Commanders Palace Jazz Brunch: Is It Worth It?

I approached Jazz Brunch with a fair amount of apprehension. Not being a fan of either brunch or roving musicians in restaurants, this seemed to be a poor choice. But a well-made daiquiri and a non-obtrusive jazz trio eased anyway concerns of not being able to judge this meal properly. Sunday Jazz Brunch (they also offer it on Saturday) at Commanders Palace is an institution attended by the both the well-heeled and the well-traveled. Its reservation on this Classics list was secure before the phone lines were even opened. It just took us a while to find a Sunday worthy of the experience. A Sunday that began with a Christening (and hence putting on a suit) called for a fancy brunch.

The garlic bread is as good as you have heard. It is simply outstanding that a place serving this many people can do something this perfect so often. Our appetizers arrived shortly thereafter placed on the table by a team of well-coordinated servers. Turtle soup, a Classic's Classic, is rich and well-made, a jaunt through two hundred plus years of cross-culinary pollination. But few dishes best represent the pure link to the French in the Creole canon better than the oyster and absinthe dome. Under the flaky chapeau is a briny, herbal broth studded with plump oysters. This soup is a quick jaunt to South of France to slurp oysters under the sun and sip licorice flavored liquor. By far, this is the second best domed experience in the city.

Had the meal ended there, a conclusion recommending this experience would have been easy to give. As it was the meal continued, and the assessment became more complicated. First, a service snafu developed. The wine list at Commanders Palace has the breadth and depth of a well-rounded liberal arts grad. Hidden in plain sight was a grand cru Patrick Piuze Chablis which practically begged to be ordered. It came to the table at a perfect cool temperature. First sips showcased the delicious mineral driven citrus zest that was a fantastic match with the above oyster dish. My attention diverted, the bottle was removed from the table and plunged into an ice bath. Ok no big deal, a few cold moments wont kill the wine. Surely, once someone notices the empty glass, they will refill it and I can tell them to leave the bottle out again. But time passed. Waiters, servers, bussers, managers, passed the table with eyes diverted. Eventually as my glass sat empty for long enough, Lindsay, sensing my anxiety, retrieved the bottle from the icy depths. Gone were the complex flavors and subtlety, instead it was just another too cold bottle of white wine. A bummer anytime, but a real stinker with these markups.

A veal flank came to the table riding a carriage of creole cream cheese spiked grits and crowned with sauteed leaks, asparagus, and fried leeks. I could have done without the fried leeks which were stringy and unnecessary. The veal never made it to a hay diet and neither should the diner. The meat was well-seasoned and tender, supple and a perfect midday bite of meat. For the other entree, a plate of pecan crusted fish with spiced pecans, prosecco poached crabmeat, and crushed corn sauce, Madame Chanel would suggest taking off one thing before leaving the pass. It could have been the crabmeat which was grey and stringy instead of pearl colored marbles. Or maybe remove the spiced pecans, which were both an awkward texture and flavor. But leave the corn sauce which was silky, sweet, and delicious.

Lindsay has been craving biscuits since I made an off hand comment a few weeks ago about wanting to make some. These biscuits had more in common with the yeast rolls of a school cafeteria than the flaky buttery biscuits that inspire cravings. The interior was doughy and dense and the crust dry. We should have ordered more garlic bread or more of the pastry from the oyster and absinthe dome.

The bread pudding souffle topped tableside with spoonfuls of warm whiskey sauce is still a wonderful dessert. The portion size keeps it from becoming boring. A souffle is an incredible combination of cooking and chemistry when done properly. This one is done to perfection. Less good was a dry rum cake with an ice cream whose icy temperature obscured its flavor. We quizzed ourselves on the flavor, eventually learning it was pecan. Fooled us, the smart money at the table was on tamarind.

So far this was the toughest challenge to date. On one hand, as far as brunches go, it was still better than anything else in town and food prices are fairly reasonable. On the other, after adding in booze and wine, this was an expensive meal. An expensive meal that missed the mark more often than hitting it. Maybe I got a little too worked up about the wine mishap. Hey, I enjoyed the jazz.

Commanders Palace Jazz Brunch: Is It Worth It? Feel free to skip.
Saturday and Sunday
899-8221

Dining Al Fresco

The courtyard at Martinique Bistro.

Although it's a rainy Monday morning, these past 2 weekends of beautiful weather have proven that Spring has begun, and with it the countdown has started on the fleeting outdoor dining season. When the sun is shining and the mercury reads 75° or lower, any time spent indoors seems like a missed opportunity, and that includes time spent eating.

Most of my outdoor dining is done on Saturday or Sunday during lunch, and at those times I usually have zero motivation to dress well enough to enjoy the setting of Commander's courtyard or the patio behind Bayona. Luckily, there are plenty of options casual enough to only require throwing on a pair of jeans.

Two weeks ago when I walked my dog through Exchange Alley, I could not believe how many tables The Green Goddess had set up outside. There had to be at least 40 diners enjoying Sunday brunch in the sun, and another 20 or so waiting patiently for the next available table. A few blocks away at Sylvain, the rear courtyard is usually full at all times, and that particular day was no exception. Headed toward Uptown, Martinique is always one of the first restaurants that come to mind during this time of year and is on a surprisingly short list restaurants that offers lunch/brunch on Saturday. Dante's Kitchen is also in that category, as is St. James Cheese Company, which is probably my favorite spot in the city for an outdoor lunch on Saturday.

What are restaurants to do when people are anxious to eat outside but they have no courtyard or patio? Throw a few tables out on the sidewalk, of course. La Petite Grocery and Coquette both offer front row seating to Magazine Street. The sidewalk tables at Cochon are usually full on almost every night during dinner. And although its not open for lunch on the weekends, it seems remiss to write about great outdoor dining spots without mentioning Herbsaint.

Yesterday as I drove down Freret Street, I noticed that Company Burger had set up picnic tables outside, and I had to appreciate the great lengths that restaurateurs will go to accomodate our ever so short al fresco dining season. Whether you are dining on Shrimp Henican in the courtyard at Commander's or scarfing down a roast beef po-boy on a white picnic table in the back parking lot at Parkway Bakery, be thankful that you are enjoying it while you can.

Cooking With Wine

Ahab had his white whale; I have brisket. Recently, I have become mildly obsessed with cooking the perfect brisket which is crusty and barked on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside. I am only in the beginning stages of this particular culinary obsession, but if you want to try some incredible brisket (as well as other bbq), make your way to Smokin Buddha BBQieux. Their brisket is fat and tender, with a spiced bark and rich interior. But more on the city's best barbecue later.

Mad Max sent forth a brawny and polished California Cab this week made by the folks at Five Vintners. Sourced from grapes from St. Helena, Rutherford, and Napa, this cab burst forth with red fruits and smooth tannins. Now, I could have easily grilled a fat porterhouse or thick lamb chops and knocked this pairing out of the park. But, brisket was on my mind. Specifically, a brisket that combined the benefits of braising with the glories of barbecue. Something that would not be too aggressive with the wine, but also stand up to the heavy onslaught or wine power that a California Cab brings to the table.

Marinated, uncooked brisket ready for the grill.

The Taste of Braising, the Texture of BBQ 

That is not an entirely accurate description, but let's go with it. What results in a juicy, lip smacking brisket with a deeper flavorprofile than traditional barbecued brisket while retaining more than a touch of smoke. To accomplish this, first get to marinating. Combine 3/4's of a bottle of stout red wine - Malbec will do- a glove of garlic smashed, a sprig of rosemary chopped, enough salt to fit in the palm of your hand, two bay leaves crushed, and ten or so cracks of black pepper. Mix all of this together, and pour over the brisket. Cover and marinate overnight. 

Get a smoker to hold steady at 225 degrees. I added a 3:2 mix of hickory and cherry wood chips, feel free to smoke with what the good lord gave you. Remove the brisket from the fridge and marinade; reserve the marinade. Pat dry and sprinkle some more coarse salt on top. Place in your smoker, cover and smoke at 225 for 3 hours. Meanwhile, reduce the marinade in a sauce pan until only about a quarter of it remains. 

After three hours, remove the brisket, place on a sheet of foil, pour over the reduced marinade, seal the foil, and place back on the smoker for another three hours or so. After three hours, remove from foil, place back on the smoker unencumbered for thirty minutes or so. Then slice across the grain. 

Last time I made this the Saints dominated the Lions in a playoff matchup. If everyone makes this brisket, no doubt the Saints are going to the win. Throw in the wine, and most likely we are hosting an NFC Championship game next Sunday. The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon from Five Vintners is available at Iris, Commander's Palace, Mr. B's, Houston's, Whole Foods, and The Wine Seller, where it retails for around $37.

A Vintnerview with Michelle Gueydan

Michelle Gueydan left New Orleans after high school for college in New York. After college she worked for then gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner and then a job as a private event manager eased her into the wine world. She returned to New Orleans where she is in an integral member in three wine related businesses. At Swirl, she is a "wino" helping customers choose a wine to take home. As the principal in VinoSolutions she outsources sommelier expertise to restaurants and home collectors to organize and build their wine holdings. Recently, Gueydan partnered with Brian Dias to start NOLAWineSpeak, a wine education company. Twentyish questions on the clock....

I was in college in upstate New York. Had done most my partying in high school so when I got to college found partying sort of boring and focused more on studying. Close to college was the Finger Lakes region which makes a lot of wines, so one day I just volunteered to help pull leaves at a vineyard. It was there I first learned wine could be art and not just pink stuff that got you drunk.

I had been working for a few years as the event planner for a guy who owned a real estate asset management company. My boss also did a lot of philanthropic work with Quincy Jones so we were always planning dinners of some sort. Or we were flying to a dinner and talking about wine while reading food and wine magazines. So originally pairing was something of a foray into an unknown world, but I still knew very little about wine. After a series of events on the Mediterranean, I hadn't slept in a week. I was sitting on a yacht and the steward came over and asked if I'd like a glass of wine. I said sure, whatever you have. She brought a white wine that was so perfumey and unctuous that I asked what is this. She said Chardonnay and I didn't believe her. From then on, wine became a side passion and then an obsession.

Well, that bottle of Meursault on the yacht. But I don't remember the producer or vintage or anything like that. The other bottle I chase and will never catch again was a 1905 Chateau La Tour. I was in Colorado helping my boss organize his cellar before leaving to start a job in a tasting room in Alexe Corton when I got a call that the French government would not allow an American girl such a prestigious job. So I was pretty despondent and my boss cheered me up by asking, "What should we open?" I told him the 1905 La Tour was leaking a bit. So he pulled down that bottle, a 1929 Mouton, a 1950 Haut Brion, and a 1961 Petrus. Of all those bottles, the 1905 was far and away the best with the fruit still prominent after over 100 years.

I never thought I wanted to come back to New Orleans. All of my family here has died, so there was nothing to come back to, until Katrina. And then I felt a really strong urge to come home. At the time, I was the sommelier at the Inn at Little Washington. Came down here and got a job with John Besh as sommelier at August. In general the position of sommelier in New Orleans is not as supported as a free standing position in a restaurant as in other cities. In other cities, if you are the sommelier on the floor, it is your job to help guests select wine and manage the wine list of the restaurant. As a sommelier in New Orleans you are expected to be a manager as well. So I've had this idea of a sommelier education program to make more sommeliers truly sommeliers in New Orleans. But it was just an idea until I met Brian. The goal is to see be progressing with our wine thought in New Orleans. And that is what we want to do with NOLAWineSpeak.

I can't stand formulated wine descriptions. The one I hate the most is gooseberry. I didn't have the slightest clue what a gooseberry tasted like when I started learning about Sauvignon Blanc as tasting of gooseberry. I still dont know what a gooseberry tastes like. But people use that term as if everyone is eating gooseberries all the time. Other thing I hate is wine descriptors that are awful images but used in a positive context like "wet dog" or "barnyard". Who wants to drink a wet dog?

Best way to ease the tension with customers who are apprehensive about wine is just to start a conversation with the guest. Find out what they are interested in, what they are in the mood for, what do they normally prefer to drink. Sometimes people ask me what I like to drink and I tell them it depends on the day.

Rose. Across the board there is no wine better suited for New Orleans cuisine. A dry rose, with good fruit, good weight, and good acidity is nearly perfect match for the spiciness of our food. Always enjoyed rose, but I really started liking them with food when I moved back to New Orleans.

I hate the single palate based point systems which dominate the wine world. There is value in ratings that are group efforts but just go to off a single palate? I don't like that. I went to Bourdeaux to barrel taste the '05s. We were tasting 200 wines a day and there were a lot of us. But every winery was waiting for the scores of Robert Parker before prices could be set. You could sense the stress in the room and in all of the producers while awaiting Parker's judgment.

If I made a wine, it would be an eclectic, off the beaten path varietal that would challenge me to make it into a single varietal bottling. Turning something that is usually just blended with other grapes into its own wine that is what I love and it would be a limited bottling all hand sold.

Windows on the World. Extremely Pale Rose. A great book for the intro level person is The Wine Bible. Karen MacNeil does a very good job of adding fun tidbits and making wine an interesting read. All that said, I prefer to read magazines and newsletters like Decanter and Food and Wine for wine info. Mostly because wine is always changing and books are sometimes outdated by the time the fifth chapter is written.

I like that people are more adventuresome with their palates. Nowadays, people are open to try other varieties other than Chardonnay and Cabernet. On a winemaking level the focus on sustainability and artisinal approaches are things I really like.

To enhance enjoyment at home, try new things but try them with food to make the daily task of having dinner a grander experience. Really try and think about how the flavor profiles of wine and food could work together.

Yes, but I have been pretty fortunate in that I've normally been offered a taste and not have to think, "Man, I wish I could drink that." But I found that while at August, visitors, New Yorkers specifically, thought their expertise outshined that of any local sommelier. So they would often not offer me a sip.

Vietnamese - Riesling. Tex-Mex- Tequila, my second favorite thing to drink. American Chinese - An Austrian Gruner Veltliner. Crawfish Boil - Rose.

I've pretty much drank through most of my collection I had built up. Former employer called and said he had been diagnosed with cancer and wanted to know what the most expensive bottles in his cellar were because he was going to drink them, chemo be damned. So I thought, why am I holding all these wines that one day I may never be able to drink? I had First Growth Bourdeaux and Italian wines that I drank. I still have some 1982 Margaux, Lafitte, Mouton, older Pahlmeyer. But what do I drink? My heart is in Burgundy, my pocketbook in Spain. I drink Tempranillo and Albarino. Also, drink a lot of boxed wine. James Moises is releasing a boxed Oregon Pinot (at right) that is pretty amazing in my book. Higher quality boxed wine with no chance of spoiling is on the rise.

Boucherie. Nathaniel (Zimet) and James (Denio) have managed to build a wine list that presents wines off the beaten path at an affordable price point that don't intimidate. And then of course, Commander Dan at Commander's Palace. From a revered wine list stand point, Commander's Palace best in town. From a consumer's point of view, Boucherie.

Boucherie, Cowbell, Herbsaint, and Coquette. Ohh and can I add Patois, I can't just pick four restaurants?

Hall and Oates - Chardonnay. Not because it is cheesy, but because it is a wine that was really popular back in the day. Mozart- German Gerwurtztriminer. Dr. Dre- Australian Shiraz.

Most memorable food and wine experience was at 2941 Restaurant in Virginia. The wine was a Madeira. The dish a soup sort of similar to our version of turtle soup but not quite the same. Madeira was new to me and the combination of it with the food created a third flavor, different than either the soup or the wine  which enhanced both the soup and the wine. Just a great pairing.

Desert Island wines? That is tough. 1905 Latour. 1990 E. Guigal La Landonne. Aged Vouvray-Huet would be first choice, but it doesn't matter. I just love aged Vouvray and we need more of it. Sake Daiginjo. Meursault, nothing specific because I like to many producers.

Winesday

Rene - This wine needs to settler down a bit before consumption. Intense fruit and alcohol leaps out of the glass. Spice and wood aromas dominate on the nose, but on the palate it is rich and smooth with dark fruit flavors like plum and cherry. High alcohol and oak means this requires a dish with heft. How about the braised pork cheek with grit cake at Cochon or a plate of red beans from Willie Mae's.

Peter - Not much fruit in the bouquet of this wine, but your nostrils open up with every inhale. Take a sip and there it is - a good sense of heft in the mouth with a scaled-back sour cherry flavor. The finish is not necessarily spicy, but there is definitely a mild burn going down. This puppy would pair well with Commander's Veal Tchoupitoulas with the green peppercorn demi.

Joe the Wine Guy - The 2008 Pinot Meunier from Domaine Chandon has rich, vibrant aromas of lavender, plum, and white pepper escaping from the glass. Luscious flavors of cherries, red plums and strawberries are immediately evident while inherent earthiness and brown spice characteristics develop in the finish. This medium-bodies and flavorful wine is a great match for grilled meats including veal and pork. This wine retails for $29.99 and is available at Galatoire's and GW Fins.

Vinterview

After graduating high school in New Orleans, Joe Briand enrolled at Loyola and began working in restaurants. Eventually he found his way to Herbsaint where he climbed up the ranks to general manager and wine buyer for the Link Restaurant Group. Last fall he left the Link Restaurant Group to begin working as Manager/Wine Buyer for Hopper's Carte des Vins. The new wine shop, which should open shortly, is located on Magazine St. across the street from Whole Foods. 20 ish questions on the clock.

I was working at Vaquero's with a friend when we decided to go work at this new Susan Spicer restaurant called Herbsaint. While working at Vaquero's we would get really excited if we sold $400 of margaritas in a shift. When I got to Herbsaint all of a sudden I was selling $1200 of wine a night. So there was a financial draw first into wine. But the initial group of waiters and managers at Herbsaint was very strong wine wise and we would do blind tastings on Sunday afternoons.

The wines that changed everything for me were two bottles of Burgundy. Both came from vineyards less than 2 miles apart. One was a Chambolle-Musigny that had a perfume of what I then imagined the winemaker's sexy, French wife would have smelled like. The other had that dirty, in a good way, musty, barnyard funk, it was a '96 Nuits St. George. I was fascinated that two wines from same varietal and same area could be so different.

Leaving the Link Restaurant Group was the toughest decision I ever had to make. I have a wife and son, with another on the way, and I just needed to be able to spend more time with them. Donald tried to change my responsibilites and job to keep me on and we are still very close. In the end after 10 years of working in restaurant business, I knew the demands of the job and how you really have to throw your whole self into the job. It was like a divorce, but a friendly divorce (laughs).

The misconception is that Hopper's is a wine shop filled only with high end bottles. In fact, 40% of the bottles are under $20. At Carte des Vins, I want to offer people the most bang for the buck. The core of our offerings will come from the Old World, sort of like the wine list at Herbsaint. I really like the fact that I can sell a Rhone wine for $15. A wine that was made over there with care and dedication, bottled, and shipped, and it is great for only $15 bucks. That is amazing. I'll try to turn people on to wines they haven't tried previously.

It is important for the casual wine drinker to find a retailer they trust and develop a relationship. It is easy to do. Walk into a retailer, introduce yourself, and ask them to put together a mix case of wines for you at such and such price a bottle. I dont understand why people are afraid to ask questions when it comes to wine. In every other merchant transaction, the customer has no problems asking questions. Look, when I go to wine tastings, I am constantly asking questions. Customers should do the same.

I'll tell one story about the foolishness of wine tasting notes. I was at a tasting once of German wines. And the person leading the tasting had some initials behind their name. German wines are incredibly confusing. The names on the labels, the styles, the language. I love German wines but they still confuse me. A wine buyer from a restaurant asked a question and in the question he mentioned he "got an herbal note." So the person leading the tasting says, "Yes, I get a lot of blackberry leaf." I spit my wine out and started howling laughing. Seriously, who the fuck has ever eaten a blackberry leaf? Nor remembered it how it tasted to compare it to a wine.

I don't like that kind of talk. I tend to describe wines very basically. Is there red fruit? black fruit? What is the weight like in the mouth. Heavy tannins or light? I've never had a gooseberry and I don't know anyone who has, but there it is apparently inside of every bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. I don't talk like that because the average wine drinker drinks the wine and gets discouraged because they don't taste "blackberry leaf."

After Katrina, my wife and I rebuilt a double. She got the bathroom and big walk-in closet and I got a wine cellar with a cork floor. In there, I'd say 60% is red and white Burgundy. I have a good chunk of Rhone wines, some Italian, some Germans, of course a few cases of Champagne. 2 cases of Sauterne, about the same of port. I hold some cases for some friends. All in all, I have about 400-500 bottles, but the capacity to keep around 1200.

One section of my cellar I like to call the "You don't have to ask me if you can open this wine." It is about 10 cases of everyday wines. And this is where the other wines from around the world are represented. Some great Spanish whites, these Greek white wines I really like, basic burgundies.

We eat out a lot, so I do pay attention to wine lists. Some that really impress me are Commander's Palace and Stella! The Windsor Court has really made some great strides. Sarah (Kavanaugh) has a very enviable wines by the glass program. And then of course Galatoire's.

When food is too spicy, it makes pairing wines incredibly difficult. And so being that much of New Orleans food is spicy, that can sometimes cause a problem. But in general, the food of New Orleans is based on the cuisines of the Old World where they have been drinking wine for thousands of years. I find that Rhone wines go very well with Cajun food. The wines of Southwest France also, which has similar use of one pot cooking and heavy use of sausages.

Seafood gumbo, I'd pair a pinot gris from Luxemburg because it has weight, fruit, and is not too sweet. With trout almondine, it has to be white burgundy. For grilllades and grits, a Vacqueryas or Gigondas, something from the Rhone valley, but lighter. Bread pudding is so sweet that I would want to pair it with something with a good bit of acid and lesser sweetness. So maybe a muscat based wine from the Languedoc or an Icewine.

Most people drink their whites too cold and their reds too warm. Stick that red in the fridge for 30 minutes before you open it and let it sit for 10 before you drink it. Take your whites out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to drink it. You will notice a much better wine drinking experience. Also, remember you don't have to spend a lot of money to drink aged wines. Buy a case of simple Bourgogne
Rouge or Bourgogne Blanc at $15 a bottle or so, and just sit on it for 2-3 years. Wines like that really benefit from just a few years of aging. If you can commit to leaving stuff alone for a few years, you will always have a ready supply of fantastic wine to drink. One last tip, buy white wines in winter and reds in summer. It will sort of force you not to touch them for a while, and you can get better deals because merchants are looking to last seasons whites or reds from their inventory.

We typically figure out what we are cooking first, than we pull the wine. The other day I got some fresh speckled trout from a friend. So came home, made a courtbouillon, and opened a Sancerre that had a good bit of richness.

I love rose. And sure it is cool and trendy to be into rose, but I love them. They are good with food, but they are also good without food. So in summer I drink a lot of roses. I also like mineral driven crisp whites, wines from the Jura region of France, and the perhaps the best summer wine, basic Chablis.

Windows on the World by Kevin Zraly. The Wine Atlas by Robinson and Johnson. Adventures on the Wine Route by Kermit Lynch.

I'd like to see wineries stop reacting to market first rather than paying attention to their location second. 15 years ago Syrah was planted all over California, now you can't give it away. Look, France has had 1,000 years on us to figure out what grows best where. No reason California can't figure that out also. And I am completely over the "Super" thing. the other day someone tried to sell me a Super Sicilian. Look just because you add Cabernet, it doesn't make it super.

I'd like to see more blends from California or at least more transparency in the labeling as to what grapes are actually in that wine. I've drank far too many California Pinot Noirs that have Syrah in them. Italy had a huge scandal a few years ago with some unscrupulous vintners. Look, there are vintners in the Languedoc who choose to label as a vin de pays rather than AOC because the non-AOC wines just does better on their lands. There is nothing wrong with that. Grow, bottle, and sell what grows best where you are.

A restaurant is incredibly expensive to operate. If people knew how slim the margins are they wouldn't complain about the mark up on wine. And look, that cocktail you are drinking instead of wine? That is marked up much more than the wine. I tell people this all the time, when you go to a restaurant, order wines you like and know rather than taking a flyer. If you gamble and lose, that markup hurts a lot more.

After tasting wine all day, most of the time I just want a nice, cold beer.

One case of wine with money no object? Fine, but they all get to be magnums. First, I'd get one of those bottles of Veuve-Clicquot from the 1800's they just found at the bottom of the ocean. Then 1 each of the Grand Crus from Domaine de la Romanee Conti, let's say Romanee Conti, La Tache, and Romanee-St.-Vivant. A Raveneau Grand Cru Chablis from a really great year. One bottle of First Growth Bourdeaux pre-phylloxera. A German dessert wine selection from Crocker like a Trockenbeerenauslese. A '98 Beaucastel made from 100% Roussanne. An old bottle of Saumur-Champigny from Domaine Clos Rougeard. A bottle of '51 Y'Quem. My wife's favorite champagne is 96 Demiere Ansiot, so would need a bottle of that. Finally, a Musigny from Comte de Voguey from 1978, my birth year.

2010 We Live To Eat Contest

Last summer, we turned the blog over to you guys on Thursdays with astonishing results for a contest. Guess what? This summer we are doing it again. But this year, every Friday will be your time to get your shine on. And we have real prizes to replace last year's crummy prizes: a gently used Invincible DVD, an annotated compendium to Windows 95, and lunch with Legend.

A few months ago the Greater New Orleans Chapter of the Louisiana Restaurant Association launched the We Live To Eat Campaign. The WLTE Campaign highlights the incredible bounty of delicious restaurants in the Greater New Orleans Area. One of the best things we have found about writing this blog is that everyone in New Orleans is a food expert. We love talking about where we have eaten, what we are eating, and where we are going to be eating. No one could ever accuse New Orleans of being a city of Debbie Downers. Now more than ever, the restaurants of our home town need our cheerleading and support.

So here is how the contest works. You get to tell us your most ideal day of dining in the Greater New Orleans Area. Where would you go for breakfast, what do you do for lunch, what do you eat for a snack, and where do you eat dinner. Money is no object, and there are no geographical limitations besides that the restaurants must be in the Greater New Orleans Area. Afternoon snack at Cafe du Monde followed by a cocktail at Napoleon House and dinner at Mosca's? Sounds perfect to us. Chart out your day and email us your submissions at BlackenedOut at Gmail Dot Com (or click "Contact Us" on the task bar).

Not from around here but love to visit? You can play too; we are sure you have your eating itinerary lined up before you book your flight. Nervous about using your name? Come up with an alias. Each Friday we will post your entries and allow our readers to vote on each week's winner. After six weeks, the top 6 entries will be up for consideration for the 2010 We Live To Eat Award where, once again, you the readers will vote on your favorite dining itinerary.

Here are the prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place:

1st Place - $100 gift certificate to Commander's Palace and $75 gift certificate to Drago's.

2nd Place - $100 gift certificate to Mr. B's and a $25 gift certificate to Drago's.

3rd Place - $75 gift certificate to Ruth's Chris.

Plus a whole slew of hats and t-shirts. Much better than a Windows manual.

People the world over consider New Orleans a dining destination. This mantle is not just because we have Galatoire's, Antoine's, and August. It is also because we have mom and pop po-boy shops, charming bistros, and neighborhood joints. So give us your best shot at designing the perfect day of dining.

We can't wait to hear from you.

For Lunch Today...

A long time ago on this date Americans were still British. So to celebrate the last day of Allegiance to the King of England, how about some British food. When I think of British heritage in New Orleans a couple of things come to mind. First the Bombay Club; however they are not open for lunch. Second the Garden District. Third, whooping their ass in Chalmette.

So today for lunch I would like to offer you two choices. The first is to go to Commander's Palace, drink tea with your pinky extended, and watch the markets develop. The second is to drive down to Chalmette, stop at Rocky and Carlos's, and pig out. Your choice. Because if we should take anything away from celebrating our nation's independence it is this: Tyrants honk, and democracy rules.

This would also be a good time to mention plans are in the works for a Who Dat Say/Blackened Out Bollocks Party for the Saints Chargers game. Buy a scarf, shave your head, and learn how to drink bitter beer; its time to become a hooligan.