Diary 3|23|2016: Poseidon, Sushi And Oysters. Where Did The Music Go?

Wednesday, March 23, 2016. What Happened To Ethnic Music?

When I started writing about restaurants in 1972, there were very few ethnic restaurants around town. Leading the count were the Chinese, but with only sixteen reviewable places. (So, not counting Takee-Outee.) You could count all the Mexican cantinas on the fingers of one hand, but only one Spanish eatery and three Central American restaurants. The only ethnic category that was stronger then than now were the Greek spots--five then, one now. But there were zero Middle-Eastern restaurants then. Also no Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, or African. Finally, one German eatery. (Can you name it in less than two seconds?) All of these empty possibilities began to fill in the middle 1980s. The ethnic restaurants that appeared then weren't as good as the ones we have now. But they were more exotic, in part because every one played the music of its homeland. Even though most New Orleanians would have considered listening to an hour of German, Greek or Guatemalan music to be borderline torture, that stance changed if the listening were in a restaurant serving food from the same origins. When did that change? Last night, at the suggestion of a commercial in my radio show, I went for dinner to Poseidon, a new, mostly-Japanese restaurant on St. Charles Avenue near Jackson. (It's in the Carol Apartments, in the exact spot where the Versailles used to be a long time ago.) It is really too soon for me to go there for a formal review, but I was in both the mood and the neighborhood tonight. And I was intrigued by the commercial's claim that this was a sushi bar with other raw-bar offerings. Which proved to be an oyster bar, with the local bivalves both raw and grilled. I'll get back to the food--which was good enough that I think the place might have legs--in a moment. But first, a few words about the background music. And even before that, I note that my wife Mary Ann--who has been out of town pampering our first grandchild in Los Angeles for three weeks, and who comes close to hating nearly all music--is rolling her eyes at my even noticing background music in a restaurant. The music at Poseidon is light American pop. I find it irritating, but that's my problem, because if they played the kind of music I like (1920s jazz, to name one of my tastes), it would irritate many more people than just me. Unless, of course, the music were Japanese. Or even Chinese or Vietnamese. (I have a Japanese friend who always notices when Chinese music is in the air of a Japanese restaurant.) I can't claim to listen to Japanese music at home. But in a Japanese restaurant, it seems not only right and enjoyable, but downright necessary for the full joy of the ethnic dining experience. But not many sushi bars play Japanese music anymore. Why is this? Are the Millennials that intolerant of anything but their favored current music? [caption id="attachment_51053" align="alignnone" width="480"] Japanese-style clear soup with vegetables @ Poseidon. [/caption] Back to the food. I begin with a clear vegetable soup. It is very good, with near-crunchy broccoli, green beans, celery, mushrooms and a few other veggies. Coming out at the same time is tuna tataki, which sets off an alarm in my mind to tell the server not to bring any more food just yet. The tataki is a fine example of that appetizer: big flanks of raw tuna sliced about a sixteenth of an inch thick, charred and peppered around the margins. It was quite spicy, as it should have been. But the ponzu sauce that accompanied it needed a little more emphasis. [caption id="attachment_51055" align="alignnone" width="480"] Tuna tataki.[/caption] Finally, I had the Poseidon roll, one of those foot-long jobs with a variety of main ingredients, notably avocado inside and fresh tuna on the top. A mayonnaise-based sauce runs in waves from one end to the other. It's a bit too rich, but otherwise fresh and good. And it has no fake sushi crabmeat. [caption id="attachment_51056" align="alignnone" width="480"] Poseidon roll.[/caption] Dessert is a big wad of green tea ice cream, too large to finish and not really sweet--a plus. At an adjacent table, some of the diners order both raw and grilled oysters and like them. Although I've seen the classic New Orleans oyster setup in a few sushi places, it's still rare enough that I can't get my head around the idea just yet. In between the Japanese numbers, of course.

Poseidon. Uptown: 2100 St Charles Ave. 504-509-6675.