[title type="h5"]Thursday, May 29, 2014.
Chauffeur To Mizado.[/title]
With my car in the shop and the rain continuing to pour (although not as insistently as yesterday), it is a good day for staying at home. But I haven't set foot in the radio studio all week, and I start worrying about what or who might be waiting impatiently for me to show up.
Mary Ann recruits herself to being my chauffeur today. Tomorrow, she and Mary Leigh will depart for South Carolina, where a young man with several connections to our family will be married. It's nice that she gives me some face time before leaving me behind.
We accomplish most of that in early dinner at Mizado. One more groaning table of their food should make a good basis for a review. Last time, we skimmed the most obvious selections--the duck tamale, the fish with chimichurri, and the bread pudding with meringue. This time, we go after longshots and oddities.
The first of those is unasked for: an all-vegetable amuse bouche, with a marinated and carved little carrot salad, with some toasty, surprisingly peppery roasted chickpeas.
I almost fill up on the first ordered dish. Tuna tataki--a standard item in sushi bars--is here listed among the guacamole variants. That explains what the small sushi station in the back of the dining room is about. This dish is also similar to the tuna stack at Zea (same owners). Whatever its origins, it's engaging in its flavors, not very Mexican, and big enough to make a light lunch (if they were open for lunch).
[caption id="attachment_42514" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Chiccharones de pollo.[/caption]
While I work on that, Mary Ann does away with chiccharones de pollo. It's a chicken take on a marinated, roasted pork dish. The chicken is fried and tossed with a variety of savory vegetables.
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Three salsas.[/caption]
You have to order (and pay for) chips and salsa. I wonder how much that will cost them in sales to people who will not pay anything for that essential nibble, regardless of the quality of the salsa. I don't mind, and the three we request are very interesting. One is a thick crema with jalapenos, cilantro, and pepita (pumpkin seeds). The hot one in the middle is habanero peppers toned down with carrot puree, but still sharply peppery. The third was a pale-green sauce with a mild kick, avocado, and a little cream and cheese. The tortilla chips are thin and warm.
[caption id="attachment_42516" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Fish tacos.[/caption]
We try some "traditional" tacos. I put the word in quotes, because it's hard to identify as traditional something you've never seen the likes of before. Soft, floppy wheat tortillas, fish, crunchy vegetables, a citrus butter. A little chewy at the skin. Not brilliant.
[caption id="attachment_42517" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Cornish hen.[/caption]
The next item is excellent, though. It's a whole wood-grilled Cornish hen, cut into quarters, with a jalapeno-pineapple marinade. Very tasty.
[caption id="attachment_42518" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Flan or creme brulee? Neither. [/caption]
The waiter tries to persuade me that the caramel custard has the finest qualities of both flan and creme brulee. That is wishful thinking. It resembles more closely a vanilla pudding made from a boxed mix, with a caramel sauce that could have come out of a bottle. This needs some work.
[caption id="attachment_42519" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Mizado.[/caption]
My conclusion is that like Zea, Mizado will likely be an acquired taste for its customers. If a person eats there four or five times over a period of a few months, he will probably continue to do so. Trying to puzzle out the menu and its relationship to anything we already know is stimulating, and makes for better conversation than, say, politics.
[title type="h5"]Mizado Cocina. Mid-City: 5080 Pontchartrain Blvd. 504-885-5555.
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Friday, May 30, 2014.
Baching It. Little Gem.[/title]
The Marys load up the road vehicle and depart for Greenville, South Carolina shortly after dawn. I am home alone for four days. A large, slowly rotating low-pressure system over the Southeast keeps the rain teeming, but the storms are spread farther apart than the day before. The Marys will drive through a lot of it.
After dining four previous times at the Little Gem Saloon with as many chef changes, it seems the current team and menu are settled in for the duration. Chef Miles Prescott (also chef at Rio Mar; same owners) applied a more or less standard gourmet Creole bistro menu, and in the process moved away from the steakhouse-like selection the place started with.
Last time, I had oysters and liked them, both in raw and grilled form. But wait: the grilled oysters here are not copies of Drago's much-aped originals. These are Rockefeller, Bienville, and the traditional "third oyster"--the one original to the house. Oysters Little Gem are topped with a cream sauce with artichokes and andouille. It's as good as it sounds. But these are not baked as such half-shell oyster appetizers have been since Antoine's invented oysters Rockefeller. They're grilled, and the ingredients are chopped coarsely instead of being made into a stuffing.
[caption id="attachment_42520" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Grilled oysters three ways.[/caption]
I have a half-dozen raw, and follow with a two-two-two of the grilled kinds. That requires permission of the kitchen, because the oyster specialties are sold in lots of five, not six. The results are felicitous. To me, dishes like this make a restaurant alluring.
[caption id="attachment_42521" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Squash soup.[/caption]
The soup of the day sounds good--a thick squash chowder with a floating island of some kind of herb. (They say it's coriander, but coriander leaves are cilantro, and this isn't that.)
[caption id="attachment_42522" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Seared scallops with pea-shoot risotto.[/caption]
A lot of food already. I research a lighter entree: sea scallops, four to the order. Those are good enough, but what makes the dish is a nearly-perfect risotto made with pea tendrils. A wreath of pencil-thin, overcooked asparagus surrounds the whole thing.
[caption id="attachment_42523" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Little Gem Saloon, Lucas Davenport at the upright.[/caption]
By this time I am paying at least as much attention to the music as to the food. That's what the Little Gem is about, after all. The story of the building is now well known: it is one of the last standing in the stretch of South Rampart Street where jazz was incubated in the early 1900s. Dr. Nicolas Bazan performed a spectacular restoration of the long-empty building, reached into the past for the name, and opened with a commitment to having live music in the dining room almost all the time. The quality of the musicians on every visit has been first-rate.
Tonight, a young solo pianist and singer by the name of Lucas Davenport (no relation to Jeremy Davenport, the great trumpeter at the Ritz Carlton) performs a string of standards and other pieces in an original, dark way. He ventures so far afield of the melodies to persuade me that he is classically trained. But no--he never had a lesson. Where else does he play? At the Bombay Club, about once a week. Which day? Wednesday. Would he be at the Bombay on Wednesday, June 18? His calendar said he would. Great! That's the night of the Eat Club dinner there! How, then, would he feel about a duet on "My Funny Valentine," his interpretation of which is brilliant? Sure, he says. Turns out he listens to the radio show.
I think the Little Gem has hit its stride. (I'll bet there's a good bit of stride piano played here, too.) All they need now are local customers. I'm sure the out-of-towners who make their way here are happy about it.
[title type="h5"]Little Gem Saloon. CBD: 445 S Rampart St. 504-267-4863. [/title]
Written by Tom Fitzmorris June 09, 2014 12:01 in
