Wednesday, March 2, 2016.
One Step Behind Tujague's.
Tujague's has been on my mind at dinner times lately. It's been over a year since the last time I was there, and probably time to see how Mark Latter has reworked the menu. He told me some months ago that he was considering the eighty-sixing of the restaurant's famous boiled brisket of beef. He changed his mind after Ralph Brennan said that if Tujague's stops serving brisket, he would immediately put it on the menu in his restaurants.
I ask Mark what changes have been made in the menu since my last visit. He said the thing I hate to hear most: "The new menu starts day after tomorrow." Few things are more useless to a restaurant reporter than a menu about to become obsolete. It's incomprehensible how often I hear that.
The chef takes mild pity on me, and crosses my table with a fried soft-shell crab covered with a bright orange-yellow sauce, sprinkled with thin slivers of green onions. It's the first time I've encountered soft-shells lately. The recent cold snap made all crab products hard to find. This one is medium in size and very good.
[caption id="attachment_50847" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Soft-shell crab at Tujague's.[/caption]
Next comes vegetable soup, another long-term standard dish at the 160-year-old restaurant. That figures: boiling brisket leaves behind the best possible beef stock for making vegetable soup. Today's version is dominated by lima beans, and as enjoyable as ever.
[caption id="attachment_50848" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Oysters en brochette at Tujague's with too much bacon and a great meuniere sauce. [/caption]
For the entree I have a double order of oysters en brochette. Here is another example--second in a week!--of the messing up of this simple dish through the use of too much bacon. Although it's widely believed that there is no such thing as too much bacon, here it is. It was also at Galatoire's last week. Their oysters en brochette are a signature dish. But wrapping the bacon around the oyster keeps the oyster from cooking right, and removes the crisp mouthfeel and aroma of the bacon.
On the other hand, I congratulate Tujague's for its excellent thick, brown meuniere sauce. It's almost overwhelming, but it works well. The crusts of French bread in the plate lets you scoop up the extra sauce.
I have bread pudding with cranberries. That's been on the menu here for decades, but it is lighter and better than I remember.
The dining room is empty when I arrive, but a sizeable contingent of people in town for a meeting fills it up. These guests are from well out of town, and show a real appreciation for this ancient café.
One couple warms my heart when I overhear them saying that they came to town by way of the train they call The City of New Orleans from Chicago. She doesn't look abnormal or geeky.
I parked in the long lot along the railroad tracks on the river side of the floodwall. The price for two hours is $10. The lots between the components of the Jax Brewery development now get around $20 for that.
Tujague's. French Quarter: 823 Decatur. 504-525-8676.
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Thursday, March 3, 2016.
The Future Of Flying.
I decide early in the day to remain at the Cool Water Ranch for the show. I have a pile of miscellaneous jobs to perform, including articles to write for Inside New Orleans and CityBusiness. I also agreed to begin a series of vignettes about food for Magic 101.9, one of the six stations in our radio cluster. Since everyone seems to like this diary, I'm going to try writing the short radio pieces in a journal format. I never run out of projects to keep me busy.
I don't have anything like a real meal until after the Food Show plays out at six. Before I leave, I check in with Mary Ann, who is on her return drive home after a week in the Washington, D.C. vicinity with our daughter ML and her fiance Dave, formerly known as "The Boy." MA says she is having no trouble with the fourteen-hour trip, a straight shot from Northern Virginia all the way to Abita Springs. But she runs into heavy rain past Meridian.
I catch the same downpours on my way home from the Acme Oyster House, where I have fried oysters remoulade, a cup of red beans and rice, and a salad. MA pulls in at around nine, seeming none the worse for wear.
She has booked my flights to and from Los Angeles next month so I can attend the christening of my grandson Jackson. Who has just begun to smile. I was hoping to catch that while I was there last week, but only saw a few glimmers. Now he has all the personality a three-month-old needs.
Back to the flights: MA bought flights on Spirit Airlines, a new player at New Orleans International. The price is around $160, round-trip, non-stop. I go online to see what else I can learn about Spirit. The outfit makes no bones about the fact that its coach seats are even closer to one another than typical. No free drinks, not even water. The maximum carry-on size is smaller than usual. No movies. This is how they keep fares down, they say. But Mary Leigh who has flown on Spirit, says it didn't strike her as bad in any way. But I'm bigger than she is.
Tujague's has been on my mind at dinner times lately. It's been over a year since the last time I was there, and probably time to see how Mark Latter has reworked the menu. He told me some months ago that he was considering the eighty-sixing of the restaurant's famous boiled brisket of beef. He changed his mind after Ralph Brennan said that if Tujague's stops serving brisket, he would immediately put it on the menu in his restaurants.
I ask Mark what changes have been made in the menu since my last visit. He said the thing I hate to hear most: "The new menu starts day after tomorrow." Few things are more useless to a restaurant reporter than a menu about to become obsolete. It's incomprehensible how often I hear that.
The chef takes mild pity on me, and crosses my table with a fried soft-shell crab covered with a bright orange-yellow sauce, sprinkled with thin slivers of green onions. It's the first time I've encountered soft-shells lately. The recent cold snap made all crab products hard to find. This one is medium in size and very good.
[caption id="attachment_50847" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Soft-shell crab at Tujague's.[/caption]
Next comes vegetable soup, another long-term standard dish at the 160-year-old restaurant. That figures: boiling brisket leaves behind the best possible beef stock for making vegetable soup. Today's version is dominated by lima beans, and as enjoyable as ever.
[caption id="attachment_50848" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Oysters en brochette at Tujague's with too much bacon and a great meuniere sauce. [/caption]
For the entree I have a double order of oysters en brochette. Here is another example--second in a week!--of the messing up of this simple dish through the use of too much bacon. Although it's widely believed that there is no such thing as too much bacon, here it is. It was also at Galatoire's last week. Their oysters en brochette are a signature dish. But wrapping the bacon around the oyster keeps the oyster from cooking right, and removes the crisp mouthfeel and aroma of the bacon.
On the other hand, I congratulate Tujague's for its excellent thick, brown meuniere sauce. It's almost overwhelming, but it works well. The crusts of French bread in the plate lets you scoop up the extra sauce.
I have bread pudding with cranberries. That's been on the menu here for decades, but it is lighter and better than I remember.
The dining room is empty when I arrive, but a sizeable contingent of people in town for a meeting fills it up. These guests are from well out of town, and show a real appreciation for this ancient café.
One couple warms my heart when I overhear them saying that they came to town by way of the train they call The City of New Orleans from Chicago. She doesn't look abnormal or geeky.
I parked in the long lot along the railroad tracks on the river side of the floodwall. The price for two hours is $10. The lots between the components of the Jax Brewery development now get around $20 for that.
