Bistro Babe
10-13-2009, 02:44 PM
I enjoyed this article and thought y'all might also.
What's behind the New Orleans' culinary curtain?
By Judy Walker
October 08, 2009, 5:00AM
This week, 60 North American food journalists are in New Orleans for the annual Association of Food Journalists meeting. The professional group will explore topics ranging from sugar and sugar cane on the road to Baton Rouge to "The New Orleans You Don't Know, " the conference theme.
"What outsiders don't know about New Orleans is that our best chefs are not in our restaurants, but in our homes, " wrote chef Frank Brigtsen of Brigtsen's. "We are raised with the best food in America: Mom's red beans and rice, gumbo, backyard crawfish boils, etc.
"If you are lucky enough to be invited to a New Orleans home for Thanksgiving, it will be the best meal you ever ate -- oyster dressing, stuffed mirliton with shrimp and ham, maybe even lasagna! After a New Orleans Thanksgiving dinner, the hardest part is waiting to get hungry again!"
Prolific cooking teacher, cookbook author and Slow Food local chapter founder Poppy Tooker, a New Orleans native, wrote about lesser-known aspects of the food culture. No. 1: how dark our roux is. (Everybody from food professionals to home cooks remarks on it.)
"Everywhere I travel, when I demo it, they always say, 'Oh! I had no idea! I'd never cook it that dark!' If you don't see it done, you just don't get it." Tooker also says New Orleans owns the breakfast cocktail, regardless of whether the cocktail was invented here or not. "A Bloody Mary is everyone's drink, but the gin fizz, the milk punch -- now we're talking about the right way to start the day!" she said in an e-mail.
Tooker adds that until Cochon opened, one didn't come to New Orleans to eat Cajun food. And Creole food, the classic food of New Orleans, is not spicy hot. It's well-seasoned. "We did not grow up here eating jambalaya, and in fact did not eat it here until the dawn of Paul Prudhomme."
Compared to other American cities, New Orleans has so little fast food that visitors remark on it, Tooker notes. She calls New Orleans "the slowest of American cities." Our fast food has always been real food, including poor boys, muffulettas and hot tamales."
Tooker offers a simple test to determine how food-obsessed the area really is. "Stand on any busy street corner and listen to how many passersby are talking about food, " she suggests. "What and where they ate last or what they're going to cook next!"
Dale Curry, retired Times-Picayune food editor and cookbook author, said that outsiders know the seafood here is great, but they're not fully aware of how diversified the cooking of it is. "One day it's an oyster po-boy and another, broiled snapper. Locals never tire of the variety of seafood, and as often as not, it is eaten in small neighborhood restaurants where the quality is top-notch. "Many of these restaurants are packed on weekends, especially Friday nights. The Catholic tradition of no meat on Fridays still holds strong, " Curry writes.
She also shared a personal favorite: riding along the lakefront and crossing the Causeway to "dine at the many restaurants on the north shore. I recently enjoyed a crabmeat-stuffed soft-shell crab at an outdoor table overlooking Lake Pontchartrain. As far as I'm concerned, there's nowhere in the world that you can have better soft-shell crabs and oysters than right here. "One of my favorite 45-minute trips away from New Orleans is to Middendorf's, a seafood restaurant in Manchac off I-55. It is known for its thin catfish, but just as good is its thick catfish, its whole catfish and I could never leave out its oysters. Situated in a swamp near two lakes, it's Louisiana at its best."
A couple of people chose the local Vietnamese influence as a less-well-known phenomenon. Ann Tuennerman, founder of Tales of the cocktail, said visitors don't think about "Vietnamese food, some of the great restaurants, and the Vietnamese market" that sets up early Saturday mornings at 14401 Alcee Fortier Blvd. in eastern New Orleans.
The pistolettes at Dong Phuong Oriental Bakery, 14207 Chef Menteur Highway, are one of the first things Kelly Hamilton thought of as something that's "The New Orleans You Don't Know." With husband Mike, Hamilton operates New Orleans Culinary History Tours. "Larger than the traditional pistolettes sold in grocery stores, Dong Phoung's are incredibly fresh since they're baked on the premises, " Hamilton wrote. "Large bins are constantly refilled with delicious loaves which are actually called banh mi. And they're a good value and really freeze well.
"The second thing that comes to mind is how much bounty we can harvest ourselves, " Hamilton said. "In Lake Pontchartrain from our small boat we have caught, and feasted on, blue crabs, trout, and other good fish."
Daphne Derven, who moved to New Orleans in January when she became executive director of the New Orleans Food and Farm Network, said three foods were big revelations: satsumas, the locally beloved Mandarin oranges that seldom travel outside the region; popcorn rice; and Creole cream cheese.
Journalist Elsa Hahne, the author of "You Are Where You Eat: Recipes and Stories from the Neighborhoods of New Orleans, " wrote about the odd situations that sometimes evolve, and an example of a little-known dish.
"Often in New Orleans, you're doing something and then food somehow attaches itself to the situation, " Hahne writes. "Pretty soon you're eating something and cannot quite remember if there was another reason why you got there in the first place. Usually, this is a good thing.
"I recently had the opportunity to visit with producer/arranger Wardell Quezergue and musician Smokey Johnson in the latter's home in the Musicians' Village. I was there to take photos for OffBeat, the local music (and food!) monthly. We were done with the photos in about two minutes, and then Quezergue said to Johnson's wife: 'Dear, how about some lunch tongue?'
"Quezergue is 81 years old and blind, while Johnson -- following a stroke -- negotiates his house in a motorized chair. They don't get around much, but Johnson's wife does.
" 'Back in 10, ' she said and I made sure I got a ride. Half an hour later, we finally turned off Judge Perez Drive onto Paris Road. Towards the river on the right side is a meat market called Jeanfreau's where they make their own roast beef, hogshead cheese and lunch tongue, which turned out to be another kind of sandwich meat.
"I knew it had to be good when Johnson's wife ordered three or four packages, so I ordered some too and brought it home. Now every so often, my husband asks: 'Dear, how about some lunch tongue?' "
It's basically sliced tongue -- like several tongues cooked and pressed together, with a thin layer of jelly around, Hahne explained.
"Very meaty. Not processed. Actually quite good."
Which sort of sounds like New Orleans food culture, doesn't it?
ORIGINAL ARTICLE (http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2009/10/whats_behind_the_culinary_curt.html)
What's behind the New Orleans' culinary curtain?
By Judy Walker
October 08, 2009, 5:00AM
This week, 60 North American food journalists are in New Orleans for the annual Association of Food Journalists meeting. The professional group will explore topics ranging from sugar and sugar cane on the road to Baton Rouge to "The New Orleans You Don't Know, " the conference theme.
"What outsiders don't know about New Orleans is that our best chefs are not in our restaurants, but in our homes, " wrote chef Frank Brigtsen of Brigtsen's. "We are raised with the best food in America: Mom's red beans and rice, gumbo, backyard crawfish boils, etc.
"If you are lucky enough to be invited to a New Orleans home for Thanksgiving, it will be the best meal you ever ate -- oyster dressing, stuffed mirliton with shrimp and ham, maybe even lasagna! After a New Orleans Thanksgiving dinner, the hardest part is waiting to get hungry again!"
Prolific cooking teacher, cookbook author and Slow Food local chapter founder Poppy Tooker, a New Orleans native, wrote about lesser-known aspects of the food culture. No. 1: how dark our roux is. (Everybody from food professionals to home cooks remarks on it.)
"Everywhere I travel, when I demo it, they always say, 'Oh! I had no idea! I'd never cook it that dark!' If you don't see it done, you just don't get it." Tooker also says New Orleans owns the breakfast cocktail, regardless of whether the cocktail was invented here or not. "A Bloody Mary is everyone's drink, but the gin fizz, the milk punch -- now we're talking about the right way to start the day!" she said in an e-mail.
Tooker adds that until Cochon opened, one didn't come to New Orleans to eat Cajun food. And Creole food, the classic food of New Orleans, is not spicy hot. It's well-seasoned. "We did not grow up here eating jambalaya, and in fact did not eat it here until the dawn of Paul Prudhomme."
Compared to other American cities, New Orleans has so little fast food that visitors remark on it, Tooker notes. She calls New Orleans "the slowest of American cities." Our fast food has always been real food, including poor boys, muffulettas and hot tamales."
Tooker offers a simple test to determine how food-obsessed the area really is. "Stand on any busy street corner and listen to how many passersby are talking about food, " she suggests. "What and where they ate last or what they're going to cook next!"
Dale Curry, retired Times-Picayune food editor and cookbook author, said that outsiders know the seafood here is great, but they're not fully aware of how diversified the cooking of it is. "One day it's an oyster po-boy and another, broiled snapper. Locals never tire of the variety of seafood, and as often as not, it is eaten in small neighborhood restaurants where the quality is top-notch. "Many of these restaurants are packed on weekends, especially Friday nights. The Catholic tradition of no meat on Fridays still holds strong, " Curry writes.
She also shared a personal favorite: riding along the lakefront and crossing the Causeway to "dine at the many restaurants on the north shore. I recently enjoyed a crabmeat-stuffed soft-shell crab at an outdoor table overlooking Lake Pontchartrain. As far as I'm concerned, there's nowhere in the world that you can have better soft-shell crabs and oysters than right here. "One of my favorite 45-minute trips away from New Orleans is to Middendorf's, a seafood restaurant in Manchac off I-55. It is known for its thin catfish, but just as good is its thick catfish, its whole catfish and I could never leave out its oysters. Situated in a swamp near two lakes, it's Louisiana at its best."
A couple of people chose the local Vietnamese influence as a less-well-known phenomenon. Ann Tuennerman, founder of Tales of the cocktail, said visitors don't think about "Vietnamese food, some of the great restaurants, and the Vietnamese market" that sets up early Saturday mornings at 14401 Alcee Fortier Blvd. in eastern New Orleans.
The pistolettes at Dong Phuong Oriental Bakery, 14207 Chef Menteur Highway, are one of the first things Kelly Hamilton thought of as something that's "The New Orleans You Don't Know." With husband Mike, Hamilton operates New Orleans Culinary History Tours. "Larger than the traditional pistolettes sold in grocery stores, Dong Phoung's are incredibly fresh since they're baked on the premises, " Hamilton wrote. "Large bins are constantly refilled with delicious loaves which are actually called banh mi. And they're a good value and really freeze well.
"The second thing that comes to mind is how much bounty we can harvest ourselves, " Hamilton said. "In Lake Pontchartrain from our small boat we have caught, and feasted on, blue crabs, trout, and other good fish."
Daphne Derven, who moved to New Orleans in January when she became executive director of the New Orleans Food and Farm Network, said three foods were big revelations: satsumas, the locally beloved Mandarin oranges that seldom travel outside the region; popcorn rice; and Creole cream cheese.
Journalist Elsa Hahne, the author of "You Are Where You Eat: Recipes and Stories from the Neighborhoods of New Orleans, " wrote about the odd situations that sometimes evolve, and an example of a little-known dish.
"Often in New Orleans, you're doing something and then food somehow attaches itself to the situation, " Hahne writes. "Pretty soon you're eating something and cannot quite remember if there was another reason why you got there in the first place. Usually, this is a good thing.
"I recently had the opportunity to visit with producer/arranger Wardell Quezergue and musician Smokey Johnson in the latter's home in the Musicians' Village. I was there to take photos for OffBeat, the local music (and food!) monthly. We were done with the photos in about two minutes, and then Quezergue said to Johnson's wife: 'Dear, how about some lunch tongue?'
"Quezergue is 81 years old and blind, while Johnson -- following a stroke -- negotiates his house in a motorized chair. They don't get around much, but Johnson's wife does.
" 'Back in 10, ' she said and I made sure I got a ride. Half an hour later, we finally turned off Judge Perez Drive onto Paris Road. Towards the river on the right side is a meat market called Jeanfreau's where they make their own roast beef, hogshead cheese and lunch tongue, which turned out to be another kind of sandwich meat.
"I knew it had to be good when Johnson's wife ordered three or four packages, so I ordered some too and brought it home. Now every so often, my husband asks: 'Dear, how about some lunch tongue?' "
It's basically sliced tongue -- like several tongues cooked and pressed together, with a thin layer of jelly around, Hahne explained.
"Very meaty. Not processed. Actually quite good."
Which sort of sounds like New Orleans food culture, doesn't it?
ORIGINAL ARTICLE (http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2009/10/whats_behind_the_culinary_curt.html)