Tuesday, March 2. Madrid. Damn this cold weather! The forecast says we will shiver in the thirties every night this week. It's March! Enough!
The north wind gusted with gusto as I entered the single door at Madrid, moving as fast as I could and pulling the door closed behind me. I didn't want to pierce the vulnerable bubbles of warmth around other diners. I needn't have bothered. Nobody else was there. I'm sure the chill was to blame.
I should have picked a table in the main dining room, but the stronger light in the smaller room adjacent to the open kitchen would allow me to read and take pictures more effectively. But the table I chose was next to what once was a door, and the wind outside was pushing through it enough to perforate any bubble of warmth. I didn't want to make any more work for the poor waitress who had to be here on this dead night, so I stayed put and ordered.
What came out of the kitchen controverted these omens. It began with a big bowl of mussels in an exciting, tomato-dominated sauce that sloshed just enough of its herbs and spices into the shells, where a couple dozen nice plump bivalves awaited. Good start.
The main body of the work was even better. It was a fillet of halibut, seared in the pan with a buttery sauce riddled with little strips of serrano ham, rendered hard and intense by a pass through the pan. A bit of mushroom duxelles finished it off. This was a bonafide ten-out-of-ten dish, a combination of several different, brilliant contrasts all at the same time. In my dinners at the original Madrid in Kenner, I don't remember having had this dish, or even if it was there.
In fact, the entire menu at the new Lakeview home of Madrid seems unfamiliar to me. It's as Spanish as it had been at the old place, but it seems more to the point. (At times, they had some Mexican food on the Kenner menu, for those who confused the two Hispanic cuisines.) Everything about this is alluring.
I know that orange flan was new to me. This was a good combination, with orange zest in the custard itself and an orange sauce with orange sections scattered around it. Mellow.
By this time, owner Juan Hernandez--who had been working alone in the kitchen, not giving any indication that he recognized me, came forth. He apologized for the dead dining room, blaming it on the weather. He also said that he's trying to get a liquor license, to repair the intolerable break between Spanish food and wine in his dining room. (You can bring your own.)
When Madrid first opened on Harrison Avenue at Milne a few months ago, it was packed every day and people were raving about it. Now that the novelty has worn off, it's the perfect time for me to write about how fabulous its food is. It's certainly better than it was in the beginning. And the restaurant appears to need the business more now than then. This is another reason I wait months before going to newly opened (or reopened) restaurants.
Madrid. Lakeview: 300 Harrison Ave 504-482-2757. Spanish.
