Thursday, July 7, 2011.
Return To Meson 923 At Last.
I finally defeated the bad timing that marked most of my previous visits to Meson 923 tonight, although it was touch and go for a minute there. The guy running the front door seemed unsure as to whether I could be seated. A table appeared to be free on the ground floor, and I got it, after a staff conference. It didn't seem that the much nicer upstairs dining room was in use.
It was a very hot day, and the very thought of a cocktail was refreshing. This Grand Esprit on the menu seemed to be about my speed: it was made with Champagne, lime juice, and St. Germain--nothing seriously alcoholic. Perfectly refreshing.
An amuse bouche came out with strawberries, what I think was pork cracklings, and a kind of thick soup. I don't know what the chef was after there, but it was a good enough taste.
I tried the chef's version of gnudi. This is the hot new pasta of our times, but don't get too excited about it. It's a gnocchi, made with a minimum of starch and a lot of ricotta cheese. Like standard gnocchi, it requires a delicate touch, and someone who spends an hour or more making it every day. This is why most gnocchi are not very good. These were pretty decent, although they were so large that the Italian Commission On Pasta Definitions (there must be such an organization) would insist that this be called something else. It came out with some unidentifiable but tasty wild mushrooms, arugula, fried onions, and a sauce with a savory front and a sweet back. I liked it.
Astrid Lavenia--one of the owners, and the style-setter for the restaurant--emerged from somewhere. She had many recommendations as to what I should have for dinner. Among them was the hot new dish of the past decade: braised pork belly. It was running as a special tonight--they have a three-course deal for $38.11 all summer long.
The red beans and crawfish in this dish pushed me past my aversion to the pork belly. I have nothing against the idea. It's uncured bacon, after all, and I surely eat my share of that. Now and then I've had a great dish heavy with pork belly--most notably a tripe stew Patrick Perie made when he was chef de cuisine at Chateaubriand. But the vogue of just braising a steak-size chunk of the stuff and putting on top of greens or beans or the like never appealed to me, regardless of the pedigree of the pork. The foam--another trendy touch we're approaching the end of--added nothing I could pick out.
On the other hand, I pay a lot of attention to what waiters, chefs, and restaurant managers are excited about, so I opened my mind to this. The large cube of belly was leaner than most (a good thing), and cooked just about perfectly. Still, we are talking about something that's at least fifty percent fat, and I simply find that way over the top. I ate half, then it stopped being a pleasure. The beans and crawfish, I liked.
The waiter advised me to get the fish of the day--red snapper, I think he said it was. It jumped off the grill onto a bed of couscous with peas and shrimp. This was the best dish of the night, and the perfect size to save this meal from destroying my weight-loss momentum. At thirty dollars, though, this was not the most striking value I've seen.
The dessert was interesting. Three slabs of frozen chocolate mousse were stacked upon one another, with an intensity of flavor that overloaded my choc-o-meter. I wish the Marys had been here. They would have lost their minds.
I think I need a couple more meals here to get my head around what they're trying to do. It's not obvious to me yet. I did notice that more of the original menu is here than I thought. The sous vide-cooked filet mignon, for example. That's the one and only sous vide dish (cooked in boiling water inside a plastic pouch) I've ever liked, and I've had dozens.
I talked with Astrid again at the end of dinner. She said that the building dates back to 1810--older than I would have guessed, although this is a part of town with many very old structures. She and her partners performed a terrific restoration of the place, complete with cast-iron balconies. It could as easily be in the French Quarter, where it would still be older than most of its neighbors.
Mesón 923. Warehouse District: 923 S Peters. 504-523-9200.
It has been over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
