Monday, July 1, 2013.
A Textbook-Perfect Poor Boy At The Milk Bar.
Happy New Semi-Year! Is it really possible that we're halfway through 2013, and that the days are already getting shorter?
The new modem AT&T said would be here today had not arrived by the time I had to leave for the South Shore. So I still have no internet. To get the Menu Daily out today, I had to copy all the pieces of it to a thumb drive and bring it to the radio station. There I loaded it all in and assembled it for distribution to the website and email. In theory, anyway. In fact, the computer I use there is hamstrung by corporate policy, and there were lots of things I need to do that I couldn't, until I figured out a workaround. That turned a fifteen-minute task to one that took an hour. And I never could figure out how to upload the day's photographs.
Out to dinner after an unusually lively radio show. My first target was Freret Po-Boys, which people have been asking about lately. When I found it (there must be a neighborhood rule that requires signs to be unreadable by a driver at more than fifteen miles per hour), it was closed. I considered trying the Origami sushi bar nearby, but I wasn't in that mood. One of my rules of restaurant criticism is that I never go to a restaurant in I don't feel like eating that kind of food that day.
Next, I was parked on Carrollton Avenue between Maple and Hampson. My first thought was to try Jazmine Café, a Vietnamese place near the Camellia Grill. But the sign for the Milk Bar caught my attention. I've heard good things about their place on Delachaise Street for a long time, but hadn't been. The menu had both addresses, and it's been open long enough (I think) for a try.
The place is not much on looks. I think this space in the old strip mall used to be Luke Gennaro's dry cleaners. (Luke was a school buddy when we were around ten years old. His father was our school bus driver. There are only 500 people living in New Orleans, I tell you!) The floor of the Milk Bar needed a sweeping, and the aluminum garbage can in the middle of the place looks horrible, even though it's shiny and clean.
I asked for advice from the lady at the counter. Her suggestions told me that we don't have the same tastes. However, that gave me time to parse the menu, and what I came up with was a sandwich of Thai chili pepper chicken with mozzarella, tomatoes, and a Thai curry sauce. Price, around ten bucks.
I was astonished by what came out. It was a whole loaf of French bread, about a third of the size of a poor boy loaf, right out of the oven and so hot that when I picked it up I put it right back down.
One look told me that there was no way I would eat even half of this thing. But I did eat half, then half of the other half. The sauce was agreeably spicy, the chicken was tender, the cheese was ample (and it lent a touch reminiscent of pizza).
Well, no wonder people brag on this place! They do the most appealing thing that can be done with a poor boy: they semi-bake it in the oven after it's assembled. There's nothing like hot, crusty French bread.
Milk Bar. Riverbend: 710 S Carrollton Ave. 504-309-3310.
To browse through all of the Dining Diaries since 2008, go here.
