Thursday, May 4, 2017.
Checking Out Café Sbisa Again. It's A Full House.
The heavy rains of the past two days clear out, accompanied by surprisingly chilly nights last night and for the next few days. I mean, it's actually cold. I think it may have gone into the forties last night on the North Shore. People at the Jazz Festival will have an air-conditioned weekend for enjoying the music and the eats.
Mary Ann calls to suggest that we go to Antoine's. It is a pleasant patronizing on her part, but of all times this is not the right time to go to Antoine's. The Jazz Festers--particularly those who know their way around New Orleans from many past visits--are filling the dining rooms of the better-known restaurants.
I suggest that we go to Café Sbisa instead. Freshly returned to the scene after years of being shut down by Katrina, the historic old place is running spots on my radio show. As always, I check the place out to make sure that they deliver on their promises. So far, so good after four or five visits.
The pleasant surprise this time is finding that although their crab cakes lack some of the indicators of great versions of that dish, they are excellent crab cakes. For example, they're using not jumbo lump crabmeat but white crabmeat from the interior. The texture that results is nearly perfect, without there being too much egg, mayonnaise, bread crumbs or other edible mortars. The sauce is a great combination of flavors somewhat in the realm of white remoulade. The right amount of ingredients pull the thing together. And they give you two good cakes for $15, an unusually good price. Indeed. I find the prices here a shade lower than I expect.
I find a dish that Chef Alfred Singleton usually serves with veal and crabmeat. The sauce is a nearly-sizzling caper butter. I ask to have the fish of the day (redfish) turned out with that butter, and both the crabmeat and the veal left out. This is classic French poisson Grenobloise, a dish I've not encountered in a long time and that I like very much.
Mary Ann gave the illusion of eating nothing at all, so I couldn't see what exactly it--wait! it's a soft-shell crab, served as an appetizer. Mary Leigh, who came with me last time I was here, looked forward to the chicken and sausage gumbo that night. Bad luck for her: the gumbo du jour is seafood-based. She doesn't eat seafood. My daughter!
While we are there, Café Sbisa serves more people than I have seen in the restaurant in its current age. The dining room is nearly full. I guess I will keep recommending it.
Cafe Sbisa. French Quarter: 1011 Decatur St. 504-522-5565.
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Friday, May 5, 2017.
Skip Murray Checks In.
The radio show is wacky in its first hour, but I knew that would be the case with Skip Murray hanging out with us. Explaining a conversation with Skip is not the easiest thing in the world, although it is entertaining. I knew and worked with his father Jack--one of the last of a dying breed of radio advertising sales people around New Orleans. Like his father, what's on Skip's mind isn't often linear. Perhaps that's what makes his thoughts seem inspired.
We can cover the current situation by noting that Skip was more or less the creator of Dat Dog, a concept he employed during his years in Great Britain. His great success was in introducing the hot dog concept to Britishers assembled in stadiums to watch cricket, rugby, and what they call football everywhere except in America. The effort was astonishingly successful. Take a few leaps and you have what Skip and Company created with Dat Dog after the hurricane.
So what is he up to now? I think it has something to do with the big new medical complex in central New Orleans. I didn't quite dope it out. I'll just check in with Skip when I hear anything further that need explanation and sounds good.
