YatCuisine

Stanley!, located right across the street from the Presbytere.

I can truthfully say that I would have gone to the Louisiana State Museum's media preview of the upcoming exhibit, "Katrina and beyond" on Saturday morning even if Chef Scott Boswell and his people from Stanley had not provided breakfast, but I certainly wasn't going to complain that he was there.

Stanley is located catty-corner to the Presbytere, which is the building just to the downriver side of St. Louis Cathedral (to the viewer's right if one is looking at the common postcard view of Jackson Square). The restaurant is in the Chartres-St. Ann corner of the Lower Pontalba Building. I've never eaten at Stanley! so having brunch at the museum catered by Chef Scott was a real treat.

I started with Bananas Foster French Toast. The bread was cooked perfectly, and the syrupy bananas sauce on top was heavenly.

"Breaux Bridge Benedict."  the base is a round of New Orleans French bread, with boudin from Breaux Bridge next.  Cover the sausage with cheese and add a perfectly poached egg, and top with Hollandaise sauce.  Now, i'm a huge fan of just about every variation of Eggs Benedict that's ever been conceived, but this boudin puts Chef Scott's creation well up into the pantheon of Most Excellent Eggs.

There was also an "omlette sandwich" that I didn't get to try, because the always-charming @vsalisbury and I were chatting with some of the media folks invited to the event.  (Personally, I'm having a tough time adjusting to the notion that I'm a "media folk," but I'll get there.)

Here's Chef Scott and Victoria, just a moment after Victoria took his photo for the @LaStateMuseum twitter/twitpic feed.

Stanley, located across the street.  Saturday was wet and gloomy, but you can see the line of people queuing up for brunch/lunch. It's a winner!

Red Snapper Meuniere with Brabant Potatoes

We were all in the mood for seafood, but I wasn't in a shrimp or crawfish mood.  The compromise was easy, do fish in a meuniere sauce.  After all, nothing's bad when it's in a butter sauce.  The only catch? I'd never made a meuniere, so I needed a good recipe.  No better time to try the Times-Picayune's new online recipe database at NOLA.com.  

Right at the top of the Food section is the search box for the recipe database.  (BTW, that's @JudyWalkerTP in the video box to the right.)  I typed "trout meuniere" into the search and got a solid hit:

...and clicking through the search result gave me the full article and recipe:

So, I ran out to get some fish! At Dennis' Seafood in Metairie, I learned that it's not trout season, but they had some good-looking red snapper.  Stopping at Zuppardo's, I got a few odds and ends, as well as a dozen raw shrimp for this recipe.

The fish came out pretty good.  I like the technique in this recipe, particularly dredging the fish filet in seasoned flour, then dipping it in the egg wash, then flouring it again.  The natural juice of the fish helps the first flour-dredging to stick a bit, then the milk pulls even more flour onto the filet.  The recipe says "serves 2" but worked fine for 3 nice-sized filets (Mrs. YatPundit had stuffed crab since she's not a big fan of fish).

As you can see from the photo, the sauce was a bit dark, but that's likely my heavy hand with the Lea & Perrins. 

The recipe was a huge hit, to the point where even Mrs. YatPundit endorsed it, stealing some of mine.  Pour butter on most things and yeah, it's a winner. :-)

(recipe from Da Paper follows - click "read more" below)

Breast of Duck and Porcini Ravioli at One Flew South, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL)

This was my second trip to One Flew South. My first meal was enjoyable so I hurried back to "E" concourse at ATL upon arriving from MSY on my recent trip to Stockholm. I was hungry and went for some meaty choices rather than the great sushi the place is already becoming known for.

Starting with Anchor Steam, one of my favorite beers. My PortaPocket wallet waves hi!

OK, "Pork Belly Sliders" are just bacon burgers. I said as much to the bartender and one of the servers and they said, just try them and see if you feel that way afterwards. They were right, the sliders were beyond simple bacon.

Duck breast with porcini mushroom ravioli for the main. The duck was very tender. I love good ravioli-it's a pasta I won't do at home because I'm too lazy. :-)

Bread pudding for dessert, and it was good.

Since today was the day my firstborn was to have Lasik surgery, comfort food for breakfast was in order. To that end, we had his favorite, Dunkin Donuts, with an emphasis on chocolate covered!

Firstborn came through the laser-zapping just fine. For a full explanation on why he was having the surgery and why I'm so proud of him, go over here and read.

www.cafenoir.la

Cafe Noir on Yelp

Last month, I got an email from someone who I have known for...well, if I told you how long I've known her, she would have to kill me. Anyway, it was suggested by this friend that I spend one of my "coffeeshop mornings" at a place in Metairie called Cafe Noir.

This is (at least) the fourth incarnation of this location. It was a new age bookstore, then a coffee shop, then a po-boy place, and now it's once again a coffee shop. The address is listed as on Severn, because of the strip mall, but it's really on 17th Street, on the other side of Severn from Lakeside Mall and Morning Call. 

that's not fine linen, just white butcher paper on the tables, but it's a lively touch. 

The view from the other direction, back at the bar.  Cafe Noir does a brisk morning breakfast and take-away business.  There's upstairs seating as well, and free wi-fi for us of the geek persuasion.

Egg, bacon, and cheese "breakfast pannini" and it was very good, an interesting change from classic breafast biscuits/croissants.  The pressed bread was cripsy and fresh, and the bacon salty enough that the egg didn't need more.  Usually I'll ask a place to do the eggs over-easy, but I suspect that would just gunk up the pannini press in this case.

Grits!  Whenever I get back from a week or two out of town, I get a craving for grits.  Outside of Atlanta hotels, they're impossible to get in the cities where I teach.

I had Cafe Noir's dark roast, and it was strong and hot. 

Cafe Noir is definitely a cut above the previous coffee house incarnation of this location.  Looking forward to going back to try their sandwiches at lunchtime.

An interesting message for me popped up yesterday on Da Twittah:

I didn't specifically ask, but I'm going to assume "close to HOB" to mean walking distance of the the club.  That rules out my first idea, which would be a lot of fun - get on the Canal Street streetcar line (the red streetcars) and go down to Mandina's in Mid City.  They've got the upstairs as a dining room now, and it would be a fun experience.  Getting folks out of the Quarter is always a good thing to my mind-show them a bit more of the city.  With House of Blues in the equation, however, I'm figuring this is dinner-and-a-concert or some such, so we'll stick to the quarter and walk over to Decatur.

That leaves two great possibilities, Antoine's and Arnaud's.  Both restaurants are sprawling French Quarter establishments that have taken over the blocks in which they're located.  In addition to the main, public dining rooms, both have a number of great private rooms that can accommodate parties of all sizes. 

Arnaud Cazenave opened the restaurant named after him on Rue Bienville in 1918. The menu is classic Creole-French cuisine, a great mixture of beef, chicken, and seafood entrees. Check out the private dining section of their website for specifics.

I have to admit a bit of bias towards Restaurant Antoine, because the place was my late mother's and father-in-law's favorite. When I was sixteen, I had a pen-pal who lived in Germany and came to visit us. My mom immediately said we'd take her to Antoine's. That's when I started with the restaurant. My father-in-law was a partner in a national accounting firm, and he'd entertain regularly at Antoine's. When his son got married, a small ceremony in a French Quarter courtyard, they had a sit-down dinner party in the Rex Room at Antoine's rather than a traditional wedding reception. Jack's (my f-i-l) retirement dinner party was also at Antoine's, and that's where we celebrated my wife's graduation from uni as well as our engagement. You get the idea. The Rex Room is the most magnificent of the private dining rooms, but a group of 50 is pushing it to that room's maximum. One of the upstairs rooms might make more sense if the number of guests will be that high. Check Antoine's private dining page on their site for details.

Antoine Alciatore opened his restaurant on Rue St. Louis in 1840, making it the oldest in town. The menu at Antoine's is also Creole-French, featuring some of the classic New Orleans dishes.

You won't go wrong with either of these choices!

If anyone would like to offer additional suggestions, feel free to do so in comments.

www.sundialrestaurant.com

Two weeks ago, firstborn graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. We went up for the ceremony and took him out to his choice of restaurants for dinner that evening.

It's interesting to watch what happens when you give a 21-year old born and raised in New Orleans carte blanche to pick a restaurant in a different city. His choice was Sun Dial, the revolving restaurant at the top of the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel.

We had 8pm reservations for four on a Saturday night. After dropping off the car with the valet (recommended-it looks like an annoying hotel hi-rise garage to self-park), we went up the 77 floors to the restaurant. Unfortunately the nice glass elevators that take you directly up to the Sun Dial were out of service that evening. We checked in with the hostess and were seated.

(As usual with family outings, I have no photos of the meal.  The boys really do get annoyed when I take pics during dinner!)

A quick glance at the menu indicated that the four of us were going to be all over the place in terms of entrees, so I ordered a sparkling rose, a fair compromise as well as being celebratory. For starters, I suggested the "carpaccio three ways" which was beef, lamb, and bison on a bed of greens. We also got an order of "scallops oscar," which was seared scallops sitting on small crab cakes, topped with asparagus and hollandaise sauce. The carpaccio was good; the lamb and bison gave the boys a chance to taste some different meats. The scallops were a huge hit, but only three on the plate! I immediately flagged down our waiter to get another order.

For the mains: Firstborn and I had the roasted lamb chops. They came on top of a "chickpea mash" - translation, hummus without olive oil, making it very dry. The "minted sweet pea puree" that topped the chops more than made up for the failings of the chickpeas, as did the small kebab of sausage and spring squash.

Kiddo had the steak, specifically the "blue cheese, mushroom and bacon crusted beef tenderloin." I was surprised he went for this one, since the "cowboy ribeye" didn't have the toppings. I was even more surprised when he ate the whole thing.

Mrs. YatPundit's entree was the big winner, though, the "tempura battered lobster tails" (recommended). Take two 1/4lb rock lobsters, boil them, then pull the tail meat from the shell. Batter and fry the tails tempura-style, return them to the split shell, and serve with bok choy and rice. By far the best of the three mains.

For dessert, we split the "baked chocolate fudge brownie," and I had a cappuccino.

Sun Dial is one of those revolving places that makes a full 360-degrees in about an hour. It was perfect for a festive occasion, giving firstborn a chance to look out on the city where he's lived for the last four years and take pride in his accomplishment, a BS in Nuclear and Radiological Engineering!

Key Lime Pie at Huisache Grill

http://huisache.com

I'm teaching a class for Hitachi Data Systems this week at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. When making the travel arrangements for this week, I decided to stay at a Courtyard hotel in New Braunfels, TX. The hotel is on I-35 and gives me easy access to work and to downtown New Braunfels.

While sitting at a wine bar in New Braunfels, I got a tweet from @ciphero suggesting I try Huisache Grill. The restaurant was just in the next block, so what the heck. I went Monday evening at 9pm (they close at 10pm), and there were just a few diners in the place. I had a glass of a nice Riesling to start, and that carried me over into the starter. When asking the waiter what he'd pick between the Shrimp and Green Onion Cake and the fried brie, he said the shrimp cake, so the decision was made. It was quite good, the shrimp stuck well to the breading and onion of the fried cake. It was served with a sauce that was sort of a cross between tartar and remoulade sauce--not as mustardy as a NOLA remoulade, but not a mayo-heavy sauce like tartar.

This was followed by their Tortilla Soup, which was spicy and flavorful. So far, so good. (Entrees come with a choice of soup or salad.)

For a main, I went with the "Mix and Match Combo." The choices were a bacon-wrapped sirloin, buttered/poached shrimp, grilled duck breast, and blackened semi-boneless quail. I went with the steak and the duck, shifting to a Malbec to drink with them. The medium-rare steak was peppery and cooked right-wrap any steak in bacon and it's all good. The duck was fantastic, with a red-wine reduction that blended well with the new potatoes on the side. The Malbec was a great choice for these two.

For dessert, the key lime pie and the flan caught my eye on the menu. When I asked the waiter for an opinion, one of the gals working in the kitchen shouted out "flan!" It was a good choice, Huisache's flan is a bit heavier/creamier than most, and I'm all for rich desserts.

By 9:30pm or so, I was just about the only diner left in the restaurant, so my table service was attentive without being pushy, and the other servers and kitchen folk would say hi as they walked by. All that positive energy made me determined to return this week, something I don't usually do on the same trip. I went back last night (Wednesday) to try a few other things.

The place was packed! You know the wait staff will be slammed when you walk in and you hear a large group start singing "happy birthday" at 8pm! The gal who suggested the flan on Monday night recognized me and waved me in. I told them I didn't mind sitting at the bar (it seemed the safest with all the big groups they had anyway).

My server at the bar was a charming lady. Alas, I didn't catch names on either trip, but she had on a cute red-and-black skirt. I started with a Provenance Sauvignon Blanc that I figured would carry me through the starter, possibly the main as well. Since I had the shrimp cake on my previous visit, I decided to try the Fried Brie with Raspberry Chipotle Sauce. The soup was a vegetable that sounded good, and I ordered the Pecan Crusted Breaded Pork Chops for the main.

I was kicked back at the bar, enjoying my wine and watching the activity of the almost-exclusively female service staff when one of the gals came out of the kitchen with two plates of food. Seeing two plates, I turned back to my e-book reader, figuring it couldn't be mine. Imagine my surprise when I discovered she was trying to serve me both the starter and the main at the same time! My server intervened immediately, serving the starter and having the gal bring the pork chops back to the kitchen.

The fried brie was awesome. The cheese was a good consistency, not so hot that it was messy, easy to manipulate with a fork. The raspberry sauce was incredible, just enough kick to it to remind you that it said "raspberry chipotle" on the menu. there were toasted bread rounds and apple slices on the side. The apple and the sauce were a wonderful combination. A cup of the vegetable soup came out next, and that was also quite good.

Then they brought out the same pork chop plate.

Now, here's where I run into a problem as a diner. I had a great experience on Monday night. These folks are friendly, the kitchen clearly knows what they're doing, but I ended up in a position where I had to eat a meal where the timing was just awful. I was forced into a choice I hate, should I be an asshole and ask them to cook me new pork chops, or eat the kept-warm food? I opted for not saying anything.

The pecan-crust on the pork chops was a great flavor, and the "Jack Daniels butter sauce" on the side went well with them, as did the slice of grilled apple served with them. It's just that they could have been warmer! The veggie medley on the side had cooled to lukewarm as well, leaving it to be a bit underwhelming. Still, it was a tasty meal, just not the same as the laid-back atmosphere of the previous trip.

As I noted earlier, Huisache was slammed last night, with several 8+ parties and all the smaller tables in use when I got there around 8pm. What confused me was the way-too-fast response I got at the bar. It's not like there was a need to turn my seat at the bar around; there were a number of empty chairs there if another single or couple wanted to dine. Still, I couldn't help but feel rushed, from the initial presentation of all my food at once to the speed with which things came out once that was resolved.

She of the red-and-black skirt redeemed the evening, however, with dessert. My second choice from Monday was the Key Lime Pie, and my server cut a slice, dressed it with whipped cream and a some lime sauce on top (see photo above), and brought me a big cup of coffee.

Dessert cures many ills. :-)

Janette Desautel and Jacques, in the kitchen of Desautels.

Along with the music of New Orleans, food is a big component to some of the subplots of "Treme." Some thoughts on this week's ep.

(Click "Read More" to continue, I don't want to spoil it for anyone.)

Sloppy Joe from Burger Heaven on Madison Avenue, between 40th and 41st Streets

This was on the daily specials menu, and it was a tasty/trashy alternative to a burger.

In Burger Heaven's defense, they make a great salad!