Wednesday, January 11, 2017.
No Go Again @ Meril. A Half Block And There's Tomas Bistro.
Mary Ann lay down the law this morning: she will not have dinner with me tonight no matter what. It's fun-strange that I have so much control over her weight-loss program as to make me a hazard for her.
I am still intrigued about Meril, Emeril Lagasse's first new New Orleans restaurant in years. I try again to get a reservation tonight. No dice. Full house, all night long, even if I wanted to dine solo in one of the many bar spaces.
The restaurant that comes to my mine as I depart the radio station is Pascal's Manale. I wrote a little piece about that century-old semi-Italian establishment earlier today for Inside New Orleans and Inside-Northside magazines. If I go there again, MA will chew me out for not going somewhere new. While weighing all this, I see the neon sign in front of Tomas Bistro. I need to arrange a dinner there for a guy who bought me as dinner host at a charity event almost a year ago. His schedule is as bad as mine.
[caption id="attachment_53711" align="alignnone" width="480"]
The dining room where the bar is at Tomas Bistro.[/caption]
Three times out of four, I can't get a table at Tomas Bistro. Lot of private parties there. But not tonight. I enter and find a sparse dining room that gets busier as the night goes on.
[caption id="attachment_53710" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Sweetbreads at Tomas Bistro.[/caption]
My dinner is vintage 1985. I begin with veal sweetbreads in a demi-glace sauce. It's the first time in years since I last savored sweetbreads--an organ meat that not everybody likes, but I do. It's not something that can be eaten often. The cholesterol is off the charts, and the flavors are so rich that it shuts down your taste buds after a bit. (Or after a bite, to clarify.) I wonder how anybody ate an entree of the stuff, back in the days when that's how it was usually served. A small plate of sweetbreads makes a lot more sense.
[caption id="attachment_53709" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Ceviche-style octopus, thinly sliced and sharp.[/caption]
Next comes the soup of the day, which involves squash and cream and herbs and maybe potatoes. It's lighter than it sounds, and very, very good.
All this thick, warm food contrasts with what comes next: a ceviche of octopus, which in addition to the sharpness of the marinating concoction is sliced so thinly that there's a big flavor release. All scattered around a zingy little salad. This is already a great meal. I am relieved, because there have been a few changes in the kitchen there lately. The man on the stove tonight is Yaceen, who goes by his first name alone. (If you get to know him well, he becomes "Yaz." Whatever the moniker, his food is as enjoyable as much as it is from one of my favorite eras of local cookery.
[caption id="attachment_53708" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Trout amandine with couscous underneath, in a brown butter. [/caption]
The entree comes from an even earlier period of Creole-French cuisine. Trout amandine, prepared with a brown butter sauce in the style more or less of Galatoire's and Antoine's. But Yaz adds another nice touch, scattering couscous in the brown butter. That that adds a fascinating texture that gives the butter and extra toasty quality through each bite. Turns out that Yaz is from Morocco, where couscous is never far away.
Thinking about the dish, I came up with a good description about couscous: "It's pasta made in the shape of grits."[caption id="attachment_53707" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Lemon ice box pie with toasted meringue on top. [/caption]
Dessert: a slice of lemon ice box pie whose meringue topping is bruleed a bit. Another good idea.
I almost always see Tomas himself (Tommy Andrade) when I dine here, but he is orchestrating a wedding party across the street. He continues to be ever busy in his two restaurants and catering facility.
Tomas Bistro. Warehouse District & Center City: 755 Tchoupitoulas. 504-527-0942.
