Tuesday, November 3, 2015.
Big Gang At The Round Table. Another Taste Of Avo.
There must be a lot of culinary doings right now, because for the first time in awhile we don't have enough microphones for all the guests on today's Round Table radio show. They are:
Thomas Steward, the oyster shucker and sage at Pascal's Manale. I ask him what the trick is to opening oysters cleanly and quickly. He says there is no trick, that all you need is a love of life, your job, and your customers, and all the rest of it happens. There is no question that this works, judging by the many bivalves he's opened for me.
Mark DeFelice is one of the owners of Manale's, and the top guy in the kitchen there. He said he didn't have much to say, but in fact he tells me the recipe for the combination pan roast. I will test that and publish it soon.
Gary and Yvonne Stallare the owners of the new Mid-City breakfast place, Biscuits and Buns on Banks, around back of Jesuit High School. It wasn't until the show was almost over that Gary told me his dad was the late Buddy Stall, well-known New Orleans historian, frequent guest on my radio show for three decades, and longtime member of the same Manresa retreat that I attend. (I've said it before, many times: there are only 500 people living in this city.)
Jason Goodenough is the owner and chef of Carrollton Market, on Hampson just off South Carrollton. He says he is adding pass-around appetizers to his early weekday evenings. And a $39 three-course dinner. And both Saturday and Sunday brunches. He's made a few changes in the menu, one of which is to rework his gnocchi after finding that he agrees with a criticism I had about it. That's only about the fifth time in my life that a chef told me something like that.
Cameron Perry is a board member of the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience. She is here to tell about the Ella Brennan Award Gala Dinner next week. With her is Thierry Connault, executive chef of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where the gala will take place on November 12. (I have more info in the
Eating Around New Orleans department today.)
Mary Leigh was supposed to come home today to start moving her stuff to her new apartment in Washington, D.C. But she misses her flight and is stuck in Pittsburgh, where her fiancee's family lives. She was to have joined MA and me for dinner. Without her moderating presence, MA and I dine a deux at Avo, where we had a nice dinner a couple of weeks ago.
[caption id="attachment_49453" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Pappardelle and wild boar.[/caption]
We begin with the soup of the day, a lobster bisque that needs some red pepper. MA gets pappardelle pasta made with black pepper, with a ragu of wild boar. As robust as that sounds, it was in need of some more flavor spikes. The boar wasn't cooked long or slowly enough to make it as tender or flavorful as it could have been.
[caption id="attachment_49452" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Scallops, mussels, and Brussels sprouts.[/caption]
Now I get two pretty scallops and some smoked mussels, with brussels sprouts. MA loves the sprouts; doesn't eat scallops or mussels. She has a salad of burrata and prosciutto, grilled pears, and arugula. She only likes the latter among those ingredients, and she only likes arugula on a pizza at Bottega Louie in Los Angeles.
[caption id="attachment_49451" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Snapper with parsnips.[/caption]
My entree is a fillet of snapper (what color I don't know, but it was tender and flavorful enough for me. Mashed parsnips underneath, real baby carrots (as opposed to broken big carrots honed down to look like babies), and bok choy that I don't think belonged.
Meanwhile, we having a good time talking with the waitress who looks like Sandra Bullock. She turns me on to two nice white Italian wines. She arranges for MA to get the pork shank bones other customers have left behind. The dogs Susie and Barry will eat very well tonight. The new cat Satsuma also goes nuts over the pork shanks, eating an improbably large portion of the scraps for a five-month-old kitten.
[caption id="attachment_49449" align="alignright" width="307"]
Banana zuppa inglese.[/caption]I see a banana zuppa inglese ("English soup," literally a trifle) on the dessert list. It's a little dry, but otherwise very good.
During the evening, I talk with the owners of Avo, and learn that they are related somehow to the Maselli family. But they don't know my Jesuit classmate Frank Maselli, who puts on those great musical events on the Italian Piazza downtown. We get up to depart, and who do we find at the next table? Frank Maselli. I keep saying it: only 500 people live here!
Pappardelle and wild boar.[/caption]
We begin with the soup of the day, a lobster bisque that needs some red pepper. MA gets pappardelle pasta made with black pepper, with a ragu of wild boar. As robust as that sounds, it was in need of some more flavor spikes. The boar wasn't cooked long or slowly enough to make it as tender or flavorful as it could have been.
[caption id="attachment_49452" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Scallops, mussels, and Brussels sprouts.[/caption]
Now I get two pretty scallops and some smoked mussels, with brussels sprouts. MA loves the sprouts; doesn't eat scallops or mussels. She has a salad of burrata and prosciutto, grilled pears, and arugula. She only likes the latter among those ingredients, and she only likes arugula on a pizza at Bottega Louie in Los Angeles.
[caption id="attachment_49451" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Snapper with parsnips.[/caption]
My entree is a fillet of snapper (what color I don't know, but it was tender and flavorful enough for me. Mashed parsnips underneath, real baby carrots (as opposed to broken big carrots honed down to look like babies), and bok choy that I don't think belonged.
Meanwhile, we having a good time talking with the waitress who looks like Sandra Bullock. She turns me on to two nice white Italian wines. She arranges for MA to get the pork shank bones other customers have left behind. The dogs Susie and Barry will eat very well tonight. The new cat Satsuma also goes nuts over the pork shanks, eating an improbably large portion of the scraps for a five-month-old kitten.
[caption id="attachment_49449" align="alignright" width="307"]
Banana zuppa inglese.[/caption]I see a banana zuppa inglese ("English soup," literally a trifle) on the dessert list. It's a little dry, but otherwise very good.
During the evening, I talk with the owners of Avo, and learn that they are related somehow to the Maselli family. But they don't know my Jesuit classmate Frank Maselli, who puts on those great musical events on the Italian Piazza downtown. We get up to depart, and who do we find at the next table? Frank Maselli. I keep saying it: only 500 people live here!
