Diary 5|20, 21|2014: Don Jose's For Mole? NOW&FE Wine Dinner Idea.

[title type="h5"]Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Quest For Molé: Discovering Don Jose's. [/title] The restaurant on the southeast (Creole translation: river-downtown) corner of Williams and Veterans Boulevards was home to enough extinct restaurants that I can't recall all of them. For the past several months, a Mexican place called Don Jose's has held sway. The reports from listeners and readers are universally favorable. One of those reports has it that Don Jose's has molé poblano on the menu. Suddenly, I'm interested. Molé pobano--as we've noted in this space more than a few times--is among the world's best savory sauces, made of two or three dozen ingredients among which are unsweetened chocolate, chili peppers, and many interesting herbs. It deranges my mind to know that very few local Mexican restaurants can seem to work up the skill and courage to make molé. Don Jose's building is in a highly visible, easily-maneuvered intersection of two major arteries. There's a big parking lot. Inside, it is a reasonably nice-looking place, with some fascinating artwork and a Mayan temple. It's a bit dark for a Mexican atmosphere. (That look is probably the doing of the previous tenant, a steakhouse. Steakhouses tend to be dimly lit.) Why so many restaurants have come and gone here is a mystery. My dinner got off to a good start. Front-of-the-house staff is sharp. The second-tier servers get hot, thin chips and an excellent salsa out right away. The waitress is eager to please. She answers my too many questions and makes suggestions without hesitation. Until I ask about the molé. The what? The molé on the chicken, right here under Entrees. She hasn't tried it, nor does she seem to know what it is. Uh-oh. I get an order of queso fundido, a.k.a. choriqueso--a mixture of molten cheese dip with Mexican chorizo sausage. Our standard-setter for this is La Carreta, where we order it without fail. Don Jose's version is as good as La Carreta's. I eat too much (all) of it, and my hopes rise. Two items go particularly well with molé sauce: roasted chicken and cheese enchiladas. I have both, and both are okay--except for the sauce. About that, one or more of the following statements is true. 1) Don Jose's chef doesn't understand the making or function of molé. b) Don Jose's is running low on molé today, and since it takes two days to make a batch they just serve me what they have. Which tastes old, and is served in an amount insufficient to work the magic. iii) The lady who makes the molé is on vacation. [caption id="attachment_42442" align="alignnone" width="480"] Chicken with molé?[/caption] This statement is absolutely true: If what they served me as molé is the best they can do, they'd be better off not doing it at all. Don Jose's is nearly full by now. It redeems itself somewhat in the dessert course. The waitress, continuing her fine hospitality, grows enthusiastic about the sopaipillas. Those lucky enough never to have eaten at Pancho's may need to be here informed that sopaipillas are a lot like beignets, but with cinnamon sugar instead of powdered. Here, it comes with a scoop of ice cream. Great stuff. [caption id="attachment_42443" align="alignnone" width="480"] Sopaipillas.[/caption] Don Jose's prices are very low, and from what I see at other tables the food is everything else is decent or better. But my search for molé poblano in our Mexican-deficient city must move on. [title type="h5"]Don Jose's Grill. Kenner: 2722 Williams Blvd. 504-305-6224.[/title] [divider type=""] [title type="h5"]Wednesday, May 21, 2014. A Good Idea For Next Year. [/title] The New Orleans Wine and Food Experience begins today with an event we can be proud of. Thirty-two restaurants (the number was thirty-three until yesterday; somebody must have pulled out, but I can't recall who) are having wine dinners tonight. Simultaneously. Such a thing does happen in other food festivals around the country, but in almost all of them the chefs are famous guys from out of town. Here in America's second great food city (New York must be given its due), we do it all with top-quality chefs who are to a man (and woman) local guys (and girls). If I were on the board of NOW&FE, I'd make a total pain in the ass of myself to see to it that this condition is Criterion Number One for the festival in perpetuity. I've gone to the vintner dinners almost every year since NOW&FE came to be, twenty-one years ago. Always alone: Mary Ann doesn't like wine dinners (not even my own Eat Club versions of them) because of their all-evening characteristic and focus on the vinous juice. But this year, I had an idea I thought would make an interesting story. Instead of going to a single dinner, I'd circulate through as many dinners as I could, stopping for perhaps a course, perhaps a sample of wine, and then moving on. If I centered this project on the corner of Royal and Canal, I would find the following restaurants within a two-block radius: Windsor Court Grill Room Red Fish Grill Pelican Club Mr. B's Le Foret La Louisiane GW Fins Galatoire's Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse Criollo Canal Street Grill August Arnaud's 5Fifty5 Who knows what I would find to write about had I made it to any of them! But it was not to be. I awakened this morning with a terrible backache--in a new spot, at that. I must have rolled over funny in bed and got stuck. This doesn't often happen to me, but since it first did in my early twenties, I know that the best thing to do is give it a rest. If I don't, it gets really bad, and I find myself on the floor, moving like a lizard. So I stay at home, eating another sandwich of MA's leftovers, and resolve to carry off this plan next year.