Chris Hennes

Tonight was another piece of the same dough batch, so it's now at two days of age. Other than age, the main change tonight was an attempt to get closer to the crispness that a reheated NY slice has, by, well... reheating it. I baked the pizza exactly the same as yesterday, but pulled it after three minutes. I let it cool on a wire rack for about fifteen minutes at room temperature, then put it back onto the baking steel for around two more minutes (I didn't time it so I don't know exactly how long it was). Here's the final cross section: It's got the rim shape that I think of as characteristic of "old" dough, along with the slight extra chew I've come to expect of a two-day old dough. Reheating it was basically successful, the crust was quite a lot crispier than last night's, but I think the added chew from the age detracted a little bit from really getting to the target texture. Again, an improvement, I'm headed in the right direction, but I've still got a ways to go. That said, have I mentioned that sauce is delicious? This time I included the optional anchovy oil, and I love it.

That pie was King Arthur (it's what I had in the house), but I've got All Trumps on the way, should be here in time for my next batch of dough.

Why?

Home convection oven, baking steel, 480°F.

Obviously, this will be a week of New York-style pizza at my house. The first major correction I'm making to the Modernist recipe is simply to use less dough. They call for 400g for a 14" pizza, but my problematic earlier pizzas seemed to have too much crust (at least, as compared to Joe's), so I dialed way back, to 300g, for the same size pizza. I left all other variables the same, to the extent possible, though I think another hour at room temp (this is one-day cold-proofed dough) would have been beneficial, and is probably more like what I did before. Still, this is moving in the right direction. ETA: Attempt 1, Attempt 2, Attempt 3, Attempt 4

One handed.

There was quite the crowd waiting for our seats at the bar when we left Don Antonio's -- I wouldn't have minded ordering another pizza or two, but I don't think we'd have lived to eat them .

I'll agree with this, I had probably my favorite Neapolitan-style pizza there a few years ago. I didn't think Don Antonio's was as good, but it had several things working against it, not least of which is that I've eaten a lot of pizza in the intervening years! Second, it suffered from the standard problem with Neapolitan pizza in a restaurant: only the first slice is actually good. This is great if you are sharing a pizza, and they're batched (i.e. the way you'd make them at home). But when two or three pizzas come out all at once, by the time you're eating your third or fourth slice, everything is cold, soggy, and sad. Not the fault of the pizzeria, it's the style: you have to share it, and you have to order one at a time. I don't care how ethereal your crust is coming out of the oven: sitting on a plate for ten minutes is going to kill it. But, in a discussion about making Neapolitan-style pizza at home, the beauty is we can totally avoid this problem (in fact, I'd suggest it's a great reason to make it at home!). All pizza nights at my house include a built-in "intermission" while I shape and bake the second pie, and it goes from oven to your plate in under 60 seconds.

Well, it turns out I like NY-style pizza, particularly when it's been reheated (because then the crust is crisp). I don't have the experience to judge Joe's against anyone else's, but I enjoyed my lunch, even if it was 12°F outside! I have my work cut out for me reproducing anything like this at home, though. First, obviously the size is a problem. I think the whole pies are around 20", so the center-to-crust ratio is basically just unachievable in a home oven. Second, I'm skeptical of Modernist Pizza's quest for "fluffier" NY-style dough (I don't remember if that's the word they use, but they add pectin to add volume to the dough, which seems anathema to the NY pies I've had so far). That said, my house smells frigging fantastic right now, because I've got that NY-style sauce on the stove, and it's awesome. So we'll see what I can manage.

More “research” this evening, at Don Antonio’s (Neapolitan):

On a “research expedition” to Joe’s today (the outpost on Broadway, not Carmine): So maybe now I have a better idea what I am aiming for…

As Dave says, the dish was essentially spaghetti carbonara (that was guanciale on top).

Last (and definitely least!) meal here is at Leah’s Cafe in MSY: Yep, the flavor and texture of an airport shrimp sandwich, as you’d expect. And slow, besides. (Not something you want at an airport in most cases!) It’s probably just as well I’m heading home now: I need a few days of eating yogurt for lunch and vegetable stir fries for dinner, sans wine! Well, and maybe a pizza or two

I’d guess it was mayonnaise thinned with fish stock, and hit with a little smoked paprika.

I really didn't intend for this trip to become the Chef Donald Link show, but here we are. I've had two cancellations here in NOLA, and in both cases I quite unintentionally replaced the original with one of Donald Link's places. Tonight was supposed to be Bayona, but with the world being what it is, I wasn't able to dine there. All props to the Bayona team for making the hard call to close: for that, I promise to make sure to dine there next time I'm here in New Orleans, and to spend profligately 😃. But that meant a last-minute replacement, and that replacement was Pêche. A little splurge on our last night here: We started with some appetizers/small plates (I never have figured out the difference between the two...): Hushpuppies: "Fish sticks": Smoked drum salad: All excellent (that drum salad had cauliflower and broccoli as the principal vegetables, plus sunflower seeds for added crunch -- it was remarkable). For our mains... Baked drum in coconut curry: And I had snapper collars: Again, both excellent. For dessert, sticky toffee pudding with cream cheese ice cream: And they had the cognac I wanted. So, another winner. I know it's almost certainly sacrilege, but I liked the food here better than Cochon. Not that Cochon wasn't excellent! But I really did enjoy Pêche more.

Don't get me wrong, I really do love Popeye's. But they aren't in the same league as Willie Mae's. I don't even know if they're playing the same sport.

On my KA 6qt I use 2 as "low", 5 as "medium", and "however high it seems like the machine won't walk off the counter" for "high". Except for very high hydration, then "high" is 10 and I just hold the damned machine in place.

It seemed I would be remiss not to eat at one of the "old guard" while I was here, and Galatoire's is just a few blocks from where we are staying. So while I know, it's not "Friday Lunch" (which now takes reservations!!), but I did enjoy a Wednesday lunch at Galatoire's today. Considerably less boisterous, but the food is still the classics. Fresh bread: Garlic bread: Pommes souffle: Oysters Rockefeller: Turtle soup (not gumbo!!): Crabmeat Sardou: And no room for dessert!

No: lots of masks outside, and they’re required on public transit, but all restaurants are vaccine required so it seems most people doff them once their drinks arrive.

When I got that restaurant cancellation notice this morning, at first I thought it was from Cochon -- I had several Resy reservations, and the notice didn't say which restaurant was cancelling: the last message I had in the list was from Cochon, so I thought it was from them. Fortunately it occurred to me eventually to call, since it as sort of ambiguous, and sure enough, they were still open tonight. So, dinner at Cochon: Started with a Chablis: And some dinner rolls: Alligator in mustard sauce: Yellowfish dip on housemade crackers: Head cheese with house pickles and mustard: Gumbo (of course): And scallops: Unsurprisingly for a place called "cochon", I thought the real standout was the headcheese, which was superb. Which is not to put down the rest of the meal, of course, everything was delicious. I should eat salads for every meal next week, though. This is sort of exhausting!

No, just a little mesh brewing basket.

I got it many years ago when I used to subscribe to Storyville Coffee — I’ve since graduated to roasting my own, but I always liked their logo, as a former aerospace engineer. And I don’t like drinking tea out of paper cups, which is all hotel rooms seem to have these days.

I had no expectation of being able to find decent tea here, so I hedged my bets and packed my own:

The weather is spectacular today, perfect for a walk, so we took the streetcar halfway and walked the rest to Willy Mae's Scotch House (original location, not the new one in the food court). Obviously, I had the fried chicken (dark meat). I mean this in the most literal sense: it was perfect. I can't think of anything that could possibly have improved this chicken. Perfectly seasoned, just a little spicy but not so much that you couldn't taste the chicken, moist and tender, with a shatteringly crisp crust. Basically sets the gold standard for fried chicken. My wife ordered the red beans: I also ordered the red beans, but the waiter said "why you ordering the same thing she got? Get the butter beans." Yes sir. Butter beans it is: Both beans were excellent: a bit spicy but not over-the-top. Also, cornbread muffins: A little sweeter than I would expect here in the southern US, but still delicious. Finally, an obligatory bread pudding: Needed vanilla ice cream. But I definitely did not need anymore food at this point, so I shouldn't complain. We walked really slowly getting back to the streetcar .

Unfortunately it was Bayona who cancelled and is now shut down for the week. So I won't be dining there after all.