Diary 2|3|2015: Carrollton Market Comes Around Nicely.

[title type="h5"]Tuesday, February 3, 2015. Carrollton Market Comes Around Nicely.[/title] Just about every person I encounter in the hallways at the radio station congratulates me on the move of the show back to late afternoon. I don't know what this means, but I will bask in it. The Marys inform me that they are in town, and would assent to being asked to dinner. To Carrollton Market, where we discover that even on a Tuesday--one of the slowest nights of the week for most restaurants--the place is popular enough to make reservations essential. We don't have those. The Marys never make up their minds until we're walking through the front door, and I do everything they tell me to do. No tables are available, but they can squeeze us in at the food counter. Great! That's where I'd want to sit, anyway. There, one is directly across from the entire kitchen, and you can see all the food as it's being prepared by four cooks. Who will tell you what it is they're working on when you ask. This is a bigger crew than they had last time. Chef-owner Jason Goodenough has been able to continue his role as expediter, an essential role in a large restaurant but unusual in one of this small size. The expediter is the last person to observe and touch up the plates as they move from the kitchen to the table. Occasionally--as happened twice tonight--Jason rejects the plate and orders it done over from scratch. Having that step in the process slows things down a little, but it results in a closer approach to perfection. Nearly everything that comes our way tonight is close to perfect. By the time we order, the Marys have seen nearly everything on the menu as it passes through the line before us. It's almost like being in a cooking class. [caption id="attachment_46577" align="alignnone" width="480"] Duck confit.[/caption] The starters are a confit of duck leg, the skin still sizzling a little from its encounter with hot duck fat. It lands atop a pile of red cabbage, with a reduced duck sauce zipped up with Creole mustard. This is just the kind of thing that MA loves. [caption id="attachment_46578" align="alignnone" width="480"] Sweetbreads in a sea of brown butter.[/caption] My opener is dramatic: sweetbreads, cooked a bit earlier in the day (sweetbreads require at least two passes through the kitchen). Mary Leigh notices that some dish or other has been plunged in what to her eyes is the greatest oversupply of hot, brown butter she has ever seen. Aha! It's the sweetbreads bathing in this, sizzling as they do and making it a certainty that my jacket will go to the cleaners this Saturday. The butter also attacks the wild mushrooms. Fresh spinach is underneath the sweetbreads, which are further flavored with tiny (the good kind) capers. This will certainly be the highest-cholesterol dish I will eat this month. I'm glad I took a statin earlier. [caption id="attachment_46571" align="alignnone" width="480"] Lamb osso buco.[/caption] The entrees are more conservative, as entrees tend to be. MA has a lamb osso buco--something I can't imagine her eating ten years ago. But the meat is soft and falls off the bone, and the roasted carrots and the cauliflower puree are both right up her alley. For me, the waiter strongly suggests the gnocchi with braised oxtail. MA muses that we had gnocchi last time, but with other ingredients. But the oxtail, in a thick sauce bearing lots of gelatin, is everything I was hoping for. It also appeals strongly to MA, who loves tender shreds of meat with intense brown gravy. [caption id="attachment_46574" align="alignnone" width="480"] Gnocchi and oxtails. [/caption] But we both remember that gnocchi from last time. Then and now, we remark that this is not one of the three or four New Orleans places (if there are even that many) that make gnocchi well. It's not terrible, but it's a little too chewy. Fortunately, I don't need to eat a lot of pasta, and I get enough to sate me. [caption id="attachment_46572" align="alignnone" width="480"] Steak frites.[/caption] Saved from being unable to find anything on this decidedly gourmet menu that she likes, Mary Leigh gets the steak with frites. The steak, we are pleasantly surprised to see, is a sirloin strip. It is large, just thick enough, well trimmed, seared nicely, and sent out with hand-cut fries. She finishes half of it and is very happy. We remain fascinated by the dance of the four chefs in their small work area on the other side of the counter. "It's like driving in Rome," ML says. "Everybody's veering around at top speed, but they all barely miss slamming into one another!" With that in mind, the kinetics become even more interesting to watch. [caption id="attachment_46575" align="alignnone" width="480"] Drumfish salad with watermelon radishes.[/caption] The chef sends us a couple of extras to try. Cavatelli pasta with a sage butter sauce, butternut squash and crabmeat is as appealing as it sounds. Chilled, pecan-smoked drumfish made into a salad with watermelon radishes resembles a tuna salad, but tastes a lot better, with a good hit of pepper--most of which came from the ghost peppers in which the caviar marinated. [caption id="attachment_46570" align="alignnone" width="480"] Banana bread. Pudding.[/caption] Dessert is banana bread made into a sort of pudding (needs work) and tiny beignets with chocolate pots de creme (which the girls love). I think Carrollton Market has come a long way since we were last here some six months ago. Mary Ann believes that it's reached an unambiguous excellence, which is all I need for me to nudge another fleur-de-lis into the rating. And cross my fingers that this little restaurant remains part of the Riverbend dining scene. [title type="h5"]Carrollton Market. Riverbend: 8132 Hampson St. 504-252-9928.[/title]