[title type="h5"]Monday, January 5, 2015.
We Can't Resist Tchoupstix.[/title]
Although I don't know it until days after, this afternoon we have a bon voyage supper for The Boy. He is returning to Baltimore, and after three weeks there he will begin his service with the Army in the desert Southwest. It's payback time for ROTC, which paid his way through college. He is so little concerned about this big move that he doesn't mention it even once while we dined.
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Thai Beef Salad.[/caption]
It's our third time lately at Tchoupstix. That means it must have cracked onto our A-list of restaurants we all like. Next step: we must figure out a way to eat less than the enormous meals we've had here so far.
[caption id="attachment_46196" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Teriyaki steak at Tchoupstix.[/caption]
It's a cold day, and I welcome the clear beef and mushroom soup, which comes out free. I have some yellowtail nigiri sushi as an appetizer. And then the orders shift to the Chinese
side. The Boy gets the General Lee's chicken again, with its spicy sauce. Mary Leigh has teriyaki beef in a mammoth order with a pile of onion rings. I have something similar, described as a Thai beef salad.
Mary Ann had the best plate of all: a trio of pork sliders with a taste only slightly Asian. These are delicious and generous.
Through all this, we find not a trace of the marginal competence here a year ago. And we also note how many more restaurants now offer these pan-Asian menus. [divider type=""]
[title type="h5"]Tuesday, January 6, 2015.
Jean-Luc Albin At Maurice's. Nola Beans.
[/title]
Our radio show today shows perfect timing. Today is the twelfth day of Christmas and the official end of that season. And the beginning of the Carnival season. The two folkways intersect while hovering at the king cake. That purple-green-and-gold confection is selling well for the past couple of weeks, but it really becomes ubiquitous now.
And here we are at Maurice's French Pastries, the long-running bake shop in Metairie, and one of the most voluminous producers of king cake anywhere in the area. Maurice's is so well known for its cakes that it sells them all year long to fans of New Orleans culture who don't exactly understand the seasonality of it.
Jean-Luc Albin has owned the business for some twenty years. I knew him from his days as executive chef at the Fairmont Hotel in the 1980s. He is as French as his name sounds, and has the skills and perfectionism to live up to the reputation of French pastry bakers worldwide.
A few years ago Jean-Luc decided that there was no reason he shouldn't enhance the king cake. For many years he was already making the galette du roi ("king cake") as it is found in most of France. It's puff pastry made into a thin pie, filled with almond paste. A certain number of people love those, but it's so different from the standard New Orleans kind that it didn't begin to approach the sales of the latter.
His second attempt looks like--in fact is identical to--the local style. But instead of pumping some sort of filling into the center, he slices the whole cake horizontally, and piles on a variety of new fillings. The most spectacular of these is filled with fresh strawberries, chantilly whipped cream, and pastry cream. The top of the cake is then replaced, and there you are. As far as I know, nobody who has actually eaten a slice of this has attacked it as being not traditional enough. It tastes too good for such trivial cavils.
Jean-Luc has had such success with this that he expanded the line with a bananas Foster version, one made with pecans and pralines, and another with a Southern Comfort whiskey cream.
We sample all of these as well as the straight-ahead king cakes, killing about six of them during the three hours we are there. I ate too much king cake myself.
The Marys wait for me to finish the show so I can take them out to lunch. The usual lengthy indecision ensues. We finally hit on the Velvet Cactus on Harrison Avenue, which after two years I have not tried. But they are closed between lunch and dinner.
We wind up at Nola Beans, about which all callers say nice things. It has evolved from being a coffee-and-breakfast spot to a full-menu restaurant. I get an okay onion soup and an okay Reuben sandwich. The Marys eat salads. Everything about this place is perfectly centered on the American convenience café everywhere, right down to the music, the self-service, and the prices. I do give them credit for having chicory coffee.
I have a few things to take care of back at the radio studio. As late as five, the offices are embroiled in getting sales up and running, something that must be done intensively at the beginning of every new year. My show seems to be well stocked with commercials, though, for which I am thankful.
I check in with program director Diane Newman, who is just back from vacation. Nothing but smiles from her. I breathe a sigh of relief. In radio careers, most troubles begin when one goes on vacation, or when the boss does. A famous disk jockey whose name I can't remember recused himself from taking any vacations for over ten years because of this effect.
[title type="h5"]
Maurice's French Pastries. Metairie: 3501 Hessmer Ave. 504-885-1526. [/title][divider type=""]
