Covering the New Orleans food scene means encountering classics, surprises, moments and memories. Here’s a few quick hits from my notebook of late.
Taste of le Tour
I find televised Tour de France coverage mesmerizing and soothing in the midst of a New Orleans summer — those landscapes and towns and happy people lining the roadway with picnics and aperitifs (hey, we take what we want from a sporting spectacle).
The Frenchiness of it all has inspired some local restaurants of a French persuasion to create Tour de France special menus this summer, based on the foods of the regions the tour zips (and sips) through.
That brought me back last week to Bar Pomona, 2352 St. Claude Ave., (504) 224-9644, in Faubourg Marigny.
It’s rolling with menu specials, great wines and a printed menu that’s suitable for framing like a travel poster.
TVs are playing Tour coverage of soaring French landscapes in this tiny, low-slung spot, which feels like the cafe you wandered into on a vacation in Europe and became your unexpected favorite of the trip.
The first region brought modules a la Normande, joue de boeuf (beef cheeks with a gravy that was fantastic pressed into some of that griddle bread) and tergoule, a baked rice pudding, for dessert, plus a lagniappe of soft serve ice cream, because that’s a Bar Pomona standard.
This is all a la carte, so you can mix and match from specials and the regular menu (try the salade Nicoise or the mortadella plate).
Wines change but the best one in the glass this time was the cider le Vulcain — dry, a tad funky, refreshing, great with good. You can trust whatever they’re pouring at this fantastic spot.
They’re on to Occitanie and Pyrenees this week, serving Friday to Monday, and onward for changing specials. This spot is as casual as a bar, but reservations are a good idea.
More France! More vive! More vin
Across town, Café Degas, 3127 Esplanade Ave., (504) 945-5635 has a similar, roving Tour de France menu special in play, changing by region week to week. This one is a prix fix, 3-course dinner $39, 3-course brunch $33, 2-course $28.
It joins a very generous happy hour special the restaurant is running this summer, Wednesday and Thursday, 3-5 p.m., with $5 drinks and deals on appetizers (on Thursdays, bottles of wine are 30% off too).
Herbsaint adds a touch of Japan
Nearing 25 years in business, Herbsaint has established a style that’s a bit French (the duck confit), part Italian (spaghetti with guanciale and fried egg) and certainly at home in Louisiana (the gumbo …). But it’s always had room for other influences, and the latest just starting to make their presence known is coming straight from Japan.
Earlier this year, chef/owner Donald Link and chef de cuisine Tyler Spreen traveled to Japan for a culinary romp. They came back with more than food photos, but also inspiration for their kitchen.
They’ve put together a pair of special tasting menu dinners in Herbsaint’s private dining room featuring a progression of Japanese dishes. The one I attended in July was eye-opening for the range of techniques the crew here undertook (from the custardy chawanmushi with local crab and sweet corn to Atlantic mackerel gently seared with sticks of Japanese charcoal).
This week, through July 19, a few of those dishes are in rotation as specials available alongside Herbsaint’s regular menu.
Look for salmon sashimi, layered over white asparagus and finished with dashi and tempura crumbs; karaage, the double-fried, extra-crisp chicken; and tsukene, a kebab-like chicken meatball grilled over charcoal.
Herbsaint has hinted a future edition of these Japanese tasting dinners could happen this summer, so stay tuned.
K-Paul’s tribute at Gabrielle
Did you ever get to try blackened redfish at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen back in the day? It was a dish created by the late, great Paul Prudhomme that became emblematic of Louisiana cooking for a generation of people around the world, and proved so popular the demand spurred new commercial harvesting regulations for redfish.
Even K-Paul’s, which closed for good in the pandemic, switched to drum or other Gulf fish.
Continuing for a few more days this week, you can find blackened redfish from one Prudhomme’s early proteges as part of a limited-time tribute menu full of dishes drawn from K-Paul’s in its heyday.
Mary and Greg Sonnier met while working at K-Paul’s in the early 1980s. They went onto open their own restaurant Gabrielle, 2441 Orleans Ave., (504) 603-2344.
Greg Sonnier said they came up with the special menu in honor of what would have been Prudhomme’s 85th birthday (on July 13), and decided to turn it into a two-week special.
It continues through Saturday, July 19, available as a three-course prix fixe dinner for $60.
The menu is in sync with the way many New Orleans restaurants roll out special offers in the summer when business is slower. This one brings a chance to relive a game-changing local restaurant, or perhaps get a throwback taste of its style for the first time.
Some other dishes the Sonniers are bringing back include beer battered coconut shrimp, crabmeat Avery, paneed veal, chicken Tchoupitoulas and sweet potato pecan pie.
In the spirit of summer specials, Gabrielle also has a generous happy hour deal going, with dishes including duck liver mousse pate, duck fat fries, tomato salad and cheese plates for $10, cocktails for $5 and two-for-one wines, served 5-6:30 p.m., Wednesday through Friday.