appetites

I haven’t had much time to write, but over the last two weeks I’ve taken a bunch of pictures. This morning I uploaded 20 or so to my flickr page, and thought I’d share a few of them here as well.
I hadn’t been to Patois for a while, which is a problem I remedied by having lunch there recently with a couple of friends:

Gnocchi with crabmeat, cream, and truffle

Lamb Kofta Kebab over Romaine Lettuce with Tahini Dressing
Ideally, I would devote an entire post to the next photo:

HELLO INTERNETS
Two of my colleagues, who were generous enough to assist me in tasting a couple of new Pom Wonderful flavors, Kiwi and Nectarine. I have repaid their kindness by placing their images on the internet. Pom sent me a bottle of each to check out, and hopefully I will have time to write further about them in the near future. For now, you should know that the look on the face of the guy on the left is not indicative of his opinion of the juice. He’s just like that.

Salumi
I had a chance last week to join a number of other local food writers for lunch at Domenica. The picture above is of a few varieties of cured meats and salumi. Below is the wild mushroom pizza, with a fried egg in the middle.

Wild Mushroom Pizza
Also last week, I attended the release party for John Besh’s new cookbook: My New Orleans, at Restaurant August. I’m not very good at taking photographs in low light, but this one isn’t too bad, I suppose:

White Chocolate and Meyer Lemon Semifreddo with vanilla-poached berries
Finally, gratuitous self-portrait, with child:

Sliced Bread and the Bear
I wouldn’t mess with the dude on the right, if were I you…

A few pictures from lunch a couple of weeks ago at August.

Salt-baked shrimp with grilled melon, heirloom tomatoes, and “pungent” herbs
I really love the combination of seafood and melon, and I’ve rarely had it better than in this dish. The shrimp were perfectly cooked, and not over-seasoned from the salt-baking. Besh has always had a brilliant touch with herbs, and while I’m not sure where the “pungent” comes into the description when the herbs were basil, mint, and chervil, they were a perfect complement. That was my starter.
Here’s another view:

Salt-baked shrimp
My entree:

“Barbecue” veal breast with horseradish whipped potatoes, porcini mushrooms and fresh cherries
I’m a big fan of veal breast.* When it’s cooked properly, it’s a succulent piece of meat. The problem with it is that there’s a lot of connective tissue to get around. One way to do that is to break it down and stuff it. Another is to cook it slowly for enough time to reduce even tough connective tissue to something manageable. This was very good, though not without some inedible parts parts. The potatoes were flavored with just enough horseradish to provide a little bite; the sauce was rich and had a real meaty depth, provided in part by the mushrooms. Overall, it didn’t compete with the salt-baked shrimp, but it was very good.
I am trying something new here. I’m writing this on Sunday afternoon, but am “scheduling” the publication for Tuesday. Not sure if its going to work, but we’ll see.

*Among others.

What?