St. James Dinner with Ashbell McElveen

Last Thursday, Lindsay and I attended a dinner at St. James guest chefed by Ashbell McElveen. Chef McElveen's cuisine is his interpretation of African, Caribbean, French, and Southern cuisine all rolled into one. Which when you think about it, sounds exactly like a description of New Orleans.

The food was largely cooked on an outdoor grill and a dual burner propane rig. Despite that, Chef McElveen and his team sent out a wonderful array of appetizing plates. I really hope he gets his own place up and running soon, as I would love to see what he can accomplish with a full arsenal.

First course was a homemade bacon wrapped gulf shrimp with a salad and three cheese croutons. Very good. the bacon was thinner than commercial bacon; it almost crossed into prosciutto land. Could have used a spike more dressing, but as always I would rather a salad be nude as opposed to overly adorned.

These dinners at St. James are BYOB. We started out with a 2005 Justin Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc. This wine is fast becoming one of my favorite white wines for pairing with food. We also had a 2005 Andre Brunel Cote du Rhone Villages Cuvee Sabrine, which is pictured in the photo. Both wines are available at Cork and Bottle. The latter is poured by the glass at Clever.

A plate of grilled vegetables. Quite simply the best dish of the night. I love food like this. Each vegetables was expertly introduced to the flames, charred, and dressed simply with olive oil, salt, vinegar, and pepper. I love how a grill can make a vegetable (ok its not really a vegetable, but you know what I mean) like mushrooms smoky and meaty while at the same time sweetening an onion to unfathomable heights.

Also, served was a curried crab over fried plantains. While the plantains were either undercooked or under ripe or both, the curried crab exploded with rich flavors of cumin and allspice. This dish would have been absolutely a stunner if served over some fluffy white rice as without rice the dish seemed a little thin. A little more retooling of this dish and it could rightly sit beside shrimp creole, gumbo, and trout amandine.

Next, a cheese plate. A tomme crayeuse, a munster, and a laguiole. Served alongside this wonderful selection of cheeses, was a candied apple and these dynamite homemade lemon scented biscuits. The biscuits had more in common with a cookie, but this makes sense, as Chef McElveen previously worked in London where apartments are called flats and cookies are biscuits. The biscuits were the perfect foil for the rich cheeses.

Next a dessert of caramelized peaches over a light and airy cake. Pretty good finish and not overly sweet. Although my favorite part of this dessert was that it came with goat cheese with fresh cracked black pepper, which rounded out a classic pairing of flavors and textures.

Once Chef McElveen gets his place, you can be sure I will be in that number sampling his take on New Orleans cuisine.

All photographs by Lindsay. Usually taken about 3 bites into each dish when we said "Shoot we forgot to take a photograph. Gee Willickers." Thus, the rustic nature of the photos.

Also, seen at this dinner was the St. James Girl, A.K.A. the 5000th Visitor to El Blogo.