Thursday, May 10, 2012.
Oral History. Capdeville And Rockefeller.
College students in English, Drama, Communications, or Hotel and Hospitality Studies sometimes interview me as part of their course work. I don't hear from students in Mechanical Engineering nearly as often, even though I can hold forth for at least a little while on pumping stations, railroads, streetcars, buses, and hot-lead typesetting machines.
Jonathan Cameron--an imminent graduate in MechEng at UNO--wanted to record my oral history of the New Orleans restaurant culture. The project was for a history elective he needed to complete his requirements. He is a listener to the radio show, and thought I was a good target. So did his professor. Happy to help out a fellow Privateer. (I'm UNO 1974.)
First, at my suggestion, he watched the last forty-five minutes of the radio show. Even for the few avid fans of the program, that's not the most fascinating thing in the world. You don't need good visuals for radio, so we don't do them.
I also suggested that we conduct the interview at another location where I work: a restaurant. Capdeville, the bar-dominant but kitchen-serious hangout a block from the radio station. I thought Jonathan would find it interesting, since the place is decidedly aimed at a younger crowd. And I would be able to gather enough more information to write a review.
I started with a bowl of hearty white bean soup that I was enjoying until, a fourth of the way into it, the entree arrived. Most of the time, I enjoin the server to make sure this doesn't happen, and he or she tells me they would never do such a thing. When I forget to ask, it happens. And drives me nuts, because now one dish must get cold while I eat the other, at a pace too rapid for enjoyment. This time, I asked to have the soup returned to the kitchen and kept warm until I was ready for it. Bean soups are resistant to this kind of damage.
The first time I was here, I surveyed what was clearly the house specialty: the hamburger. Today a dish called oysters Rockefeller etouffee intrigued me. The menu makes it clear that this is not a classic oysters Rockefeller, although it does contain whole oysters and some of the flavoring elements of Antoine's great baked oysters. The etouffee descriptor was apt, with a light-colored, buttery sauce with a light roux and shrimp in there somewhere. A scattering of bacon and an island of rice completed the dish. The oysters were submerged, invisible until you started forking around.
I thought this had a original and delicate flavor, but with not enough contrast in textures of oysters and sauce. It would be fine for an appetizer, but in this quantity it didn't wear well.
Jonathan was pleased with the fish tacos, which looked good.
The dining room's tables, most of them empty when we arrived (save for the ones on the sidewalk outside), began to fill. It's probably coincidence, but in all my visits here--including this one--the typical table demographics had three to five women with one guy. Most are well dressed. A lot of the customers here come from the many law offices in the vicinity. (The Federal courts building is across the street.)
Jonathan fired up his recorder and asked me the standard questions, starting with "How'd you get a job like this, anyway?" I was proud to tell him that it all started at our mutual university, and that the inspiration came from my own history professor, Richard Collin, whose secret identity was The Underground Gourmet.
Jonathan says the recording will go into the archives somewhere. I hope who spends time listening to it can hear me over the horrible music they play at Capdeville. These kids! That's not music, that's noise! (As my father used to say about the music I listened to in my teens.)
Capdeville. CBD: 643 Magazine St. 504-371-5915.
