Popin’ off in the South

Things are popin down here in little ol East Point these days. Just check out this pink bush. It’s popin right in my front yard.

And look at this purple vine, it’s popin like purple popcorn. WOW this is colourful.

This is a small maple tree my Ma gave me a few years back. It pops like a firecracker. POP!

We got brats popin on the grill. Can’t ya just smell em? Can’t ya just hear em’ popin’?

We got those brats popin on a plate with a little tomatos and blu cheese and roasted corn and some fancy chili/ lime butter. It’s all popin real good together.

But ain’t nothing popin’ like these new shoes Stacey pick up for me the other day. Just look at Geo he knows these shoes are popin’. ( click on photo for full effect) They are white. White loafers. Steve Maddens baby. Thats right, thats how I roll. Stacey likes to buy me clothes. It’s ok with me, we can always take em back. Anyway she showed up with these a few days ago. She had also bought me a Seersucker blazer. The blazer didn’t work out, but I love the white loafers. I was a little worried about them being white and all. I told Stacey I was afraid I was gonna trash them right away. And with her infinite wisdom and foresight, she told me,

Oh no, you gotta scuff those up, those shoes are about traveling through life with ya.

Good Speech, you should take the time to read it

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PIG ENDS, SOSOSOUTHERN

The other day I had the pleasure to try pig ears and pig tails. They were prepared by Chef Linton Hopkins and I will eat anything this guy cooks.

Linton and his wife Gina own and operate Restaurant Eugene here in Atlanta. Friday they had a lunch as part of the High Museum’s annual fund raiser. I had the chance to attend and jumped at the chance. As of late Restaurant Eugene is becoming one of the top restaurants in the city. They have embraced their southern roots and it shows in many ways.

This was a fun day. At the lunch there was a panel of guys who shared a little information on their specialty in the food or wine world as we enjoyed pig parts, pimento cheese and a caramel popcorn that was some how made to have a smoky taste, among other dishes.

There were two wine makers, a southern food writer, Chef Hopkins and Alan Benton, who is the worlds greatest bacon maker.

The writer, John T Edge, was the MC if you will. He let us know why we were there, fund raiser for the High Museum, and took turns asking each of these guys to pontificate a bit on their product and it’s connection with the south. It was good stuff and the common theme of each was they way food and the dinner table brought us all together. Then it was question and answer time.

There were about five or six people who ask questions. Everyone of them were directed to Alan Benton. This guy is a cult hero and the cult loves his meats. Mr. Benton talked about how he was not really doing anything special, just doing what his father and grandfather and great grand ect… He talked about how it was just a way of life for him to smoke meat. It was for survival more than anything. He talked about what a humble background he came from. He talked about how hard it was to make a living smoking meat. That was up until about ten years ago. He told us about how a hot shot chef in Tennessee found his product, loved it and started to spread the word. He told us how today he could connect every chef that uses his product to this Tennessee chef. He let us also know how grateful he was to this chef and everyone who used his product. This was because for many years he could hardly make a living smoking meat. He talked about laying awake at night and wondering if he should stop and do something else. When the last question was answered he got a standing ovation.

Mr. Benton is around sixty years old and a very humble man. He is very soft spoken, but when he speaks people listen, they hang on every word. He also listens to what you have to say. I was introduced to him before the lunch, three hours later I went to him to say thanks and nice to meet ya. His reply was “Tracy it was nice to meet you as well”. I could not believe he remembered my name, he must have been introduce to sixty or so people at this lunch. When I told him this he said “Tracy I don’t have so many friends that I can afford not to remember someones name”.

Southern Comfort in a Can

THAT’S MR. BROWN CHOWIN ON A X-MAS BONE

So one of the best things in the world happened this week! Marcia May opened Urban Pet Supply. Then I fashioned a wire basket to the back of my bicycle and rode the 2 miles or so to her store and purchased eight cans of dog food. So I had a great day. I really want to incorporate my bike into my daily way. And with Marcia opening her store it just gives me another reason to ride my bike.

Bicycles. I love them. I think it’s one of the most brilliant inventions ever. It’s the answer to so many issues. Fuel, exercise, money, stress relief, not to mention it’s just fun. I got a few bicycle. One is used exclusive as a Mardi Gras float. One is a beach cruiser and is good for flat streets, as in beautiful downtown and midtown Mobile. Bikes are also great in New Orleans. It’s flat and not hard to get around. My Atlanta bicycle is a bastardized 18 speed all terrain bike. It’s the one I just added a custom wire basket to. Watch the gas prices, we’re screwed.

The eight cans of dog food, that was a good find as well. My dog sitter has opened a pet store in College Park, Georgia and has found the coolest dog food I have ever seen. Check out these flavors. Mediterranean Banquet, Campfire Trout feast, Brauts-n- Tot’s, Turducken, French Country Cafe and my favorite Southern Comfort. Hell yea, that’s what I’m talkin ’bout. George is as happy as a little girl.

So go to Urban Pet Supply and get your dog a can of Turdcken or Trout or the Country Cafe………

Southern Networking

We had been in NOLA for about 24 hours and had managed to have Bloody Marys at Igors on St Charles for breakfast. In the event we would have needed them, Igors had a washer and dryer in the backroom with the pool table. A sign near by read “naked people drink free”. Cool place, good bloodies.

We had tried the bloodies at Parkway Bakery and Tavern. We had a couple po boys with these drinks, fried shrimp and one oyster. These people have a huge menu and I bet there is some good stuff on it, but the po boys were just okay.

We also spent three hours parading with the Mardi Gras Indians. You can read about that a few post down.

We had also hooked up with some friends from Mobile. They had parked their car and were on their bikes. They caught up with us at the Indian parade and then again for dinner. These guys know the downtown area pretty well and they took us to a little neighborhood just outside the French Quarter. We had dinner at a tiny little place named Adolfo’s. It’s in a cool little hood called Marigny. All kinds of bars, restaurants and street life. The restaurant reminded of a small place in the west village, in NYC. The food was pretty good and we just happen to get the last table of the night.

So the next morning I called my dad to wish him happy St. Paddy day. We get to talking and I tell him where I am and he starts telling me about some restaurants he just read about in his current New Orleans magazine. He tells me about Il Posto, he tells me about Gautreau’s and he tells me about the St. James Cheese Co.

Il Posto is an Italian cafe on Dryades st. Stacey and I were looking for a lunch spot and decided to find Il Posto. We found it, no problem except it was closed on Mondays. So we were just kind driving around and found ourselves in front of the St. James Cheese co. I wasn’t thinking lunch there but Stacey thought we should have a look. We went in and there were these two people behind the counter tasting cheese. I watched them for a moment as they cut a piece of cheese, would smell it, then taste it and then let their eyes roll back in their head in pure ecstasy. We knew we were in a good cheese shop and decided to eat lunch there.

We had a Charcuterie board. It has cured meats, pate, cheese, a chutney we were told was colonial style and olives. It was great, the cured meats came from the restaurant Cochon (see previous post). We also had a salad, it had arugula, almonds, pears and a quince vinaigrette dressing with grated Manchego cheese on top. It was the perfect lunch and I wish I could have something like this for lunch more often, but ya just can’t get this in my neighborhood in Atlanta. I can get all this, don’t get me wrong, I just got to get in the car to go get it.

At this point we had been in NOLA for just over 24 hours and I was quite proud of our activities so far.

COCHON

That would be pig in French. This place is all about the pig, head to tail. We went to Cochon for lunch our last day in New Orleans. We had eaten at another restaurant owned by the chef who runs Cochon. The two places are really different. Herbsaint, the place we had dinner at the night before is a little more stuffy and the food is a little more classic. Both restaurants share a little Cajun/ NOLA flavor of course, but both also stand out very much on their own.

Cochon is a large, bright, open room in the warehouse district. There is a lot of natural wood used in the tables, chairs and benches. We were the first two to get there for lunch, as planned, we had a plane to catch. The young lady that waited on us was good and very informative. She gave us a rundown on most every dish on the menu, pointing out the best sellers as she went. She also explained that this was a Southern restaurant, with many little southern twist here and there on the menu. She also let us know that they prepared everything from scratch. Everything, from curing their own meat to making their own mustard.

Stacey and I ate wood-fire roasted oysters to begin with. They have a wood-fire oven and they know how to use it. The oysters were real good and roasting them is something I have been trying to perfect lately. They were gulf coast oysters, they were just the right size and had that briny taste, as usual. They were roasted to where they were right between raw and cooked. Really good. Everything we ate was good, real good so I’m gonna just tell you what we had to eat and hold off on some of the verbage til the end.

We also had Bloody Marys, they were good but a bit spicy. That makes sense, they called them Cajun Bloody Marys.

We also had the house cured sausage with grits. This came with wood-fire roasted peppers and creole cream cheese.

Cheeks. Yes cheeks! It is considered the best meat on the cochon, pig, if you must. This dish was served with about four pieces of cheek that looked like a nice hunk of pulled pork that had been braised. He put these with a cornbread bean cake with mustard cream. I have never heard of a cornbread bean cake, sounds really southern. I have heard of bean cakes and I plan on finding out more. I noticed a restaurant in my hood has them, more on that place at a later date.

We ordered a plate of greens for a side dish, Stacey loves greens. This came with a few big pieces of cornbread and I swear it was just like Grandma used to make. So much so that I went in the kitchen to see if they had Grandma back there.

There was hardly a thing on the menu I didn’t want to try. Crawfish pie, fried rabbit livers, alligator, ribs, fried pig ear, catfish and brisket. It all sounded good to me.

I walked to the back where there is chefs bar at an open kitchen. I could see a huge fish on a metal platter and what I guessed to be a ramkin full of crawfish, as in pie, both up in the woodfire oven. These guys use spoonbread, pepper jelly, chow chow, hell they don’t just use it they make it all fresh themselves. They cure their own meat. They make their own boudin, andouille, head cheese and smoked bacon. Man you can get ham hocks with hoppin’ john if you want. These guys have really reached back for some really old southern dishes.

Oh yea, one last thing, a fried oyster and smoked bacon sandwich.

Herbsaint

Stacey and I ate at Herbsaint Monday night while visiting New Orleans. We had a big list of restaurants we wanted to try and Herbsaint was on the top of that list. We had seen it across the street from our hotel room last time we were there, but this was the first chance we had to try it out.

Herbsaint is the brand name of an anise flavored liquor. It was originally made in NOLA. It was concocted in 1934 as a substitute for absinthe although it contains no wormwood. It was first produced at 120 proof, but today is sold at 90 proof. I don’t know why they named the restaurant after it, but it sounds good.

We had a 7 p.m. reservation and good thing cause the place was almost full when we arrived. I can’t remember that much about the place because we sat in the back with my back to the room. Didn’t matter, I was sitting across from Stacey, you know what I’m saying. We started with drinks and things just got better from there.

Herbsaint has won all kinds of awards and was a success from the start, which was most likely due to the name Susan Spicer. She is the driving force behind the very successful restaurant Bayona. Donald Link is her partner and head chef at Herbsaint. The food here has been described as Euro-local-classic-nouvelle. That’s a lot of influences but it works here. The small, tapas style plates are definitely Euro. I am sure they use as much local as they can as all the best restaurants do these days. As far as classic, I guess the gumbo and any other dish that is old southern and/or New Orleans would fall under classic. As for nouvelle, I don’t know, I really try not to think that hard about what I’m eating and just try to enjoy. And enjoy we did, that part was easy. We also had the pleasure of sitting next to two lovely ladies who were in town for business. They were from Vermont and we really enjoyed talking with them. As a matter of fact they told us about another restaurant owned by Mr. Link and said it was the best food they had eaten on this trip. On their advise we ate there the next day, they were right. But right now we are still at Herbsaint and this is what we ate.

Tomato Shrimp Bisque, velvety smooth and a nice yin yang of flavors with the acid from the tomato’s working with the creamy bisque.

Seafood gumbo, again a really smooth mixture, nice and dark with crab bodies.

Olive oil seared Potato Gnocchi with lemon, parmesan and tomato’s. This was served as a small plate and was wonderful. This will go on the menu at home, it is so simple and so good.

Beef rib on potato cake with a dijon horseradish dressing. We have been seeing a lot of dishes like this lately and we are glad. Fall off the bone tender and the horseradish was a prefect match.

Sauteed Jumbo Shrimp with house cured bacon, bean-cake and a Salsa Verde. I love Shrimp and I love Salsa Verde, I wish more chefs used it.

We had Strawberry-ginger sorbet for dessert. Man it was good and refreshing and oh so Strawberry flavored as they are in season now.

So this was great food and not your typical New Orleans fare, which is nice cause in NOLA you can get that all over the city. My only problem was with the service. They just don’t get it. They got to know it’s important in a restaurant of this calibre. They got to know there is more to it than getting the food to your table in a timely fashion. That’s not to say I wouldn’t go back, cause I would, in a New York second.