Saturday, March 5, 2016.
Help For Troubled Jewish Families.
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to promote an unusual fund-raising dinner tonight. The headliners are four well-known and excellent local chefs who all happen to be Jewish. I never gave thought to that professional profile before, and I begin to make a mental list. In addition to the chefs attending this event (Alon Shaya (Shaya and Dominica), Daniel Esses (Three Muses), Nathaniel Zimet (Boucherie), and David Slater (Emeril's), the only other local Jewish professional chef I can think of is Austin Kirzner (Red Fish Grill). I imagine there are more. Probably the greatest number in New Orleans restaurant history.
The Jewish Roots Of Celebration Gala benefits the Jewish Children’s Regional Service--the oldest Jewish children’s agency in the United States. Its history in the middle South dates back to 1855. Many people in attendance tonight were brought up in Jewish orphanages helped by the JCRS. Now there's a story I never heard before.
I'm glad I could help promote the gala, but it's not like they needed me badly. The event is very well attended. The ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel and its gathering area are jammed with attendees.
I know a lot of them. I wound up seated for dinner with my longtime wining and dining friends Irv and Carol Lise Rosen. Harold and Sue Singer--who once allowed me to broadcast my radio show live from their home kitchen as Sue cooked her Passover seder--are also nearby.
[caption id="attachment_50886" align="alignnone" width="480"]
The second course.[/caption]
The food comes down family style, beginning with a collection of Israeli appetizers from the wildly successful Shaya. Then we have lamb, sweet potatoes, chicken, kasha varnishkes, on and on in home-cooked style. Commander's Palace and its affiliated restaurants brought desserts, among other things. Wines made in Israel are poured.
During the program, I learn something I've long wondered about. The late Oscar J. Tolmas, a quiet businessman who left an enormous legacy to charities in New Orleans, was honored this night. His story includes a passion for horse racing. There's a big parcel of land just off Veterans Boulevard which, until recently, was wide-open grass. Given the superlative location--a few blocks from Lakeside Mall--I always wondered why nobody had ever developed it. Turns out that Tolmas had in mind the building of a horse-racing track there, back in the 1950s. Mystery solved. (I think.)
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Sunday, March 6, 2016.
No Impastato's. Nuvolari's Instead.
It's a beautiful day, and a busy one. Mary Ann and I have an early breakfast at Mattina Bella. The dining room is loose when we arrived, but a few dozen people are waiting for seats by the time we leave. Then I go to sing at St. Jane's, after which I make a side trip to Stein Mart. There I turn up exactly what I was looking for: a light green jacket for me to wear at next Saturday's St. Patrick's Day parade in Covington. It's even the right size--and there are only three on the rack.
At mid-afternoon I join eight singers from NPAS in a rehearsal of the Irish songs we'll sing next Saturday. I get lost while looking for our gathering place. That Christwood development is byzantine.
The parade begins at 11:30 a.m. next Saturday. But the singing at the English Tea Room isn't until two in the afternoon. But that's when I'm on the air with my WWL show! So I won't be able to sing my solo--Galway Bay--after all.
Mary Ann doesn't want to wait until I cook dinner, which I haven't given much thought to doing in any case. She wants to dine in the likes of Impastato's. But both Impastato's are closed on Sunday. Their brother restaurant Sal & Judy's closes too soon for us to make it there.
[caption id="attachment_50890" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Oysters and Brie from Nuvolari's[/caption]
I suggest Nuvolari's. The two of us have not dined there in a long time, although Mary Leigh and I always liked it. We have a better dinner than MA remembers. It begins with fried oysters with melted Brie across the line of them. Then a Caesar for her and a bowl of tomato-basil soup for me.
[caption id="attachment_50888" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Lasagna.[/caption]
"What's with you and tomato-basil soup?" MA asks. She is thinking that if we had gone to Zea, as we did most Sundays during the past year, I would have had the same soup there. I was thinking the same thing. Some habits are mysteriously formed.
[caption id="attachment_50889" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Pasta carbonara @ Nuvolari's.[/caption]
Her entree is a standard red-sauce lasagna, which she does away with in short order. I have oysters and pasta carbonara. Mary Ann says that something in the flavor of this is disagreeable to her. I advance the explanation that the sauce is made with a heavy dose of Romano cheese. That's made from sheep's milk, and makes a big statement. She keeps complaining about it until she finishes the dish off. And it isn't even hers! Well, it saved having to bring it home and wonder what it is weeks from now.
Nuvolari's. Mandeville: 246 Girod St. 985-626-5619.
The second course.[/caption]
The food comes down family style, beginning with a collection of Israeli appetizers from the wildly successful Shaya. Then we have lamb, sweet potatoes, chicken, kasha varnishkes, on and on in home-cooked style. Commander's Palace and its affiliated restaurants brought desserts, among other things. Wines made in Israel are poured.
During the program, I learn something I've long wondered about. The late Oscar J. Tolmas, a quiet businessman who left an enormous legacy to charities in New Orleans, was honored this night. His story includes a passion for horse racing. There's a big parcel of land just off Veterans Boulevard which, until recently, was wide-open grass. Given the superlative location--a few blocks from Lakeside Mall--I always wondered why nobody had ever developed it. Turns out that Tolmas had in mind the building of a horse-racing track there, back in the 1950s. Mystery solved. (I think.)
[divider type=""]
Oysters and Brie from Nuvolari's[/caption]
I suggest Nuvolari's. The two of us have not dined there in a long time, although Mary Leigh and I always liked it. We have a better dinner than MA remembers. It begins with fried oysters with melted Brie across the line of them. Then a Caesar for her and a bowl of tomato-basil soup for me.
[caption id="attachment_50888" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Lasagna.[/caption]
"What's with you and tomato-basil soup?" MA asks. She is thinking that if we had gone to Zea, as we did most Sundays during the past year, I would have had the same soup there. I was thinking the same thing. Some habits are mysteriously formed.
[caption id="attachment_50889" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Pasta carbonara @ Nuvolari's.[/caption]
Her entree is a standard red-sauce lasagna, which she does away with in short order. I have oysters and pasta carbonara. Mary Ann says that something in the flavor of this is disagreeable to her. I advance the explanation that the sauce is made with a heavy dose of Romano cheese. That's made from sheep's milk, and makes a big statement. She keeps complaining about it until she finishes the dish off. And it isn't even hers! Well, it saved having to bring it home and wonder what it is weeks from now.
