[dropcap1]Q. [/dropcap1]I was in a French restaurant in New York a few weeks ago. My entree was striped bass bordelaise. I thought of the fabulous redfish bordelaise served at Drago's years ago. I also thought of the spaghetti bordelaise I've always loved at Mosca's. Those dishes were made with a sauce of butter, olive oil, garlic, and parsley. But this New York place brought out the fish with a dark brown sauce. It looked something like marchand de vin sauce. When I told the waitress that this must be a mistake, she checked with the chef. He brought me a food encyclopedia which described bordelaise as the sauce they had served me. Is there one bordelaise sauce in New Orleans and another one everywhere else in the world? [dropcap1]A. [/dropcap1]That's exactly it. Bordelaise is a reference to Bordeaux, where the main product is red wine. Everywhere in the world other than New Orleans, bordelaise is a red wine reduction sauce. For some reason, around New Orleans the word came to mean olive oil or butter with garlic and parsley. This is particularly true in Italian restaurants and steakhouses. The switch happened after Antoine's came along, apparently: their escargots bordelaise does indeed use a red wine sauce. When I see the word on a menu, I always ask what they mean by it. Indeed, I always assume that any French dish that's common in New Orleans will be very different in other places.
