inc.--the company that went bankrupt and lost its building last year. Ralph, who is building a new restaurant on the site, is now free to call it "Brennan's," use the colorful rooster and the recipes, and otherwise make a convincing case that this is still the historic, influential sixty-year-old restaurant everybody remembers--even though it will look a lot different and have a much different menu.
And for the first time since 1973, all the Brennan restaurants are at peace with one another.
[title type="h5"]Impastato Cellars. Madisonville: 240 Highway 22 E. 985-845-4445. [/title]
