Restaurant August

Restaurant August
301 Tchoupitoulas St.,
New Orleans, LA 70130
504.299.9777
http://www.restaurantaugust.com/

I had seen John Besh cook in the show, "The Next Iron Chef" and thought his food was creative and interesting, so as soon as I knew I was going to New Orleans I made a reservation at his restaurant. We opted for the five course tasting and in addition I also ordered the wine pairing.

amuse bouche

Warm salad of pieds du cochon
veal sweetbreads, hearts of palm and black truffle
Marquis de Perlade, Pierre Sparr, Brut, Alsace, Sparkling N.V.

This was a great opening dish. The sweetbreads were crunchy on the outside, perfectly seasoned and moist and tender on the inside. The pieds du cochon we meaty and provided a textural contrast to the sweetbreads and the hearts of palm tied the whole dish together with a crispness and a freshness with the microgreens providing a little acid to cut through the richness of the cochon and sweetbreads. The wine was just slighly sweet, sparkling and refreshing to help cleanse the palate.

yard egg raviolo with brown butter and sage
Pinot Blanc, Robert Foley, Napa Valley, 2007

The raviolo was like a treasure waiting to be opened. Once you cut into it, the warm egg yolf came spilling out mixing with the brown butter.With each spoonful you get two different kinds of richness and a luxurious texture, but it was not heavy. It was like having an egg sunnyside up at a greasy spoon after a night of partying. The trufflewas earthy and did not let the dish get out of control. The wine was dry to cut through the richness and reset your mouth for the next bite. Yum!

Lacquered Berkshire pork belly with
Lousiana crawfish, olives and blood orange
Bourgogne, "Laforet," Joseph Droubin, 2006

It's pork belly what more of a description do you need? This pork belly was cooked nicely and had a lot of flavor. The main thing that made this interesting was the use of olives. The pork belly was seasoned well, but when you added some olive to the the fork; it added a saltiness that almost changed the flavor to more like bacon. I have never had that combination before, it was great.

Slow braised kobe beef short rib
rapini, baby root vegestable and rosti potato
Cabernet Savignon, Ehlers Estate, St. Helena, Napaa valley, 2005

The progression of each dish was awesome until this course. It was a beef short rib that was braised. It was tasty, but had one note flavor. I did not really like the rosti potato, it was like a soggy gnocchi.

Napoloen of nougatine
with Valhrona chocolate bavarois
and salted toffee ice cream
Orange Blossom Muscat, "Essensia" Quady, Madera 2005

Things finished well with dessert. The muscat had a nice floral scent to and an orange color to it. The way this dessert was construct when you cut straight down into it, the flavors, temperature and textures varied. First you get the sweet, slightly salty, cold ice cream, then the crunchy, slightly chewy nougatine layer, and then the rich bavarian cream at the bottom. The muscat matched well with the dessert, but was a little too thicj and syrupy. A good dessert overall.

Closing desserts

Commander's Palace New Orleans

Commander's Palace
1403 Washington Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
http://www.commanderspalace.com/new_orleans/

FOIE GRAS “DU MONDE”

Bourbon braised fig and foie gras beignets with

vanilla cracked coffee beans, foie gras café au lait

and chicory coffee “mist”

These were not really foie gras beignets, they were more like beignets with a piece of seared foie gras on top. It did not really matter because it was still a good opening. The beignets were light and fluffy and the sauce was just sweet enough to complement the nicely firm, seared piece of foie. The pecans added a textural contrast with a crunch that tied the dish together.

GRIDDLE SEARED GULF FISH AND SHRIMP

I forget what kind of fish it was; some kind of white fish. I am not a huge fan of cooked fish; I would rather have sushi, but this fillet was well seasoned and cooked to where it was flaky, but not too firm. The seasoning that coated the fish added just a bit of spice to add another level of flavor. The shrimp were cooked properly and were good, but nothing special.

CREOLE BREAD PUDDING SOUFFLÉ WITH WARM WHISKEY CREAM

I wondered how this would turn out because I though that a bread pudding would be too heavy to become light and airy like a soufflé should. The texture was a mix of the two different pastries. The outside was a crunchy crust of the bread pudding which contrasted with the warm and light inside. Add the whiskey cream added a luxurious texture to the entire dish. Albeit the cream was a little too sweet, but a good dessert overall.

PONCHATOULA STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE

Local strawberries on a fluffy buttermilk biscuit with powdered sugar and Chantilly cream

I had no idea that strawberries were in season in Louisiana and supposed how exquisite these strawberries were. These strawberries were plump, firm, and sweet with just a hint of tartness and full of strawberry flavor. It was like eating strawberries for the first time again. I have not tasted anything even close to these in California.

Here is the farm where they get these strawberries from:

http://www.lastrawberryfestival.com/index.html

Cafe Du Monde

Cafe Du Monde, French Market
800 Decatur Street, New Orleans, La, 70116
www.cafedumonde.com

The Original Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on Christmas Day and on the day an occasional Hurricane passes too close to New Orleans.

The Original Cafe Du Monde is a traditional coffee shop. Its menu consists of dark roasted Coffee and Chicory, Beignets, White and Chocolate Milk, and fresh squeezed Orange Juice. The coffee is served Black or Au Lait. Au Lait means that it is mixed half and half with hot milk. Beignets are square French -style doughnuts, lavishly covered with powdered sugar. In 1988 Iced Coffee was introduced to the cafe. Soft drinks also made their debut that year.

Beignets were also brought to Louisiana by the Acadians. These were fried fritters, sometimes filled with fruit. Today, the beignet is a square piece of dough, fried and covered with powdered sugar. They are served in orders of three.

Mason's Restaurant

Mason's Restaurant
1116 15th St
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 492-1960
www.theparkdowntown.com

amuse bouche
I think the dough was pate a choux with stuff with a little Point Reyes blue cheese topped with a jam/jelly. It was a nice little bite of creaminess and saltiness form the cheese that matched well with the sweet topping.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup:
It was wet and rainy when we ate here a few weeks ago. A nice bowl of soup always hits the spot on nights like these. It was a luxuriously creamy, velvety and simple.

Grilled Niman Ranch Dry Aged Ribeye:
Ah, the good old ribeye, my favorite cut of beef for steak. This was my second choice since my partner ordered the cassoulet. The meat was buttery and cooked to my requested temperature of medium rare. The salsa was a little strong, so I just scapped most of it off since a litttle went a long way. The polenta was good, but not as creamy as I would have liked it and the rabe was crunchy and made me feel a little less guilty of eating red meat.

The Park Cassoulet
Duck confit, duck sausage, and pork belly, what more do you need? OK maybe a little foie, black truffle and caviar might make it sound better, but not necessarily taast better. The duck confit was good. How good? My partner ate all of it before I could even ask to get a sample. The sausage was tasty and the beans were good. The only thing was that the bread crumb crust was a little overseasoned.

Spiced Chocolate Almond Cake
It was tough deciding between this and the molten cake. When it arrived at our table, the almond cake was a little molten anyway so I do not think we missed out. The almond flavor was definitely there, but not overpowering. The cherries and gelato provided a nice textural and temperature contrast. The one thing that could be improved upon is to give me more next time!

This is the fourth or fifth time I have been to Mason's in the last year and I have had all good meals there. A few little tweaks here and there, it would have been almost a great meal. The one thing I do not like about Mason's is their off the shelf, room temperature bread. It's not the best way to start a meal there.

Edible Crawl for a Cure

Edible Crawl for a Cure is a gourmet food and pub crawl through more than a dozen, primarily independent Downtown and Midtown microbreweries, wine bars, restaurants, and coffee houses. An anticipated 1,500 crawlers will participate in this "Fun-Raiser" for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which funds research and care centers (including UC Davis and Sutter hospitals locally) to fight CF and care for the more than 30,000 in the US that have cystic fibrosis. The goal is to raise awareness of this genetic disease of the lungs and digestive system that currently has no cure, to focus on bringing research dollars to the Sacramento chapter of CFF, and to enjoy an amazing walk across the Central City. The event is the brainchild of midtowngrid.com and the Sacramento Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Brew it up!

Irish Amber: Lightly hopped and with just a touch of roasted malt flavor, this smooth bodied
Irish style amber ale is a year-round favorite

Azul served sopes, quesadillas, and taquitos and their Jamaica Margarita

The L Wine Lounge served thin crust pizza and sangria

Butch and Nellie's served chocolate mint chip gelato. It was pretty good so we decided to try their vanilla chocolate mix.

The Buckhorn Grill served a mini version of their tri tip sandwich, Yik Yak salad and a 2006 Sycamore Lane Cabernet.

Old Soul served a variety of finger food; olive, blue cheese, artichole crostini, macaroons, brittle and three types of coffee

Bistro 33 served Yellow Label Sparkling Wine or Samuel Adams Octoberfest Beer and a cold and flavorless pork taco.

Mason's gourmet Mac and Cheese

Zocalo served tequila, bloack bean empanadas and a veggie quesedilla.

Sanad's Mediterranean Deli

This was a fun event. The weather was perfect, the company was good and the drinks aplenty. I even got to meet a few fellow bloggers:

http://munchie-musings.blogspot.com/

http://justeileenandsue.blogspot.com/

Cafe Rolle

Cafe Rolle
5357 H Street
Sacramento, CA 95819-3544
(916) 455-9140
caferolle.com

Chilled Foie Gras served with baguette.
Chef Rolle’s Foie Gras is made from the same recipe that has made his father’s shop known for having the best Foie Gras in Lyon!

Two huge slices of foie gras. It was rich and buttery, had a meaty texture, and for me hard to describe the taste. It was good. It is like trying to describe butter. Do you know anyone who would argue that butter does not taste good? I think not.

Hot Brie and Salmon Sandwich
Melted brie cheese on smoked and cooked, Gravloks style or poached salmon with spring mix, with dill crème fraiche

This was a great sandwich. The bread was crust was crunchy on the outside and the inside of the bread was warm and tender. The salmon was flavorful, the brie provided another textural contrast and creaminess and the dill creme fraiche tied everything together. It was served with a mixed green salad with, I think, a Dijon mustard vinaigrette.

Chocolate and toffee Crème Brûlée

Of the crème brûlées that I have eaten, this was the first one with a caramelized sugar top that actually made the cracking sound as I broke through the top. The chocolate crème was subtle with little bursts of chocolate and toffee dispersed throughout. Very nice way to end the meal.



Overall, I had a very good lunch and will return for dinner. If you have time check out some of the books they have laying around. Apparently Chef William Rolle's father knows Chef Paul Bocuse and they even mention Sacramento in one of the books.