Tuesday, August 9, 2016.
MeMe's Goes To The Pelican Club.
Mary Ann and I have become friends with Rae-Ann and Chuck Williams, the people who own MeMe's in Chalmette. We keep running into them in other restaurants. That may not seem strange, but two ongoing conditions make it unusual. First, most restaurant owners dine in restaurants only rarely. Second, two of these meetings have been at Tony Angello's, a restaurant I hit once every five years or so. (It doesn't change much.)
On those occasions, we talked about the restaurant scene, and vowed that we would get together to try some of each other's favorites.
[caption id="attachment_52420" align="alignright" width="133"]
Tuna poke, kicking off the Coolinary menu at the Pelican Club.[/caption]
So here we are at the Pelican Club, which as usual is offering the best summer menu in town. It starts early in the season and stays late, and has more variety than any other Coolinary menu. We begin with a passed-around amuse bouche of tuna poké--chopped fresh, raw tuna, mixed with avocado, mango, citrus, and spices. Very tasty.(Well, I thought so. No other takers on raw fish at this table.)
[caption id="attachment_52421" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Pappardelle pasta with oyster mushrooms.[/caption]
The ordered appetizers are appealing, too. Grilled oysters keep Mary Ann's streak of eating them at every meal out. I don't remember who had the pappardelli pasta with oyster mushrooms, kale and cream, but it looked good. So did the wedge salad. The appetizers are almost enough to fill us right there.
But we have entrees, too. The whole fried flounder was inevitable and a great a feast for Re-Ann. Mary Ann faces a panneed slab of slab of drumfish with enormous U-10 shrimp.
[caption id="attachment_52419" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Duck three ways.[/caption]
Chuck has the duck three ways, a special this night. It looks terrific and is so appealing that it gets scarfed down in a trice. And for me five thick slabs of nearly-rare tuna, accompanied by scallops with chimichurri sauce.
[caption id="attachment_52418" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Tuna and scallops.[/caption]
All of this is the kind of food I associate with the Pelican Club, but almost all of it is something new to the restaurant. (Except that flounder, which is getting to be Chef Richard's Hughes's signature dish.) And it's an almost crazy value at $39 for the full dinner.
That could have been finished with a dessert, but I was the only taker: key lime pie made with Meyer lemons.
The wine picked for us by our server (who may be the sommelier; if she's not, she ought to be) is a very dense Malbec. Bit in the fruit department, easy on the bitter ends of the tannins that come from such a dark wine. We all love it.
The Williamses have a refreshing and realistic idea about their establishment. The fully understand that their brilliant chef Lincoln Owens is what makes the place what it is.
Pelican Club. French Quarter: 615 Bienville. 504-523-1504.
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Wednesday, August 10, 2016.
Turtle Soup Overload.
Lazone Randolph--longtime chef at Brennan's on Royal Street, and the chef-elect of Ted Brennan's Decatur Restaurant when it opens in the fall--sent a gallon of turtle soup to me. He said he would when I saw him at Ted Brennan's Irish wake over the weekend. It isn't my idea, but I like it. From the sample at the wake, I learned that it's still the best turtle soup recipe in town.
I rushed right home with the cold container and ate a big bowl of the stuff. No sherry or hot sauce needed. This is the historic Brennan's turtle soup recipe, all right. I separated the bounty into four food-storage bags and froze them so I can have it for awhile. This is the only serious eating I do all day, and it serves me well.
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Thursday, August 11, 2016.
Keith Young's Steakhouse, But No Steak.
If you survey Keith Young's lunch menu, you won't guess that it's a steak specialist. You'd learn that truth, though, just by seeing the number of steaks that still come out to the dining room table.
But I didn't fall for one of the excellent slabs o' beef Keith routinely serves. It's mostly seafood at lunch, and he does that just as well. Mary Ann continues her fried-oyster jag, with a half-dozen of those. Then she succumbs to another passion of hers: a cheeseburger. Keith grills a very mean burger, thick as your hand, loaded with cheese, and still too hot not to be careful about biting in.
The waiter pushes the fine soft-shell crabs, the crab cakes, and the shrimp on me. For some reason I am not all that hungry, and I make most of the meal out of a Caesar salad.
Actually, I know the reason, but I can't report it here. A family crisis killed my appetite for today. Not the first time this happened to me. The 9/11 disaster was another--but Katrina, strangely, wasn't. The broken ankle that made it impossible for me to walk for three months also made me turn away from my food desires. That event, in fact, is what probably contributed more to the sixty-plus weight loss I've had in the past two years than anything else I'm doing.
For readers who really stay on top of my family's life: today's issue is not the end of the world, and so peculiar that you'd never guess it. Maybe I'll tell you in ten years or so. Sorry. I'll be back tomorrow, but diminished a bit.
Keith Young's Steak House. Madisonville: 165 LA 21. 985-845-9940.
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Tuna poke, kicking off the Coolinary menu at the Pelican Club.[/caption]
So here we are at the Pelican Club, which as usual is offering the best summer menu in town. It starts early in the season and stays late, and has more variety than any other Coolinary menu. We begin with a passed-around amuse bouche of tuna poké--chopped fresh, raw tuna, mixed with avocado, mango, citrus, and spices. Very tasty.(Well, I thought so. No other takers on raw fish at this table.)
[caption id="attachment_52421" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Pappardelle pasta with oyster mushrooms.[/caption]
The ordered appetizers are appealing, too. Grilled oysters keep Mary Ann's streak of eating them at every meal out. I don't remember who had the pappardelli pasta with oyster mushrooms, kale and cream, but it looked good. So did the wedge salad. The appetizers are almost enough to fill us right there.
But we have entrees, too. The whole fried flounder was inevitable and a great a feast for Re-Ann. Mary Ann faces a panneed slab of slab of drumfish with enormous U-10 shrimp.
[caption id="attachment_52419" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Duck three ways.[/caption]
Chuck has the duck three ways, a special this night. It looks terrific and is so appealing that it gets scarfed down in a trice. And for me five thick slabs of nearly-rare tuna, accompanied by scallops with chimichurri sauce.
[caption id="attachment_52418" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Tuna and scallops.[/caption]
All of this is the kind of food I associate with the Pelican Club, but almost all of it is something new to the restaurant. (Except that flounder, which is getting to be Chef Richard's Hughes's signature dish.) And it's an almost crazy value at $39 for the full dinner.
That could have been finished with a dessert, but I was the only taker: key lime pie made with Meyer lemons.
The wine picked for us by our server (who may be the sommelier; if she's not, she ought to be) is a very dense Malbec. Bit in the fruit department, easy on the bitter ends of the tannins that come from such a dark wine. We all love it.
The Williamses have a refreshing and realistic idea about their establishment. The fully understand that their brilliant chef Lincoln Owens is what makes the place what it is.
Pelican Club. French Quarter: 615 Bienville. 504-523-1504.
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