Five-Star Edition » By Tom Fitzmorris » No Advertising » Thursday, July 28, 2005 *New Orleans Food Almanac: Eight Years, Robespierre, Hamburger Today's Flavor: California Rolls Food Link of the Day: Sushi Site Recipe: Marinated Shrimp With Artichokes Tom's Dining Diary *Back To The Wall: Well And Good Today's Best Question: Young Teen Birthday Dinner *Exclusive to the Five-Star Edition Today is Thursday, July 28, 2005 Weather and Skies: The cool front should be here tomorrow, but don't expect much from it. A ball of thunderstorm activity still hovers nearby. The moon is about gone from the evening skies, so if it's clear, stargazing will be good. Eight years ago, I published the first Internet edition of this publication. The New Orleans Menu has been published since January 3, 1977, starting as a four-page biweekly print newsletter, evolving into a monthly magazine, then a quarterly book. On a lark, I assembled some of my articles, recipes, and reviews into an e-mail newsletter on this date in 1997. I'd never heard of such a thing, and wondered if were even legal to do so. (There were a few e-mail newsletters at that time. I just didn't know about them.) But nobody stopped me, the subscription rolls grew quickly, and after a few months I increased the frequency from weekly to tri-weekly and finally to five times a week. There are millions of e-mail newsletters now, but this was one of the earliest ones, I'm proud to say. Thank you for reading it! Potatoes are an American vegetable. They didn't arrive in England until this day in 1586, when Sir Thomas Harriot brought a primitive form of them from South America to Britain. People didn't take to them at first, but once they did, they became the overwhelming favorite that they remain today. I warn you in advance, this is gross. On this date in 1794, Maximilien Robespierre got the guillotine as a large, cheering crowd looked on and the French Revolution continued in its bloody way. One of the people in the crowd was the young Antoine Alciatore, who would later open the New Orleans restaurant that bears his name. Years later, when he was learning to be a cook, he watched his mentor slice across a beef tenderloin. The round, red exposed surface brought back the memory of the cut neck of Robespierre. At Antoine's, he created a dish involving a large cylinder of tenderloin with a chunky demi-glace with sweetbreads: filet de boeuf Robespierre. You can still get this at Antoine's by special order. But try not to think about this story when you eat the dish--which is, by the way, excellent. One of many claimants to the honor of having invented the hamburger was Louis Lassen, who ran a sandwich joint called Louis Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut. (My information says it's still there, serving great hamburgers to Yalies, and still run by Lassen's great-grandchildren.) The date they claim for Louis's breakthrough is today in 1900. It was around that time that hamburgers spread rapidly through the eateries of America, but other equally credible stories of its invention abound. Here's a story on the place. Who Sez? And Why? Today is allegedly National Cheesecake Day. I like cheesecake enough that I make them whenever I have a big bunch of people coming over. What I hate: cheesecakes covered with fruity glop. The best cheesecake is very basic. Mine is flavored a bit with orange juice and zest.   California Rolls The easy voice of Tom Fitzmorris with Today's Flavor. The first kind of sushi experienced by most people is the California roll. Many people never get over their taste for it, which explains why California rolls are the most popular item in the world of sushi. There's nothing raw in it. It's avocado, cucumber, crabmeat--usually fake crabmeat--and a seaweed wrapper that is sometimes inside of the rice and sometimes outside. California rolls are usually garnished with flying fish roe. The California roll was invented in America, at the Tokyo Kaikan restaurant in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Its popularity made it spread rapidly not only though America but also back to Japan, where they seem to like it a great deal. Those who are dogmatic about sushi deride the California roll as being beneath their notice. I see no reason for that, even though I almost never order them. The function of the California roll as training sushi is very important. Once you get used to the taste and texture, you can move on to better things. Any California roll fans out there? Who makes them well? Are they "fake" sushi? What else have you got to illuminate, infuriate, or postulate? Give your opinions, suggestions, and preferences--and read those of others--at: http://phorums.neworleans.com/foodfest/viewtopic.php?t=7598 Marinated Shrimp With Artichokes LeRuth's was a trendsetter and a fabulous place to eat. Here is one of many dishes that Warren LeRuth created to wow palates with. It seems a little old-fashioned now, but that doesn't make it any less good. The marinated shrimp and artichokes can be served over greens or cooked, chilled pasta as a salad. Mayonnaise marinade: 1/2 cup Creole mustard 2 eggs 1/2 Tbs. salt 1/3 tsp. red pepper 1 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup tarragon vinegar 3/4 cup chopped parsley 1 cup chopped green onion 3/4 cup chopped chives 2 lbs. medium-large shrimp, peeled and deveined 2 cans artichoke hearts, drained and cut into quarters 1. The sauce is a flavored mayonnaise. Make it by mixing the mustard, eggs, salt, and red pepper in a food processor. (You can also use a wire whisk in a bowl.) 2. Add the oil a few drops at a time while continuing the blend the egg mixture. When the mixture begins to "take" and get a mayonnaise- like consistency, you can increase the oil addition to a thin stream. Blend until well mixed. 3. Add the vinegar, green onions, chives, and parsley. 4. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil and plunge the shrimp in it for about eight minutes--until they turn pink and are firm. Drain them well and allow to cool about five minutes. 5. Blend the shrimp and the artichokes into the sauce. Cover the bowl and put it into the refrigerator to marinate for at least one hour. Serves four to eight. California Rolls And Other Facts This is a very good reference site on the subject of sushi: http://www.thesushibar.com/sushi_chipcolumn.shtml Thursday, July 14. I slept late, still on Alaska time. I should have planned to take the rest of the week off, but it's back to a full work day today. Not easy after cruising for a week. A record was broken in my absence: over 10,000 e-mail messages arrived. Most was junk, but even the ones of importance ran into the hundreds. That and other logjams prevented me from getting a full newsletter out today. I thought about writing my journal at least aboard the ship, but in fact I did no work at all the entire time. Mary Ann always goes into shock after a cruise because of the money we've spent on it, and declares that we will be cutting back on dining out. But what always happens is what happened today. The kids, so accustomed to having meals served to them this past week, said that we needed a debriefing luncheon at Trey Yuen. Which we had. The lunch was ridiculous. Each of the four of us got a different chicken dish, because nobody could agree on any one or even two of them. It turned out that they weren't all that different: the same fried cubes of chicken, with different sauces. I think they maybe should cut the chicken smaller. All was well at the radio station. Richard Dominique reported that some guest hosts were better than others. The big development is that the switch to Air America--an all-liberal talk show network--will occur not next week but on the twenty-fifth. My show has been left in place, but it remains to be seen how much they'll try to fiddle with it. But I've been through this before, more than a few times. The daily story of a man, a woman, and the restaurant they love Book 1, Page 132. Well And Good. "There's no way to turn the water off?" asked Julie. "Surely you can do it at the meter, can't you?" "We even tried that, after turning off all the main valves," said Benton Didot, on the other end of the phone. "It just keeps on coming. We're looking for other water mains, and we're trying. . . oh, good. That worked." "What?" "One of my guys just finished cutting the pipe and tying a piece of radiator hose around it with clamps. Now he's drenched, and it's like a lake in here. Shall I call someone to come out here and take care of this?" "How did it happen?" "They were cutting through a wall where there were no pipes coming out of any kind, and this thing was inside for some weird reason." "Is it clean water coming out? It's not like, sewage or anything, I hope." "Not that I can tell. Clean clear water." "Well, I guess you can handle it better than I can," Julie said. "Go ahead." "What was that all about?" Winifred asked. "They cut through a pipe that seems to be getting water from nowhere, because they can't turn it off. And now the place is flooded." "Uh-oh," said Winifred. "I think I know what that is. Uncle Bobby told me a few years ago that he had to disconnect the water from the sofa fountain, and the same thing happened. He found out that the K&B people had put in a water well when they built the place." "A water well? In New Orleans?" "That's right! Crazy, right? I forgot all about that." "Well, that solves it," said Julie. "All they need to do is find the switch for the pump and turn it off." "It won't work," said Winifred. "It's a free-flowing artesian well. The water comes up all by itself. But I love this. Once they get it fixed, we can be the only restaurant in New Orleans where people don't have to decide between bottled water and tap water. We can serve them our own spring water!" "Did you ever taste it?" asked Julie. "No. Maybe we'd better. I hope it's not like that Slidell egg water. Yuck." "Me, too. Well, look, let's get out of this jailhouse and figure out where you're going to live." "I can't wait," Winifred said. She flashed what seemed like 78 perfect teeth, and all the traffic in the courthouse hallway stopped to look at them. Fictional. To be continued. An Urgent Question Young Teen Birthday Dinner "Let's Squeet" says: "Looking for ideas for our 13-year-old daughter's birthday if we wanted it to be a meal with her girl friends. She's been to the Melting Pot in Baton Rouge which was a blast. She's also been to Shogun, with the chef flipping food everywhere, even into the girls' mouths, and they absolutely loved it. I'd like to find another restaurant in the New Orleans area (without repeating one of these ideas) that could offer the same type of atmosphere--entertaining while they talk and eat." Do you have an answer, a comment, or another question? Post it on our messageboard: http://phorums.neworleans.com/foodfest/viewforum.php?f=11 "Tis not her coldness, father, That chills my labouring breast; It's that confounded cucumber I've ate and can't digest." Richard Harris Barham. NEW ORLEANS MENU DAILY » FIVE-STAR EDITION Volume Seventeen, Number Thirteen Thursday, July 28, 2005 Restaurant Review and Recipe Archives Talk Food with Tom Messageboard Eat Club Event Reservations Ask Tom Fitzmorris (Priority Response for Subscribers Only) I hope you have a great New Orleans meal today!     Tastefully yours, © 2005 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. For information on your subscription, to change your address, to cancel, or to order subscriptions for friends, write 5star@nomenu.com.