Legacy Kitchen. Duck Chili.

[title type="h5"]Thursday, January 23, 2014.[/title] We can't seem to stop talking about chili on the radio show. It hasn't turned up any more restaurant sources for the dish, even though a lot of radio callers remember bowls of chili from the days when it was widely available. So it was a strange coincidence that I ran across a very good version of chili today. That's certainly not what I went to the Legacy Kitchen for. The place has been open for some seven or eight months now, and was on my list for discovery. [caption id="attachment_40955" align="alignnone" width="480"] Legacy Kitchen.[/caption] The name of the restaurant and its retro design imply that it reworks classic American dishes from an earlier era. Those days are so long ago that much of the food is unfamiliar except to real old-timers. Those dishes that are well known are timeless classics, served by restaurants across the spectrum. Hamburgers, for example. Really, Legacy's menu is mostly the same food we're seeing in the chain dinnerhouses across the country. The few offerings that do ring a 1940s-1950s note have been modernized so much that they come across as innovative. Maybe that's the whole idea, but I don't think so. I showed up at around three-thirty, having left the radio station right after the show. (I may as well. I still don't have a computer there, and never get much work done in the brain-dead state I'm in after three hours of making talk radio.) Legacy Kitchen wasn't very busy then. And I seem to have come during a shift change, because my waiter introduced me to another waiter halfway through. [caption id="attachment_40956" align="alignnone" width="480"] Turtle soup.[/caption] The Thursday soup du jour at Legacy is turtle. That took me by surprise. I can't remember ever seeing turtle soup in that guise. Even more surprising was that the soup was very good. I couldn't get anybody to tell me what the turtle meat proportion in the recipe was. The most common number these days is zero, but this tasted like it actually had some. Regardless of that issue, this was quite delicious. Two days in a row I've found excellent turtle soups that I hitherto hadn't known about! [caption id="attachment_40957" align="alignnone" width="480"] Duck chili at Legacy Kitchen.[/caption] The entree side of the menu showed quite a few dishes that appealed to my hunger at the moment. But there, in the middle of the page, identified as a house specialty, was chili. Duck chili. With several kinds of beans. The more I learned about it from the waiters (from both shifts), the better it sounded. It wasn't the thing to have after a bowl of turtle soup--too similar in texture, flavor, and even color. But I put in an order for it anyway. I could only get through half of it, but not for a lack of trying. The duck aspect of it was subtle. Everything else was a barrage of flavor and substance. The spice blend was complex. Not so peppery that I didn't add my own Tabasco, but not for a mild palate. The beans were cowpea-size, and although I couldn't make out the different varieties, the flavor was very satisfying. And just enough fat made miniature puddles here and there. That's essential to a good chili. [caption id="attachment_40958" align="alignnone" width="350"] Spice cake with overly-salty caramel.[/caption] I read somewhere recently that the reason we still want dessert after stuffing ourselves with earlier courses is that humans seem to have no functioning off switch in the sweetness-desire circuit. I can vouch for that, and give as an example of the effect my wanting to try the spice cake and ice cream after all that turtle soup and chili. However, other forces intervened to keep me from eating more than a couple forkfuls. The cake was right up with the times in running salt caramel all over. Who got the idea that this was good? I found it inedible--credit the salt entirely. Still, this was a better restaurant than I was expecting. Those anticipations were formed by 1) an interview with the management on the radio a few months ago, b) the knowledge that it's the same people who own the New Oirleans Hamburger and Seafood Company across the street, and iii) Mary Ann's telling me that she wasn't crazy about it. This seemed like her kind of food, so that surprised me. (On the other hand, the Marys ate at Legacy just a few days after it opened. Will they never learn?) [title type="h5"]
Legacy Kitchen. Metairie: 759 Veterans Memorial Blvd. 504-309-5231. [/title]