Saturday, May 28, 2016.
The Grand Tasting Really Is.
Before the usual Saturday errands, I take a five-lap walk around the Cool Water Ranch. At the southernmost point of the route, I see a box turtle making his way from the gravel road to the edge of the woods. I pick him up and a flood of smiling remembrances wash over me. At the Mid-City house where Mary Ann, Jude and I (ML wasn't born yet) lived, a box turtle turned up in my tiny back yard. Captain Tortuga lived with me for about six years in a fenced area around the side of the house, after spending some months inside an empty aquarium. That's where I learned that the Captain liked Nine Lives cat food enough that he would poke his head far out of his shell whenever I opened a can of the stuff for the cats. He also liked mushrooms, cooked carrots, and bacon.
When we moved to the Cool Water Ranch in 1990, the Captain came with us. The Cool Water Ranch is the ideal habitat for box turtles, who are native to most of the Old South. They have high-domed shells and bright yellow or orange polka dots on their skin. You don't make soup out of box turtles, because they eat things like poison ivy fruits.
Just as soon as we arrived in our new home, I picked up Captain Tortuga and brought him to the edge of the woods surrounding our house. I said good-bye, and never saw him again, although over the years we had many other box turtles pass through the Ranch. (A marking on his underside told me that none of these were the Captain.) Box turtles live long enough that the Captain may still be in the woods somewhere. On the other hand, I have heard that if you move a box turtle away from the place where you found him, he (or she) will spend the rest of his (or her) life looking for his old home. No reports from Palmyra Street, though.
When on the next lap I passed the spot where I met today's turtle, he had moved on. Box turtles move faster than you think. No sign of him on the last three laps. Farewell, wandering friend! Box turtles are one of life's happinesses.
By some miracle, the WWL Saturday Food Show got on the air for the entire two scheduled hours. That and a nap dispatched, Mary Ann and I crossed the lake to attend the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience's Grand Tasting. In this twenty-fourth running of NOW&FE, this is the first time there has been only one Grand Tasting. I was leery of this, especially considering the sub-optimal Royal Street Stroll yesterday.
[caption id="attachment_51642" align="alignright" width="320"]
Chef Michael Uddo from Cafe B, at NOWFE's Grand Tasting. [/caption]We were there for less than a minute before it was clear that this would be the best Grand Tasting in many a year, or perhaps ever. The first food booth I approached was manned by Mr. B's people, serving very large seared sea scallops--a major specialty at the restaurant--hot out of the pan with a fine light remoulade and porcini mushroom oil. From there on it was one great tidbit after another, served with very good wines.
A word about the wine. Although some big wine names were in town for NOW&FE, most of them displayed their goods not at the Grand Tasting but at Vinola, the day before yesterday. That divide was a source of much controversy when Vinola was added to the schedule some years ago. But although I grabbed wines with no particular plan, I would not have been embarrassed to served any of them at a party for my oenophile friends. I will offer this as further evidence--if any is needed--that the entire world of wine has improved tremendously now that science is involved.
[caption id="attachment_51644" align="alignnone" width="480"]
The silver-medal crew of Sac-Au-Lait, with their deviled crab.[/caption]With one hand holding the combination plate and wineglass-hook, a second hand shooting photos, and a third hand (I wish) taking down notes, I found many remarkable dishes that I expect we will see on menus in the near future. A striking example was the concoction of the Sac-A-Lait guys, who were filling small but real crab shells with crabmeat and a thick, custard-like sauce of eggs and herbs. They won the silver medal for this. (Sac-Al-Lait is the name of a months-old restaurant in the big industrial building where the Sun Ray Grill used to be.)
[caption id="attachment_51641" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Mr. B's seared sea scallop. [/caption]
[caption id="attachment_51643" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Oyster carbonara from Restaurant August.[/caption]
Who got the gold medal, one may ask. That was the new restaurant Trenasse, for its crabmeat and sausage gratin. Nobody had to explain what Restaurant August is. They had what looked like a low-end corkscrew pasta dish topped with bread crumbs. That's all it looked to be. But the name gave it away: oysters carbonara. Whatever was in those bread crumbs was magical. What a taste!
Lots of oysters, lots of crabmeat, lots of rich sauces. Not too much red meat (too hard to serve or eat in a grazing situation like this). Quite a few excellent soups. Lots of shrimp and grits (the most overexposed dish of the year in NOW&FE's programs).
All told, over fifty food booths were at the Grand Tasting. Some twenty wineries, most of which offered three or four different bottles. Plenty of wine.
The newly renovated Hall B in the Morial Convention Center looked great. Lots of room to move around. Even when one wqas in line for the next nibble, the lines weren't long, nnor were they jammed up against one another.
There was music. But it wasn't so loud that one could not talk with friends we haven't seen since last year's NOW&FE. And the obnoxiously blaring music played in past years to get everybody to leave the building at the end of the tasting was, mercifully, got rid of.
Again I tell you, this was the most enjoyable Grand Tasting in memory. I did not miss the second go-round. I like the later starting time (six p.m.).
But. . . as I have said about everything in NOW&FE this year, the price at $175 a person is a bit strong. The charity aspect of the event is much more strident. Originally, NOW&FE's goal was to stage a food festival in summertime, a slack time for restaurants with few visitors in town. Now, it seems to be more about the enhancement of educational programs for young, local, would-be professionals in the hospitality business. Although this is laudable--the more educated our young people are, the better it is for everybody. But when an organization declares itself a full charity, it gives itself permission to raise the ceiling on prices much higher than if it were not a charity. This is largely a good thing, of course. But some patrons find themselves on the short end of this. I wouldn't say that NOW&FE's prices are a major deterrent for someone looking to enjoy a grand food-oriented visit to New Orleans. But local people--who do count for something--are finding the tariff a deterrent. We need a few years with no more major increases. Or, perhaps, a price for locals.
Before NOW&FE was a series of summertime food festivals, all of which failed after a few years. That NOW&FE persists after a quarter century makes it remarkable and important. But finding a direction for growth is ticklish.
When on the next lap I passed the spot where I met today's turtle, he had moved on. Box turtles move faster than you think. No sign of him on the last three laps. Farewell, wandering friend! Box turtles are one of life's happinesses.
By some miracle, the WWL Saturday Food Show got on the air for the entire two scheduled hours. That and a nap dispatched, Mary Ann and I crossed the lake to attend the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience's Grand Tasting. In this twenty-fourth running of NOW&FE, this is the first time there has been only one Grand Tasting. I was leery of this, especially considering the sub-optimal Royal Street Stroll yesterday.
[caption id="attachment_51642" align="alignright" width="320"]
Chef Michael Uddo from Cafe B, at NOWFE's Grand Tasting. [/caption]We were there for less than a minute before it was clear that this would be the best Grand Tasting in many a year, or perhaps ever. The first food booth I approached was manned by Mr. B's people, serving very large seared sea scallops--a major specialty at the restaurant--hot out of the pan with a fine light remoulade and porcini mushroom oil. From there on it was one great tidbit after another, served with very good wines.
A word about the wine. Although some big wine names were in town for NOW&FE, most of them displayed their goods not at the Grand Tasting but at Vinola, the day before yesterday. That divide was a source of much controversy when Vinola was added to the schedule some years ago. But although I grabbed wines with no particular plan, I would not have been embarrassed to served any of them at a party for my oenophile friends. I will offer this as further evidence--if any is needed--that the entire world of wine has improved tremendously now that science is involved.
[caption id="attachment_51644" align="alignnone" width="480"]
The silver-medal crew of Sac-Au-Lait, with their deviled crab.[/caption]With one hand holding the combination plate and wineglass-hook, a second hand shooting photos, and a third hand (I wish) taking down notes, I found many remarkable dishes that I expect we will see on menus in the near future. A striking example was the concoction of the Sac-A-Lait guys, who were filling small but real crab shells with crabmeat and a thick, custard-like sauce of eggs and herbs. They won the silver medal for this. (Sac-Al-Lait is the name of a months-old restaurant in the big industrial building where the Sun Ray Grill used to be.)
[caption id="attachment_51641" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Mr. B's seared sea scallop. [/caption]
[caption id="attachment_51643" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Oyster carbonara from Restaurant August.[/caption]
Who got the gold medal, one may ask. That was the new restaurant Trenasse, for its crabmeat and sausage gratin. Nobody had to explain what Restaurant August is. They had what looked like a low-end corkscrew pasta dish topped with bread crumbs. That's all it looked to be. But the name gave it away: oysters carbonara. Whatever was in those bread crumbs was magical. What a taste!
Lots of oysters, lots of crabmeat, lots of rich sauces. Not too much red meat (too hard to serve or eat in a grazing situation like this). Quite a few excellent soups. Lots of shrimp and grits (the most overexposed dish of the year in NOW&FE's programs).
All told, over fifty food booths were at the Grand Tasting. Some twenty wineries, most of which offered three or four different bottles. Plenty of wine.
The newly renovated Hall B in the Morial Convention Center looked great. Lots of room to move around. Even when one wqas in line for the next nibble, the lines weren't long, nnor were they jammed up against one another.
There was music. But it wasn't so loud that one could not talk with friends we haven't seen since last year's NOW&FE. And the obnoxiously blaring music played in past years to get everybody to leave the building at the end of the tasting was, mercifully, got rid of.
Again I tell you, this was the most enjoyable Grand Tasting in memory. I did not miss the second go-round. I like the later starting time (six p.m.).
But. . . as I have said about everything in NOW&FE this year, the price at $175 a person is a bit strong. The charity aspect of the event is much more strident. Originally, NOW&FE's goal was to stage a food festival in summertime, a slack time for restaurants with few visitors in town. Now, it seems to be more about the enhancement of educational programs for young, local, would-be professionals in the hospitality business. Although this is laudable--the more educated our young people are, the better it is for everybody. But when an organization declares itself a full charity, it gives itself permission to raise the ceiling on prices much higher than if it were not a charity. This is largely a good thing, of course. But some patrons find themselves on the short end of this. I wouldn't say that NOW&FE's prices are a major deterrent for someone looking to enjoy a grand food-oriented visit to New Orleans. But local people--who do count for something--are finding the tariff a deterrent. We need a few years with no more major increases. Or, perhaps, a price for locals.
Before NOW&FE was a series of summertime food festivals, all of which failed after a few years. That NOW&FE persists after a quarter century makes it remarkable and important. But finding a direction for growth is ticklish.
