And sometimes we just have to get down and dirty. Like a pit bull finding a mud puddle. Forget the dietary restrictions, the nutritional value, caloric intake, cholesterol–I want a chili cheese dog with mini-corn dogs and a side of fries. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Sometimes we need fancy. And sometimes we need familiar. Christina’s calls their fare homestyle cooking; you might call it plain, or classic, or old school–I prefer straightforward. What would you like today? I’d like unsweet tea, the hamburger steak with rice and gravy and buttered corn. Bam. Here you go.
I’d like three eggs sunny up, bacon, grits, a biscuit and a side of white gravy.
More coffee? Yes, please.
Now I’m not saying that Christina’s doesn’t offer anything rare and exotic. Just look at this.
This is a photo of the rare and elusive smoked sausage poboy, very hard to find anywhere else in Baton Rouge (even though everyone does red beans and has sausage in the cooler) dressed with grilled onions and peppers. I’ve yet to try the meatball poboy, or the roast beef poboy, or the fried chicken lunch special, or the chicken fried steak for breakfast, but I’m pretty confident that one day I’ll say about each of those dishes Yeah, I had that at Christina’s. Good place. You should check it out.
White Star is bright and open and airy, the food comes out quick at every booth in the food court, and I haven’t found anything to complain about after quite a few visits. One thing I really like about the place is you can always go to Gov’t Taco for a Mexican Coke while you’re waiting for something from any of the other shops. The tacos at Gov’t Taco are inventive, but not priced outside the market, and they do a good job with their different styles of elote roasted corn.
Dat’z Italian’s wood fired pizza has a bready, thick crust but that is completely balanced by how heavily they stack the toppings on the pizza. They have two sizes and two sauces, white and red, to choose from and some really interesting specialty pizzas as well.
And maybe the sleeper in this group is Fete au Fete. Both the muffaletta and the Gumbo YaYa are top of the line.
Chow Yum Phat and Yuzu are both really good as well. I’ve done a piece already on the bao and ramen and dumplings at Chow Yum Phat, and Yuzu looks like they are starting to get it together after a bare bones sort of trial period where all they had was build-your-own poke bowls. The menu looks better and I intend to check it out soon.
Well I said I would check these guys out to see if they knew what they were doing and I did. And they do. This place is just bowls, Chinese not poke. A base of rice, noodles, or salad greens topped with a lot of wok fried proteins and veggies, nice garni, an abundance of sauces all dished up really, really quickly so you have the choice to linger or just blow and go. Luckily they have a number of signature bowls so you don’t have to wrack your brain with a dozen choices about what to put in your bowl.
I went with the Taipei Light just to check them out and was very pleased. I opted for the crispy garlic, cilantro, and green onion garni and the nuoc cham sauce. The bok choy was cooked perfectly with the greens resembling spinach and the stalk like celery and that combination with the cucumber was really surprising and really, really good. I’m a fan of baby bok choy sauteed with shiitakes and shallots and now I’m more than ready to add some sesame oil soaked cucumber next time I make it. The basil chicken went well, I liked the tea egg, and everything was fresh and crisp with standout flavors. I definitely expect to return and try some of their other bowls soon.
It’s a very attractive space. The statuary, the murals, the furniture and fixtures. The heavy forks and knives, the real chopsticks and linen napkins. And the marketing is on point as well. Farm to Wok. House made this, house made that. And the food is good looking too.
This would be a go to place if the food was any good. I tried it when it first opened years ago and it was way too loud. The acoustics made you feel like you were sitting at one big table with kids babbline, staff dropping cases forks and knives and high octane gossip riding hard and high like the trading pit on the stock exchange floor. I didn’t really remember the food and now I know why. I went again about five years ago after they heavily advertised their dim sum happy hour, but again I wasn’t impressed. Third time was not the charm. I would like to blame myself for picking the wrong items. But if you can’t pull off steamed pork dumplings, or hand made pork eggrolls, what is the point? Both were beyond bland. I had high hopes for the beautifully named Long Life Noodles with Prawns, but the garlic noodles were overcooked with only a hint of garlic; instead, the whole dish was warped by the presence of so many hot chili peppers. The salt and pepper shrimp that weren’t in direct contact with the chili peppers weren’t bad, but it wasn’t enough to keep me from writing this place off. I did enjoy the hot tea in the cast iron pot and it was a nice touch to serve it with a side of honey, but good intentions, clever marketing, and a beautiful space alone do not a restaurant make. You go there to eat. And it has to be good. I’d rather hit any number of buffets or even make the drive out to Sherwood Forest to hit up Hunan’s than revisit P. F. Chang’s. I think I’ll hit Chow Main soon to see if they know what they’re doing. That’s the new place on main fronting the Galvez Plaza parking lot.
Something about lamb just screams marinade. You don’t have to, it’s perfectly fine cooked straight up with some Tony’s and black pepper on the grill, but sometimes it’s fun to let something sit overnight–if only for the antici…..pation. I picked up the chops at Whole Foods along with some roasted garlic and roasted red peppers from their olive bar. Cut some basil and green onion and rosemary from my herb garden and hit it with some roasted garlic olive oil before shaking it up and parking it in the fridge. Every few hours I’d open it up and flip the chops. I think the buildup alone made them taste better.
I got the inspiration for the mustard greens from the collard greens I had when I visited Chicken Shack on N Acadian. Greens are great for the weekend because you can toss them in the slow cooker early with a nice ham hock, chopped red onion, and chicken or beef broth and let them roll all day. Once you’ve got them going, it’ s very clear why they’re called mustard greens. I kept looking around for the Lucky Dog cart. Here’s a shot of the star of every slow cooker show.
These are so fantastic when the greens or beans are done. It reminds me of the marrow bone Dad would share when my mom would make fried roundsteak cutlets. Best part, he’d say, and smear the marrow over a piece of buttered white bread and give me half. Little things like that never go away. I think we probably hold onto those memories all the way to the end. Seems like you’d forget your name before you’d lose the marrow on white bread. Here’s a poem I wrote quite a few years ago that kind of goes there.
Emmalina
How she must have loved them
those last years of her life,
the one she called Cheyenne,
the plume of her tail above her,
her child eyes, huge, fearless,
the way she gobbled her food
then chased the others away
And Samuel, Sammy, the king,
his shoulders bunched for a leap
across the long green lawn
When he fought, he reminded her
of Cassius Clay, it was always over,
the other tom slinking way, unhurt,
damaged only in pride before she,
with difficulty, could get up,
pull her body from the concrete step
that seemed to want her always there,
just so, like a marble of her,
watching the strays circle tins of tuna,
watching the sky as the ink of a storm
spread into familiar shapes
Thomas had been dead five years
before Cassius Clay refused Vietnam,
but she knows what he would have said
Now there walks a man, Emelina,
there walks a man
He knew courage, her Thomas,
and there were very few men
he would say such a thing about
Thomas would have appreciated Romeo
who always walked alone, came
only when the others were done
to rub his ear against her shoe
As far as she knew she alone
had ever run her nails along his spine
stopping at the base of his tail
with a few quick spanks
as his head dug harder against her
Thomas would come home late,
sometimes three, four o’ clock,
carry his shoes to keep from waking her
although she always woke as soon
as he keyed the lock but she could not
would not let on how well she heard
for fear of missing something, in fact,
she played at being hard of hearing,
a small deceit, but necessary
because Thomas would talk to himself
just under his breath, rehearse,
several times, what he wanted to say,
to get it just right, to be perfectly clear
and she never wanted to miss a word
that came from those lips, angry,
exasperated, serious, smiling, his mouth,
it had always been his mouth, his hands,
the rough brown backs, the stiff coarse hair,
the white lines of nicks and gouges
collected over time like sins
She must fight to stand up,
pull herself from this stone step,
more possessive than any mother,
this step that wants to own her,
rise above her head like a lion
that has eaten well and needs sleep
In her housecoat is Pico’s string
but she pauses, trapped for a moment
by the back of her hand, the blue
that had once been in her eyes
has spilled in long knots
against the calico of her skin
Her hand looks like Cheyenne,
her blue gray bruises, the liver spots,
the ghostly white like that plume of tail,
erect, reaching out to the clouds
If her hands could only run and dance
She slaps the back of one hand with the other,
an odd gesture, one of many that has led
the students that pass her house to say
There, there she is—crazy old cat woman
Back and forth, the students,
to the university, its bars and classrooms,
its clear pools of light blinking on and off
between the live oaks
she loves mostly
for being older than she is
She slaps her hand because although
she will allow herself some vices
she will not permit if only’s
Pico, pico de gallo, the acrobat
launching himself after the string,
turning like a question in mid-air
Cats would love the moon
they may not need to breathe
maybe they only want to fool us
into thinking they are like us
They would love the sun directly
the rocks, the caves, they would miss
lizards leaping surely along ligustrums
Pico, double somersault, Pico
finished with fun, walking away
taking the sun with him
Thomas would lay his captain’s cap,
his badge, the eight battery flashlight
he carried instead of a gun, his watch
and wallet side by side on the table
before creeping tiptoe from the kitchen
to the bathroom where he undressed,
folded his uniform before placing it
carefully in the hamper, and she,
biting her tongue not to laugh,
would swear to herself never, ever,
to tell him how silly it was
to fold dirty clothes
She has more and more trouble
noticing the mosquitoes even when
they swarm her like pigeons
Thomas beneath a lamp reading,
moving his lips, a moth, a fluttering halo
about his head and she would hear
Let us go then you and I
then later, and this her saddest memory,
for he never failed but always
half-spoke the line when he came to it
I do not think that they will sing to me
He never got comfortable with her body,
every time was awkward, shy,
and that is why,
although her body still wants, needs
she has never, cannot bring herself
to take another man
The students cannot fathom this,
the young with their awful hungers,
cannot, will not,
and when she really thinks about it,
have no way of understanding
that sense of completion, something,
though not perfect, something
done as surely and well as you, yourself
believe that you could ever possibly do it
That feeling isn’t as easy to give up as virginity
Or this step, this damn stone stoop
that drags her deeper into every evening
One last time, Emelina, up we go
Hers is the room at the top of the stairs
Juban’s has been around for quite a while now, but for a long time, even though I knew the food was good, it was kind of shoved into that “white tablecloth” compartment in my mind and mostly forgotten about until I signed up for the Flicks and Food course sponsored by the Oschner Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI for short) at LSU and hosted by Juban’s. Each course is a series of three films shown on Monday nights and includes a three course meal with a salad, dessert, and your advance choice of one of three entrees, You show up, get a drink at the bar, wander into the big room and grab your place card that has your name and entree written on it and pick a seat. The instructor, Donald Beale, does a little run down of the film while salads are brought out and then the movie starts, projected on a large screen at the front of the room. The servers bring around the entrees, there’s a break for coffee mid-film, and discussion afterwards. This semester the theme is Dames Will Be Dames, featuring films starring Helen Mirren, Judy Dench, and Maggie Smith, all awarded Dames of the British Empire along with a lot of other accolades. This is what brought me back to Juban’s, and the catered meals are very good, but Ubering over early brought me back to Juban’s atrium styled bar, and maybe it was just being older, having more experience and more money, but I really fell in love with the space.
As you can see–tree, fireplace, decor. As you cannot hear–good tunes played at conversational levels, friendly barkeeps and servers, no screaming children. This is a great happy hour spot. They’ve got five dollar specials on house wines and cocktails and draft beers and a well priced bar menu with nice appetizers for sharing.
It’s a great place to gather and relax with other pros after a long, trying day–and aren’t there a lot of those? Granted, the place is more expensive at lunch and dinner so that still kind of shoves it into the special events compartment except for happy hour with the food and drink specials, great space and atmosphere. And they have so many different catering spaces. Can you imagine renting out this six top in the wine room?
Again, not an everyday type of event, but–happy hour. I had an old friend who came back to town for his father’s last days, arranging hospice and talking with the sibs about what would come next and we slipped away for drinks and a long talk by the fireplace in the bar and had a plate of smoked salmon and a plate of tuna carpaccio and it was the perfect place to have that talk. Discreet servers, music nice but conversational level, a real fire, and an old friend going through a tough time. I probably still won’t rush over there to dinner, and that shrimp poboy was way too expensive for a non-expensed lunch, but I love the Flicks and Food class, and it is a really good place to unwind after work with happy hour pricing.
These are two of the easiest dishes to put together except–they are same day, or if you want to stretch it, next day dishes because of the seafood. You could also buy frozen shrimp I guess, but you have to trust the sourcing. Clams you definitely need to lay eyes on before you buy. Easy to gather the rest of the ingredients and execute the recipes, but same day shopping kind of limits when you can schedule them during the week. No sweat on the weekend if, like me, that’s when you do most of your grocery shopping. I find myself doing both of these dishes at some point during football season, either after a long day of tailgating on campus and then coming home to the chair and my own personal facilities and big screen, or as a pre-game meal for away games. You can probably find everything you need to throw together the shrimp tacos at Rouse’s, I haven’t actually checked to see if that’s so, but everywhere else has pieces of what you need. The main thing that has made this easier in the last few years is the willingness of so many groceries to offer house made pico de gallo for sale in small containers. Once you take the chopping out, preparation is a breeze. I guess the main thing with shrimp tacos is zeroing in on your favorite pico, your favorite tortillas, and your favorite taco seasoning (if you want to use a package). I like Rouse’s for buying peeled shrimp because they offer a lot of sizes in clear, one pound plastic cotainers, and they do great volume so you really don’t have to worry that much about the freshness of the product. You can see how much liquid is at the bottom of each container and the shrimp themselves are easy to review. Sometimes, if you buy from a place that has trays of shrimp in the display cooler, they will have overstocked and you could get burned with some old, borderline shrimp. But once you have everything together, it’s simple. Melt a little butter, throw the shrimp in the pan with some seasoning, heat the tortillas, dress them with sour cream and pico, and stir the shrimp until they pink and curl. Enjoy!
So the shrimp are actually a difficult dish compared to steamed clams. You can always find littlenecks at Whole Foods, and while the clams there are two for a dollar, they are selects, which means the fishmonger examines each one to make sure it is undamaged and still closed (alive). The image above shows the recipe graphically. Wine, butter, clams. Covered pot, about ten minutes on high for the two dozen pictured. When I was at the Famous Enterprise Fish Company in Santa Monica, all the exhibition cooks got a free shift meal, and we would sometimes combine those into a huge pot of steamers with sourdough bread to dip in the juice. This was probably second best to pooling our meals and talking Ylda into making her chicken enchiladas. So good. But, that was then. You can pick up a loaf of sourdough (sliced or unsliced) at Whole Foods, or olive bread, or a rosemary and sea salt loaf, or whole grain baguettes–I’m sure you get the point. And if you have some leftover slider buns hanging around, that will work as well.
Calandro’s is the place for wine splits (they’ve got peeled shrimp as well) since they’ve got a big basket display and you can buy singles if you just need something to cook with rather than drink. Calandro’s also has an excellent selection of full sized bottles of wine if you would rather drink and let someone else cook your food.
This one is all about word of mouth, the most powerful advertising a place can generate, and Elsie’s has it in spades. I was at a bar in town and the barkeep asked me if I’d been to Elsie’s and when I said yes she started going on and on about the menu and ended with You just have to try the curried salmon! and said it with that little shiver that let you know she really meant it. When I used to run La Mesa on Bennington (don’t go looking, it’s been gone a while now) we used to buy Sweet Street desserts from Arrow-Sysco. They were good, obviously not as good as the real pies they do at Elsie’s, but still good. The salesman would come by to ask me which ones I wanted to try and I’d tell him to set up one of everything on a table in the wait station and then I’d call the wait staff over and watch them as they sampled the samples. I was looking for that little involuntary knee buckle that signals an honest response, and that’s how I would choose which desserts to go with that week. I digress, but it was the barkeep’s shiver that convinced me to try the “curried salmon” which was actually grilled salmon with curried tomatoes and rice and sautéed spinach.
I normally wouldn’t order salmon that isn’t raw or smoked, and I wouldn’t have necessarily picked it off Elsie’s seasonal menu if not for the barkeep’s recommendation. Word of mouth makes all the difference, and when you make a dish as good as this one it just reinforces the attention you get. It is every restauranteur’s aim to generate word of mouth, and fantastic food and service is the way you make it happen. Starting off an entrée with a beautiful house salad like this one doesn’t hurt either.
I’ve loved Elsie’s since it first opened, not just because Paul Dupre is a friend, but because he had the vision and courage to color outside the lines with his concept and his menu. You can tell pretty soon after you first sit down whether a place is all about the money or if they just need the money to keep the dream alive. Don’t forget Elsie’s when you’re thinking brunch either, And I hear the spring menu is coming out soon. Can’t wait.
I’ve been hearing about this place for so long and finally made it over there for the first time today. This is really, really good chicken. Chinese Inn still rules on wings alone, but this place rocketed up to number one for all the pieces and sides. The batter is super crispy and almost a tempura sort of wet batter when it hits the grease. For the life of me I can’t figure out how they do it, but I am so glad they do. Love the crust and the meat was perfectly cooked in every piece. (That’s why I got the four piece, I couldn’t finish all of it, but I got to try wing, breast, drumstick, and thigh.) Beautifully done, I am reconsidering as I write and Chinese Inn just went to number two on my list unless I need fried rice with my fried chicken. Don’t get me wrong–I’ll still get wings at Jed’s Local and the Szechuan wings at Soji, but Chicken Shack is my new number one for straight up old school fried chicken. The rice dressing was really good to, but the mustard greens were the bomb. Best I’ve had in quite some time.
And the pieces are not small. Really I wish I could have finished that plate and ordered another just like it except maybe try the red beans and potato salad. Next time. They also have a barbecued hot sausage poboy on the menu, so there’s that as well.
