Wednesday, August 14, 2013.
Too Much Flux. Not Enough Brine. Otherwise, Good!
The worst thing that can happen to a restaurant reporter is for a restaurant in which he's just spent several hundred dollars over several visits, and about which he's just published a thorough review, to suddenly close. That's only happened to me once--when Catch shut down during the oil spill, assuming (incorrectly, as it turned out) that there would be no seafood available for its menu.
The second worst is for a recently-reviewed restaurant to make a major change. I got a message to that effect from the owner of Dijon, from which Chef Daniel Causgrove just departed after less than a year. So, two chefs (not counting interims) in and out in eighteen months or so. Dijon wasn't very good at the beginning or middle, but the cooking has been imaginative and excellent during the last six months at least. Gave the place four stars two weeks ago, after dining there four times to make sure. I can't back that up now, and will be wary of what I say in the future.
I don't subscribe to the widely-held feeling that the comings and goings of chefs has great meaning. I do believe, however, that volatility is not a good thing.
I didn't feel like driving across the lake in thunderstorms, so I did the radio show from the ranch. The Marys were eager to have dinner afterwards. MA's idea was DiCristina's, the Rocky & Carlo's-related neighborhood place in Covington. It's better than Rocky's, say I. The place serves the kind of food the Marys love. They started with spinach artichoke dip (not a great version, but I don't even like the stuff), with meatballs and macaroni and cheese (below) for the entree. Like everything here, this was easily big enough for the girls to share and still leave with boxes and boxes of their sacred leftovers.
I brought up the matter of the "wop salad." The offensive name, once common in New Orleans Italian restaurants, is fading away. I can only think of three places where that name still appears on the menu. (Last time I looked, Rocky's was one of them.) DiCristina's, being in the not-so-yat lands across the lake, has replaced the name with "Italian salad." The salad, of course, hasn't changed at all, and it was big and delicious tonight. One thing I like about it is that I can turn over all the olives to Mary Ann, who loves olives. (I don't, except in a muffuletta.)
I thought fried chicken would be a good risk here. Half a chicken, fried to order, side order of beans. Yum! Except for one thing. They ought to brine the chicken, because it was a little dry, as chicken can be. I learned how to fix that when I was eighteen years old and working at the Time Saver in River Ridge. We fried chicken, and the man who brought all the magic formulae for the coating and frying said to soak the chicken in salt water overnight. Made a difference, especially when the chicken would sit under a heat lamp for hours. (I got to eat the chicken if it were still there at midnight closing time. So I know.)
DiCristina's chicken, despite that, had a nice flavor and crunch, and was utterly greaseless.
Maria Pyburn, who runs the place with her husband Frank, said I must eat the bread pudding this day. It was blueberry bread pudding, and had just come out of the oven. She gave me a piece as big as third base (note: I don't use many baseball references). I couldn't remember a previous blueberry bread pudding, but I hope I have it again. This was a platonic dish, to use my mentor Richard Collin's encomium. I worked on it for three more days, loving it again each time.
DiCristina's. Covington: 810 N Columbia. 985-875-0160.
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