Beware the Ides of March

Roast beef po-boy from Parasol's.

When the soothsayer uttered those fatefal words to Julius Caesar, I am 99% certain that the fortune teller was not speaking of the potential dangers of a debilitating hangover caused by overconsumption of green jello shots. But the same warning applies to those revelers who will be attending the Irish Channel Block Party which kicks off today around 10:00am, when the 1000 block of Third Street will be rife with revelers who refuse to believe that today is just another Thursday. Good luck to those brave enough to drink green beer all day long.


Of course, the two anchors of this celebration are Parasol's and Tracey's, two neighborhood bars forever linked by history, controversy, and roast beef po-boys. It's been a while since I partook in the Irish Channel Block Party, so I can't say which bar I would prefer to make my homebase for the block party today and parade on Saturday. But in comparing roast beef po-boys, I can say that Parasol's reigns supreme, with it's debris-style beef and thick gravy on toasted bread whose top layer has a smear of garlic butter and heavy dash of parsley flakes.



For those in search of a more tame and traditional celebration, I have a few suggestions as well. Chef Matt Murphy has dedicated an entire week to his heritage, and the festivities continue at The Irish House through Saturday. Lovers of corned beef might venture out to the Fair Grounds for an afternoon at the races and a lunch consisting of the only guaranteed winner at the track: the corned beef po-boy. The tender, thick-sliced corned beef are piled high on french bread which you are required to slather with plenty of Gulden's spicy brown mustard. Another suprise option for corned beef: Parkway Bakery, make sure to ordered it dressed with creole mustard.

May the luck of the Irish be with you and your March Madness brackets.

Someone's in the Kitchen with Rhonda

Ronda Ruckman joined the Link Restaurant Group in August of 2010 as Executive Pastry Chef for all four restaurants in the Link empire, with a fifth on the way (Cochon Lafayette). A native of New Orleans, Ruckman is turning out elegant, seasonal desserts, while still always innovating; See Exhibit A: The Butcher Mini King Cakes which swept across the city like a summer afternoon thunderstorm. Recently Ruckman was kind enough to sit down for an interview. So let's put 20ish questions on the clock and get to know the chef whose chocolate chip cookies are the best in the world. Recipes later in week.

Was at LSU, quit college for a semester and started cooking at a tea room inside Fireside Antiques in Baton Rouge. Washed dishes, salads, made sandwiches, that kind of stuff. Then saw an ad for an entry level prep and pantry position at Juban's.

Wanted to stay in desserts and hoped to work with Norman Love, who at that time was cooking at a Ritz-Carlton in Florida. So I picked up the phone and called him. I got to talk to him because employees of the Ritz are not allowed to screen calls. Frankly, I got lucky. The day I called they had an opening in pastry. So I moved to Florida. Later, I  went to Los Angeles and was sous chef for Donald Russell at the Four Seasons. Left the Four Seasons, to open a retail bakery in Florida called Dough Monkey. Eventually, moved that business to Dallas.

When the economy tanked, Dough Monkey fell with it. We closed Dough Monkey in 2008. I was looking for an executive pastry chef gig. Ended up working at a country club. One day I was looking on a headhunter site and, again pure luck, crazy luck, there popped an ad for executive pastry chef position with Link Restaurant Group. I had always been a fan of Chef Link so it was a thrilling opportunity to cook for him at the try out.

I start with a restaurant. For instance, Herbsaint is the fine dining restaurant. So there I can work with a more complicated flavor profile. At Cochon, I want my desserts to have a comfort factor, a good combination of something warm like blueberry cobbler and something cold like ice cream. At Calcasieu, we often use desserts that mirror Cochon's desserts, but we also field plenty of special requests.

Not sure about food allergies. Never really had any personally nor any limitations. So if someone has an allergy, I always want to accommodate them immediately. Something deeper is going on though, if someone doesn't want to try something.

Often times we create by improvising. Say we run out of a specific ingredient, we sub something else and discover a new dessert. For instance, I have a dough recipe that calls for honey. Recently we ran out of honey and subbed in molasses, which in turn pushed the dough into a much more interesting flavor direction. Or I play with ratios, I'll sub out cream or sugar in a vanilla recipe and replace it with blackberry puree. And see what happens.

Cupcakes. However, before I offend anyone, know that my dislike of the cupcake trend is because I prefer a wedge of cake. Better proportions, better to eat, cake cooks better. A piece of cake is just better than a cupcake. May take cupcakes off the menu at Butcher. 

Chef and I have talked extensively about that. I understand where both Chef Link and Chef Stephen are coming from. I feel comfortable with flavors of this region. We follow seasonality and tend to rotate at least one dessert per restaurant per month. Soon peaches will get in and I will start working with them. You can go elegant with peaches or simple. I like that. But sometimes, I just want an ice cream sandwich.

Both a science and a skill. You miss a detail in baking and it will be wrong.

When I first started cooking, I went to Charlie Trotter's and had sweetbreads for the first time. That bite of food showed me what food can be. Then, first time I went to Cochon when it had been open about a year, I had the deep fried boudin and it just blew me away. That bite took me right back to my childhood.

Chocolate pudding cake. It is just so versatile and delicious. The rich, warm and moist cake lends itself to all sorts of things. First, we paired it with a cafe au lait ice cream. Now we use a salted caramel sauce and cashew ice cream. I love to make that dessert. I love to eat that dessert. I am a chocolate freak and that dessert uses Patrick Chocolate, which I think is the best chocolate in the world.

You want daily examples? (laughs) There are always ideas that don't work, but I tend not to dwell on them. I get mad and cut my losses. Recently, I tried to make a sausage cheese in brioche King Cake with Steen's glaze. When Stephen tried it, he just got this quizzical look on his face that said it all. I just could never get that idea to come together.

I like making pralines. If I am making pralines, it means everyone else is working on other things. And that they are working correctly. We have a solid system in place and when it is humming along, I can devote time to that pot of pralines. That is where I like to be in the kitchen.

Small offset spatula. I use it for everything from transporting things to icing cakes. There is a cake tester I really like. I also have an enormous chocolate knife that I love to use. It is huge. Wow, I can't believe I have favorite kitchen tools.

Real Cajun and the CIA Pastry book. The CIA book is the best for reference whenever I need a simple ratio. I go on the internet a lot as well. Cooks Illustrated's website is one of my favorites. I have a lot of cookbooks at home. My husband reminded me of this when we moved here.

Didn't have a favorite after school snack. I was a skinny kid, but have always enjoyed making cookies. They are easy for me to whip out. I make a snickerdoodle with this leatherwood honey from Tasmania. They are pretty amazing. But I am running low on the honey so I hoard it.

Snickers. I know they aren't good, but I love those things. Also, I am pregnant so I find myself craving those Drumstick Ice Cream Cones all the time. I am going to find a way to make that a real dessert.

Good flavor; not subtle and certainly not sweet. I want a dessert to be on the bold side. First and foremost, chocolate desserts need to taste like chocolate. Too often chocolate desserts are too sweet. If the flavor is there, I then want to see was it done correctly. In a creme brulee, is the custard cooked correctly? Flavor and technique make a great dessert.

If home cook really wants to pursue baking, try it more than once. Ovens vary. Learn to bake by sight and touch.

The key to the chocolate chip cookies is to melt the butter before creaming it with the sugar. But the real secret to any great cookie is the baking time. Trial runs are important. Cook the cookie, just until it is golden on the edges. Allow it to rest. Those chocolate chip cookies are also good with pecans. 

We eat at Butcher a lot (laughs). But I love small places with unexpected good food. Avenue Pub has a pleasantly nice cheeseburger. Parasol's is really tearing it up right now. The chef in there is from Mamou and he is learning to cook with confidence, his roast beef is exceptional and his gumbo is really good. Very good burgers as well. I am in love with the roast beef po-boy from Parkway. La Divina is always my gelato and espresso fix, when I could drink coffee. Man, I need to get out more.

The Roast Beef Po-Boy

If the po-boy is New Orleans' iconic sandwich, then the roast beef version probably best represents perfection on a loaf of Leidenheimer. But what defines a great roast beef po-boy? Last week I was overhwhelmed with an inexplicable craving for roast beef, to the point where I knocked out 3 po-boys in 5 days (with a Friday in Lent included in that time frame). From this recent stretch run as well as years of painstaking research, a few common denominators have emerged as representative of the city's truly great specimens of roast beef.

Gravy Quantity - This should be blatantly obvious, but dry roast beef is a cardinal sin. When the sandwich sticks to the roof of your mouth, that's not a good thing. On the other end of the spectrum, a roast beef po-boy should not be so gravy-laden that it falls apart before taking the first bite. I have a friend who measures the deliciousness of a roast beef po-boy by the number of napkins required for consumption. Perfection lies somewhere in the middle.

Gravy Quality - A roast beef po-boy is not some bastardized version of a french dip (though vice versa may be true). Au jus is reserved for lesser culinary conquests like prime rib. Nor should roast beef taste of canned beef gravy or broth thickened with Kitchen Bouqet. We're looking for a gravy built from a foundation of beef drippings cooked down and thickened to concentrate the flavor.

The Beef - In my opinion, there is no correct answer to this question. I like debris style roast beef such as Parkway.  I like sliced roast beef such as Sammy's. I like chopped roast beef like R&O's. And I like all hybrid versions in between. What's most important is that the roast beef tastes like roast beef. Augmentations such as garlic or pot roast vegetables in the style of Mahoney's, while not traditional, are acceptable.

Composition - If there is one small step which can tansform a good roast beef po-boy to a great roast beef po-boy, it is toasting the bread. Hot and crunchy french bread provides a solid foundation for piling on the beef and is an added level of protection from gravy breaching the sandwich like floodwaters pushing through the 17th Street Canal. But do not toast the bread with all of the fixings; we want crunchy and cool lettuce, tomato, and pickles.

And thus it was written.

Currently, my favorite roast beef po-boy is from Parasol's. No, I didn't mean Tracey's. The subject of much controversy at the end of last summer, Parasol's stock has actually risen in my book due to a strong to quite strong performance by a roast beef po-boy composed of debris-style beef, thick gravy, toasted bread and a lagniappe of garlic butter and heavy dash of parsley flakes across the top layer of bread (pictured above). It's like eating your favorite roast beef on garlic bread.

Tell us about your favorite roast beef po-boy in the comments.

Luck of the Irish

What can we say about St. Patrick's Day that Michael Scott has not already said? "It is the closest that the Irish will ever get to Christmas."

In my youth, St. Patrick's Day was a drunken revelry of green beer, green jello shots, crawfish, and... more green beer. Unfortunately, now that responsibility has caught up with me, I usually only celebrate St. Patrick's Day vicariously through my office secretary who takes off every March 17th. The highlight of my day is watching the Mobile Leprechaun video, which never gets old. "Who else see the leprechaun say yeah!"

The phenomenon that is the Mobile Leprechaun is just one example of how the luck of the Irish engulfs anyone and everyone on March 17th. In New Orleans, St. Patrick's Day is marked by hordes of green clad revelers descending upon the Irish Channel to drink green beer, be merry, and of course eat roast beef po-boys. In light of the Great Roast Beef Schism of August 2010, this year's St. Patrick's Day celebration will be a tale of two parties - one hosted by the new again, old again Tracey's and the other by the revitalized Parasol's. Check out this week's Gambit for Ian McNulty's writeup on the two rivals of roast beef.

Lastly, in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, here is a lucky bit of news for those whose pot of gold is filled with slow roasted duck in an orange cherry sauce.

Photo by Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com

The first Gabrielle in Purgatory dinner was such a success that we asked Chefs Greg and Mary Sonnier if they wouldn't mind cooking for us again, and they kindly obliged. Vintage Orleans presents "Gabrielle in Purgatory - Encore!" at The Uptowner on Thursday March 24th at 7:00pm. The five course menu will resurrect several of Gabrielle's signature dishes, and each course will be paired with wines to match.

The cost of the dinner is $85 per person inclusive of food, wines, tax, and tip. Seating is limited, and reservations are required. Email VintageOrleans@gmail.com to reserve your seat today, as this encore dinner is sure to sell out as quickly as the first one.

GABRIELLE IN PURGATORY

ENCORE!



What: Wine Dinner featuring the Best of Gabrielle

Where: The Uptowner, 438 Henry Clay Ave.

Date: Thursday March 24th

Time: 7:00pm

Cost: $85 per person (inclusive of wines, tax, and tip)

Reservations: VintageOrleans@gmail.com

First Course

Oysters Gabbie

A Pair of Oysters on the Half Shell Baked

With Chef Greg's Signature Artichoke Topping

Paired with 2009 Duckhorn Sauvignon Blanc

Second Course

Mixed Sausage Kabob

Rabbit & Andouille Sausages with Honey-Lavendar Mustard Sauce

Paired with 2007 E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone Rouge

Third Course

Petit BBQ Shrimp Pie

Mashed Sweet Potatoes in a Tart Shell, Topped with BBQ Shrimp

Paired with 2009 Pine Ridge Sauvignon Blanc-Viognier

Fourth Course

Slow Roasted Duck

Roasted Red Peppers, Mushrooms, & Orange Sherry Sauce

Over Shoestring Fried Potatoes

Paired with 2008 Ercavio Tempranillo Roble

Dessert

Fresh Banana Layer Cake

We hope to see you at this dinner to once again relive Gabrielle. Gone for now but not forgotten.

Tracey's: Same Old Taste in a Bright New Setting

In New Orleans, we tend to champion longevity and frown upon change. However, there are times when circumstances beyond our control leave us no choice but to adjust and to adapt. Time has taught us that change can be a good thing as long as we don't leave behind those values which are most important to us. Though we may have gone kicking and screaming, the end result sometimes leave us better off than we were before.

Case in point, Tracey's. Remember back in August when everyone was lamenting the plight of Jeff Carreras after his beloved Parasol's was sold from underneath him? Instead of wallowing in self pity, Jeff recognized that what made Parasol's was the food and the staff, so scooped up both, found a better location just a few blocks away, and opened up an improved version of his former po-boy shop. Let that be a lesson to us all in accepting and triumphing over adversity.

In terms of ambience, Parasol's and Tracey's could not be more different. Where Parasol's was simply a dark, old neighborhood bar, Tracey's is roomy and bright with plenty of natural light. The loft ceilings and double doors that open out onto Magazine Street make this a great place to enjoy nice weather like today's, and the numerous flat screens along the walls elevate the bar to one of the city's best places to catch a game.

While the surroundings may have changed, the food tastes exactly the same as it did at Parasol's. The signature roast beef is the same shreds and chunks of beef in a thick gravy. I have always been a Parkway loyalist when it comes to roast beef, but I still enjoy digging into one of these from time to time. Fried shrimp are average in size, but the crustaceans sometimes shed their outer coating. Po-boys are still served as a one-size-fits-all. A bag of Zapp's is still your best choice of side dish, and you better order two bags because the wait can sometimes stretch longer than you think.

One Saturday afternoon while we were lunching at a table outside on the sidewalk, a man walked by and huffed in disgust at the 20 person line forming inside. "Where did all of these people come from?" was his rhetorical question to us. After a few moments of contemplation, he smilingly resolved to wait his turn, took his place in line, and said, "Well, I guess it's better than waiting in line at Parasol's."

Tracey's - Par/Birdie

2604 Magazine Street

7 days per week

Parasol's... er... I mean... Tracey's?

Unless you have been completely blackened out for the last 24 hours, you probably already heard that Parasol's, the crown jewel of the Irish Channel, is being sold to new owners and that the current operator is setting up his own shop. From what we can gather from other's reports, the split is the result of a classic case of an operator's right of first refusal plus an apparent oral contract to sell which the parties failed to memoralize either in writing or with earnest money and thus the obligation was nullified via lesion beyond moiety.

But what about the roast beef? And the signed picture of Admiral Thad Allen which was prominently displayed to the left of the ordering window? And all of those people who are smoking cigarettes and drinking Guiness in the bar at 11:30am on a Tuesday? The answer is simply: I don't know, but I am quite jealous of those aforementioned bar flies and want to know (a) what they do for a living and (b) where that job was on career day.

If history is any indicator, sometimes divorces work out best for both parties. (See La Petite Grocery and the Schultes; Tommy's and Irene's.) But it is nearly impossible to replicate atmosphere, especially when it is based on 58 years of history. Will Tracey's have the raffish qualities of Parasol's dining room - the low ceilings, school cafeteria chairs, and dim lighting? Will customers order their sandwich at the kitchen window and then make their way to the bar to pay separately for their Barq's in the bottle and bag of Zapp's? Will the bar flies follow to Magazine Street?

Then again, does any of the above matter? Isn't it all about the roast beef? The one-size only, 8 inch po-boy filled with a hybrid of sliced and shredded beef in a thickened gravy. Jeff Carreras has been running that kitchen for a decade, which means that he can cook that same roast beef in his sleep. Why should we expect anything different at Tracey's? On the other hand, we know nothing of the po-boy skills of the alleged new owners who hail from Florida.

Truth be told, I have always been a Parkway guy, but I respect Parasol's and indulge in their po-boys about once a year, most recently two months ago to the day. But even though I may not be a regular, I take comfort in knowing that I can always pull up to 3rd & Constance when in need of a dose of "only in New Orleans." As the future has yet to be written, we don't know the fate of Parasol's or Tracey's. But I do know one thing for certain:

You are seriously craving a roast beef po-boy right now, aren't you?

Ode to Lost Sandwiches

The following list includes sandwiches dat ain't dere no more or ain't good no more:

1. Ruth's on Broad Street - Steak Po-Boy: Garlic bread, slathered in bearnaise, layered with sliced filet mignon, and topped with a few onion rings. Came with a side of shoestring fries for like $18. The devilish delight of eating a sandwich in a place so clubby, elegant, and borderline important elevated this sandwich to the realm of decadence. We can't talk about it anymore though, because we start to get teary eyed.
2. Parasol's - Roast Beef: Wow. Did we just say that? Yes. Here is why. On a recent visit $9 got me a barely 6 inch po-b0y dressed. Either I am getting bigger or those po-boys shrink every time I go there, both are strong possibilities. Look at the name of the sandwich again; its po-boy not rich-boy. A recent meal there caused Rene's arteries to swell up and his tongue to lose its ability to taste anything. The deer Rene had lunch with explained it best saying, "too f&cking salty." Maybe it is good on St. Patrick's Day, but what isn't?
3. Domilise's -The Whole Damn Menu: Again the prices are way to high for a po-boy. If you are going to stand in line for 2 hours, then the po-boy should be amazing. Everything at Domilise's is "just OK" except the roast beef which is not OK. We realize this is a neighborhood place, a place "you have to now what to get," a place where they "have to know who you are," and a place that people not from the Sliver by the River don't understand. And guess what, we are ok with that. All we are saying is if the Manning brother's had been fans of Parkway or Liuzza's, they are looking at a decade of Super Bowl rings instead of just two.
4. Jesuit High School - Chicken Sandwiches: On 10 minute break, a buck-fifty got you a plate of fries, a bag of milk, and a sometimes juicy, sometimes dry fried chicken sandwich. Sure, it's still there, but we arent.
5. Dino's Pizza (next to the Boot) - Was this a sandwich? Not really, but after leaving the Boot on 50 Cent (the monetary unit, not the rapper) Night, nothing was better. Folding over that grease laden flap of bread sodden with canned tomato sauce and stringy cheese provided much delight to Peter. And at the end of the day, it was bread, cheese, and sauce, that sounds like a sandwich to me. Plus, the place sowed the seeds of late night pizza love that most of us (OK, really just Rene) perfected in college.
6. Cafe Adelaide - $30 Po-Boy: We honestly can't remember exactly what made up this sandwich, but we think it went something like this: veal daube and a sunny side up quail egg with a truffle and foie gras emulsion. This po-boy first caught our attention on the Commander's Palace episode of After Hours when Ti Martin and Lally Brennan offered it to host Daniel Boulod as a challenge to his $30 hamburger. Peter tried to order it once over the summer, but alas it was no longer being offered because it clashed with the COOLinary menu. Maybe one day it will return.

For Lunch Today...

No one reads the blog on Fridays. Its ok, most of the blog's friends dont really work on Fridays. Most of its readers aren't trying to procastinate, they are trying to sober up. They dont need us. The blog has some really crappy friends. This one time one of our friends stole the blog's last beer and replaced it with a wine cooler.

On Fridays when the blog is feeling lonely it finds a Stackpole and goes to Parasols. It orders 3-4 Guinnessi, a couple po-boys, 2 shots of Bushmills, and some onion rings. Then it washes it all done with a Irish Car Bomb, goes home, puts on Boondock Saints, and calls it a day.