[title type="h5"]Sunday, July 13, 2014.
Negative Fluke At The Chimes. [/title]
It rained enough that cutting the grass was impossible, even though the lawn needs a trim. That would be for the fourth consecutive week. I am happy for the break.
The rain does not prevent the Marys and The Boy from getting an table on the deck at The Chimes. Because last week's dinner here was so excellent, I go along with the plan. I started the same way as last time, with a half-dozen big, cold raw oysters. But then I eschew the good catfish I had last time in favor of a poached egg dish (we are here at brunch). Shrimp and crab cakes at the bottom, eggs in the middle, and Creolaise sauce (a blend of hollandaise and Creole mustard) on top. Fried potato cubes, overly thick, cheesy grits, and the house's chewy French bread pistolettes on the side.
I am reminded why it is I don't join my gang here often. The Chimes makes a few good things, mostly in its oyster bar and grill. But doesn't have a wide enough range.
I spend the rest of the day trying to get ahead of my writing assignments for the week. But I find my mind wandering all over the net, reading a succession of related articles the way I used to when I was in my early teens. It started when my mother came home with a new volume of the Golden Book Encyclopedia. The first edition was twenty nine cents. After that, each additional book set you back ninety-eight cents. I managed to get all of them. I'll bet they'd be fun to read now.[divider type=""]
[title type="h5"]
Monday, July 14, 2014.
Bastille Day At Le Foret.[/title]
The busy CBD intersection of Camp and Common has always seemed to me to be the germ of a joke, but I can't dope out exactly where it should go from there. For the past four years, the corner brings to mind much more readily Le Foret, the polished French Creole restaurant. It is in my consciousness a lot lately, for a variety of unrelated reasons. This week, I will be there at least twice, the first of which is tonight.
Ryan O'Dwyer, Le Foret's new general manager (he replaces Danny Millan, who left to open his own Cava restaurant in Lakeview), called last week to ask if I could scare up an Eat Club table or two for a Bastille Day dinner. Le Foret isn't usually open Mondays, but they thought the French national holiday might be a good occasion for a special dinner of French food and wine.
That idea has been put to use by many French restaurants over the years, never with what could be called runaway success. Except for a few gastronomes, French cooking--certainly at the Le Foret level--doesn't enjoy an avid following in New Orleans anymore. Almost all the French restaurants here are solidly in the rustic-bistro category.
Le Foret has the same kind of luck with Bastille Day, even after they lower the price by replacing some of the pricier wines on the original menu with equally French but more quotidian vins.
It was too late for the Eat Club to be of much help, particularly on a Monday night with the threat of heavy rain. We scared up two tables of three each, plus a deuce peopled by wine writer Brenda Maitland and me. Brenda's hubby Tim McNally--also a wine writer--was busy with another vinous event. It must be nice to have a spouse who understands differences in preferences. But, come to think of it, Mary Ann often sends me off solo when the occasion is too gourmet for her palate.
Le Foret Chef Brandon Felder is also elsewhere. This doesn't seem to affect the eats, which are about as French in character as could be imagined. L'escriteau:
[caption id="attachment_43106" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Duck ham on onion tart, Le Foret.[/caption]
1. We begin nicely with a small onion tart surmounted with slices of duck ham (just think about that last bit for a moment, and all will come clear). Some bubbly pink wine comes along.
2. Next, a real original: local seafood prepared with the typical courtbouillon ingredients, but cooked in a paper bag, not a pot on the stove.
3. Escargots. Garlic. Butter. Of course. How could that not be here?
4. Dish of the night: Rabbit cassoulet, including a sort of sausage made of rabbit livers and kidneys. The word "offal" is used by the menu for this, which may explain the low attendance. This had much of the flavor, color, and texture of Creole turtle soup. Indeed, I hereby nominate rabbit with its offals as the future replacement for turtle meat when that resource inevitably disappears from the market.
[caption id="attachment_43108" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Steak au poivre, pommes frites the size of railroad ties.[/caption]
5. Steak au poivre. As in pepper steak. Another French cliche, but a good one.
6. A plate of cheeses to give something for the Chateau Clark to lean against.
7. Blueberry crepe with ice cream. Back to the pink bubbly.
I wind up pulling Brenda along with me to a table occupied by a threesome who said they came because they heard me talking about the dinner on the radio. It's a mother, son, and his wife. The mother, who is approaching her eighties, looks and acts like the youngest one at the table.
[title type="h5"]
Le Foret. CBD: 129 Camp. 504-553-6738. [/title]
