Ash Wednesday, February 13, 2013.
Going For The Last Chance. One Restaurant.
My annual resolutions are made not just once but four times: on my retreat around Thanksgiving, on New Year's Day, on my birthday February 6, and on Ash Wednesday. In New Orleans, if you don't get with the program by then, it won't happen until next year. But this year I'm doing okay. My vital statistics are all down a bit. I had to put a new notch in one of my belts a couple of weeks ago. I haven't had to do that in thirty years.
Another reason to taper off the feasting: we have spent a truly ridiculous amount of money in the past week on dining, what with our anniversary dinner at the Windsor Court and the Mardi Gras steak dinner at the Crescent City.
But it's hard to ease off eating with momentum. I wound up having dinner at One Restaurant, the little bistro around the corner from the Camellia Grill on Hampson Street. Not exactly a place for punishing one's appetite. But luck was with me for a change. One (the name is confusing in a sentence, isn't it?) has a special menu going on that gives a two-course dinner and a glass of wine for $35. I didn't know that until I was finished and chef Scott Snodgrass (he's also one of the partners) mentioned it.
Nothing cheesy about the meal, either. (Not that there ever has been.) Scott said I should try his retooled crab cake appetizer. "It's solid crabmeat," he said. I've heard that before. But something must hold the cake together. Crabmeat does not stick to itself. Well. His method is to scoop up the crabmeat with a small ice cream scoop. The crabmeat had a light coating akin to mayonnaise. He sears these hemispheres in a pan with butter. The flat bottom gets seared, and enough steam rises through the cakes to warm them nicely. Wonderful!
And it got better. The crab half-balls surrounded a stack of fried mirliton ovals. They were coated with something like what I use at home on thin-sliced onion rings, with as good an effect and mouthfeel. These were so good that a) I believe we have discovered the best dish to make from mirlitons and 2) I may have enjoyed them more than I did the crab cakes. And, as I said, the crab cakes were marvelous.
The entree was billed as a coq au vin, but there were several variations on the classic recipe. First, it wasn't a half-chicken but a leg quarter. The white meat appears to have gone into the making of a pair of chicken sausages on the side. Second, Scotty built the sauce from white wine instead of red. Otherwise, all the classic ingredients were there--pork belly, onions, etc. While I would not call this an improvement on the French standard, it was more than a little good, original, and too ample to finish.
Part of the blame for my flagging appetite was the house-made bread. How can such a tiny restaurant undertake to make all its own bread? But I'm glad they do.
As I usually do, I sat at the food bar and watched the chefs cook not only all of my food, but all the dishes for the rest of the room. That perked my appetite right back up. All this went down nicely with a glass of Viognier. For $35, total? What a deal!
One. Riverbend: 8132 Hampson. 504-301-9061.
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