It’ was a busy weekend for us, starting Friday night, with a masquerade ball at the home of the owner of Houmas House. Kevin Kelly hosts a five-day open house at his townhome in the warehouse district, beginning with a black-tie affair for Hermes. Jeremy Langlois, his chef at Houmas House, always prepares a delicious buffet set up on Kevin’s elegant dining room table. Upstairs is a balcony perfect for watching parades.
Jeremy surprised us with the menu this year. Usually, it’s gumbo at the end of the buffet in a beautiful silver soup server. Friday night it was a pumpkin soup with some crawfish. There is always roast pork, and tonight was no exception, A large and delicious salad is usually there, but tonight it was a fruit display. There was a creamy penne pasta dish loaded with shrimp. This was everything you’d want a creamy pasta dish to be, with exactly the right creaminess consistency and balanced spice levels.
Next to the pasta in its own beautiful silver serving dish was a chicken florentine roulade that had some cheese in it. This was a pretty complex florentine, which was more of a stuffing, with enough cheese to create festoons, something that delights Tom when he sees it.
In the living room, there is a table that has another silver tray of dessert. These are little minis of cheesecake and cakes which are more like petit fours. This is always a fun party with media people from all over the world, as well as people from Kevin’s circle in Baton Rouge. It’s nice to check in with these people annually.
This was a late night, and the traffic was such a snarl we went through the French Quarter to Esplanade. It was fun to watch the happenings as the French Quarter blends into the Marigny. This part of the city may as well be a foreign country to me, so it was interesting to see the activity on the streets. Had I not been with Tom I might have parked and joined the party.
Yesterday I wrote about a visit to the Blue Crab on Sunday afternoon. When we left the Blue Crab and returned to town, we planned to visit with someone Uptown, but they decided to stay at the parade route instead of hanging out at home between parades. We kept going into the city and walked to the Higgins Hotel after parking. It was such a gorgeous day we went to the 9th floor bar Rosie’s, where Happy Hour was well underway. Tom got a house Cab and I got Prosecco, each for $5, and we ordered crab beignets. I had these before at an open house here, and these were just as outstanding, maybe my favorite crab beignets ever. Full of crabmeat and cheese that remains stringy as it is pulled apart, they are crisp and golden brown. Served with a nice aioli, this was a bargain for $5. There were five nice-sized beignets on the plate. Also on the bites menu was an option for crispy Brussels sprouts leaves. After seeing them heading to a few other tables we added that to our order. And we regretted it immediately. These were exactly as billed. Just leaves, and crispy, but coated in something sweet and very greasy. I never leave Brussels sprouts, but I left these.
It was lovely out there, and very pleasant, except for the conversation at a too-near adjacent table. Two sisters outdid each other with sordid stories of their respective divorces and the human carnage surrounding them. I would have felt sorry for their male companion, but I suspect his stories would have depressed me as much had he been able to get a word in edgewise. This was so unpleasant I couldn’t wait to pay the bill and leave.
From there we walked back to the Windsor Court, where Tom would have dinner while I went out to the parade. This worked very well since the Maitre’ D and the waiter knew Tom well. I was delighted and alarmed to see the delicious herb biscuits come to the table that I usually overeat at lunch. I overate them tonight. The amuse bouche was a light crawfish salad.
We ordered a salad and agnolotti and a steak. I finished the salad and left for the parade, but not before tasting Tom’s agnolotti. This had a delicious brown butter sauce with a strong and rich cheese filling. More than a couple of these would have been too much. The portion was exactly the right size.
It took a while for Tom to get his steak, and I decided my space on the street was too good to leave, so I didn’t see this course at all. Tom loved it, voicing the usual complaint that it was slightly chewy. It just never occurs to him that he doesn’t really like strip steaks. I keep trying to remind him that the very nature of a strip steak is tight grain.
As the evening wore on, I came up to see him working on a bread pudding that he raved about. It was a banana bread pudding served in cubes that had sort of a crust on them. These were napped with a great sauce that he was more excited about than anything I’ve witnessed him eating in recent memory.
I never did get the blinking cowboy beads I kept trying for. When I finally decided to end my desperate quest, Tom had been waiting long enough to be on his third cup of coffee. We both left happy, me with a bag of blinking trinkets and Tom with a satisfied stomach.
Tomorrow: Dinner Monday night at Andrea’s for Tom - Orpheus for me. And party-hopping Mardi Gras together ends with Crescent City Steakhouse.
Windsor Court Grill Room
300 Gravier St. New Orleans
504-523-6000
windsorcourthotel.com
