Rachel Perlow

I just received a copy of Austin Leslie's book as a gift from the man himself. I haven't cooked from it yet, but it reads like listening to him talk and if I can make those corn muffins we had at Pampy's, Jason will be in heaven. I'll report back after I"ve made some of the recipes.

Actually, that's not the standard po-boy french bread you are served at so many places. They were very good rolls that weren't so crumbly. I loved this oyster preparation as well, but it's not number one on my list of oysters (that would be the fried at Crabby Jack's, but I digress), but they were really really good. The bar was packed and while Jason looked around I managed to snag a bar table. The smokiest thing in the bar were these oysters, which I saw pass by going to nearly every table. I think I disappointed the waiter when I placed our order of only two iced teas and a dozen of your famous charbroiled oysters. I did look over the full menu, but Jason had already determined our dinner destination (that Shrimp & Eggplant Stack sounds good). Also, I appreciated the way they serve the iced tea here, the full glasses of unsweet iced tea with a carafe for refills. Of course everyplace serves unsweet iced tea with refills, and I know it's more convenient for the server to bring the caraffe so he doesn't have to do refill trips, but I still like it because it's convenient for the diner as well.

Bozo's was a great entree to our trip. I got the fried oysters I'd been craving since our last trip to New Orleans in 2003. There was also a plain lettuce and tomato salad (and they mean it, that's all it was) and some french fries (steak fries) served with the fried seafood platter. Very pleasant service and totally a non-tourist spot. You'll need to add the GPS to your car rental to find the place.

What Curlz said, about ordering stuff, is correct. And, yes, we frequently receive some dishes that Cecil wants us to try as well, an advantage of being regulars and sending lots of people to the restaurant. As for ice cream, I don't think we've ever been offered it, I've certainly never had it there. I just stick to the melon and the sweet rice balls or whatever they put out that day for dessert. We were on our way home from the airport (JFK) yesterday just before noon and Jason actually wanted to stop in to C46 for brunch before going home! I was too tired (we got up at 4 AM to start the trip home from New Orleans) so maybe next week. See you there?

I'm too exhausted to post much tonight, but I will say the crawfish (and shrimp) boil we had at the Plaquemines Parrish Heritage Festival was the best of our whole trip, maybe ever. Puts the crawfish at Sid-Mar's to shame. It's still going on (until 11 tonight), so get there while you can -- Link to more info. As for the Greek festival, I haven't seen such a sea of humanity since the '96 Olympics in Atlanta.

Just to catch you all up, while Jason updates the photo gallery... Dinner on Tuesday was Brigsten's, lunch Wednesday was Vietnamese in Gretna (Tan Dinh), dinner Wednesday was a BBQ Shrimp comparison: the po-boy version at Liuza's by the Track for on appetizer and then we went to the Buckhead Deanie's for BBQ Shrimp and Fried Seafood Platter -- the bellmen/valets at our hotel are starting to look forward to our leftover containers! All that buttery shrimp made Jason rather ill last night, so we stayed in the room and had some more of the healing pho broth we took home from Tan Dinh, as well as some grilled lemongrass chicken made into a sandwich and some of those fabulous Creole tomatoes on toast. We continued the anti-New Orleans food kick with dinner tonight at Bayona. Just a few southern touches (toothsome stoneground grits, collard greens, spoonbread), but no overly creamy or buttery sauces, it was a welcome contrast. Oh, and this afternoon we stopped at Tee Eva's and had a snowBALL. I didn't care for the way William's Plum Street Snowballs drenched the shaved ice to the point of drowning in the syrup, so I asked for today's to be lightly dressed with the lemonade syrup. Now that's a snowcone, um ball. Tart and refreshing and the ice didn't melt too quick. Hmm, I wonder if there's another snowball place nearby? Later people.

Please note we did not order all that food! JoAnn wanted us to share pictures of some of her favorite dishes with you. Not that we didn't taste it all. My duck was delicious, with it's crispy salty savory skin and two sauces. The sweet ginger peach a light counterpoint to the port reduction with garlic. Yum. Some of the other dishes were repeats from a year and a half ago, but the Hot! Hot! Black Drum was new, and aptly named. The Grillades and Grits are miles above any others we've sampled. And you could never go wrong ordering the Black Drum with Crab Meuniere. Can't say it enough, Upperline is our favorite place to be in New Orleans, and that's why we recommend it to everyone we meet.

A week ago? We planned this trip Wednesday night! Thank the lord for Jet Blue, and some last minute luck with a timeshare rental. Anyway... Yes, it's been quite a whirlwind, already. Let's see, Bozo's was Saturday lunch, dinner appetizers was the Charbroiled Oysters at Drago's (amazing), dinner dinner was Sid-Mar's (disappointing), dessert was gelato at Bracato's. Sunday zydaco brunch was Ye Olde College Inn, a mid-afternood cool down snack was sorbet for me at Creole Creamery, while Jason sampled the Nectar Soda. We went to Hansen's for snowcones but they were closed, haven't opened for the season yet. However, Judge Hansen happened by while we were looking through the book for another place and told us they're planning to open on Thursday (but to call ahead to make sure). Tonight was another amazing dinner at Upperline. Jason's working on the pics right now. Later people.

Middle of the US is a lot of farmland. A lot of the farmworkers are Mexican. Many occasionally eat, I am told. Hence, very good access to Mexican groceries. You New York types really need to drive a little farther west every once in a while, you know Sorry, but I was once a similarly misinformed east-coaster. Hell, even the local wall-mart carries pozole and salt cod. But I found it very hard to find decent Mexican groceries in Europe. What you can get really depends on the immigrant mix, obviously. But Mexican stuff in the midwest? Never a problem. ← Learn something new every day...

Living in a suburb of NYC, there are plenty of Mexican bodegas in my vacinity. I understand how someone living in the middle of the US or Japan or Australia or France or whatever could enjoy and think worthwhile the process of hunting down the numerous ingredients required for an authenitc mole sauce. I, however, am very lucky. A nearby town, Bergenfield, NJ, is practically a colony of Puebla, Mexico. At a nearby convenience store I can pick up a pint of mole paste, made with all of grandma's secret ingredients, not tasting in the least of mexican hershey's syrup. You brown your meat, be it chicken breasts, on the bone or not, turkey, pork chops, etc. Remove from pan. Add a big dollop of the paste, stir and cook a bit, add stock until it becomes a sauce consistancy you like. Return the meat and simmer until cooked through. Sure this is cheating. But I really don't think I could make it any better than they. This was not the case for the pizza -- I think mine came out better than a lot of local places. Enjoy your chile hunt, order those spices online, grind your nuts and chop your dried fruit. I'm going down to Mi Tierra and picking up a pint of ready to go homemade mole paste!

Soups and stews freeze very well. I see you don't want "run of the mill" casseroles, but what about moussaka and lasagna, both freeze well.

Marlene's patient is lucky that there's a fridge for the exclusive use of him and his roommates. When my dad was in the hospital, we had to use the one down the hall. I don't think anything walked, but it helps to label anything you put in there very clearly (with patients name, room/bed number, and contents). Not just so that others don't take it, but so that the patient can ask someone else to retrieve something from there when you are not around. If it is clearly labeled (like with a bold sharpie marker), that will be facilitated. My suggestions are a variety of soups and stews. Put about a cupful in pint sized microwavable containers. If they are frozen, they need to be able to be stirred, that's why the extra room. Someone else suggested deviled eggs, that sounds like a good way to get in the extra protein he needs to heal muscle tissue, without being too heavy on the meat.

I think gailan needs to be blanched in salted water before being stir fried. I cut it into sections so the tougher stems can get into the water a couple minutes earlier than the tender flowers and tips. Shock in ice water then begin your stirfry.

That pig dish was incredibly flavorful. The loin was a little tougher than expected, but the flavor was there. And the belly, ur, um bacon, was to die for. The sweet and sour flavor of the red cabbage contrasted nicely with the rich pork. My favorite dish of the evening, however, was the hot smoked brook trout with asparagus and sweet peas, that was outstanding.

That was me. I thought it was horrible. I don't like Diet Coke, and this seemed worse to me, but we didn't do a side by side comparison, and I haven't had Diet Coke in a while. I suppose it might be worth collecting cans of the various versions and doing a taste test. Just to see which I really hate the most.

The chocolate cake was great, and I am so glad it came with a glass of milk. I kept that for myself, although we all shared the desserts. You totally need that glass of milk with the cake. I think the others thought the sticky toffee pudding was the best dessert only because they didn't have a drink of milk to wash down the cake! The baked beans were totally worth ordering, very meaty. I was the fish orderer, it was a nice alternative, and the mashed potatoes have a smokey taste, so you still felt part of the 'Q crowd.

I've added captions (mostly directly from the menu) to Jason's pictures, above. Most of the new dishes are wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the Slow Roasted Rib Eye, it was amazingly tender, but with a great crust on the edges. I think it was prepared more like a slice of prime rib than a steak. Both the chimmichurri and the tomato salad were terrific accompaniments. I didn't care as much for the Aromatic Shortrib. The meat itself was delicious and tender, but the white truffle oil aroma was distracting and I didn't care for the diced taro which is part of the succatash. The skate was cooked perfectly, but be warned, it is quite spicy. I've found that I've enjoyed all the fish preparations at Ginger and Spice. The new salmon tartar was a great starter, but I wanted more lotus chips! While the new desserts are good, my favorite is still the Lemongrass soup. It is a must order! At the end of our meal, we chatted briefly with Chef Doron Wong. While they are fully booked on the weekends, they are much slower on weekdays. They are planning on working with a PR firm to help get the word out and fill up those weeknight seats (i.e. go there soon, before it gets too hard to get a table). I thanked him for one thing in particular -- that his food is not boring! I guess I'm starting to get a little jaded, sometimes it seems like I've had everything, been there, done that. That's not the case at Ginger & Spice. Not everything is 100% to my taste, but so what? Most of it is great, and there's new and exciting flavors around every corner.

I wanted to bump this up with a note that Stickey's is a great place to go with a group, especially with kids. We went last week with our friends (three couples and two kids). We ordered the Ultimate Combo with some extra sides. The UC comes with 3 whole orders of your choice of meat (you can split this up into half orders), we got 1/2 a chicken, 1/2 pulled pork, 1/2 pulled chicken, and 1 1/2 racks of pork ribs. It comes with 4 sides, and we ordered an extra 4, so we got most of the sides covered (doubling up on the mac & cheese). With drinks and a couple of desserts, it was plenty of food for the whole table to share family style. Cost, with tax & tip, was $30 per couple.

The dough recipe I used called for 4 cups of flour. I used 3 cups of bread flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat, 1/2 cup cornmeal. Although we like the texture the cornmeal lends to the bottom of the crust (from putting it on the peel), Jason didn't like it in the finished crust and I found the grit affected the texture of the raw dough too much. The dough wasn't as stretchy and it would tear more easily. The whole wheat was completely unnoticable. I think next time we'll skip the cornmeal in the dough and up the whole wheat to 3/4 cup. In the pictures, it looks like the dough is thick, but I did manage to get it pretty thin with a combination of hand stretching and rolling, 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

I made a clean out the fridge soup the other day that turned into a Portuguese Kale and Chorizo soup. Diced up a couple small sausages, browned them in a saucepan. Remove about half of the sausage to add back at the end. Added a diced stalk of celery, 1 diced carrot, 4 cloves of garlic, not too finely minced. Sweated. Added about 12 oz somewhat concentrated chicken stock and 2 cups of water. Salt & Pepper. 1 diced potato. Simmer for 20 minutes, covered. Added some leftover sauteed kale and the reserved sausage, simmer for another 5 minutes. Add two eggs and poach in the soup for 5 minutes and serve in a bowl with large crusty bread croutons. Other than Jason thinking the kale should have been added at the beginning of the 20 minute simmer (I didn't want it cooked to death), it was a very good lunch. So, again, no specific recipe, but a reminder that if you have some stock in the fridge or freezer, some miscellaneous leftovers can make a very good soup.

Jason and I were talking the other day about sushi being a good cookoff subject. Most people never make it at home, even most Japanese people (I think, right Kris?). We have in the past and it isn't very hard, but it can be time consuming, depending on what type of sushi you're making. So, that's my suggestion, but it doesn't have to be next.

Oh, Marsha... As someone else said, I hate to, um, Friday morning quarterback, but I wished you had consulted us before frustrating yourself with the watermelon. The simple solution is to blend the watermelon, seeds and all, and then strain through the china cap. For more details, here are some links to review for next time, if you can bring yourself to open another watermelon (I luv'em!)... 1) Amazing Watermelon Facts, this post is my July 2003 Watermelon Primer. A year later we took pictures and I redid it as a pictorial. 2) Watermelon Sorbet 3) Problems with Ice Cream? (begins with Watermelon Ice Cream troubleshooting)

(I edited my quote of Fink's post, as they will now be closed on Mondays.)A couple more comments... The mixed grill that Jason pictured was a special, not the mixed grill on their regular menu. That's salmon, chicken seekh kabab, and the stuffed boneless Cornish hen. Their dosas really kick ass. We've had their regular masala dosa (just with the potato mixture), which is great, but then they do the special ones, like the spring one and it just blows you away. The "spring" part of it is a chopped raw salad which includes lettuce, cabbage, red bell pepper, cauliflower, tomato and more stuff I can't recall. Seriously, we haven't even gotten to the regular curries that are pictured as part of the meal deals. Confession... I don't generally love Indian food. Jason and Jon usually order things too hot for me, and it is usually very heavy (with ghee?) and I frequently get an upset tummy sometime in the night after having Indian for dinner. We've been there twice and I haven't gotten sick at all, or even tired afterward which also can happen to me. The food (and space) is clean, they use olive oil instead of ghee. Everything is quite seasoned, only they don't overdo it with the chili, so you can taste the food and spices, not just heat. Oh, and the meat is halal, they were emphasizing this on our second visit. I'm really impressed with it. I haven't had tandoori food this perfect since the NYC eGullet dinner at Diwan a couple years ago. Like Jon said, instead of eating there as a byproduct of shopping at International Food, you'll shop at International Food because of the trip you made to eat at Indian Chef.

Andre wanted me to let you all know about their Special Mother's Day Cake. It is a light almond sponge with orange syrup, champagne mousse and orange coulis. He's using real champagne and it is expensive because of it, $38 for an 8 inch cake. Call ahead to reserve yours. I'll have to stop by and sample it.

We stopped in this evening to check out Indian Chef. The food is as good as everyone above says. We tried a special mixed tandori which consisted of chicken seekh kabab, tandori salmon, and a boneless cornish game hen with a chickpea flour based stuffing. It's amazing what they're putting out in this little take out place.