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As if my posting here hadn't become sporadic enough, I'm off on a week's vacation. I'll be headed to a tropical paradise for a few days to get some much needed relaxation. I'll be back with food news from the sunny caribbee, which will help fill out Frost Street now that most of my New York A-material is going to Gothamist Food.
See you in September.
Here we are, in our new apartment. It's taken several weeks (and outlays of several thousand dollars) to move a little over ten blocks. Lisa and I have been waiting two years for this. Her clerkship is over, and we've taken all the stuff in her little apartment, all the stuff in my really little apartment, and jammed it into one -- well, little -- apartment.
The major upsides are twofold: closing the 100-mile distance that's separated us for two years, and reducing our monthly rent expenditures by a third (almost half if you count Lisa's car payments and auto insurance).
The major downside: This stove. We spent weeks -- months really -- looking for an apartment. We scoured the entire West Side of Manhattan from SoHo to SoHa. As my lease ran out, we got desperate, and we decided to settle for living space above all else. Real estate in Manhattan is all about compromise, so I gave up my huge kitchen with its acres of counter and cabinet space and its gas range for the prospect of a less cramped cohabitation.
I hate electric coil ranges. They're difficult to gauge, they don't respond quickly to adjustments, and they tend toward uneven heating. Plus, one of them almost killed me a few months ago. I feel like I've gotten pretty good at manipulating the subtleties of the gas flame through years of practice, and now I can't take advantage of this painstakingly developed skill.
But it's worth it. The sacrifices we make for love sometimes pay unexpected dividends:
Bonus.
Guest Author: Lisa
And now, on to the defendant's case......We visited K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen on Chartres Street in the French Quarter. Although the "Paul" part of the restaurant's name is self-explanatory, our waiter informed us that "K" refers to Paul's late wife and business partner, Kay. Compared with Emeril's, K-Paul's is a smaller, less modern and homier restaurant; but both fit into the areas of the city where they are located.
To start, my brother ordered the gumbo, which was absolutely fantastic. I had never had gumbo before, but Mark, a Louisiana resident for the past two years, declared this the best gumbo he had ever tasted. Just look at that picture -- doesn't the gumbo look great???:
I had the turtle soup to start, which was fine but unexpectedly tastes like chili.
Most of my dining party/jury raved about their main course. My mother ordered veal medallions and my brother ordered steak. They didn't need to tell me how much they liked it; I could tell that they because they virtually licked their plates clean. Although I have some genes in common with these two, they usually (unlike me) eat like birds, so cleaning their plates is therefore an unequivocal endorsement. Jessica ordered the soft shell crab, which came atop creamy seafood pasta. She enjoyed it but also seemed to indicate that it was a little rich. I ordered the drum, which I found tasty and mild, but my brother thought it was salty.
For dessert, we had the bread pudding and sweet potato pecan pie. Neither is my preferred dessert in a regular meal (dessert means chocolate for me), but I wanted to try more traditionally Southern food while I was in New Orleans. Both were quite good, especially the bread pudding, which I normally do not care for.
My jury seemed loathe to announce a verdict. They found it difficult to compare the two restaurants because the places and their food were very different. Ultimately they returned what amounts to a split verdict -- they seemed to prefer the service at Emeril's, but liked the food at K-Paul's better. However, under my home-cooked Lisa law, I am going to render what we lawyers call a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and judgment is for the defendant. At the outset, this case was meant to determine which restaurant would provide the best New Orleans dining experience, and I believe that K-Paul's does that. Emeril's throws some Louisiana-type food on its menu, but really, it's trying to be something more than a Louisiana restaurant. What that "more" is, I'm not sure, but I was looking for something more authentic than what is becoming one in a chain of high-priced restaurants. Truthfully, if I went to a similar restaurant in Manhattan, I probably would have been disappointed. However, K-Paul's achieves the New Orleans authenticity I was looking for -- it is not pretentious, the environment is cozy, the menu is centered on cajun food, and the food was outstanding. Thus, my judgment is for Paul Prudhomme, with sanctions against the plaintiff for overuse of the word "Bam!" I just can't tolerate obnoxious signature exclamations in my courtroom.
Guest Author: Lisa
As I mentioned earlier, I am not a foodie. So basically, I?ve only heard of a chef if he or she is famous, or if Jeremy has raved about them to me. As for famous chefs in New Orleans, I am sure there are other lesser-known but also fabulous chefs, but the two I had heard of are Emeril Lagasse and Paul Prudhomme. I know of these chefs because (1) Emeril has a television show in which he say ?Bam!? all the time, and (2) Paul Prudhomme is a large guy. Thus, I made reservations to eat at each of their restaurants when I visited New Orleans.
Because, like Jeremy, I am a lawyer, I have decided to turn this into a case of sorts? which chef provides the better New Orleans dining experience? My dining party will serve as the jury, and I will serve as the final arbiter of the law as the judge. While I realize that venue would most properly lie in Louisiana, as a New York licensed lawyer I am unfamiliar with the Napoleonic Code. Thus, I?ll be honest with you ? I am going to decide this case under some home-cooked Lisa law.
Also, the record is incomplete. Not being a pseudo-professional food blogger, I failed to write down the names of the dishes I ate at the various restaurants, and I was also embarrassed to take pictures of food. (Food bloggers, I must inform you that it is really not normal to take pictures of food. Most people take pictures of people, or interesting landmarks, like the cool picture of a cornstalk fence I posted above. I find it embarrassing when Jeremy and I are in a fancy restaurant and the owner comes over and asks Jeremy why he is taking pictures of the food and jotting down things in a notebook.) However, for the sake of this blog and my boyfriend?s good will, I swallowed my pride and took some food pictures anyway, so you food experts out there will be able to tell what we ate, even if I don?t remember its precise name and preparation.
Anyway, we will start with the plaintiff?s case. I have decided that Emeril will serve as plaintiff because he strikes me as the more litigious of the two chefs ? probably due to the whole aggressive ?Bam!? thing. At any rate, we dined the Emeril?s in the Warehouse District, his original restaurant. (He has two other restaurants in New Orleans -- Emeril?s Delmonico and NOLA -- as well as restaurants in other cities.) My jury was particularly bowled over by the service at Emeril?s. Our waiter was superb, and he was pretty funny too. For instance, the member of the wait staff who brought over a basket containing a variety of breads told us that Emeril's cornbread was the best in Louisiana. However, our primary waiter confidentially informed us, in his charming Southern drawl, that it was his momma who made the best cornbread. No doubt! He was also helpful in helping Jessica open her papillote (which contained a fish of some sort which she described as ?mild? and very good):
My brother and I both had ?A Study of Duck,? a special which contained duck prepared three ways, topped by foie gras and sitting atop of bread pudding of sorts:
My brother enjoyed the dish, but I thought it was OK. I did not like one of the preparations, where the duck was kind of ground-up, and I didn?t feel that the bread pudding went well with the duck. Frankly, I?ve had better duck. Nonetheless, the other two preparations of duck were very tasty.
In the next post, I will present defendant?s case and the verdict.