Thursday, June 16, 2016.
Eat Club @ Lakehouse.
I am concerned about attendance at our Eat Club dinner tonight. We are faced with several deterrents. The reluctance of South Shore diners to cross the Causeway--especially the return leg, after the wine has been drunk--depresses reservations and increases no-shows. The ferocious storms we've had lately exacerbate the situation.
I also have some concern about the menu. Two of the dishes center on rare to raw seafood. They are the best parts of the dinner to my tastes. But Mary Ann--to name one squeamish palate of the many who felt the same way--would not touch either dish. They didn't go to waste: I eagerly scarfed down both the beautiful pepper-seared tuna and the crudo of very nice sea scallops.
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Seared tuna @ Lakehouse Eat Club.[/caption]
But we get lucky. The restaurant's own regulars add to the thirty regular Eat Clubbers to get us up to over fifty diners--a robust number. And the weather is sunny or starry, depending on what time it is. Finally, many people swapped out the pork belly and the beef short ribs from the entree course for the tuna and scallops. (I have never signed on for the crazes for either of those two meats, and gladly send mine over to MA, who loves them.)
I am surprised not to hear a word about insufficient food. But many people in attendance are on weight-loss programs, and find these scaled-back portions perfect for their regimens. (I'd better say that these were not representative of the standard a la carte servings at the Lake House, which are right up to gourmet-Creole size.)
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Short ribs for the Eat Club.[/caption]
We have many guests I haven't seen in awhile. I guy I used to play softball with in the UNO Alumni league has had triple bypass surgery, but is now ready to resume life. Bob and Jeannie--frequent travelers on our past cruises--were with us for the first time in awhile. A table is largely occupied by the staff from Dakota. Lakehouse owner Cayman Sinclair learned his restaurant strokes at Dakota, is why.
Speaking of Cayman: his business of catering to movie productions around town is, despite what you've heard about a decline in such commerce, rolling right along. He showed me a fleet of catering vehicles the size of over-the-road buses. One of these has a bigger kitchen than about sixty percent of the brick-and-mortar restaurants around town.
All of this and other conversations on other matters make this one of the liveliest dinner parties we've had in a long time. The entire crowd was bubbling. Most of them are still there at nine-thirty, after starting at six-thirty. The Eat Club is without question the most convivial gathering anywhere on the North Shore today.
Lakehouse. Mandeville: 2025 Lakeshore Dr. 985-626-3006.
[divider type=""]Friday, June 17, 2016. Red's Chinese. St. Roch Market.
Mary Ann has become my conscience when it comes to choosing restaurants. She is ever reminding me that many interesting eateries I have not tried are out there, waiting for my attention. That she herself doesn't especially go for hyper-cool restaurants with the likes of Asian fusion doesn't reduce her insistence. Tonight, she decides that we must get to Red's Chinese, a Bywater restaurant that has attracted a good deal of attention from the food press. The New Orleans Menu has even reviewed it, in one of our attempts to bring reviewers other than myself into play. [caption id="attachment_51892" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Coolest table @ Red's Chinese.[/caption] She calls the Hymels and the Poches, both of whom had sons at Jesuit High School when our son Jude was there. We haven't been out with them in so long that I hardly recognized them. Red's Chinese is not the kind of place you'd go with people you want to impress--unless the people get a kick out of offbeat, minimalist restaurants with, shall we say, daring premises. Red's Chinese doesn't look like a restaurant on the outside. The signs on the building don't seem to refer to food service. The restaurant's own signage is a red square with no words. This red sign makes the place easy to find, but it's unconventional.
You enter through the kitchen. The kitchen at this time of year is very hot. You hope that the heat doesn't permeate all the way to the rear of the building, where are most of the good tables and air conditioning. (It doesn't.)
[caption id="attachment_51897" align="alignnone" width="480"] Chicken dumplings @ Red's Chinese.[/caption]
The menu is not your typical Chinese collection of familiar dishes. A few recognizable concepts show up--General Tso's chicken, for example--but most items are significant departures from the norms. The menu is much shorter than we're accustomed to, as well.
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Bywater eggplant.[/caption]
We order in the time-honored Chinese style, ordering big dishes of this or that and sending it around the table. The first dish is arrive are Grandmother's Pickles--very spicy, kimchee-style cauliflower, turnis, radishes, cucumbers. Refreshing. Now crafish Rangoons--the fried wontons filled with cream cheese and crawfish tails. This is more commonly made with crabmeat, but crawfish is a good idea. Now some steamed dumplings filled with chicken and chanterelle mushrooms. And Bywater eggplant, which is almost a parmigiana dish, but with an Asian flavor.
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Dirty fried rice. Very peppery.[/caption]
The most controversial dish of the night is dirty fried rice-exactly what it sounds like, with a poached duck egg on top and a very peppery seasoning. Some like it (I do) and others don't.
The final dish is the most interesting on the table: kung pao pastrami. It is pretty much a barbecue brisket platter, with rice cakes--those fluffy bao cakes whose goodness is lost on everyone at the table.
The food, while fascinating in its eccentricity, is for once not the main topic. Everyone wants to know what all the other children in our three families are up to. That does seem to be taking over most conversations at these reunions.
MA suggests that we all to to the St. Roch Market for dessert. Good idea. I've stuck my head into the revived, re-thought old market on St. Claude at St. Roch, but this is the first time I've stayed long enough to sample some of the goods. A caller to the radio show a few days ago said that the market was more like a food court than anything else. It certainly is good-looking, modern, and ready-to-eat. We have ice cream and coffee, and take a look at the sandwiches, breakfasts, and other offerings. A jazz band plays.
At the coffee counter, I ask for café au lait. The young man on the other way ascertains the size desired, and sets about making it. Watching him, I see that he is making a New-Coffeehouse version of the beverage: a strong coffee topped with a fluff of steamed milk. Like a cappuccino, but with less milk, and without the espresso coffee.
But this is an historic old market in a very New Orleans part of town. Shouldn't this be café au lait in the New Orleans sense? What's wrong with chicory coffee with hot milk? Truly, this feels like Anywhere, USA. Somebody in management should take the same approach that the French Quarter Commission takes to architecture in its district. And have both Euro-style café au lait for the younger customers, and real New Orleans café au lait for the rest of us.
