The Incredible Edible Egg

One of my best friends from college always told me that there is but one principle to live one's life by:

"If one is good, then two MUST be better."

In regard to food, many chefs have tried to uncover all-encompassing augmentation which will improve almost any dish. Unfortunately for them, I have never come across a sushi roll which benefits from being deep fried in tempura batter, a dip in a chocolate waterfall cannot mask the texture of less-than-fresh fruit or dry pound cake, and a heavy shower of creole seasoning or Tabasco only overpowers a flavorless pieces of meat.

But if you add a fried egg to just about anything, you have increased the odds of me ordering that dish by about 50%.  And I must not be the only one easily persuaded by the temptation of a rich, flowing yolk because lately chefs have been supplementing all kinds of dishes with a fried egg. Perhaps it's the inner stoner in all of us that craves some combination of breakfast with just about any other food, but no matter whether I am completely sauced or stone cold sober, the phrase "add a fried egg" is as strong a call for me as the song of the sirens.

Below are four of my favorite dishes in the city which feature an addition of a gratuitous egg*:

• Bayou Banh Mi Special (Geaux Plates) - Owners Henry Pulitzer and Andrew Gomila take their version of the Vietnamese po-boy to another level by adding a fried egg to the combination of lemongrass grilled chicken and boudin.
• Tutto Carne Pizza (Domenica) - The staff favorite features four house cured meats - fennel sausage, bacon, salami, and cotechino - plus a fresh egg cracked in the center of the pie.
• Breakfast Burger - I remember when the waiter used to have to check with the kitchen before he let you order your burger topped with a fried egg, but now everyone's doing it. Capdeville, The Company Burger, Cowbell, and Tru Burger all feature a fried egg as an optional add-on to your burger.
• Pork Lovers Rice Plate (Tan Dinh) - How do you improve on a plate full of chargrilled pork, pork pate meatballs, pork chop, and shredded pork? Top the whole shebang with a couple of fried eggs, of course.

Did I miss out on any eggscellent dishes?  Let's hear about them in the comments.

*There, of course, other dishes in which the egg yolk plays an integral (if not) essential role.  The spaghetti with guanciale and deep fried poached egg at Herbsaint and Green, Eggs, & Ham at Vizard's are two which immediately come to mind. But here I am focusing on those dishes which are great on their own but taste even better with a gilding of the golden lilly.

Burger Bonanza: Cowbell

Cowbell

Burger - This is your typical backyard grill burger all grown up. The thick patty made from all natural beef is one of the most flavorful burgers in the city, and the grill knows what a proper medium-rare burger should look like. The bun is sublime - a soft, toasted potato roll with lots of give. Dressings are served on the side - roma tomatoes (others not in season), thinly sliced red onion, and leafs of iceberg. No pickle though.

Fries/Rings/Sides - Fries are thicker cut and more rustic; not exactly crunchy but crispy enough and delicious. I don't recall if onion rings are on the menu. The macaroni/cavatappi and cheese is a rich and creamy appetizer or burger supplement, though on my most recent visit the $6 portion appeared to have reduced in size by 50%.

Sauce - Agogo sauce is a house made mayo kicked up with sriracha, roasted garlic, honey, and "other stuff." The sweet, garlicky, kind of spicy sauce is unbelievably delicious. I like it slathered on the burger, as a dip for the fries, and as a moisturizer for my skin. Housemade ketchup has a prominent cinnamon flavor, which isn't really my thing.

Service/Ambience - The renovation of this former gas station at the end of Oak Street is a fun, eclecticly adorned, communal space to dine in. Since the weather has turned cool, the seating capacity doubles with tables out front in the parking lot and underneath the overhang. Inside there are a few deuces, several 6 tops which are often shared by multiple parties, and the bar (my favorite place to dine). The staff wears floral patterned aprons which appear to have been pulled straight from Grandma's linen drawer. Motown's greatest hits plays from the speakers, in what can be a very loud dining room.

Lagniappe - Cowbell is not a one hit burger wonder. Clam chowder, doctored up grilled cheese sandwiches, skirt steak, and a general latin flair covers the rest of the menu. The bar pours a short but interesting array of beers, housemade punches, and wines. Corkage is listed at $10,000,000,000 - give or take a few zeroes.

Price - A burger will run you $10.95 plus an extra $1 for cheese, but that price includes a boatload (or more accurately, a red and white checker basket) full of french fries.

Overall Assessment - Unlike most of the other burger specialists recently opened around town, Cowbell is a full service restaurant which just happens to serve one hell of a burger. At $11 for a burger and fries, the cost of food alone is equivalent to that at gourmet burger spots which offer fast-casual service. Sometimes we pay a few dollars more to be waited on, and that is a premium which I will gladly pay for at Cowbell - especially if I can manage to smuggle out a bottle of agogo sauce in The Folk Singer's purse.

Cowbell - Birdie

8801 Oak Street
Tues-Sat 11:30am-3pm; 5pm-10pm (till 11pm on Fri-Sat). Closed Sun-Mon.
(504) 298-8689

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

Peter - Put my nose in the glass and get this chocolate aroma. But then take a sip and the wine tastes surprisingly juicy with a little smoke. Seems remarkably smooth at first, but then about halfway through the glass I start noticing some spice on the end. It's delicious all the way around. A perfect pairing would be the andouillette in mustard sauce that I had at L'Amphitryon in Lyon back in 2007, but the cost of airfare will force me to settle for the choucroute maison from Luke. (Give me 2 lbs of pork products and take me straight to heaven.) Or I could finish my meal at Cowbell by pairing a glass with a slice of their Chocolate City.

Rene - Best to let this bottle sit and open up. On the nose, I smell cedar, a cigar box or humidor. Taste red fruit and licorice with almost a sherry-like dryness. High in alcohol but not harsh and long finish of spice. Would like to have this wine over the course of two dishes at MiLa. First the sweetbreads with truffled grits and bacon sherry jus would pair nicely with the woodsy and spice flavors. Then the braised veal cheeks would get along quite well with the juicier flavors of the wine after it has opened up.

Joe the Wine Guy - Here we have the Orogeny 2007 Green Valley Pinot Noir. This wine displays crystalline and red fruit character from grapes grown within Sonoma County's Russian River Valley. The texture is opulent, with a firm, integrated tannin structure at 14.4% alcohol. Hints of toffee from barrell aging heighten the nose and linger on the fruit-imbued finish. Enjoy this pinot noir's lush flavors with a broad range of entrees, including beef tenderloin, roast lamb or poultry, grilled pork or salmon, and especially pasta or risotto dishes laden with wild mushrooms. This wine retails for $39 and is poured at Emeril's Delmonico and Le Foret.

Rattle Rattle, Here Come the Cattle*

We've said it before, but upscale food in a downscale setting has taken over the world like an unstoppable rebel force. Whether it's Le Fooding in France or food trucks in Los Angeles, both chefs and diners are focusing less on white table cloths and more on what's on the plate.

Cowbell is probably my favorite example of this genre in the city. The decor in the renovated gas station is funky and eclectic, but without trying too hard. There are no table cloths, staff uniforms, or Riedel stemware. In effect, the restaurant has created a "scene" without trying to create a "scene". It's truly organic.

The food is pretty kick ass, too. A short menu filled with American comfort dishes like clam chowder, grilled cheese, and apple pie, plus a little Latin flair. None of the dishes are overly complicated, and most are substantial servings for the low prices.

Macaroni and cheese. In a futile attempt at distinquishment, chefs are adding everything from lobster, pancetta, edamame, and heroin to improve a dish that needs no pizzazz if done well. Cowbell's version of mac and cheese ($5) is a lesson in "less is more." Creamy but not soupy, rich like a fondue, with a bit of crunch from a breadcrumb gratin. It is excellent. One my first visit the pasta was macaroni; on the second trofie, which in my opinion worked even better.

Though when the kitchen does improvise on a classic, the result is usually successful. Take the grilled cheese sandwich filled with shreds of BBQ duck tinged with just a hint of espresso. Paired with a mug of chowder or soup of the day (potato and celery on this occasion), this works as either a starter to share or a light lunch.

Though the name implies beef, Cowbell offers a number of seafood options. Fish tacos ($14.95) are a standard menu item, with the kitchen whatever fresh fish is available. Though the grilled fillets were underseasoned on one visit, the accompanying cilantro lime crema, chayote slaw of peppers, and avocado salsa brought all the flavor necessary. The shrimp quesadilla appetizer was smallish in size for $8.95, so I would stick with a different starter.

Black beans and rice are just an example of the Latin undertones on the menu, but they are not to be dismissed as a simple side dish. Black beans are creamy but firm, and the arroz verde is a short grain rice with lots of flavor. Where's the beef? How about a skirt steak, cooked a perfect (and I do mean perfect) medium rare, with a tomato and mango salsa. Plus, a repeat performance of those black beans with inch thick rounds of fried plantain. This might be the best $17 steak dinner in the city. I have yet to try the burger, but Willy Wonka did on my first visit and we both agreed that the pattty was undercooked.

There are two options for dessert. The first is an individual apple pie baked in puff pastry, which was light and crispy on the first visit but soft and depressed on the second. The Chocolate City is a flourless cake made with a bourbon brown butter ganache that packs a punch. Both are a steal at $5.00.

The kicthen closes early - 8:00 on  weekdays and 9:00 on weekends. The dining room includes three 6-top tables, so don't be surprised if you are asked to share with another party. BYOB for now, though that could change in the next coming days.

Cowbell - Birdie

8801 Oak Street

298-8689

Lunch and Dinner Tues-Sat

* Phi Muuuuuuu