Friday, May 20, 2016.
The Graduates At Antoine's.
The takeover of nearly every formal restaurant in town (and lots of informal ones, too) by the graduating students from the city's high schools and colleges takes local diners by surprise. They go to their favorite places expecting the usual quick seating and other considerations, but find no reservations and no open tables. This is especially a problem during the weekend before and after the Tulane graduation.
But that was a couple of weeks ago, and now it's the high school grads and their parents, grandparents, godparents, aunts and uncles, and. . .well, let's just say that it's a very busy time. And once again I forget this condition myself.
Some time during the first hour of the radio show I say that I am in the mood for dinner at Antoine's, for all the usual reasons. Mary Ann calls to tell me that if I'd like to go to Antoine's, she would be happy to be my date. That seals the deal, and a few minutes after the show signs off, we find a valid parking spot less than a block from the ancient dining parlors of Chez Antoine. (The parking witch does it again.)
We are greeted in the front room by Rick Blunt, the CEO of Antoine's and fifth-generation descendent of Antoine Alciatore himself. He tells us that the full menu will not be available tonight, because the enormous restaurant is nearly booked out with graduation celebrants. All restaurants do this to some extent, but Antoine's can hold so many more diners than its kitchen can serve perfectly, that they unstack the deck and omit a few items that are problematic.
[caption id="attachment_38644" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Oysters Foch at Antoine's.[/caption]
This amounted to no problem for us. All the flavors I looked forward to are available, including an item that isn't on the menu even in normal times: poisson florentine. My waiter Charles Carter tells me that his father (he is one of many Antoine's employees who descend from earlier staffers) favored the dish. In an oversize gratin plate, a layer of creamed spinach goes down first, followed by broiled fish (puppy drum tonight) and bearnaise. The whole thing is run under the broiler until the bearnaise starts to glaze over a little. Yum. And a classic Antoine's dish.
Mary Ann has only a combination of crabmeat ravigote and shrimp remoulade for her entree. Not for the first time, we observe that the service of the crabmeat is sub-optimal. It appears to have been served with an ice cream scoop. That doesn't look like jumbo lump, either. . Perhaps the scoop did the damage.
I begin with oysters Foch, sharing it with MA. She likes the crackly fried oysters on which this unique creation is based. She doesn't like the sauce, even though I find it not only excellent but unique. It's a dark-brown sauce with a thick consistency, made with a base of hollandaise with tomato sauce, sherry, and caramel color. It's the same color as Mexican molé, but with an entirely different flavor.
By this time the number of people who have entered the restaurant since we arrived an hour ago is over two hundred, and they keep on coming. MA tells me she will give me ninety minutes to get my eating done. But this is a night where eating a course fewer and beating it is a good idea. Especially since we're sitting underneath the exhibit of Pope John Paul II's dinner at Antoine's in 1987. Everybody who enters Antoine's wants to look at this, and stands right next to us to do so. I don't mind, because I can fill in some of the history for these visitors.
[caption id="attachment_44930" align="alignnone" width="400"]
Peach Melba at Antoine's.[/caption]
I do have dessert, though, mainly because yesterday was the birthday of the opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, the star for whom my dessert of ice cream, peaches, and raspberry sauce was named. Melba toast is also the singer's namesake.
And the next thing I know, we're home.
Antoine's. French Quarter: 713 St Louis. 504-581-4422.
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Saturday, May 22, 2016.
Big Bowls Of Soupy Thai Curries.
I use up an insane amount of time this weekend reworking my subscriber files. But if I can get that all fixed and checked, I think that the Computer Massacree of the past month or so is over. I sure wish somebody else did this stuff for me.
For the first time in months, the radio show gets on the air at its normal time--but then it goes off early, bumped by baseball at three in the afternoon. It seems that next week I will have a full two hours for the Saturday edition, but I wouldn't bet on it.
I persuade Mary Ann to have dinner with me at Sawasdee, a handsome and relatively new Thai restaurant in Mandeville. Like everything else in that pair of strip malls, finding the place is a little challenging. The only good landmark is that Mandina's Mandeville location is in the back of the mall, and you have to pass Sawasdee to get there.
The name of the place is what you say when you face another person, press your hands together as if in prayer, then bow about fifteen degrees. It's a welcome in the Thai language. Whether the story will make it easier to remember the name, I can't tell.
We begin with an appetizer of coconut-crusted fried shrimp, served with a cool, sweet, and fruity red sauce with a significant pepper warmth. Very good.
We both have Thai curries for the main. MA has red curry with chicken. She read somewhere that coconut milk--a major ingredient in many Thai curries--is very good for you. I'm not going to tell her that coconut milk contains a fair amount of fat. But I do agree that Thai food expressed as a ratio of deliciousness to unhealthiness is a very high number.
[caption id="attachment_51071" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Panang curry with shrimp at Sawasdee.[/caption]
My curry color today is green. I have it with just vegetables--no meat, poultry, seafood or even tofu. I am making no statement here; I just like it that way. Sawasdee serves all this in the most traditional form. Most everything in the category amounts to a soup.
I feel the need to say that Thai curries have almost nothing in common with Indian or Chinese curries in their respective flavors. They are my favorite curries anywhere, and I love all curries.
Sawasdee Thai Cuisine. Mandeville: 4250 Hwy.22. 985-626-3577.
Some time during the first hour of the radio show I say that I am in the mood for dinner at Antoine's, for all the usual reasons. Mary Ann calls to tell me that if I'd like to go to Antoine's, she would be happy to be my date. That seals the deal, and a few minutes after the show signs off, we find a valid parking spot less than a block from the ancient dining parlors of Chez Antoine. (The parking witch does it again.)
We are greeted in the front room by Rick Blunt, the CEO of Antoine's and fifth-generation descendent of Antoine Alciatore himself. He tells us that the full menu will not be available tonight, because the enormous restaurant is nearly booked out with graduation celebrants. All restaurants do this to some extent, but Antoine's can hold so many more diners than its kitchen can serve perfectly, that they unstack the deck and omit a few items that are problematic.
[caption id="attachment_38644" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Oysters Foch at Antoine's.[/caption]
This amounted to no problem for us. All the flavors I looked forward to are available, including an item that isn't on the menu even in normal times: poisson florentine. My waiter Charles Carter tells me that his father (he is one of many Antoine's employees who descend from earlier staffers) favored the dish. In an oversize gratin plate, a layer of creamed spinach goes down first, followed by broiled fish (puppy drum tonight) and bearnaise. The whole thing is run under the broiler until the bearnaise starts to glaze over a little. Yum. And a classic Antoine's dish.
Mary Ann has only a combination of crabmeat ravigote and shrimp remoulade for her entree. Not for the first time, we observe that the service of the crabmeat is sub-optimal. It appears to have been served with an ice cream scoop. That doesn't look like jumbo lump, either. . Perhaps the scoop did the damage.
I begin with oysters Foch, sharing it with MA. She likes the crackly fried oysters on which this unique creation is based. She doesn't like the sauce, even though I find it not only excellent but unique. It's a dark-brown sauce with a thick consistency, made with a base of hollandaise with tomato sauce, sherry, and caramel color. It's the same color as Mexican molé, but with an entirely different flavor.
By this time the number of people who have entered the restaurant since we arrived an hour ago is over two hundred, and they keep on coming. MA tells me she will give me ninety minutes to get my eating done. But this is a night where eating a course fewer and beating it is a good idea. Especially since we're sitting underneath the exhibit of Pope John Paul II's dinner at Antoine's in 1987. Everybody who enters Antoine's wants to look at this, and stands right next to us to do so. I don't mind, because I can fill in some of the history for these visitors.
[caption id="attachment_44930" align="alignnone" width="400"]
Peach Melba at Antoine's.[/caption]
I do have dessert, though, mainly because yesterday was the birthday of the opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, the star for whom my dessert of ice cream, peaches, and raspberry sauce was named. Melba toast is also the singer's namesake.
And the next thing I know, we're home.
The name of the place is what you say when you face another person, press your hands together as if in prayer, then bow about fifteen degrees. It's a welcome in the Thai language. Whether the story will make it easier to remember the name, I can't tell.
We begin with an appetizer of coconut-crusted fried shrimp, served with a cool, sweet, and fruity red sauce with a significant pepper warmth. Very good.
We both have Thai curries for the main. MA has red curry with chicken. She read somewhere that coconut milk--a major ingredient in many Thai curries--is very good for you. I'm not going to tell her that coconut milk contains a fair amount of fat. But I do agree that Thai food expressed as a ratio of deliciousness to unhealthiness is a very high number.
[caption id="attachment_51071" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Panang curry with shrimp at Sawasdee.[/caption]
My curry color today is green. I have it with just vegetables--no meat, poultry, seafood or even tofu. I am making no statement here; I just like it that way. Sawasdee serves all this in the most traditional form. Most everything in the category amounts to a soup.
I feel the need to say that Thai curries have almost nothing in common with Indian or Chinese curries in their respective flavors. They are my favorite curries anywhere, and I love all curries.
