roast beef to remember

This photo is my gift to you. Fantastic, rich, tender roast beef and gravy over french fries, and it's not even a holiday...it's just another Sunday in the food capitol of my heart. I had to share.

My new Sunday favorite is Parkway Bakery & Tavern, at Bayou St. John. Our friend John Mark turned us onto this place a few weeks ago--our friend who was visiting. We didn't even know the riches that were waiting for us a mere football field away from our front door. Now we can't stop going.

For the photo experience, order "fries with gravy." I know the photo doesn't look like fries with "gravy"--it looks more like your grandmother's roast beef--but that's what they call it, so just believe them.

Parkway is famous for piling this roast beef onto po' boys, and for their metabolism-demolishing "surf-n-turf" po'boy, which is loaded with roast beef and fried shrimp. We haven't braved that combo yet, though we hear it's mighty good.

Two people can split an order of fries and a large po'boy (pictured below) and leave painlessly satisfied, which is something of a miracle. This is our oyster po'boy. The oysters have a light, breezy coating that's punched up with a little spice. These are some of the best fried oysters I've had in New Orleans; you can tell that whoever fries them has confidence enough not to overcook the little treasures, so they're like hot puffs of sea.

There's a coziness to this place that I adore. Old Dixie Beer signs, eye-rest-green paint in the front room, Barq's root beer, extra napkins on the tables. It's heavily windowed, so sunlight fills the space. You can look out and see the bayou, and it's on a lightly travelled street, so parking, though it can be less than ideal, isn't too much of a challenge. I'd bet that 75% of the traffic is Parkway-bound anyway.

The menu is filled with all sorts of po'boy stylings: hot sausage, bbq beef, hamburger, meatballs, alligator sausage, on and on. They offer a "gravy po'boy" for $4.95, which I suspect, if the gravy is the same as they douse on the fries, may be the best bargain in the city. Vegetarians: there's a caprese--the classic Italian antipasto of fresh mozzarella, tomato, and basil--po'boy on the menu. They don't heat it, but apparently it's very fresh and drizzled with a balsamic glaze. I even heard someone order it without bread, so hey, if you're not into po'boys, you can still hang out with your friends who are.

Their original menu hangs on the wall. They note that these items aren't available any longer, but I really wish they were. Whatever happened to the tongue sandwich's popularity? I remember reading about it in 50's children's mysteries.

And, if you happen to be in town on Monday, March 22, you can stop by Parkway for a taping of Food Wars. They're going head-to-head with Domalise's over shrimp po'boys, and I can't wait.

roast beef to remember

mexican chocolate & french vanilla: an arranged marriage

I don't make desserts nearly as often as I used to, but when I do, I like to go for what works best. And to honor the romantic side of the melting pot that is New Orleans, I decided to spruce up my old standby of brownie + vanilla ice cream with a little tender loving specialness: instead of just purchasing brownies and ice cream, I would make my own! From scratch! I would use the forlorn ice cream making machine and celebrate the day I acquired it in the best possible way...with vanilla!










I like the way my selection of bowls creates a striking visual irony.



















Hooray for huge blurry photos of dessert!!!

Make your favorite batch of brownies, but add about a 1/2 teaspoon of cinammon. This makes them "Mexican Chocolate Brownies" in the most simply but satisfying way--just a little something different, interesting, titillating. If you don't have a favorite recipe, use the one at the bottom of this post--it's my favorite. Then, buy the fanciest French vanilla ice cream you can afford, or if you want to get real crafty, make your own. Put a warm brownie in the bottom of a bowl, top with vanilla ice cream, and use a real small spoon so you get to enjoy more bites. It's the best stuff ever.

Making ice cream from scratch is a great way to learn patience and tempering (tempering means making something that's cold less cold so it won't cause a reaction that you don't want). You have to move rather slowly while you mix the hot cream into the eggs and then the eggs back into the hot cream; if you go too fast, you'll end up with a version of scrambled eggs that you probably wouldn't serve to an alligator. Then, you have to wait while the ice cream hardens further in the freezer, after you take it out of the machine. But it's all worth it. If you have the means to borrow or procure a machine, I say, do it. Here's my little pal:



















He reminds me of a Macintosh computer circa 1988. I really love him and I promise to take him on more dates. :)

Mexican Chocolate Brownies (adapted from "Mocha-Chip Brownies" in The Brown Bag Lunch by Susan Epstein, a surprisingly wonderful little book)

• 1 stick butter
• 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/4 t. ground cinnamon
• 1 2/3 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (or white chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Melt butter and chocolate together in a small saucepan or in the microwave; let cool slightly.
3. Combine sugar, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, flour, and eggs together in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
4. Add butter/chocolate mixture and stir to mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Spread batter in greased 8"-square baking pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few fudgy crumbs. Cool on a wire rack.
6. Cut into 12 mean brownies, 9 happy brownies, or 6 jubilant brownies.

French Vanilla Ice Cream (adapted from The Best Ice-Cream Maker Cookbook Ever by Peggy Fallon)

• 4 egg yolks
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 sugar
• pinch salt (important addition!)
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Set egg yolks in a medium bowl to come to room temperature or somewhere near that.
2. Heat cream, milk, sugar, and salt in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar (about 8 minutes).
3. Turn off heat while you do this part. Put 1 cup of the hot cream mixture in a measuring cup with a handle and a pouring spout. Slowly pout the hot cream into the eggs in a thin stream while you constantly whisk. If you have someone help you do this part, it'll be more fun. You've just "tempered" the eggs.
4. Turn the heat back on under the pot of cream to medium. Slowly pour in the eggs, whisking constantly. Now, heat the cream, stirring, until it's 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. To check this, I hold the thermometer so the pointy end is in the middle of the liquid. Don't touch it to the inside bottom of the pot, because that's the hottest part, so it won't give you an accurate reading.
5. Transfer the mixture to a heatproof bowl to cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract.
6. If you have a new-fangled ice-cream maker that uses a bowl filled with supercoolant, you can put the cream mixture right in there & start it churning. If you have a maker that uses ice and salt, you'll want to chill the mixture in the fridge for several hours first, to make the freezing process go faster later on. Either way, follow your manufacturer's directions and then pack the ice cream in a freezer-safe container to finish hardening.

Makes about 2 quarts.

mexican chocolate & french vanilla: an arranged marriage

riz jaune to the riz-scue

Riz jaune has appeared in my life right when I really needed a new "dinner magic" kind of recipe--something cheap, on-hand, and easy to adapt to all sorts of quick dinner fixes. Riz jaune (say "ree zhahn") is basically a Cajun version of fried rice. You make a sort of trinity-plus-Pope concoction (that's onion/celery/bell pepper + garlic), add veggie bits or leftovers you have around the kitchen, ditto with meats (sausage is especially nice), and then you stir in cold cooked rice and eggs. Mix everything up, cook till the egg is firm and scattered all throughout, then eat it as-is or in dozens of other ways that I haven't even thought of yet. Here's what we have had: Riz-jaune-and-red-bean burrito, and gumbo served over riz jaune instead of plain rice. Good stuff. I can also see this being a great stuffing for vegetables or an interesting bed for some gravied chicken or pork.

Riz Jaune (a sort-of recipe)

Heat a little butter or oil in a large nonstick saute pan with high sides. Saute an onion, a few cloves of garlic, a couple of stalks of celery, a bell pepper (all diced small) until soft. Add other vegetables if you see some sitting around: chopped mushrooms, tomato, eggplant, etc.--just don't let the mixture get too wet. If you have some cooked ham, chicken, pork, or shrimp, add it now. If you have some chopped andouille or other smoked sausage, put that in too! When the pan starts to dry out and some browny bits start forming, pour in about 1/4 cup of wine or stock and stir until the pan is dry again. Then add about 1 1/2 cups cold cooked rice (leftover rice is great for this), about 1 teaspoon dried thyme, and other seasonings like salt, pepper, Tabasco, or Creole seasoning blend to taste. After the rice is coated with vegetable juices, stir in 5 or 6 eggs, lightly beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper. Stir over medium-high heat until the eggs have dried out and firmed up and the rice has turned light yellow (that's the "jaune" in jaune). Eat it!

riz jaune to the riz-scue

fat and happy at mat and naddie's

Guess what? I had a really good meal for my first birthday as a New Orleans resident (surprise, surprise). We went to a great little place in our neighborhood, Mat and Naddie's, which our neighbor Mark has been telling us we should visit for months. Mark was right--this place is a gem. I'm so glad it's in our neck of the woods.
















The only cocktail I ever want to drink during a stifling New Orleans summer: the Pimm's Cup. I've been trying these at different locations to find my favorite. Mat and Naddie's was smooth, so I don't think they use ginger ale or 7-Up...maybe lemonade? The cucumbers always make me happy.
















A nice sampling of olives, artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, and fresh mozzarella to nibble. Everything was marinated in olive oil and herbs.

















This photo doesn't do justice to these fantastic oysters, on the menu as "Grilled Oysters with Brie Cream and Shiitake 'Bacon.'" That's right--they make a "bacon" out of sliced shiitake mushrooms, I can only guess, by cooking it low and slow in a skillet until it intensifies its shiitakiness and dries out a little, like a mushroom jerky. Or maybe this happens in the oven. There's also a little garlic and pecorino-romano action going on here.
















My fabulous entree, "Spicy Tempura Fried Gulf Shrimp Tonkatsu." This is one of the most exciting dishes I've had in New Orleans. The shrimp are butterflied and coated in a light tempura batter, and somehow remained outside-crispy and inside-silky the whole time I was loving this dish. I didn't know what Tonkatsu meant, so I asked the waiter if this was a good item to order, and he said it was one of the best things on the menu, which I totally believe. Apparently, Tonkatsu is a Japanese combination of fried pork served with something crunchy, like cabbage, and a sweet-spicy sauce. Mat and Naddie's serves their seafood version with a fresh bok choy slaw, sticky jasmine rice, and a sauce--it's one of the best sauces I've ever tasted--of red chile and a deep, complex sweetness, maybe plum, maybe lemongrass, a small piece of sun for brightness, a drop of dew from the Garden of Eden? I will meet this sauce again.

Paul's "Grilled Filet Mignon with Smoked Marrow Compound Butter." Nice. It looks like Paul was eating in another restaurant because this photo was taken with flash. But he wasn't! He was sitting across the table from me! Thank goodness, because I really wanted to taste this, and he was kind enough to let me. Rosemary steak fries (not too exciting), but (continuing from the menu description) "wilted greens and a Maytag blue cheese and bacon buerre rouge." ?!? Please, sir, I'd like some more. While the potatoes were a little too basic to stand up to the rest of the plate, the rest of the plate was divine: a smart combination of beefy, winey, tart, creamy, burgundy, and leafy.

Sorry to say we couldn't squeeze in a dessert to show you. I would've done it too, because I was so impressed with everything else I ate that night. To all my friends: come visit already, so you can go here too!

fat and happy at mat and naddie's

hot child in the city

Believe me when I tell you that a couple of weeks ago, when I was dead-set on filling out a nice, long post with photos of the Creole Tomato/Louisiana Seafood/Cajun-Zydeco festival throwdown, I had no idea that it would be so hot down in the French Quarter.

It was too hot to take photos. Seriously, the camera kept slipping out of my hands.

I managed a few, though:

I love these little guys. I ate them.

Cajun fish taco. I asked for a small portion of slaw so I could really taste the fish. It's a lightly fried tilapia filet, dusted with just a bit of Cajun seasoning (like a mixture of cayenne, garlic powder, thyme, salt, pepper). Really nice and simple-tasting, a good thing to eat in the heat.

Shrimp-and-crab-stuffed Creole tomato. This was the perfect dish to "marry" the two food festivals together. Creole tomatoes are the jewels of the summer season here in Louisiana--people talk about them all year, either how much they miss them or how much they love them. They don't really look different from regular tomatoes, to me, but the taste is something special. Denser, sunnier, redder. I devoured every last seed of this tomato.

We had some other yummies--crawfish sausage, hurricane sno balls--but they didn't make it to the photo stage. If you can stand the heat, this festival trio, known as the "Vieux To Do," is really something. Tons of food, great vendors, fun music. This year it was held the weekend of June 13-14, so I'd assume next year it will be sometime close to that.

hot child in the city

parts of a whole

I wouldn't call myself a fan of green beans. There's something about them I just don't really care for--too much "green," too much "bean," too much of each of those combined. And green beans and potatoes? There seem to be many calls for these two items together, in curries, stews, or pasta dishes, and I just don't get excited. For whatever reason, though, I can abide them both in a good, solid niçoise. Perhaps it's the way, in a niçoise, they are two components among several others which are all considered important and equal. Perhaps it's the relentless individuality they retain when grouped this way, much like the way people on a team know, deep inside, that even though there's no "i" in "team," there's a "me."

A niçoise is a pretty forgiving square meal. It's meat (traditionally, tuna), veg (green beans), and potatoes, along with various accompaniments that kind of add up to a plate of hors d'oevres, and it's meant to be served at room temperature, which is always a comfort when you're not really up to finishing several different cooking times at once. There are some steps, but they're basic as basic can be: boiling, steaming, baking, and vinaigrette making. It can be served over greens or not, tossed or not, and made expensive or not (one of the perks of living in New Orleans is freshly caught catfish). It can even be seafoodless and still be very satisfying. There's hardly even a recipe to follow, once you've got the basic idea down.

A More Local Niçoise

• 4 portions of seafood (something inexpensive and local, if possible): shrimp, scallops, catfish, crawfish, tuna, salmon, bass, etc.)
• 12 small red boiling potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled
• 2 big handfuls green beans, trimmed
• 1 large ripe tomato, or 1 pt. cherry tomatoes
• 3/4 cup pitted olives (preferably niçoise, but kalamata are fine too)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 lemons
• 2 cloves garlic
• a few teaspoons of wine vinegar (white, red, or champagne)
• 1-2 teaspoons Dijon or grainy mustard
• salt & pepper
• salad greens (optional)

1. Make the vinaigrette first, which is the unifier of this dish: Mince the garlic and place in a bowl or measuring cup large enough for a whisk to move around in. Juice the lemons and add the juice to the garlic. Shake in a little wine vinegar and plop in the mustard. Start whisking this mixture with one hand, and with the other hand, slowly pour in the olive oil. This doesn't need to be perfectly emulsified; you'll keep whisking it every time you use it. Taste it, and add salt and pepper and additional vinegar until it tastes like a strong salad dressing. I like it slightly overseasoned, because the potatoes and beans are going to break it down a little.
2. Potatoes: Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and boil them whole until a knife will almost go into the center of one easily. Take them off the heat, drain, and return to the pot and add the lid. Let them steam in the pot (no fire underneath) for another 10 minutes to finish cooking. Let them cool for a bit, then quarter or halve them, depending on size. Toss them in a bowl with some of the vinaigrette and set aside.
3. Green beans: Put about 1 cup water in a medium saucepan, salt it, and bring to a boil. Add the beans and cook them the way you like them: really crunchy, slightly crunchy, soft, or cafeteria-soft. Drain them, cool them for a long minute, then toss them in a separate bowl with some vinaigrette.
4. Seafood: Decide how you want to cook it: bake, broil, grill, saute, poach, etc. Season it with salt, pepper, and anything else you like (I used catfish & some seafood grill seasoning I had on hand). Drizzle it with a bit of olive oil (or another kind of oil) and cook it the way you like it (I baked it at 400 for about 12 minutes) and let it rest for about five minutes for most of the heat to leave.
5. Eggs: Hard-boil, cool, peel, and halve.
6. Tomatoes: Cut into 8 wedges (if you have cherry tomatoes, you can halve them or leave them whole) (as you might notice in the photo, I forgot to buy tomatoes).
7. Olives: Snack on a few and then just keep them at the ready.
8. Greens (if using): Make these ready to use as a bed for the other ingredients: wash & tear the greens and toss them with some of the vinaigrette, as you would for any salad.
9. Compose: On each plate, place greens, potatoes, green beans, two egg halves, two tomato wedges, several olives, and a portion of seafood. Drizzle a little more vinaigrette over the whole dish and serve.

Serves 4.

parts of a whole

taking the long way

If you want to eat some good seafood, and you want to eat it at a NOLA institution, Casamento's on Magazine Street fits the bill. I fell in love with this place the minute I saw it, though we had to find something else to do with ourselves while we waited for it to open. It was so worth the wait.

The problem was that we arrived too early. Tip #1: they open for dinner at 5:30, Thursday through Saturday only.

So we headed toward the track, to visit Liuzza's, famed for its po' boys--a tip from Davey and Gracie. BBQ shrimp po' boy? Garlic oyster po' boy? Yes. But along the way, we got distracted by the idea of stopping on St. Charles for a drink somewhere, then got even more distracted by a new route which ended up taking us downtown. We decided to land in the Quarter. I found my first-ever parking place on Bourbon Street (a very big deal). Since we were there, we thought, "Frank's"--we'd heard great things about it. Alas, our stay was short. Under pressure from our waiter, we ordered crab-stuffed mushrooms, which were highly flavorful, but $10 for three? Ouch. Tip #2: Frank's is tasty but priced for tourists. Luckily, we mustered the courage to brave the rain and the traffic and head back to the car, by way of Molly's. Tip #3: Molly's is a cozy little place, but it gets real fratty on Saturday night. Back uptown, we returned to our starting point at 7:00 p.m., which was just in time to beat the crowd.

Casamento's was established in 1919 and still inhabits the same location. It's small, tiled, and bright, and you walk through the miniscule kitchen to get to the restrooms. I absolutely love walking through restaurant kitchens. More!

At Casamento's, the sandwiches are "loaves," which differs from a po' boy by bread. The bread for a loaf isn't the light, fluffy New Orleans French that you expect when you order a po' boy. It's thick-cut white toast, the type I normally call "Texas." Somehow that doesn't feel right anymore. I guess I'll start calling it "loaf." I think there's a little garlic butter spread on this bread. Your basic NOLA "dressing" of mayo, tomato, and lettuce, and then the lightest, freshest fried catfish you can imagine. Oh my.




























The menu is small but complete. Everything you could want in a New Orleans seafood joint is there: seafood gumbo (a tomatoey version), fresh, juicy raw oysters ($9 a dozen! $4.50 half dozen!), fried trout and catfish, softshell crabs. The star, to me, was the catfish loaf I ordered--the best-tasting sandwich I've had in this city, bar none. I'm a fan of Casamento's for several reasons, but their "small prices"--the choice you have of ordering a full-sized dinner for $12 or a half-sized dinner for $6.75--are the most important, for me. I'm a taster. I don't need a huge plate, and I usually don't even want it. I respect a restaurant that does something to keep me coming back: excellent food, fair price.

taking the long way