[title type="h5"]Wednesday, March 11, 2015.
Got Gumbo? [/title]
Mary Ann is badgering me to stop talking or writing about The Procedure. She's probably right about that, so this is the last mention of it. That leaves me free to complain about the barrage of rain we are putting up with this week.
Tonight is the United Way's annual Got Gumbo competition. The Marys, both of whom are lovers of the official soup of New Orleans, were eager to attend.
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A chef and his gumbo.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_46952" align="alignleft" width="133"]
Chefs and their gumbo[/caption]
This has always been an engaging event, with clear battle lines drawn. You have the chefs who strive to make polished versions of the two major classic styles of gumbo, and those whose aim is to use creative techniques and unusual ingredients. The judges, who taste the gumbos blind, gave the big prize to the catering department of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Its chef whomped up a gumbo that included, among other things, rattlesnake, frog legs, and calamari. I didn't get around to taste it, but many of the people who stopped me as we circulated in the room told me that the offbeat concoction was as good as it was peculiar.
The eight ot ten gumbos I tasted showed a level of excellence well above what I found last time I was there. I was a judge that year, and about halfway through experienced gumbo fatigue. You just can't try them all, although this is allowed.
The desserts were excellent. About six of them, including all the major dessert ingredient groups: chocolate, custard, and fruit.
As for the fundraising aspect, it must have been a winner. The grand ballroom of the Sonesta was jammed with people, with more sitting at tables outside the main room.[divider type=""]
[title type="h5"]
Thursday, March 12, 2014.
Wine And Bourbon Dinner At Zea.[/title]
I catch a good bit of flack for stating a dislike for most chain restaurants, while endorsing certain chain restaurants, notably Zea. Well, this isn't experimental science, but an evaluation of elements with fuzzy borders. Zea, which is clearly a chain, in many ways doesn't act like one. Several examples of this turned up lately. Zea has begun buying wild-caught Bayou des Allemands Louisiana catfish, replacing the Asian product that they (and many other chains) felt they had to use for the sake of corporate consistency. They've installed the Asian fried oysters (local oysters, with an Asian-flavored sauce) as a special, but only for a few weeks this time of year. Most chains would not even consider such products.
Not many chains (the steakhouses among them) ever host wine dinners. Tonight, Zea combined some eight courses of food with four wines and a half-dozen cocktails. Most of the food was straight off the menu (although not all of it), and it went down good for the fifty or so diners. We started with the Asian oysters and a cocktail made with Gentleman Jack (the lighter version of Jack Daniel's) and a slice of fried bacon. Look at the photo of this, and tell me that we won't be laughing at the concept in a few years.
The other side of the Jack Daniel's spectrum was also here. The Frank Sinatra Special Edition is a small-batch, powerful whiskey made in honor of the singer. In the 1950s, Sinatra started talking in the most favorable terms about Jack Daniel's in his performances, resulting in a big jump in sales of Jack. The mixologist made a batch of mint juleps. I flashed the card that authenticates my being a genuine Kentucky Colonel, even though the whiskey was from Tennessee. (Bourbon is in the classic mint julep fuel.)
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Crab cakes at Zea wine dinner.[/caption]
The menu went on to include a juicy, vegetable-strewn taco, seared tuna on a sharp salad, some onion rings atop--is it duck? Grilled black drum and a small ribeye steak. None of this jumped out of the realm of food for which Zea is known. The chef came out (that doesn't often happen in chain restaurants) and took a round of applause.
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Steak under onion rings.[/caption]
Then wine-and-spirits representative Teddy Graziano and I did a Sinatra duet, which we had been threatening to do all evening long. We waited until we and the other attendees were as mellow as an old whiskey.
