Table Talk
Sharing the wealth of favorite recent dining experiences
When you happen upon an unforgettable flavor, you’re just dying to tell someone else about it. (Unless you don’t like the person, then mum’s the word on where you devoured that pot roast grilled cheese.) The other day, the Country Roads creative team did what comes all too naturally: sat around and enthused about favorite recent dining and drink experiences over summer cocktails at The Radio Bar in Mid City Baton Rouge. And because we quite like you, we’re going to share … Be warned, we’re loquacious:
Kourtney Zimmerman, Creative Director: What’d you get to drink?
Chris Turner-Neal, Arts & Entertainment Editor: I got the Smoke & Mirrors. The mezcal is really selling it. It’s good and smoky. But I got it because it has aperol in it, which I really like for summer because the bitterness is really refreshing. My friend Jon will make Negronis and I say, “I love how bad this tastes.” I don’t think it tastes bad, really, but the bitterness makes you savor it. Whereas if you have something sweet when it’s hot, it’s more cloying.
Lucie Monk Carter, Managing Editor: It really does taste smoky. I got the Bangkok Blonde. I got it when I was here last week, too. It’s crazy that I’ve been here two weeks in a row because it’d been a year before that. Andy [husband] and I came for our date night and just decided to go wild and get cocktails.
Chris: Who are y’all dating?
Lucie: We’ve decided to date each other.
Chris: That’s unorthodox.
Lucie: I got the Bangkok Blonde and he got something that was ultimately pretty similar flavor-wise, the Indiana Jones. We had his and hers cocktails. The Indiana Jones has rye whiskey, lemon, falernum [spiced syrup], and tiki bitters; the Bangkok Blonde has ginger liqueur. But we found out they now stock playing cards at Radio Bar. We used to always bring cards here and play Spite-Malice [a two-person card game in the vein of Double Solitaire] so we got to do that again in our new lives as parents; we played cards in the really good Radio Bar light, drank our cocktails, and went out to dinner at Beausoleil afterwards.
Chris: I’ve been going to this new brewery in New Orleans—speaking of trying new things. It’s called Brieux Carre. They experiment a lot with styles but it’s not just bonkers and off the wall like some experimental places. You’ll try a bunch of styles. Some things will be for you and some won’t, but you’ll learn about what beers you do like. You’ll learn about this new style, and you’ll see what they’re getting at. It makes sense as a theory even if it’s not going to be what you keep having.
Lucie: What did you drink there?
Chris: The last time I went, I got this hefeweizen called El Geoffe. The thing I love about hefeweizens is that they remind me of home. They’re really big in Texas. They’re summery, but there’s a way in which it’s cozy for me. It was nice to have not only a hefeweizen and get that summer taste I remember so fondly but to see something new on it.
Their schtick is that they do really silly names for beer. They’ve got an Imperial Sour French Saison called Pomeranian Fight Club. They’ve got a New England IPA called Rubber Chicken Rainbow. There’s also a nice outdoor seating area that’s shaded and is never too crowded.
Kourtney: Since we’re talking about discovering new ingredients—I was recently at what was an old Pizza Hut near my house, where Coursey turns into George O’Neal. It’s called Al Noor and they use a lot more traditional Indian spices than I’ve seen at some of the other places.
[You might like: Indian Cuisine—Eat with Your Hand.]
C: So what does that mean?
K: Well, in their biryani—which is one of my favorite items—they’ve got actual dates, even with seeds in. You have to be careful while eating it, but you’re exploring new flavors. They’ve got cinnamon bark. Full cardamom seeds. Every once in a while you’ll come across this really vibrant flavor while eating the food. Some of the other places, their flavors are a flat line while you’re eating, but this offers a new adventure every time.
C: I love when you get that cardamom surprise.
L: I got cardamom pods at Vinh Phat the first time I went. For that first trip, James [Fox-Smith, publisher of Country Roads] told me to go with an ingredient list. So I had a recipe for gulai ayam [Indonesian curry] vetted by a friend living in Bali. I had all these things I’d never bought before: candlenuts and cardamom… At the store, I crouched down in the aisle and quietly Google-image-searched ingredients because I didn’t want to tell anyone that I didn’t know what I was looking for.
But the other day I got lunch at Dang’s, so I thought “I have to go to Vinh Phat, since I’m right next door” even though I didn’t have a recipe. I grabbed fish sauce, Red Boat, since I hear that’s the real deal. I wanted to buy galangal too, because I’d just interviewed Michael Gulotta [chef at MoPho and Maypop] about The Art of Food dinner, and he was talking about how he uses galangal and it’s one of the building blocks of Southeast Asian cuisine. I was hovering in this one aisle looking at carton after carton of unlabeled brown tubers. I swear what I picked up was galangal! But when I checked out, it rang up as “Hawaiian purple sweet potato.” I didn’t exchange it—in fact, I should have gone back for more, because I used it for dinner that night along with regular sweet potatoes and it was everyone’s favorite part. I just diced and roasted it along with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Apparently it’s got more antioxidants than regular sweet potatoes.
K: Wasn’t it the original color of sweet potatoes? I know carrots and some things like that were originally purple before they were homogenized.
C: So how was the flavor different?
L: It’s not as creamy as your orange sweet potato. I’d say it’s a little more fibrous. They were both roasted, but this had a denser texture. But good—meatier than a sweet potato is.
C: You were saying meaty sweet potato—I was trying to buy a really earthy red wine. I like red wine that has a lot of dark, deep notes. Leathery, earthy—my friend Nicki likes it too and her husband calls it “Nicki’s dirt wine.” It’s hard to find. I think people want either cleaner-drinking wines or something peppery. So I went to this new wine store in my neighborhood called Second Vine in the Marigny where I moved a few months ago. I saw a flyer that said they were having a plant sale. While there looking at the plants, I asked what wines they had. The guy showed me this really affordable tempranillo. It tasted like dirt. I was so happy.
It’s a really cool place. I think it’s the only black-owned wine store in the city. They’ve got a tasting room/bar area in the back. They sell Big Freedia’s sparkling rosé by the glass. It’s really a spot I’m glad to have found.
K: Speaking of wines and French-natured things… over near North Harrells Ferry, in a cute little yellow house, is Maison Lacour. It’s my go-to spot for birthday dinner every year. We had six people this year, which is the max I’ve seen at a table. They’ve got just really good, legitimate French food. It’s not Cajun. It’s not Creole. It’s from-France French food. They have an early-bird menu too. If you’re there from 5:30 to 6:30, you can get a three-course meal for just $33. It’s high-end food, and you get a good amount. My favorite thing is the orange crawfish bisque. I’m a big lover of chocolate and orange flavor combinations, so this lands with me. It’s spicy with an orange tone to it. If you like citrus and spice and normal crawfish bisque, you’ll love this. It’s so good. Any of their dishes that have puff pastry or any crepe dishes are outstanding too.
C: That sounds like a treat.
K: The little ladies who are always your waitresses are so fantastic. They love to talk to people and answer questions. They’re so nice—it always winds up being a great experience.
L: Speaking of little houses—I was in Covington a few months ago, interviewing Jeffrey Hansell, the chef at Oxlot 9, ahead of our April Supper Club. I asked him for a lunch recommendation, because I know there are all these great places in Covington and I don’t go over there enough. He said, “Actually down the street in this little house, a sushi restaurant just opened called Aki. A guy from Baton Rouge opened it. It’s amazing.” I thought, “I wonder if that’s Chef Oui.” He was the chef at Sushi Yama. You could go to Sushi Yama and have one experience there where you sat at a table with your friends and ordered different sushi rolls, or you could sit at the sushi bar, right in front of Chef Oui, and he’d turn you on to all sorts of fabulous fish.
So I walk into this little house and there was Chef Oui! I sat at the sushi bar. He gave me bluefin tuna, and I had a Fisherman’s Bowl, which is a lot like a poke bowl. But he’s very particular about the quality of the fish. He has it flown in fresh from Japan. You sit there in front of someone that has been so meticulous and devoted to every aspect of what you’re eating. You know you’re in good hands.
C: I was in Covington recently too for the Southern Hotel open house. I finally got to Del Porto. I’d always been meaning to go but just had never made it for some reason. Especially in summer, my favorite thing is a salad with meat on it. It’s cooling, it’s crisp, it’s refreshing. But a salad can feel like not quite enough food, and you need something heartier to get you through the day and have it feel like a meal. It was so good. It was a nice, mixed-lettuce salad with this thin-cut—very thin-cut—perfectly rare steak on it. And those little crispy French onions, which really added a new texture and dimension. For dessert, I got this summer peach crostata. It’s a little open top pastry folded around peaches with vanilla gelato on the side. The waitress said she loved it and that she’d been on low carbs and hadn’t had it for a couple of weeks, so she was starting to get antsy.
[Read this: 2015 Small Town Chefs David and Torre Solazzo: Meet the husband and wife who helm Del Porto.]
What I loved about the crostata was that the sweetness was so balanced. Desserts can be too sweet and overpower the other flavors, but here you had the sweetness on the pastry dialed down, then the gelato brought it back up. It was perfect. It was really peachy and summery, too.
K: Lucie, your trip to Aki reminded me of my favorite sushi spot in Lafayette. It’s off Kaliste Saloom in a tucked-away strip mall behind Fresh Pickins. It’s called Oishi, which means “delicious” in Japanese. Delicious it is. A tiny hole in the hall, maybe four tables in the whole place, with one chef doing it all. He must serve half of Lafayette because I know he does a killing in take out orders. If you don’t get there right when it opens, your chances of getting a table are kind of slim, but it’s worth trying to go. My favorite thing there is anything that has snow crab in it. For whatever reason, his snow crab is … it’s sweet without being overly fishy. It’s got that nice creaminess to it. There’s an appetizer with shrimp and miso eggplant. Anything you get over there is going to be so good.
C: Texture in seafood is very important. If something’s off, it’s very easy to tell. I’ve been going to this place Kebab on St. Claude—back to my meat-on-salad summer diet—it’s a Middle Eastern restaurant but specifically the European interpretation, like their late-night kebabs and Belgian fries. It’s really good. It’s got vegetarian options—which is not important to me but is important to a lot of people. They’ve got this nice doughy lavash, but if you’re pretending to care about carbs, you can get a salad with meat on it. Their tahini is good, their zhug is really good. It’s that spicy green Middle Eastern sauce that I love which you don’t see very often. They also have really good specials. They had a seared tuna kebab a few months ago that I just adored. You got enough tuna on it. I’ve lived near falafel and Middle Eastern places in the past, and it’s nice to live with a place in walking distance that has that flavor I crave.
Kebab also has a rotating selection of pinball machines. They’ll have five or six pinball machines and if you just come with quarters, that’s an evening out. No one’s especially good at pinball, but it doesn’t matter. It’s fun to have something so light-hearted to do while you wait for your meal. Especially for a date night, it’s a nice icebreaker. And there are vintage games: they have the Elvira game, the Star Trek pinball game.
K: Well, speaking of heartwarming … my husband is from the Henderson/Breaux Bridge area. There are certain little restaurants that his family tends to go to all the time. One of them is called Le Cafe. As simple as it gets. It’s mostly fried seafood, poboys, things like that. But I just love when we walk in there—my husband and I—and the woman behind the counter has known him and his family for basically his whole life. The sons grew up in the same school. So you walk in and she’s like, “Hey, how’s it going?” And he knows her name. The food there is excellent, too. My favorite thing is the fried shrimp poboy. It’s hard to ruin one of those, but it’s hard to be a special favorite as well. I’ve had some pretty unimpressive ones. But the seasoning they put in the batter, the type of batter they use, and the bread—it’s just a really good combination.
C: I love when you find a really good iteration of a classic. “*This* is what I’ve been thinking of. This is what I wanted to eat.”
L: Like when we went to Creamer Deli! You hear about really good food in gas stations, so I’m always alert to the possibility. If there’s a boudin in a gas station, I’ll get it, because I don’t want to miss out on good boudin. It’s not always great. But when we went to Creamer Deli ... The hardest thing there—besides the fact that they don’t have a table where you can sit down when your knees start to buckle—is deciding what you’re going to get among the pork chops and freshly whipped potatoes and stewed green beans because it all looks so good. Even just looking in the steam trays, the food is gleaming with potential. Then you’ve got to put your hot tray in Kourtney’s car where the smell soaks into the backseat as you race back to the office to devour the food.
C: But then you get to the office and your boss says “Wait, we have to get pictures!” And she snaps and snaps and snaps and snaps and snaps …
L: And now we remember that happy occasion so well.
K: You have enough food to feed six people, too.
C: Which we absolutely didn’t do. But we could have.
Send us your recommendations at editorial@countryroadsmag.com.