Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
Acropolis Cuisine Moves Into A New Era.
"We are rid of February, and good riddance, if you ask me."--E.J. Kahn, Jr.
Even though it encloses my wedding anniversary, my birthday, Mardi Gras (usually), my late mother's birthday, and Valentine's Day, February is no friend of mine. Even in this, the warmest winter I can remember. The lawn is lush and green, not its usual brown. But what can I possibly do about it?
It's a lovely day. I consider staying at home and going for a walk. There are many projects I could get done at home more effectively than if I make the two-and-a-half-hour commute into town. But I go in, anyway.
After the show, I try to get to the Flaming Torch to talk with Zohreh about the menu and other matters for our Eat Club dinner in two weeks. But the drainage construction has the place boxed in, and takes away the two dozen best parking spaces. I will ask her to move the dinner until after Daylight Saving Time kicks in, when at least we will be able to see where we're going.
I drive a long way before I have an inspiration for dinner. The owner of Acropolis Cuisine died a few months ago, and the new management is in place. He has clearly pulled things together. I have what may be my best meal ever had in the little café on Veterans at Taft Park. And I don't think I was recognized until I handed my credit card over to the waiter.
[caption id="attachment_50828" align="alignright" width="320"]
Six-onion soup at Acropolis Cuisine. [/caption]I begin with the restaurant's famous six-onion soup. It's different from the French onion soup we all know in that the onions are not caramelized, but treated as herbs. A light veloute holds it together. It looks creamy but isn't. There's a square of freshly-baked puff pastry on top. That's more a gimmick than a feature, but the first few bites of the hot, brown bread are good. So is the soup itself.
The recipe for this highly distinctive item has made the rounds of the city for many years. I remember having first encountered it at Teddy's, on LaSalle Street just off Canal, forty years ago. Teddy's was a classic Greek-owned diner, and this kind of dish was the restaurant's leap toward immortality. I next ran into it in a restaurant on Hickory, Dickory and Dock Streets in Harahan. The Greek guy there next moved it when he whowed up at the Acropolis. I think a couple more moves were involved along the way. This I know: only one restaurant at a time in the whole city ever has offered the soup of the six onions.
[caption id="attachment_50827" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Moussaka at Acropolis Cuisine.[/caption]
Next comes--as a function of the entree--a decent Caesar salad. The entree itself is moussaka. I couldn't remember having had this at the Acropolis before. It had to be new to me, because a dish this good I would have remembered.
Moussaka is a casserole found throughout the former extent of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Greeks made more of it than the other cooks of the region, and it's a major item on Greek restaurants wherever Greeks are found--which is almost everywhere. It's a layered dish with likenesses to shepherd's pie and lasagna. The layers begin with vegetables at the bottom. Atop that is long-cooked lamb, which is topped in turn by potatoes (sometimes mashed, sometimes not) and then some eggplant and cheese. The top layer is bechamel, with a bit of cheese mixed in.
Usually a serving of moussaka is a big cube cut from a bigger pan. Acropolis, however, bakes its moussaka in individual servings, the puffy bechamel dusted with parmesan cheese. This makes for a cleaner, lighter dish. It's too big to eat for someone who is not starving. You could certainly share it. Even eating just half, it's still too much.
Bread pudding is dessert, finishing off a four-course prix-fixe dinner. Or was it a la carte at low prices? The food total was $22, which certainly seems some kind of deal.
When I arrive, the restaurant is nearly full. Metairaneans must dine early, because by the time I left at around 8:30 it was nearly empty. I'm happy to see this briefly endangered little café is still the best Greek restaurant in the New Orleans area. The fact that it's the only Greek restaurant in town takes nothing away from its goodness.
Acropolis Cuisine. Metairie: 3841 Veterans Blvd. 504-888-9046.
Six-onion soup at Acropolis Cuisine. [/caption]I begin with the restaurant's famous six-onion soup. It's different from the French onion soup we all know in that the onions are not caramelized, but treated as herbs. A light veloute holds it together. It looks creamy but isn't. There's a square of freshly-baked puff pastry on top. That's more a gimmick than a feature, but the first few bites of the hot, brown bread are good. So is the soup itself.
The recipe for this highly distinctive item has made the rounds of the city for many years. I remember having first encountered it at Teddy's, on LaSalle Street just off Canal, forty years ago. Teddy's was a classic Greek-owned diner, and this kind of dish was the restaurant's leap toward immortality. I next ran into it in a restaurant on Hickory, Dickory and Dock Streets in Harahan. The Greek guy there next moved it when he whowed up at the Acropolis. I think a couple more moves were involved along the way. This I know: only one restaurant at a time in the whole city ever has offered the soup of the six onions.
[caption id="attachment_50827" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Moussaka at Acropolis Cuisine.[/caption]
Next comes--as a function of the entree--a decent Caesar salad. The entree itself is moussaka. I couldn't remember having had this at the Acropolis before. It had to be new to me, because a dish this good I would have remembered.
Moussaka is a casserole found throughout the former extent of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Greeks made more of it than the other cooks of the region, and it's a major item on Greek restaurants wherever Greeks are found--which is almost everywhere. It's a layered dish with likenesses to shepherd's pie and lasagna. The layers begin with vegetables at the bottom. Atop that is long-cooked lamb, which is topped in turn by potatoes (sometimes mashed, sometimes not) and then some eggplant and cheese. The top layer is bechamel, with a bit of cheese mixed in.
Usually a serving of moussaka is a big cube cut from a bigger pan. Acropolis, however, bakes its moussaka in individual servings, the puffy bechamel dusted with parmesan cheese. This makes for a cleaner, lighter dish. It's too big to eat for someone who is not starving. You could certainly share it. Even eating just half, it's still too much.
Bread pudding is dessert, finishing off a four-course prix-fixe dinner. Or was it a la carte at low prices? The food total was $22, which certainly seems some kind of deal.
When I arrive, the restaurant is nearly full. Metairaneans must dine early, because by the time I left at around 8:30 it was nearly empty. I'm happy to see this briefly endangered little café is still the best Greek restaurant in the New Orleans area. The fact that it's the only Greek restaurant in town takes nothing away from its goodness.
