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 It was originally made in NOLA.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.

Gettin It Right

Well after some of my latest screw-ups I was happy things worked out well for us in New Orleans. We were going to see the Mardi Gras Indians (check this link for lot’s of info on Indians) parade and didn’t have much information on just when and where to find them. I had read about them a little bit this Mardi Gras season and learned that they, there are two groups that parade as Indians, parade for the last time of each year on a day referred to as Super Sunday. This is the Sunday before St. Joesph’s day. There are the uptown Indian gangs and the downtown Indian gangs, and what I read is that they both parade that day. We figured we would see the downtown gangs, since knew the neighborhoods downtown better than uptown.

I must admit, it’s been a long time since I have been to NOLA and really didn’t know either part of town that well. Things didn’t get off to the best start. We got to the airport in NOLA and found out the rental car was gonna cost $110.00 instead of $65. We didn’t let this bother us and set out to find the Indians. We had read that the downtown parade would start around Louisiana st. and Bayou St. John. We had looked at a map before we left and could not find where these two streets intersected. We could find Louisiana st. but not Bayou St. John. Well after driving around for a while in the area where we thought we might find the downtown Indians, we finally stopped and ask a guy at a gas station if he knew where we might find them. In a beautiful New Orleans accent this guy said “day gonna be right dare at da Bayou”. The Bayou, that’s what they call that canal full of water running right through the middle of this neighborhood. And it ran right through Louisiana st. So St. John Bayou is a Bayou, not a street. Hello.

Well we felt good, if not a little stupid. We were where we were supposed to be, we just didn’t know it. The guy at the gas station said they would be there around noon, which was exactly the time right then. So we hung around and drove around and just could not find them. We found the Parkway Bakery and went in and had a po-boy and some bloodies. We ask our waitron and she knew nothing of the Indians. What are we gonna do? How can we find these guys? Then It happened, I saw the light go off above Stacey’s head. We had driven past the Zulu’s club house and noticed they were having some kind of event. Stacey said let’s go ask the Zulu’s they gotta know where the Indians will be.

So we did and they did. No downtown parade today, no reason why, just no parade today. They would have it later in the year. If you read up a little on these Indian gangs you will learn they are more of a renegade group than the Mystic Fish. These guys parade when and where they are good and ready.The guy at the Zulu clubhouse did tell us the uptown parade was happening today and how to find them. So after a few wrong turns we hit Orleans ave. and could tell by the crowds something was about happen. We parked, got out of the car and went about one block and there they were, in all their glory.

We saw one at first, he was surrounded by a few kids beating on tambourines. He was making his way slowly up the street. We followed, Stacy taking photos the whole time. One by one more Indians appeared. Each Chief had folks with them to help with their huge costumes. These Indians Chiefs spend the whole year sewing all these feathers and beads into a beautiful full body suit. They are covered from head to toe. Next year they make a new suit for that Mardi Gras season.

As we walk up the street more and more Indians show up. Their spy’s or flag boys start to appear as well. Spy’s and flag boys are part of each gang. Their job is to go ahead of their Chief’s, find the Chief from another gang and set up a stand off between the two. The story is that long ago the Chief’s would actually fight and someone would get hurt. Knives were often used. Over the years some of the Chief’s worked hard to stop the fighting and now they fight with words and no one gets hurt. This is a photo of one of the flag boy’s.

Well this was only the beginning. The streets were full of spectators and Indians. The Chief’s love to have their photo taken and will happily pose for you, but when two Chief’s are ready to stand off and “talk pretty” to each other you better get out of their way, if ya don’t you will get pushed out of the way. I learned this the hard way, more than once.

Just when we thought this was about all they did, gather, have their photo taken and have a stand off, the parade began. Out of nowhere a small band started blowin horns and beatin drums and then they were off. Slowly, one gang at a time they start a procession up the street. Stacey and I joined right in and walk with them. We are in the street, learning and singing the chants of the different gangs. One gang member will sing a line and the rest of the gang will answer. Such as, “the Golden Blades are the very best gang” and the rest of the gang would answer “shoe fly shoe”. I got no idea what that means I just sang along with them.

We did this for more than three hours. We would run ahead, stand on the curb and watch them come up the street, at about every corner a new gang would join. We would get photos of the Chief that had just joined the parade and run ahead waiting for the next gang to join. Before we left them I would guess more then twenty gangs had joined the parade.

It was a beautiful sight to behold. I plan on not missing Super Sunday for a long time to come.

Only in the South

Only in New Orleans.

Stacey and I went to New Orleans early Sunday morning to catch a Mardi Gras parade. I know you thought Mardi Gras was over, think again. I will write more on the Indians and all the great places we ate later this week, but for now enjoy these photos Stacey took. This was amazing stuff and a great day. We spent about 3 hours parading with these guys.

San Sanbestian part IV

I think we only spent one night in San Sebastian, maybe two, I can’t remember. I do remember the walk we took through the old part of town. On this walk we came across these two old men working on an old wooden boat. If I was able to ask them and if they would have let me, I would have stayed and become their apprentice.

Beside it being the best food town in the world it is also one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The fact that it was on the coast was nice, but the town itself was spectacular. Old stone roads everywhere. Allys connecting to more ally’s which are full of tapas bars. I think this was my introduction to tapas. In San Sebastian eating tapas in an art and I didn’t realize it at the time. You go from tapas bar to tapas bar eating a little at each and if your in the know you only eat certain dishes at certain bars because they do that dish the best.

San Sebastian is of course a port and fishing is their thing. So lots of the tapas dishes are seafood and most all the wine you will drink is local. San Sebastian has more 5 star dining-rooms then any other city in the world, but that’s not to say you can’t eat cheap, there are plenty of restaurants that are very, very good that are not rated and are very reasonable. The tapas bars are not expensive to eat at. The average price of a tapas serving is about $3.50.

After spending a little time in San Sebastian I can see why the Basque people want to hold on to their heritage. It is a place very rich and steeped in it’s culture. They are a unique people with their own language and ways of life and you can’t blame them for wanting to hold on to it. They are referred to as “separatist” but they have been living in this region, speaking their language and cultivating their way of life longer then the country they want independence from. I don’t get it. How can you ask someone to let go of something like that?

Slow Down like a good Southerner

An Uncle of Stacey’s pasted last Friday and Monday we flew to Jackson, Mississippi for the funeral. We had to drive about an hour to Bay Springs for the service, kind of a rural area. That should have been a hint right off. Let me back up and tell ya how it all started and just got worse.

We got up at 5:30 a.m. to catch our flight. I needed grooming in a bad way, I have a very hairy face. I got hair coming out of my nose, my ears, hell if I’m not careful I’m gonna have a uni-brow one day. My plan is one day I’m gonna let my facial hair grow til I look like a werewolf, then I’m gonna go have an electrolysis treatment and have them carve out the perfect facial hair pattern. This morning I just wanted to shave and use my electric clippers to trim my goatee. I spent a hundred dollars on these clippers and they worked well at first, then the part that cuts your whiskers started to get loose. Well I forgot about that and at 5:30 a.m. when I went to trim my goatee I turned on the trimmer, put it to my face, a screw fell into the sink and before I could stop I cut all the hair off above my lip, but only on one side. Hell yea, this is gonna be a great day.

I did what I could with my goatee, and we left for the airport. Things went great there as well. For some reason ( Nascar at Atlanta speedway) the airport was really busy and we had to park on row 101, there are 102 rows so we had a long walk. Inside, the security line was longer then I have ever seen it, thank god we can use the employees gate and that didn’t take long at all.

We get to Jackson and rent a car and get directions and I was still in a bad mood. We hit the interstate, go about 1 mile and Stacey has to tell me to exit here. What the hell are you talking about I ask. She tells me the directions say exit here. What? I just listened to the guy and he didn’t say that. Stacey tells me to stop at the gas station and ask if this is the way. Well I’m a man so I make her go in and ask, of course she’s right so off we go again. We drive an hour find the funeral home and decide to get something to eat as we are a little early. Can’t find nothing but fast food and of course I pick one that sucks more then any we have ever been to. So far so good.

We get through the service and go to the cemetery and after that I make the worst decision I have ever made in my whole life. See I know better. I have read the books and talked to the people who have been there and I know better. But I’m on a roll and just can’t help myself. Stacey has called Delta, there is a flight a little earlier then the one we planned on taking home and do I think we should take it or do we want to go to her Uncles church right up the road and eat. See I know better, church food, made by little old ladies in a town of about 500 people, you always eat with them if you get the chance. Not me, I say lets go and catch that earlier flight.

God I am so stupid.

So we go and we have to hurry cause we are cutting it close. We’ve got to drive an hour, fill the rental with gas or they charge $7 a gallon. Then we have to turn in the rental, check in for our flight and get to the gate. We drive, we stop at the gas station and we are stressing by this time. So when I pull up to the pump and realize the gas tank is on the other side of the car it’s a big deal and I let everyone around know. Then when I turn the car around and go to remove the gas cap and realize you open it from the inside of the car it’s a big deal and I let everyone around know. Then when I hit the switch that opens the trunk instead of the gas cap switch and go to open the gas cap and can’t cause I hit the wrong switch it’s a big deal and I have to let everyone around know. I get gas in the car we drive off and Stacey says dammit and I hit the brakes and say WHAT’S WRONG as the trunk pops open. I forgot to close it, it’s a big deal and well you know, I have to let everyone around know. Finally we drop off the car, run inside, check in, head for security and see a long, long line, it’s a big deal and I have to let everyone know. Then Stacey realizes we are in the wrong line, the line we need to go through is clear and we make it to the gate and learn the plane is an hour late. All that pain and suffering for nothing. This is a very big deal and I have to let everyone in this tiny airport know and do so.

The airport is basically shut down cause Obamas’ plane has just landed. He just lost my vote.

Well we finally get to the Atlanta airport and I have been in a bad mood all day long, which puts Stacey in a bad mood. But I fix this by cutting some guy off when he tries to get in front of us when exiting the plane. This is a pet peeve of ours, they are sitting behind you and jump up and stand in the spot where you are supposed to stand. So when I jump up and stand on this guys foot accidentally on purpose, this makes Stacey happy and like that we are both in a good mood for the first time that day. That’ sick isn’t it?

Well we are walking to row 102 to get our car and Stacey calls her Dad, checking to see that he got home o.k. I ask her to ask him if they had fried chicken at the church lunch. Of course they did, along with fried catfish, ham, tater salad, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, cornbread and more. All cooked by little old church ladies in a rural town.That’s what I meant when I said earlier, that should have been a hint right off. God I’m so stupid.

Southern Fun

NEED I SAY MORE?

San Sebastian part III

So we spend a few more days checking out Bordeaux and the surrounding area. It’s kinda of overwhelming as there is so much to see and do. We go to Vin Expo one day and that was unreal. Like I said before it is the largest wine convention in the world, everyone and their brother were there. We tasted lots of good wine, I am sure. Met lots of nice people, I’m sure. We also went back to St.Emilion for dinner one night. We went with our roommates and with their knowledge of wine we were able to try wines we will probably never see again. Bordeaux was fun, I’m glad we went and I’m ready to move on.

So it’s off to San Sebastian. Never been there, I have no idea what to expect. I had learned a little bit about the Basque and their struggle to hold on to the culture. It makes sense to me, these people have one of the richest histories that survives today. At this time the world was a more peaceful place and you could drive from country to country and never stop at a boarder crossing. We went through what looked like a toll gate each time, but no one was there to collect money or look at passports. Stacey and I were the first to arrive and we had no idea where we are going once we hit San Sebastian. We end up on a road that is on jetty that sticks out into Bay of Biscay. Lots of water sports going on even though it’s kinda cold. Funny thing is we hardly park and right behind us are our roommates. And we have parked right across for the hotel Parmma. So we check in as we have no rooms reserved anywhere else. Then we head up the street to the Bar at the End of the World. That’s the name of it and it sits almost in the water, at the end of the road that we had just happened to park on, where we just happened to meet our friends and where we just happened to get a room for the night. I have no idea how we got so lucky, but on top of that about an hour later the other half of our party showed up. They end up right where we are and are able to get a room as well.