Month: December 2018

So I’m sure you know about the seafood at Parrain’s, but the turf part of the menu is loaded as well. Now you might have to play around with the temperature on the duck breast to get it just how you like it. The one pictured is mid-well, an overreaction on my part to the mid-rare being a little under for me, but both versions were tasty. I will probably go with medium next time. In addition to the duck, they have a deep fried Cornish hen described on the menu as “Like a little fried turkey served with dirty rice” and it is just like a fried turkey, marinated and juicy inside with the skin crisped. And you get the whole bird to yourself so there’s no fighting over the pope’s nose or who gets a wing.

They also offer a really nice bone in pork chop.

And of course the filet and ribeye that most seafood restaurants add to the menu.

• 

• 

So why am I talking so much about the meats at a seafood restaurant instead of the fried shrimp and catfish and alligator and the black and bleu tuna over linguine Alfredo that you love so much? Because all of your peeps and clients aren’t from here. And while a lot of them will be Mardi Gras excited to get a chance to try all the Cajun dishes they’ve heard so much about, some folks just aren’t that adventurous and won’t want to venture past the meat and potatoes they are comfortable with. Parrain’s is your answer for taking that kind of mixed crew out to lunch or dinner. Even your Iowa and Montana folks will find something to get excited about on this menu. And you can count on the Parrainians to execute everything on that menu at a very high level. A good place to keep in mind for the holidays or if you have people coming in for a football game or just passing through on the way to Mardi Gras or Jazzfest. And like I’ve written before, the charbroiled oysters can’t be beat.

It’s amazing how hard it is to find a hot ham and cheese poboy around town these days. Ham and cheese and hot sausage and roast beef used to be the staples for anyone who did sandwiches. Pretty much everybody still rolls a roast beef, but the ham and cheese and smoked or hot sausage have faded away. Years ago when I had taken a break from school and hired on as a rodman for a survey company, we would be all over south Louisiana surveying swamp land that would eventually become subdivisions and every Pak-a-sac, Quick Stop, Fred and Judy’s convenience store would make their own ham and cheese, and sausage or roast beef poboys and we would file in, collect a Schlitz tall boy and order our sandwiches, then go outside and sit on the tailgate or just cop a squat on the sidewalk leaning back against the wall and chow down before firing up the mandatory after food cigarette. Mandatory for the time anyway. Jed’s is making good on their promise to be a local hangout. Jawing with the barkeep about the bad weather heading our way kind of felt a little like those old days. And the poboy locked it down. Just as good. Just as much exactly what I needed right then and there. I had an unsweet tea instead of a Schlitz tallboy and I had to give up smoking ten or twelve years back, but I enjoyed that thirty minutes thinking about everything that happened back when you could get a great ham and cheese poboy like Jed’s on every other corner.

Good idea to make a shrimp stock to braise the eggplant in before adding it to the trinity for shrimp and eggplant casserole. Maybe cut the stock off a little earlier and use yellow onions instead of red as the color got a bit dark and brought the color of the finished dish down a bit. Tasted good. Didn’t look as good as it could have though. Eggplant is just as much a flavor sponge as yellow squash and zucchini. Maybe think about trying to do a hamburger or ground pork dish with eggplant. Maybe use eggplant instead of pasta for a lasagna-like casserole?

The whole beef tenderloin came out perfectly for me using the blast at 500 degrees and let finish in the oven for an hour method. I think next time I might go five minutes a pound at 500 instead of three to make it more attractive to family. Left alone I might have just sliced it up for beef sashimi, but everyone else likes it at least red in the middle. You can tell them to throw it in a skillet or fire up the grill as much as you want, but that doesn’t sway anyone. I did tell them to stew the leftovers in a brown gravy for badass roast beef poboys later. Luckily, I saved some for myself at the house to snack on and make killer sandwiches. Bread, mustard, sliced tenderloin. Yes.

The piece de resistance though was the homemade garlic bread. Great idea. Fired up the bread maker and got a perfect loaf of white bread from it the day before. Sliced it wide while it was still hot and painted it with garlic butter. Used one stick of Kelly’s Irish and some squeeze garlic and added some of the meat seasoning mix. One part each garlic salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. Had that on hand because I really wanted to do the whole tenderloin the right way, with olive oil, L&P, the mix, and a final dusting of Zatarain’s and black pepper. Wrapped the bread in foil and just left it on the counter overnight, then when I got to the camp I brought it up in the oven (still foil wrapped) at four hundred for ten minutes. Could have unwrapped it to crisp it, and would have worked fine tossed on the grill in the foil as well. Something to keep in mind for next time. Or any time really. But it was really hard not to eat half a loaf then and there.

All in all a great xmas spread. Little brother got busy with jambalaya and crab stuffed corn muffins and nailed momma’s buttermilk pound cake. He also baked chocolate chip cookies. Never go wrong with those. I think next year though, given the time and money, I will keep a better eye on the weather and crawfish availability. Had I paid better attention to both this year, I would have boiled a sack and left it at that.

We all have our own priorities for choosing a restaurant to visit, our own markers for authenticity, our own considerations of the moment. If we have kids, we want to know both kids and parents will be welcome and comfortable, not bored and fidgety and stressed. If we are leaving the kids at home, we want to go somewhere where we don’t have to deal with other folk’s kids–because that’s the whole point of the evening, right? I have my own set of priorities, and, as you might have guessed, number one is food and menu, followed closely by the physical space and all the little elements of style that tell me what the owners intend. When I try a new place that identifies as Mexican, I look first to see if they serve tacos lengua and if they serve carnitas in any form. Blue Corn actually exceeded my expectations on both counts. The carnitas was very good, and the lengua was the best I’ve had in Baton Rouge. Taqueria Corona on Magazine St in New Orleans is very close, and I would have to try them head to head to be certain, but right now, having just been to Blue Corn, I would have to give them the edge as offering the best lengua I’ve had in Louisiana. If I was standing just outside the door of Taqueria Corona having just enjoyed their tacos lengua and enchiladas camerones, I might be singing another song, but I was very excited to encounter perfect lengua and a very fine carnitas at Blue Corn.

I have cooked beef tongue at home exactly once. It is a pain and takes forever and you have to find at least one other person as crazy about lengua as you are to make the time and effort worthwhile and also so you aren’t eating tongue all week. Good luck with that. And that is probably why it took so long for lengua to make it to menus in Baton Rouge. For the longest time, customers absolutely would not step outside their comfort zone. I haven’t really seen it here outside of bodega style taquerias until now. LaFonda never had it, Superior Grill doesn’t offer it, and sadly, our own tastes and limitations are why we miss out on so much authentic cuisine from other cultures. And it feels like every dish that crosses our borders gets attacked by Wisconsin cheese. Traditional tacos are not topped with tomato and iceberg lettuce and grated cheddar., but onion and cilantro with a slice of lime on the side. Now we are starting to see some Mexican cheeses incorporated in authentic Mexican dishes. Queso fresco and cotija are much more common now, but they generally aren’t glopped all over everything. I love cheese, but not if it buries everything else on the plate.

Blue Corn seems dedicated to being the real deal. I know that’s a pretty huge claim after one visit, but they are very new, and absolutely nothing went wrong while I was there. That’s a little outside the norm for new restaurants. There is a whole lot on the menu I want to try, and it was refreshing to be able to choose the rajas con queso y elote as a side on my two taco lunch combo. Now the one downside I have to mention is no bottled Mexican Coke. But they did have Jarritos soda, and it was very good. I see this as a good place to gather with friends. Food’s great, there’s a patio, they have tequila flights, the art is impressive, the inside is almost as open and airy as the patio, and the staff treated me special. My biggest fear about going back is that I might not ever be able to make myself try anything new and just get the tacos lengua every time I go there. Such is life! Here’s a gallery of inside and outside Blue Corn photos.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Where to start? I love this place. The food is well thought out and impeccably executed. The drinks are original and bold with surprising flavor combinations and served in ceramic buddha and tiki glassware with metal straws. They have not one but two sake flights featuring a traditional selection and more modern brews. I guess I would recommend the Drunken Noodles to start with, but you really can’t go wrong with the food. The noodles are fresh made right in front of you. The raw bar takes a little different approach to nigiri and sashimi than you are used to seeing in Baton Rouge and again, the execution is flawless and the freshness and quality top of the line. But what really stands out is the exquisite care the owners took in creating an environment and ambiance that works so well with the food and drink menus. The architectural layout, the unique wall planters, the back to back raw and noodle bars, and the brilliant juxtaposition of old Eastern monochromatic prints on canvas and new Eastern neon creates a mood that encourages the experimentation the whole place is built on. If you are into Asian cuisine at all, you will be surprised and delighted with what you can discover at Soji.

• 

• 

• 

• 

I could go on and on about the wagyu beef dumplings, the brilliant cauliflower side, either of which could be a light lunch by themselves. I’ve tried all the ramens and would not be able to pick a favorite, they are all so good but that is the point. I’ve never been disappointed and don’t expect to be and that is a remarkable achievement for such a young restaurant concept. The integration of food and drink and style at Soji is a wonderful example of what a restaurant can be, and also of why so many restaurants fail. You can have a perfectly cooked, high quality prime ribeye with a delightfully fluffy loaded baked potato slapped down in front of you by a surly server in a crusty apron who takes forever to replace the original silverware at your table with something marginally cleaner while the steak and potato dinner cools and you try to talk to your guest above the overly loud pop music playing with commercials in the brightly lit dining room where the crumbs and worse on the floor are all too obvious–I know you follow me on this one. A restaurant is an enterprise that has to get everything right, not eighty percent right or ninety percent right. For the night to be perfect, the management and staff need to perform perfectly or apologize profusely when they fail to achieve their goals. That, I think, is what you will pick up on pretty quickly at Soji. The staff and exhibition cooks seem relaxed and happy to be there and happy to serve you and as you all know, that is not universal. The physical space is immaculate, you can tell someone cares about the lighting, someone cares about the volume, someone cares whether you have a good experience or not. Again, not universal. So my advice, freely given, is to give Soji a try, and when you do, try something you’ve never had before. That will be easy to accomplish with these food and drink menus.

I just couldn’t resist. I finally broke down and bought an enameled cast iron Dutch oven. I didn’t need it. I have a perfectly good Lodge Dutch oven that I use for gumbo and jambalaya, but I’ve wanted one for a long time so I bought it online once the price got close to reasonable and broke it in with a basic beef stew, no wine, just stew meat and veggies and beef stock.

• 

I also plan to use it to roast a quartered duck over diced new potatoes so the potatoes basically cook in the duck fat. Then I’ll make the mashed potatoes and maybe whip up a fig or blueberry gravy with lots of onions and sliced portabello mushrooms.

I think I will also at some point throw down a cioppino. The best thing about it is it has nice handles that make transitioning to the oven from the stove top much easier. As you can see, I dusted the meat with a little flour and seasonings before browning it and then adding the veggies, all the while scraping the bottom and splashing a little beef stock in when things got too sticky. I didn’t bother with roux or corn starch slurry but mixed the rremainder of a quart of beef stock with some Knorr brown gravy mix and let that serve as the thickening agent. Great out of the pot, but even better the next day reheated after settling overnight in the fridge.

My, the times they are a changing. Way, way back when in Mike Anderson’s kitchen on Lee Drive there would be daily boombox wars between the fry guys and the oven men. Fry tended to be heavy metal or hard rock. The oven crew for some reason were exclusively punk. Go figure. Some mysteries just cannot be explained. Back then there were no earbuds or noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones just boomboxes like the one pictured, only crusted with grease and grime. Max volume. Enough to drive Michael Ryan crazy stuck in between working the expeditor table. Point being, music was essential to the kitchen then, and it’s essential in my kitchen now. Amazon Echos and Echo Dots let you seed your whole place with music and the app has advanced to where you can play the same thing everywhere in your house without being a millionaire that had a synchronized sound system built into the place when you first raised the walls. And I’m pretty sure you can listen to any station you want online for pennies a day.  My favorite is Handcrafted Radio which used to be called Okemos Brewing Radio. They are very good at finding obscure and wonderful live versions of classic rock tunes. While I’ve been writing this I’ve heard Traffic, Creedence, and the Moody Blues. Heard an excellent Frampton tune this morning. Not sure I can really separate cooking and music. I know I don’t want to.  Doobie Brothers playing now. China Grove. Rice is almost ready. Time to get up and make gravy.

• 

• 

Diner Style Burgers Head to Head

Diner style burgers are fried in their own fat on a flattop grill. At home you would use a skillet on the stove top to achieve the same effect with an 80/20 beef patty or even a mix of ground beef and ground pork. A diner is pretty much defined by red vinyl upholstery on straight back chairs and fixed stools set before formica topped tables and counters with some chrome trim to complete the picture. 

• 

• 

Also black and white tile floors and upright stainless steel napkin holders and plenty of condiments on the table. Both Louie’s and Dearman’s do a fine job with their burgers so we’re just doing a little compare and contrast to remind you which one to pick to fit the mood you are in. Call it fine tuning. Louie’s offers a 4 oz and 8 oz patty while Dearman’s falls right in between with a 6 oz. Both use a nice, seedless white bread bun with lettuce, pickles, and tomatoes. Dearman’s uses a slice of yellow onion raw, while Louie’s onions are diced and sauteed. Both come with mustard and mayo on the standard dressing setup, but Louie’s offers a choice of alfalfa sprouts instead of lettuce and also has avocado available as a topping. Louie’s also has cheddar cheese where Dearman’s does not. What Dearman’s does have is a drugstore legacy of sodas, malts, shakes, and root beer floats that Louie’s does not have. Louie’s tends more towards beer these days to go along with the late night omelets and pancakes and waffles since Louie’s is a 24 hour shop and Dearman’s is open from 11 am -8pm.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We’re not trying to pick one over the other. They are both worth a visit just for their dedication to an old school delivery of a fat fried burger. In fact, either one is a perfect place to start your personal perfect burger survey to see which burger in BR is your favorite. I guess my favorite burger of all time was the one at Bonaventure’s Landing on False River. I tried for the longest time to duplicate that gooey, run down your wrist goodness until I finally had the insight to set all the fixings out on the counter before heading off to run errands for a couple of hours. Everything reached room temp so when the patty was done and everything was slapped together there wasn’t a crisp or cold element involved. Super tasty. And very messy. One of the reasons I really like Louie’s Big Cheesy Lou is you can get it with sprouts and avocados which is close to the Austin Special they used to serve at Mad Dog and Beans on Guadalupe right by UT back in the early eighties. That one was charbroiled with fresh guac, sharp cheddar, and sprouts. The last time I was there when Mad Dog and Beans was still around, I had a feeling the girlfriend I was going to Austin to visit and I weren’t going to last much longer, so I ate three Austin Specials since I didn’t know when or if I would ever be back. Good move since that did turn out to be my last visit. 

Omnivore means you’ll eat anything, whether it has any nutritional value or not. Not always the best plan. Ideally you would only eat whole foods you prepared yourself. We all know that’s not going to happen unless you totally commit to a meal plan for whatever reason. Most of us are constantly making it up as we go along, so for me the goal is to always have better choices available. Yes, it would be fun to eat fried chicken every day, but not for long. It would also be fun to eat out at every meal. Also not practical. I love to eat out. I love to cook at home. But I’m going to eat at least 21 meals a week, so if I want to avoid the easy answer of junk food, I need quick and easy options. And luckily for all of us, our obsession with food has made each and every grocery a world bizarre of easy to serve prepared foods. Even gluten free, dairy free, organically grown, non-GM0 prepared foods are still prepared foods. Yes, Amy’s soup is probably better for you than Campbell’s soup, but really, how much better? That’s something you really can’t be sure of unless you’re a food scientist, but we all kind of figure either one is better than a Big Mac Meal Deal. And that is the algorithm that counts. You don’t have to be a hard ass with yourself to score a few victories a week just by picking a better meal, or putting off the Popeye’s for one more day. And there really are some easy to throw together options out there.

I’ve tried the cauliflower crusted pizzas and they are quite good. Pop one in the oven as soon as you get home and it’s done by the time you’ve changed clothes and looked over your tv options. A mushroom onion gravy over wild rice doesn’t take much more effort than that. Especially if you invest a few bucks in a rice maker. Measure the water, toss in the rice, press the button, then start the gravy. You can even buy your mushrooms sliced if you want. Fast,  And not absolutely horrible nutritionally. And one of my favorite fall back options is pre-made tortellini or ravioli juiced with a little garlic EVO and sprinkled with Parmesan. It’s got a nice shelf life in the fridge and can sit there most of the week if things come up and you have to change your plans. And that really is my point. Food and nutrition in our world today is kind of like white water rafting. A whole lot of fun. Best laid plans, And a lot of room for bad decisions. You owe it to yourself to keep a couple of better-than-junk food options readily available. 

• 

• 

Where to start? If you are parents, you should definitely teach your boys and girls how to shuck early on. Anyone who can show up on time and shuck reasonably well will always be able to get a job in the restaurant industry right away. Especially with the recent popularity of charbroiled oysters, shuckers are always in high demand and offered a lot more scheduling leeway than other employees. That makes it easy to just shuck a shift or two a week, or shuck at different restaurants, or whatever you need to do to supplement your income.

It is my belief that if you do not have an oyster bar, you do not qualify as a south Louisiana seafood restaurant.

Restaurant style charbroiled or chargrilled oysters are shucked first, thrown on the grill, and topped with a seasoned garlic butter and parmesan mix and served with toasted french bread. That’s one way to do it. The other way to do it is to toss the oysters on the grill and let them steam open in their own juices. This is a little easier and faster at home than shucking the oysters before you grill them. You need a heavy glove to grab the oyster off the grill and shuck it into your own pan of garlic butter. Up in New Roads we would rake some coals from the fire and place the oysters right on top. 

Oysters go good with pig. Years ago we were roasting a pig at the Our Lady of Carlotta apartments when some guys from East State brought over a couple of sacks they had intended to shuck the night before but got rained out. It was still misting and drizzling that day, but there was a cinder block open carport still standing back then and we set up under what was left of the roof. It was a nice crowd. After the original keg of Milwaukee’s Best was gone we passed a hat and got $238 dollars. I remember that figure because an eight-pack of Miller ponies went for $2.10 back then so that was an amazingly successful beer run.

I’m not going to tell you where to go to get someone to shuck oysters for you. There’s any number of options in Baton Rouge now. Parrain’s (pictured), Acme, Jolie Pearl, Mike Anderson’s, The Bullfish, Drusilla’s, The Chimes and Chimes East, Ralph and Kacoo’s, and even Phil’s is back in business now over in the Southdowns Shopping Center. Where to go for oysters is a deeply personal decision and has as much to do with memories of good times past as anything else. Everyone does the best job they can with oysters even though the raw are loss leaders with very little margin. Shops do a bit better with the charbroiled since the demand doesn’t dip in summertime like it does for the raw and you can generally get a bit more for a dozen charbroiled. But now that sacks and boxes of oysters are packed 100 oysters instead of 200 it is even easier to get together enough folks to have a party. And the kids need to learn how to shuck. And if you are going to fire up the grill to charbroil oysters, some pork chops or ribs will go very, very well with your oysters.  Laissez le bon temps rouler.