appetites

I received an email this morning from a fellow with Pilgrim Studios, the folks behind reality shows like American Chopper, Top Shot, Ghost Hunters, Swamp Loggers, and others. I can’t say I’ve ever seen any of those shows apart from a few 20 second clips on the Soup, but that’s not a judgment on my part. The email I received involves the search for a… aw just read it:

PRODUCERS SEEKING CHARISMATIC NEW ORLEANS CHEF OR FOODIE FOR HIS OWN DATING SHOW

Are you a chef, restaurateur, foodie or gourmet who is ready to find the love of his life? Pilgrim Studios (www.pilgrimstudios.com) is looking for a single, attractive and charming culinary enthusiast to be our featured bachelor on a new, unscripted show for a major cable network.

If chosen, you will be featured on your own series and have the opportunity to date a select group of amazing women who share your love for great food and the culinary arts. You MUST have a strong background in cuisine (food writers and connoisseurs welcome as well!), and be the kind of man who thinks that there’s nothing sexier than a woman who can cook her way into your heart.

If this sounds like you, and you’re ready to make spectacular meals with the perfect woman, then contact producers TODAY! Email CulinaryBachelor@gmail.com with your name, age, location, a recent photo and a brief description of why you’d be perfect for this show.

Deadline to submit is November 9, 2011! Producers are waiting to hear from you NOW!

Anyway, if you’re interested, the email address to which you should direct your efforts is above.

This Sunday, July 10, there will be a benefit for Nathanial Zimet at the Howlin’ Wolf. Nathanial is the chef-owner of Boucherie and Cue Crawl, (better known as the big purple truck,) and he was shot on May 22 during an attempted robbery. He faces a difficult recovery made even more trying by his lack of health insurance. Nathanial is a talented chef, but more significantly he’s a great guy. He has regularly participated in fundraisers and is a staunch supporter of New Orleans. I think it’s extremely important that we show guys like Nathanial our support in return.

Although my participation has been pretty minimal, I’m a part of the auction committee for the benefit. I’ll be there volunteering, and I hope to see you at either the Patron Party (5-9) or the Night Owl Benefit (9-?). The Patron Party features live and silent auctions, an open bar, and food from participating restaurants, including La Petite Grocery, Three Muses, Iris, Patois, Crescent Pie & Sausage Co., Martinique Bistro, Lilette, Dante’s Kitchen, St. James Cheese Co., Satsuma, Le Foret, Cafe Rani, Brightsen’s, Charlie’s Seafood, Link Restaurant Group, Joel’s Catering, Cure, Dante’s Kitchen, The Green Goddess, Melissa’s Fine Pastries, Zea, August, Luke, Domenica, Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, River Shack Tavern, Oak Crest Mansion, Kajun Kettle Foods, Tracey’s, and Pal’s Lounge. The later event will have some fantastic live music, a cash bar, and more food.

Whether you know Nathanial or not, this is going to be a hell of a good time, people. If you can’t make it to the event, please consider a donation. Hopefully I’ve copied the code necessary to put the paypal button up correctly here:

In the event that doesn’t work, you can go to The benefit website to donate or purchase tickets.

Finally, if you have the means, please publicize the event. The more folks we have there, the more we can do for Nathanial.

Mo McConnell has started This Ain’t Julia, Child. I’ve met her a few times, and she’s a smart, funny lady. A few people whose opinions on food I value greatly have raved about her cooking to me as well. Should be a great combination, and I’m looking forward to reading the site. If you’re aware of a new, local foodblog, by all means let me know.

My friend Jon “Asspants” Smith has decided to go vegan to better train for an Ironman triathlon. I’m unlikely to ever give up eating animal products, but I do have a bunch of recipes that are accidentally vegan, and a lot more that with a couple of substitutions/omissions are as well. When I was in law school I went through a phase in which I cooked a lot of Indian food. One of the things that I still cook frequently is based on a recipe for masoor dal (red split lentils) from Madhur Jaffery’s Indian Cooking. The recipe is simple, but what I found most interesting was toasting the cumin seed used to flavor the dish. These days I rarely use the turmeric and asafetida Jaffrey calls for, but I usually do still toast and grind cumin seeds.

1 cup red lentils (masoor dal in Indian groceries)
2 cups water or vegetable stock
2 tbs. oil (or butter if you’re not vegan)
1 large carrot
1 stalk celery
1/2 medium onion
1 poblano pepper, seeded
1 garlic clove
1 tsp. whole cumin seed
1 tsp. fresh ginger (optional)
2 tbs. fresh cilantro (optional)
salt/pepper

Rinse and pick through the lentils to remove any small stones.

Dice the onion, celery, carrot, and pepper. Chop the garlic.

Toast the cumin seed in a dry pan on medium-low heat, shaking the pan occasionally to distribute the seeds. When you can really smell the cumin, remove the seeds from the pan and let them cool a little. You can use them whole or grind them in a pestle or coffee grinder. I have two grinders, one of which is for coffee, the other for grinding whole spices.

Heat the oil in a heavy pan that has a cover. Add the onion, carrot, celery, pepper and ginger if using, then season with a pinch or two of salt. Cook for 10 minutes or so. If you are adding other vegetables such as chopped spinach, cabbage or collards, diced potatoes, parsnips, sweet potato, squash, etc., consider which of the vegetables you want to retain some texture when deciding how to cut them. In my basic recipe I like the carrots to have some crunch, and for the onion, pepper and celery to cook down. Because carrots take longer to cook, I can add the vegetables all at once at this stage. Squash, on the other hand, would cook down if you add it when you add the other vegetables. I’d cook the carrot, celery, pepper and onion for around 10 minutes on low heat before adding quick-cooking ingredients.

At any rate, once you have cooked the onion, celery and peppers until they have softened, add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the lentils cumin, and water or vegetable broth. Bring the pan to a simmer, then cover, reduce the heat to low and cook for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally and check to ensure the lentils don’t dry out. Add a little more liquid if necessary. Season again with salt and pepper, and garnish with the fresh cilantro if you’re using it. I serve the dish over rice, but it works on its own too.

Chef’s Lagniappe is a new (to me, anyway) blog that self-describes as “an insider’s view on New Orleans food from the kitchens of Dickie Brennan’s Restaurants.” It looks like a pretty well designed operation, and it makes a lot of sense for a restaurant group as large and diverse as Dickie Brennan’s to market itself in this way.
In other local news, both Lorin Gaudin and Celeste, over at Bouillie have written eloquent and restrained responses to Tom Fitzmorris’ recent piece on the limitations of Vietnamese cuisine. I didn’t see his piece when it came out, and I haven’t read the whole thing, but the excerpts don’t make me anxious to waste my time doing so. I think Lorin and Celeste nailed it pretty well.

Chef’s Lagniappe is a new (to me, anyway) blog that self-describes as “an insider’s view on New Orleans food from the kitchens of Dickie Brennan’s Restaurants.” It looks like a pretty well designed operation, and it makes a lot of sense for a restaurant group as large and diverse as Dickie Brennan’s to market itself in this way.
In other local news, both Lorin Gaudin and Celeste, over at Bouillie have written eloquent and restrained responses to Tom Fitzmorris’ recent piece on the limitations of Vietnamese cuisine. I didn’t see his piece when it came out, and I haven’t read the whole thing, but the excerpts don’t make me anxious to waste my time doing so. I think Lorin and Celeste nailed it pretty well.

Alas, I have broken the established pattern of alerting you contemporaneously to the publication of the most recent Haute Plates column. This week I went to the Tuesday Crescent City Farmers Market. In addition to the market, I had a chat with the folks at A Fork in the Road, a little red school bus that sells sandwiches, salads, and the occasional hot plate lunch adjacent to the market, as seen here:

A Fork in the Road
If you haven’t checked out Haute Plates, and are wondering why my updates to appetites have been less frequent lately, please go and see at least part of the answer. If you do, and have any thoughts about a particular column, a question, or a suggestion for another topic you’d like to see me cover, please leave a comment.
I will also accept shameless flattery and cashier’s checks.
In addition to Haute Plates, I had a chance to speak with Poppy Tooker last night, when we both participated in an oyster and wine pairing event at the Bourbon House. It was a pretty neat setup, and it looked like everyone involved had a good time. Poppy mentioned that her new radio show, Louisiana Eats! will premiere on WWNO on Wednesday, June 9, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. It’s a weekly show about food and cooking here in Louisiana that runs for a half hour on Wednesday evenings, and will be rebroadcast at noon on Saturdays, after The Splendid Table.
From the release I received early this morning:

The inaugural program will focus necessarily on the effects of oil in the Gulf of Mexico and the dire outlook for Louisiana oysters. Poppy will talk with oystermen and other experts on the Gulf’s beloved bivalves, including: Sal Sunseri, of 134 year-old P & J Oyster Company; Chef Frank Brigtsen of Brigtsen’s Restaurant and Charlies Seafood; and Mark Schexnaydre, Coastal Region Advisor for Louisiana State University’s Sea Grant Program.
In future programs, listeners will join Poppy as she meets people who produce, cook, and eat the foods we enjoy and treasure—exploring kitchens and stores, farms and waterways where favorite foods are produced and prepared. And because Louisianans love all kinds of food, Poppy won’t limit herself to shrimp Creole and hot sauce! Coming up on the schedule: Lolis Eric Elie, screenwriter for the HBO television series, Tremé, joins Poppy with tales of his African adventure with Top Chef Marcus Samuelsson.
Louisiana Eats! builds on the popularity of WWNO’s current culinary programs, the nationally-distributed The Splendid Table, and local short features Market Minutes and Where Y’Eat? “Our listeners have enthusiastically embraced our culinary programming,” said WWNO General Manager Paul Maassen. “Poppy Tooker is the ideal storyteller for this next step. Her life-long commitment to preserving our historic foodways adds depth and perspective that can be heard only on Louisiana Eats!”
In Louisiana Eats! Poppy Tooker displays the same passion for local foodways that she brought to her award-winning Crescent City Farmers Market Cookbook, where she tells city’s story through the eyes of farmers, fishers, and vendors. The book received a special Tabasco Cookbook Award for historic and cultural content. New Orleans Magazine named it Cookbook of the Year. With her motto “Eat It To Save It” she has helped to revive endangered foods across the U.S. and abroad, in collaboration with Slow Food’s Ark of Taste. Poppy’s on-camera flair has made her a sought-after guest on the Food Network, the History Channel and on PBS. She provides restaurant commentary on Steppin’ Out, broadcast weekly on New Orleans public television station WYES-TV. Her many accolades include being named a Times-Picayune Hero of the Storm for her work following Hurricane Katrina. Across the country, Poppy may be best known for beating Food Network star Bobby Flay in a Seafood Gumbo Throwdown– he didn’t stand a chance.
Support for Louisiana Eats! comes from: Zatarain’s; Wine Institute of New Orleans; Dickie Brennan Restaurant Group; Leidenheimer Baking Company; and Leitz-Eagan Funeral Home and Nottoway Plantation and Resort. WWNO appreciates their generous support, which helps bring more Louisiana sounds and voices to public radio.

I know I’ll be tuning in. If you can’t catch the show on the radio, you can listen live to it at WWNO’s website, and it is also available “On Demand” (link to follow shortly).

Alas, I have broken the established pattern of alerting you contemporaneously to the publication of the most recent Haute Plates column. This week I went to the Tuesday Crescent City Farmers Market. In addition to the market, I had a chat with the folks at A Fork in the Road, a little red school bus that sells sandwiches, salads, and the occasional hot plate lunch adjacent to the market, as seen here:

A Fork in the Road
If you haven’t checked out Haute Plates, and are wondering why my updates to appetites have been less frequent lately, please go and see at least part of the answer. If you do, and have any thoughts about a particular column, a question, or a suggestion for another topic you’d like to see me cover, please leave a comment.
I will also accept shameless flattery and cashier’s checks.
In addition to Haute Plates, I had a chance to speak with Poppy Tooker last night, when we both participated in an oyster and wine pairing event at the Bourbon House. It was a pretty neat setup, and it looked like everyone involved had a good time. Poppy mentioned that her new radio show, Louisiana Eats! will premiere on WWNO on Wednesday, June 9, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. It’s a weekly show about food and cooking here in Louisiana that runs for a half hour on Wednesday evenings, and will be rebroadcast at noon on Saturdays, after The Splendid Table.
From the release I received early this morning:

The inaugural program will focus necessarily on the effects of oil in the Gulf of Mexico and the dire outlook for Louisiana oysters. Poppy will talk with oystermen and other experts on the Gulf’s beloved bivalves, including: Sal Sunseri, of 134 year-old P & J Oyster Company; Chef Frank Brigtsen of Brigtsen’s Restaurant and Charlies Seafood; and Mark Schexnaydre, Coastal Region Advisor for Louisiana State University’s Sea Grant Program.
In future programs, listeners will join Poppy as she meets people who produce, cook, and eat the foods we enjoy and treasure—exploring kitchens and stores, farms and waterways where favorite foods are produced and prepared. And because Louisianans love all kinds of food, Poppy won’t limit herself to shrimp Creole and hot sauce! Coming up on the schedule: Lolis Eric Elie, screenwriter for the HBO television series, Tremé, joins Poppy with tales of his African adventure with Top Chef Marcus Samuelsson.
Louisiana Eats! builds on the popularity of WWNO’s current culinary programs, the nationally-distributed The Splendid Table, and local short features Market Minutes and Where Y’Eat? “Our listeners have enthusiastically embraced our culinary programming,” said WWNO General Manager Paul Maassen. “Poppy Tooker is the ideal storyteller for this next step. Her life-long commitment to preserving our historic foodways adds depth and perspective that can be heard only on Louisiana Eats!”
In Louisiana Eats! Poppy Tooker displays the same passion for local foodways that she brought to her award-winning Crescent City Farmers Market Cookbook, where she tells city’s story through the eyes of farmers, fishers, and vendors. The book received a special Tabasco Cookbook Award for historic and cultural content. New Orleans Magazine named it Cookbook of the Year. With her motto “Eat It To Save It” she has helped to revive endangered foods across the U.S. and abroad, in collaboration with Slow Food’s Ark of Taste. Poppy’s on-camera flair has made her a sought-after guest on the Food Network, the History Channel and on PBS. She provides restaurant commentary on Steppin’ Out, broadcast weekly on New Orleans public television station WYES-TV. Her many accolades include being named a Times-Picayune Hero of the Storm for her work following Hurricane Katrina. Across the country, Poppy may be best known for beating Food Network star Bobby Flay in a Seafood Gumbo Throwdown– he didn’t stand a chance.
Support for Louisiana Eats! comes from: Zatarain’s; Wine Institute of New Orleans; Dickie Brennan Restaurant Group; Leidenheimer Baking Company; and Leitz-Eagan Funeral Home and Nottoway Plantation and Resort. WWNO appreciates their generous support, which helps bring more Louisiana sounds and voices to public radio.

I know I’ll be tuning in. If you can’t catch the show on the radio, you can listen live to it at WWNO’s website, and it is also available “On Demand” (link to follow shortly).

What do I have to do? I ask that you alert me to new, local foodblogs, and yet I must find them myself? Forked For Now is the product of, it appears, a young woman living in New Orleans. And yet none of you alerted me to it.
For shame.
I would say more, but the Saints are playing the Patriots, and that’s clearly more important.

Men, Women, and Mannish Boys take note: the 3rd annual Po Boy Preservation Festival will take place this Sunday, November 22nd, on Oak Street between Carrollton and Eagle Streets.
The festival has been incredibly popular in its first two years, and this year is likely to be similar. The popularity led to some pretty serious crowds, but this year the area that the festival will encompass has been expanded, and a few of the attractions have been moved to the periphery of the show. More importantly from my perspective, there will be a screen set up for the Saints game.
I’ll be one of a host of judges this year, and I’m looking forward (foreword) to it. With 40 or so selections, there should be food enough for everybody’s taste.
Anyway, it’s going to be a good time, and I’m pretty pleased to be taking part. Say “hello” if you see me out there.
Or don’t, and feel the steely wrath of my gaze upon your nape. Muah.

Folks, I’ve been busy. I know I’ve said it before, but while I enjoy writing this website, it’s pretty far down on my list of priorities. My family, my legal practice, and writing for which I get paid all come ahead, as does my continued quest for that Leprechaun’s pot o’ gold. God damned Leprechaun.
There are a number of things I’d like to write about, and hopefully in the next week or two, I’ll have a chance to do so. My cousin David’s cookbook, DamGoodSweet has been released, and it’s only one of about a half dozen books I need to review in some fashion.
I have been remiss about posting press releases that you might actually find interesting. For example, Peggy Scott Laborde’s new documentary, New Orleans Food Memories will air on November 18 on WYES, at 7 and 10 p.m. I’m getting a chance to see it tonight; if I manage to find the time, I’ll post a quick review. I’m pretty sure, knowing Peggy’s work and the folks she’s interviewed, that it will be worth your time.
Also: the New Orleans Po-boy Preservation Festival is set to kick off on Sunday, November 22nd, from 11 to 6 at Oak Street near Carrollton. They’ve moved things around, and should have more space for what’s become an extremely popular event. It looks like I’ll be there as a judge this year, so come by and see me.
I’ve also been taking a bunch of pictures lately; some for paying work, but others just sit on my hard drive, or reside in my Flickr page Here is an example:

Jambon-beurre at St. James Cheese Company
That’s a photograph I took as part of some research into an article on banh mi sandwiches, or “Vietnamese po-boys” as we tend to call them down here.
Finally, at least for the moment, I have been making plans to redesign and rework this site. I’ve had a very good proposal, and now the problem is finding time to meet with the designer to discuss practicalities. I hope that by the end of the year Appetites looks completely different, and that you will once again be able to add comments here. I very much appreciate emails, and please keep them coming, but I’ve always found it easier to simply add a comment, and I’m sure you do too.
We’ll see how that works out, and in the interim I’ll try to at least provide brief updates on a more regular basis. Now if you’ll excuse me, I believe I hear the lilt of bagpipes in conference room 3.