Shrimp Arnaud at Arnaud’s is to me the definitive version of the local classic New Orleans dish Shrimp Remoulade. It can be found around town at the other Grande Dames, but none make as much of a statement as this one. It is red, though there are bastardized versions with white Remoulade sauce seen in other spots around town. Arnaud's sticks with the classics only. The restaurant used to serve a sauce so pungent with horseradish that it cleared my sinuses and grabbed me in the throat. I still loved it.
But on a recent return visit there at Friday lunch, I noticed a number of tweaks in an apparent attempt to update the dish. The pungency was much reduced in the Remoulade sauce, and the presentation was much fresher. The bed of shredded Iceberg lettuce had been replaced by chopped Romaine and other baby greens with little sticks of radish scattered about. All great changes. Thankfully, the little mound of perfect-sized shrimp was the same.
This simple dish is and always has been one of my favorite of the New Orleans classics, and I could make a meal out of this and some of the warm French bread served in the Grand Dames. At Arnaud's it no longer comes in the little white bag emblazoned with the logo, a tweak here I am less enthusiastic about. I hope it was just served this way because it was Friday lunch.
More on all the other tweaks at Arnaud's and a full story in the newsletter, out on the 17th. Sign up right here on the home page in the top right-hand corner.
