Thursday, January 27, 2011.
Ending A Streak. Northshore Empress.
This week offered the prospect of going to a wine dinner (or something like one) every night. Today's event was at Gallagher's Grill, where they had a very appetizing menu and some interesting wines from Fritz Underground Winery in Sonoma. But after the Eat Club last night at Mr. John's (and the feasts at Galatoire's Monday and August Tuesday), I just couldn't do it. As it was, I woke up late and groggy. It was all I could do to dispatch my regular duties. When I signed off the restaurant, all I wanted for supper was something light.
Where was Mary Ann's idea. The Northshore Empress opened in 2006, so well hidden in back of Copeland's that after a few meals in their mostly-empty dining room, I wondered whether they would make it. I needn't worry about that now. Even on this drippy, cold night, the parking lot was full, and we had to wait for a table to be cleared before we sat down.
"Nice-looking place," said Mary Ann. Coming from her, that means twice as much as coming from me. (About half the restaurants in New Orleans are atmospherically unacceptable to my wife.)
The Northshore Empress has a dual menu: half Chinese, half Vietnamese. The people who own it also operated the Boston Street Bistro in Covington for a time, a fact I learned when one of them came to the table after I paid the check to tell me how happy they were to see me. (How did they know? I've never introduced myself.)
Both at the Boston Street and here I found a problem: they deep-fry far too large a percentage of the menu. Mary Ann liked the looks of the appetizer platter, which included fried wontons, crabmeat Rangoons, big fat egg rolls, and hi-hops. (I haven't seen that word in many years. A hi-hop is a meat-stuffed dumpling.) All four items were deep fried, which removed a great deal of potential interest from the assortment. It all kind of tasted the same.
Mary Ann's entree was also fried, but only after being cooked most of the way on the rotisserie. This was identified as Vietnamese rotisserie chicken. A half-chicken still in one piece, cooked to a deep brown-orange color. It had more interesting flavors than you find in Chinese-style fried chicken, and we both thought it was quite good.
I ordered pho, which seemed perfect in this weather. They had a version here made with sliced brisket and vegetables. I couldn't remember ever ordering that anywhere, so I did. The standard enormous bowl of broth came forth, with the herbs and sauces and noodles. The vegetables were the standard Chinese mix of broccoli, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, and the like. I thought it pretty good, if not the equal of Nine Roses, Kim Anh, or Dong Phuong. But this is the only Vietnamese restaurant in West St. Tammany, so we must take what we can get.
Northshore Empress. Covington: 31 Louis Prima Drive. 985-871-6975.
