Fried Chicken @ Porter & Luke
Fried chicken, after years of having been ruled by fast-food chains, is beginning to become a specialty in conventional, local restaurant. Among the better version of the New Chicken is Porter and Luke, a big restaurant in the Metairie Shopping Center on Metairie Road. Its original chef--who has since moved on--left behind a great fried chicken recipe. It includes the most important instruction of all: the chicken is fried to order, not collected under a heat lamp. Four pieces: breast, thigh, drumstick, wing. Lightly crisp, greaseless, thin crust with visible herbs. It takes twenty minutes to appear, but when it does you will find lip-blisteringly hot, crisp, greaseless chicken. When I cut in, the steam came out in miniature billows. This is emphatically not the fried chicken that ruined the dish's reputation in recent decades (Thanks, fast-food industry. Really appreciate it.)