Tuesday, February 22, 2011.
Santa Fe.
My mother was born ninety-nine years ago today. Which starts me thinking about what my sisters and I will do to honor her memory next year. What we did on our father's centennial in 2009 was so worthwhile that I'm sure we'll honor Mama the same way. With food, of course. A dinner limited to only her best dishes would be quite a feast. I wonder if the people who live in the Treme house where all of us were born would let us hold the dinner there.
Dinner at Santa Fe, my second time in the new (year-old) location. First time, I ate far beyond the Mexican border on lamb chops with a Southwestern tinge. Today's appetite leaned to the red end of the protein spectrum again. The waiter's push in that direction decided the matter. So here was a ribeye steak with a bordelaise sauce and mushrooms. The waiter said that the sauce was very subtle, so there seemed nothing wrong in that no sauce was actually visible.
But then the chef came out apologizing for the sauce not having been there at all. He said one of the sous had made it up while his own attention was on something else. I didn't notice that anything was missing. They took the cost of the entree off the check. I added it back on.
The chef is new. He cooks French food. One of the specials tonight, for example, was fish (drum, I think) en papillote. Not in the old Antoine's style, but in the simpler French way, in which most of the other ingredients in the bag are there to provide aromatic vapors, not a sauce. I saw one go by and it looked good. Some will say that such a dish doesn't belong in a Mexican restaurant. In Mexico City, however, one sees many such dishes.
On the other hand, Santa Fe will not soon build a clientele on such things. The many and ardent regulars from the old Santa Fe in the Marigny are still livid that it's not exactly the same as it used to be. Their complaint is ridiculous, given that the place was closed for five years and now has a new owner and a new location. But most of the old menu is still available, using the same recipes. If anything, I'd say the food's better than I remember.
I began this supper by eating far too many chips and salsa. The latter was thick and excellent. The waiter was as high on the scallop entree as he was on the steak, and agreed to my idea of having a half-order of scallops as an appetizer. In fact, I got two such dishes, each with one large sea scallop. One came out surrounded by a sort of potato hash with cilantro and crabmeat. The other was avant garde. The scallop rested on risotto, and the plate was brushed with a thin swatch of beet puree. The presentation was a little over the top, but it had a good flavor. (Shellfish and beets always work well together.)
The dinner ended pleasantly with a tres leches cake topped with a strawberry--very good.
The majority of tonight's customers dined on the sidewalk tables, the weather being perfect. I thought about doing it, too, but the lighting out there is a bit too dim for me to read my Boethius.
Santa Fe. Esplanade Ridge: 3201 Esplanade Ave. 504-948-0077.
