Being in my 30s — and not being a native of Louisiana — my first exposure to Justin Wilson was from a Ruffles commercial in the mid-1980s. For better or worse, that was also the first time that I’d ever heard the Cajun dialect, a quirky easygoing patois that now has many associations for me, having lived and cooked in New Orleans since then. During the same few years that Wilson was landing these national ad campaigns, his Louisiana-based cooking series began to appear on California public television stations, and Wilson himself began doing cooking demos on several morning [... read more ...]
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The Culinary Timeline is a side-project that I've been working on since October. I'm hoping to have most of it complete by the end of January, with any luck. Until then, updates around here will be weekly, rather than twice weekly. Do stay tuned. • • •
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Softshell crab po-boy: Looks like it could crawl right off the plate. This was a friend's sandwich, but I had a great version at the Galley in Metairie. It’s now almost two weeks since Mardi Gras, but I have a few photos left from New Orleans. These pictures were snapped at Stanley, which is a relatively new restaurant in the French Quarter. The name, I assume, is an homage to Stanley Kowalski, the main protagonist of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Bananas Foster French Toast: Ice cream for breakfast. After the gluttonous week that lead up to Mardi [... read more ...] The Cheeseburger @ Port of Call: For me, a trip to New Orleans just isn't complete without a visit to POC. Known for its large tropical drinks and its scaled-down menu, Port of Call offers only burgers and steaks, although I've only ever ordered the cheeseburger. Fries are not an option either — just baked potatoes. I could criticize the fake bacon bits, but they serve as part of the charm for me. Plus, the vibrant contrast of yellow and red give the plate a distinctly feng shui appearance. If you still have a dial-up connection, [... read more ...] The First Course: Wow, once I noticed that the pate de champagne offers no less than six condiments, I knew that I was in for something memorable. That's a bacon marmalade at 12 o'clock, and a strawberry marmalade at two o'clock. Not pictured, toasted brioche. Perhaps it was fitting that my last meal in New Orleans was a quick Thursday lunch at Restaurant August. The lunch itself was unlike anything else I had during my 10-day visit in the Crescent City, where I had spent most waking hours trolling for the classic Southern comfort foods, such [... read more ...] End-of-the-year recaps present a great opportunity to “re-purpose” some old content (I learned this valuable euphemism during the dot-com era). Here are 10 dishes that I really enjoyed this year, in no particular order. I’m not saying this list comprises my top 10 dishes for the year, but some of them could definitely qualify. Clicking the photos will transport you back to the original article — and perhaps, a much simpler time and place. Crispy shrimp with ginger and onions @ Huong Tra, Richmond. • • • Flounder special @ Yuet Lee, San Francisco.
The Main Event: Blackened Pacific Halibut with Crispy Pancetta New Potatoes, smothered in Sauce Anthony. Here in the Napa Valley, hosting a dinner party this time of year can be a mighty tall order. The problem is finding enough guests with free time, since so many folks in the valley remain hopelessly preoccupied during harvest and crush. Among most of the people I know, they’re either working long days in the cellar, or they’re working long nights in the kitchen (tourism in the Napa Valley also hits its peak this same time of year). No doubt, as September [... read more ...] Pulled Pork Sandwich with Macaroni and Cheese. The pulled pork sandwich at the Brown Sugar Kitchen is good, but when it shares a menu with the Bay Area’s best oyster po-boy, pork becomes a tough sell, even for yours truly. Look, I worship the pig as much as anybody, but the oyster po-boy at BSK remains formidable. In my mind, the oyster po-boy is the star — the pulled pork sandwich is just an astronaut. However, if you have a shellfish allergy, then the pulled pork sandwich (pictured above) will prove smokey and succulent, slightly spicy, with a [... read more ...] The #11: Sometimes hot really means hot. So many Asian restaurants seem to be closed on Mondays, and I always seem to fall into this trap again and again. Today, I had driven down to Berkeley on another ramen mission, this time to Norikonoko on Telegraph, which is catty-corner from one of Berkeley’s best used book shops, Shakespeare & Company Books. I found a killer parking spot just off of the main drag, fed the meter full of coinage, and soon found out that Norikonoko was closed. Fortunately, Berkeley offers a target-rich environment when it comes to Asian [... read more ...]  Set adrift on butter, brown sugar, and rum bliss. Although Bananas Foster is widely known as a New Orleans recipe, I never had any experience with this particular dish while I was cooking in the Crescent City. I dealt with plenty of bread pudding recipes, and I had an occasional hand in the hyper-decadent sweet potato-and-pecan pies at K-Paul’s, but Bananas Foster was never part of my repertoire. However, when I was attending the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park NY, I did have the opportunity to whip up several batches of Bananas Foster while I was [... read more ...] Almost famous. Only in New Orleans could a sandwich as glorious as the muffaletta take a backseat to the po-boy. In just about any other city in the United States, the muffaletta would certainly rank as a culinary claim-to-fame, earning a mention alongside the cheesesteaks of Philly or the towering deli pastramis of New York City. But even in the shadow of the more famous po-boy, the muffaletta of New Orleans boasts a loyal legion of followers (after all, one cannot exist on po-boys alone). With its roots at the Central Grocery in the French Quarter, the [... read more ...] |
 
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© 2012 The Accidental Wino |
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