Recently in Site news Category
Ladies and gentlemen, your weekly edition of Haute Plates is available. Please enjoy.
In other news, the long-delayed redesign of this website is finally under way. If all goes according to plan, within a week or two the new design should be live. In addition to a generally improved appearance, you will finally have the opportunity once more to provide comments. I know. Try to restrain yourselves.
In the interim, how about a picture of onion rings?
Onion Rings at Sid-Mar's
From the crowd last night, this is probably not news to anyone, but Mondo, Susan Spicer's new restaurant at 900 Harrison, is open. It's a neat space, and the menu is, even now, pretty wide-ranging. I'm not going to say too much about the food, other than to say it was excellent, but I will recommend you try the fried hominy with lime and chile. That was awesome.
Old Metairie Bistro has also opened at 2700 Metairie Road. The new restaurant, where Eric Sibley is the executive chef, occupies the space most that was most recently home to the New City Grille. It's a location that has seen a number of restaurants come and go in the last few years, but from the menu I've seen, Old Metairie Bistro appears to be the most ambitious of the lot.
I'll be writing more on both restaurants in the not too distant future, either here or for Haute Plates. On that topic, if you do visit Haute Plates, and like it, please sign up for the email newsletter put out during the week by the folks at My New Orleans.com. In addition to my piece, you'll get After Hours, Ian McNulty's blog about New Orleans nightlife; Happy Hour, Tim McNally's weekly column on wine and spirits, as well as a few others that you may find worthwhile.
I imagine more than a few of you visit haute plates from this website, but for the purposes of driving advertising (and let's be honest, people, advertising is what pays for the content you read from professional writers), my understanding is that following a link from the newsletter is easier to count. That doesn't make all that much sense to me, and like a lot of you I read most websites through a newsreader (google reader) rather than by following bookmarks. Still, I'd be pleased to see more hits counted on all of the MyNewOrleans.com blogs, so if it's not too big an imposition, sign up, won't you?
If you don't, I may be forced to grow this again:
Nobody wants that, right?
I should know by now that I am incapable of doing anything more complicated than adding the appropriate html code for italics or hyperlinks. When I attempted to switch the hosting for appetites a few days ago, I made a boo-boo, and the site went down. I think I managed to fix it by returning the site to its original host, but it's also possible that someone else did something behind the scenes to clean up the mess I'd made. If that is the case: many thanks.
At any rate, I will allow the professionals to do their work henceforth, and limit my involvement to adding content and cursing.
In that regard, the current radio commercial for the Red Maple Restaurant is a faux-Cajun atrocity that makes my ears bleed. Whenever I hear it, I switch the channel immediately, and I bet I'm not alone. I have never been to the Red Maple, and so cannot comment on the food, but God DAMN I hate that commercial.
That is all.
Creatures: Be reminded that La Côte Brasserie is hosting a beer dinner this evening featuring the food of chef Chuck Subra and the beers of Lazy Magnolia and Heiner Brau. There will be 5 courses, and the cost of $60 per person before tax and tip seems like a pretty good deal to me. I will be there in my capacity as a member of the Fourth Estate, but please do not let my lofty station intimidate you: say hello if you're there as well.
Congratulations to the folks from the New Orleans area who have received nominations for James Beard Foundation Awards. They include John Besh and Donald Link, who were nominated in the category of "cookbooks: American cooking" for My New Orleans and Real Cajun, respectively. My cousin and New Orleans native David Guas was nominated in the "baking and dessert" category for his excellent cookbook DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style.
Sue Zemanick, of Gautreau's, was nominated as a "rising star chef," and Scott Boswell of Stella! and John Harris of Lilette were nominated for "best chef: South." Additionally, Leah Chase of Dooky Chase, and Susan Spicer of Bayona and the soon-to-open Mondo were inducted into the 2010 James Beard Foundation Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America.
I intend to go into the nominees in a bit more depth in the upcoming edition of Haute Plates, which will arrive on your electronic doorstep tomorrow afternoon.
My resolution to update this site when my Haute Plates blog has been updated is going well. I have been consistent for the last two weeks!
Go me!
I took a few other images for that piece; an example:
Batterra Roll
A couple of others, as well as higher resolution images of the ones you've already seen, can be found here.
I've been trying to remember to post an update here when my online column, Haute Plates, is posted at the My New Orleans website.
Damned if I didn't remember today. Go forth and read about my thoughts on the Bistro at Maison de Ville.
You may note that the quality of my writing is substantially better there than it is here. That is due to the magic of editing, my friends. The magic of editing. Would that I had an editor for the more prosaic work I perform here, but alas...
I keep forgetting to post an update here when my Haute Plates blog goes online every Thursday. So... uh. Yeah.
Hello semi-imaginary friends! I have written an article that was published as the cover story in Gambit. It came out this morning, and if you are not in New Orleans, you may find it here. Please enjoy.
If you do not enjoy, please accept my apologies. I have been dealing with some troublesome woodland creatures. I think I have things sorted out, but if my body is found scratched and stuffed with acorns, do not believe that it was an accident.
That is all.
Folks, I've been busy. I know I've said it before, but while I enjoy writing this website, it's pretty far down on my list of priorities. My family, my legal practice, and writing for which I get paid all come ahead, as does my continued quest for that Leprechaun's pot o' gold. God damned Leprechaun.
There are a number of things I'd like to write about, and hopefully in the next week or two, I'll have a chance to do so. My cousin David's cookbook, DamGoodSweet has been released, and it's only one of about a half dozen books I need to review in some fashion.
I have been remiss about posting press releases that you might actually find interesting. For example, Peggy Scott Laborde's new documentary, New Orleans Food Memories will air on November 18 on WYES, at 7 and 10 p.m. I'm getting a chance to see it tonight; if I manage to find the time, I'll post a quick review. I'm pretty sure, knowing Peggy's work and the folks she's interviewed, that it will be worth your time.
Also: the New Orleans Po-boy Preservation Festival is set to kick off on Sunday, November 22nd, from 11 to 6 at Oak Street near Carrollton. They've moved things around, and should have more space for what's become an extremely popular event. It looks like I'll be there as a judge this year, so come by and see me.
I've also been taking a bunch of pictures lately; some for paying work, but others just sit on my hard drive, or reside in my Flickr page Here is an example:
Jambon-beurre at St. James Cheese Company
That's a photograph I took as part of some research into an article on banh mi sandwiches, or "Vietnamese po-boys" as we tend to call them down here.
Finally, at least for the moment, I have been making plans to redesign and rework this site. I've had a very good proposal, and now the problem is finding time to meet with the designer to discuss practicalities. I hope that by the end of the year Appetites looks completely different, and that you will once again be able to add comments here. I very much appreciate emails, and please keep them coming, but I've always found it easier to simply add a comment, and I'm sure you do too.
We'll see how that works out, and in the interim I'll try to at least provide brief updates on a more regular basis. Now if you'll excuse me, I believe I hear the lilt of bagpipes in conference room 3.
Sorry kids, been busy. I'm trying to write on a more routine basis at night, but this month I have had a lot going on. My legal practice takes precedence, of course. In addition, I'm writing a few pieces for New Orleans Magazine's annual dining issue, and that's quite a bit more than I normally undertake on a monthly basis.
And more, I've been lucky enough to pick up yet another blogging gig for the fine folks at Renaissance Publishing. I'm pretty excited about Haute Plates, because it gives me a chance to stretch some writing muscles I haven't on the Restaurant Insider.
Don't get me wrong; I love writing the Insider, not least because it's a challenge to work within the length limitations. There's something satisfying about getting a point across in as few words as possible. But I'd also like to spend a bit more time on some subjects, and Haute Plates gives me that opportunity. It will also, of course, force me to work within some boundaries that haven't constrained me here. Mainly the boundaries surrounding words like "shit" and "fuck" and so forth. I think that's a good thing.
So I apologize for going on an un-announced hiatus here, but given the demands on my time, this site just can't compete with my family, the law-thing, or my paying gigs for Renaissance.
Having said that; I have made some changes in my life over the last year or so. One of those changes was an effort to become more efficient with my time. It's worked out fairly well so far, and I'm hoping to expand it to my writing. That, hopefully, means that during a normal month, when I'm not completely swamped, I'll be able to update this site as often - or maybe more often - than I have in the past, all while maintaining the other obligations I have.
I will at least promise you this - I will strive to write run-on sentences here, on this website, until I am unable to write run-on sentences any longer, or at worst, until I learn me some grammar good.
I hope that is satisfactory.
I haven't had much time to write, but over the last two weeks I've taken a bunch of pictures. This morning I uploaded 20 or so to my flickr page, and thought I'd share a few of them here as well.
I hadn't been to Patois for a while, which is a problem I remedied by having lunch there recently with a couple of friends:
Gnocchi with crabmeat, cream, and truffle
Lamb Kofta Kebab over Romaine Lettuce with Tahini Dressing
Ideally, I would devote an entire post to the next photo:
HELLO INTERNETS
Two of my colleagues, who were generous enough to assist me in tasting a couple of new Pom Wonderful flavors, Kiwi and Nectarine. I have repaid their kindness by placing their images on the internet. Pom sent me a bottle of each to check out, and hopefully I will have time to write further about them in the near future. For now, you should know that the look on the face of the guy on the left is not indicative of his opinion of the juice. He's just like that.
Salumi
I had a chance last week to join a number of other local food writers for lunch at Domenica. The picture above is of a few varieties of cured meats and salumi. Below is the wild mushroom pizza, with a fried egg in the middle.
Wild Mushroom Pizza
Also last week, I attended the release party for John Besh's new cookbook: My New Orleans, at Restaurant August. I'm not very good at taking photographs in low light, but this one isn't too bad, I suppose:
White Chocolate and Meyer Lemon Semifreddo with vanilla-poached berries
Finally, gratuitous self-portrait, with child:
Sliced Bread and the Bear
I wouldn't mess with the dude on the right, if were I you...
One day last week, I forgot a file at home that I needed for a deposition, so I used that as an excuse to have a quick lunch at Vega Tapas Cafe.
Goat cheese croquette
That was an amuse. Very tasty.
Tortilla de Camarones
That's a Tortilla, a Spanish omelette which in this instance contained shrimp and cheese. It's often served at room temperature, but this one was warm.
Gambas al Pil Pil
And because there is apparently no limit to the number of shrimp I will eat, I had the above, served with a spicy "Pil Pil" sauce over polenta next.
Nice lunch, and I had plenty of room to spread things out and get a little work done while I ate.
Also, I was on Steppin' Out last night. You can, at least for the time being, see it here. Fun time, though I really should have cut one or two of those items from the presentation. I'd have had more time to devote to the other topics, and maybe even more time to figure out whether I had Michael Buchert's name right. Oh well.
I really love to get comments on this website. 99% of the legitimate comments are great; for example, when I reviewed Poppy Brite's book, and she actually commented on it with some insight into the work and her style. That made me all kinds of happy.
But lately the spambots are in overdrive, and they've got a new tactic. Usually when I get inundated with spam, it's 30 comments all pimping the same website. That's very easy to deal with using the MT Blacklist app that my all-powerful and all-knowing webhost/admin/lover* John has set up for me. The way it works is this. I spend around three hours huffing paint in a dark room, then I copy the url of the offending website into a field to add it to my blacklist, and click a button. All of the comments that are pimping that particular website are then deleted, and all of the entries are automatically rebuilt (a technical term that John assures me means that internet fairies are sacrificing themselves to clean up the affected entries.) It's all very simple.
As I said, lately things have changed. The latest variety of spambot uses individual spoofed email addresses, and each one pimps a different website. Meaning that I have to add each one to the blacklist individually, and people, that's a LOT of paint to huff. So it occurred to me that I can actually close the comments on older posts, and do away with most of the problem. Which is what I'm going to do. Every once in a while I'll get a comment to a post I made a long time ago - usually it's my "open letter to the food network" post, which is still getting at least one comment every two weeks long after I wrote it. But sometimes it's a comment to a recipe I wrote that corrects the recipe, points out an error, or just says thanks.
I am going to try to keep comments active for some of the older posts; those I think might actually get some attention, and which might best benefit from comments. The rest are going to be closed.
I know this is going to devastate a lot of people who were just waiting for the right time to post that incisive comment on my 2002 review of Bayona, but we're all just going to have to learn to deal with it.
*In his dreams.**
**No seriously, he dreams about me, and shares those dreams with the world in the form of erotic stories usually featuring me, Princess Amidala, a wookiee, and a half-dozen ewoks. It'd be creepy if it wasn't so hot.
Just a quick update with a picture of my son on Fat Tuesday. He was in a pensive way:
