In
Part 1 of my New Orleans Travelogue, I stuck with the "Old Guard" - traditional places, like
Galatoire's,
Felix's Oyster Bar, and
Mr. B's Bistro, serving mostly traditional dishes. For a long time, it seemed like this was all you could find in New Orleans. New or old, it was as if every place was required by the Napoleonic Code to offer gumbo, shrimp remoulade, étouffée, and blackened redfish. You could tell the more contemporary places because they would affix a sprig of thyme or rosemary like a flag post in the middle of the plate.
That kind of culinary solipsism is sometimes one of the trade-offs of a city with such a passionate food culture. We saw much the same thing on our visits to Spain: the food is mostly outstanding - if you like Spanish food. But nobody talks about the Italian restaurants in Spain. Still, during our more recent visits to New Orleans - post-Katrina - things seems to be changing. The city not only has more restaurants than it did before the hurricane and floods (nearly 500 more, according to Tom Fitzmorris' count at
The New Orleans Menu), it seems to be more open to a greater variety of restaurants.
To start exploring what's new, I met up with good friend, talented chef, and Louisiana native Chad Galiano (a/k/a
Chadzilla), who returned home this past year after an extended sojourn in South Florida. We had an ambitious plan to hit three spots in the Central Business District for lunch in one day, though sadly ran out of steam after only two (I suspect New Orleans' liberal open container policy - are "go cups" also in the Napoloenic Code? - had something to do with it).
Pêche
Pêche is a new addition to the small stable of restaurants opened by chef Donald Link. After first making a name for himself at
Herbsaint, Link returned to his Cajun roots with
Cochon, which opened only a couple months after Katrina (and which was
one of the best meals of my last visit to New Orleans).
Cochon Butcher, a butcher shop and sandwich shop around the corner, followed soon after. As their names suggest, Cochon is largely dedicated to the pig in all its glorious forms, while Pêche revolves around seafood.
So where better to start than with a big seafood platter?
(You can see all my pictures in this
Peche flickr set).
Pêche's seafood platter was mostly a compilation of items that can also be ordered a la carte from the raw bar section of the menu. Oysters come from three different sources along the Gulf (on our server's recommendation, I punctuated them with a dash of the house-made habañero and sweet potato hot sauce on the table). Fresh head-on Gulf shrimp are steamed and chilled in their shells, retaining all their sweetness. A mound of smoked tuna salad has the smooth texture of deli tuna, but with a delicate perfume of wood smoke. Tiny crab claws swim in a soft vinaigrette brightened with chili and mint. A seafood salad combines cubes of raw tuna, tender cooked shrimp and fresh avocado.
I fear I will live out the rest of my years vainly trying to recreate the glory of the
massive, over-the-top seafood platter we had at
Au Pied de Cochon this summer; but on a more modest scale this resonated in all the same ways. There is something incredibly indulgent about having the bounty of the local waters laid out before you like this - fresh, pure, and essentially unadorned.
(continued ... read on for Root, Coquette, Bar Tonique, and Restaurant R'evolution)