Monday, March 20, 2017.
The Usual Places With Unusual Food.
It's a loose day, what with there being no chorus rehearsals this week and Mary Ann spending the night at Mary Leigh's apartment. Lunch in One Of The Usual Places #538547389 (New Orleans Food and Spirits). One of their best dishes is blackened catfish with pecans in brown butter. Fried can be had, too, and it's one of the few exceptions from the rule that good catfish is almost certain to be better fried than any other way.
A peculiarity of NOFS's menu is that it has the pecan catfish only at lunchtime, and that serving is cut back for the sake of lunch prices. I know this from asking whether I can have a bigger entree at version of this, and being refused. The catfish is the usual single smallish fillet, although the price--with a salad, yet--is just barely over $12.
The next time the waitress drops in to see whether I'd like anything else, I ask for another catfish fillet without the sides, at whatever price is necessary. It's still a good deal. And a really good dish. I have it with French fried sweet potatoes, which I have lately taken a shine to.
So, in a way, this is not really One Of The Usual Lunches after all.
Mary Ann has engaged herself enthusiastically in booking guests for the radio show. Today we have Ganesh Ayyanegar, the owner and chef of Silk Road, an Indian restaurant in the Marigny. It evolved from what had been Schiro's neighborhood grocery store. Before that, Ganesh also operated a pan-Asian restaurant called Sara's in the Riverbend neighborhood for a time.
MA was a bit worried about Ganesh, because the last time he was booked for the show--years ago--something not entirely unique happened. About six people from different restaurants showed up all at the same time, most of them for one hour. Ganesh was the last such such guest to appear, and having no place to put him I had to turn him away.
He proved to be a congenial guy, and he stayed for most of the first hour today. I wanted him to get all the time he wanted to make up for that last fiasco.
Speaking of fiasci (the little-known plural of fiasco), did you know that the familiar bottle of Italian red wine, with a globe at the bottom covered with wicker, is known to Italian as a fiasco? Since most such are not very good, this is apt.
Silk Road. Marigny: 2483 Royal. 504-944-6666.
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Tuesday, March 21, 2017
No Salad Dressing. A Voice From The Past.
It's a windy day, with heavy thunderstorms later in the afternoon. That is enough to keep one of our radio guests home in Mandeville. Allie Cousins--maker with husband Jack of the eponymous Cousins Salad Dressings--said that the forty-mile-per-hour winds on the Causeway were a bit much for her, and I can't blame her.
Also on the show but by phone (I guess he didn't want to drive in this potential tornado weather either) is Dennis Hutley, formerly owner-chef of Le Parvenu in Kenner. For the past ten years or so he has been the chef at the Chateau Country Club, also in Kenner. I usually hear from him when there's a charitable fundraiser at the club. Our interview today was different, a walk down memory lane. Dennis's history in the New Orleans restaurant business includes quite a few major restaurants, chefs, and a wide range of cuisines that he has become deft with.
[caption id="attachment_37363" align="alignnone" width="300"]
Trout with garlic and crabmeat, a specialty at the now-extinct Le Parvenu, where Dennis Hutley ruled for years.[/caption]
He introduces me to a new concept: the semi-private club. Chateau has been a classic private club, in which membershis is required for full access. But such a concept is fading in our area, and it works to everybody's benefit to allow outsiders to dine and attend events some of the time. I myself I have been there about ten times in the past year alone. And I'm barely a member of my own family.
Thinking about all these matters, it occurs to me that this would be a good time for a list of chefs who made major contributions to the dinsing scene, but who are either working in sub rosa positions or are retired or waiting for a new gig. I can think of about a dozen such without trying hard.
