Wednesday, April 19, 2017.
Eat Club Might Have A Dinner At SoFab.
A few weeks ago Holly Barrett was on the radio with me to tout an event at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. With that matter covered, she had another idea. Maybe the Eat Club could hold a dinner in the restaurant next door to the museum (Toups South, operated by Isaac Toups, whose flagship restaurant is Toups Meaterie neat City Park). The proceeds would go to SoFab and its programs. We have had only a handful of dinners with fund-raising an imperative. But then, when I began holding the dinners in the early 1990s, the only other such regular fundraiser was Channel 12. Now few special dinners aren't fundraisers. (The money spent at Eat Club dinners has always gone to the restaurant giving the dinner. And, I guess, to the customers, who on most dinners get a terrific deal on the food and wine for the price.)
Holly and I took spots at the bar for cocktails and bar snacks. The barman offered a variation on the Negroni. (Lot of those out there. We will have another one tomorrow.) The first bar snack was cracklings made mostly of pork belly. I like the taste of these, but until the dentist finishes an extensive project in my jaws I have a hard time crunching these morsels. Next came an platters of marinated red snapper with some interesting greens. That is delicious. A salad that looked like cole slaw revealed some sliced chicken and well-hidden curls of cheese.
This is not my idea of a fully proper dinner. Sitting at the bar on high stools with small portions of everything lacks something. However, I am growing accustomed to that milieu. The Millennials have made it clear that this will be the restaurant service of the future.
We came to no conclusions with the Eat Club matter, but I expect the idea is not dead. I would have to rely on the staffs and facilities of this or that restaurant, but all those are already committed heavily to such undertakings.
One result of the meeting is that I will return to Toups South for dinner sometime soon. The menu looks promising, and I like what Isaac and company have done with the space. It's much more interesting than the Burgoo restaurant before it. Southern country food is a hard sell in New Orleans.
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Thursday, April 20, 2017.
ML Survives Hard Work. Dinner At Altamura.
I have not been able to talk much with my daughter Mary Leigh for the past couple of weeks. In her new position with the company she was employed by four months ago, she has been working crazy long hours. This made an impression on her bosses, who have given her a major raise and full-time status. And she's about to begin another project. From what I can tell, she stands to have quite a career going.
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Spiedine at Altamura.[/caption]
The one she just finished (I'd tell about it, but she asks me not to) was shipped to the client today. All is well and the pressure is off. She has the time to dine with me. We go to Altamira, whose proprietor was on the radio show a couple of weeks ago. It's in an interesting and very large building on Prytania and Jackson. The chef and general manager say that they are cooking authentic Italian food. Doesn't every Italian chef make that statement? Yes, they do. That's better than a lot of other attitudes they could have.
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Clams casino alla Altamura.[/caption]
We begin with an amuse that they call a spiedine. That word means different things in different restaurants and different parts of Italy. I believe that it's a Calabrese dish originally. It usually involves pan-frying. This version was essentially a thick layer of mozzarella wrapped in a thin layer of bread, all of which is pan-fried. If you like cheese, you love it. Pulling the sections apart reveals long tendrils of melted cheese, that stretch in such a way to suggest telephone wires. That is, in fact, an alternate name of the dish: "suppli al telefono."
I have a line of clams casino. That's a dish that's universal in the northeast, but almost never seen in New Orleans. These clams are very small, making eating a challenge, but the flavor is good enough.
ML has a hot potato-and-leek soup. She reveals that she loves leeks. After 24 years as he dad I, didn't know that.
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Spaghetti and meatballs at Altamura. This really was the color of this food.[/caption]
The entrees are spaghetti and meatballs for guess who? Meatballs seem to be making a comeback in recent times. I still can't help thinking about the dish as anything but kid food. In Italy, they make meatballs as a sop to American tourists. But no small number of New Orleanians consider the goodness of the meatballs a barometer of the restaurant's quality.
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Lamb rack at Altamura.[/caption]
I have a four-bone rack of lamb that has the texture of having been braised. They sit on a pile of risotto that steams the crustiness out of the lamb a bit more.
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Tiramisu @ Altamura.[/caption]
ML doesn't want dessert, mainly because she's still pooped out and wants to take her dog Bauer out for a walk, then go to bed immediately thereafter. I have the tiramisu for dessert, with the idea of having a few bites and then leave. But this serving is enough for four people, and I can't help putting a bigger dent into it. It is indeed as good a version of the dessert I've had in a long time.
Altamura. Garden District: 2127 Prytania St. 504-265-8101.
