Lunch at Coop’s Place
I had lunch at Coop's Place this afternoon- the dinner I brought with me on the plane froze overnight in the little hotel fridge. Coop's is a dive on Decatur Street in the Quarter, oriented mostly to tourists, no doubt, but the food is good and reasonably priced. I was first introduced to it on Mardi Gras day, 2006, when Eric took us there for lunch. There's a cat sleeping soundly in her bed on the wide window sill. The couple who sat next to the window reached out to pet the cat. "Don't wake her 'til after lunch" the waitress called out, "otherwise she'll be dancin' on all the tables". I was at Coop's last at the end of January 2007- the last time I was in New Orleans. It, and the Quarter, were virtually empty then, but today Coop's is full, and I can see the Quarter beginning to fill. Oops- the kitty has awakened. She's scratching herself and preening, stretching her body with front paws hanging from a pane, and peering out at the passersby outside her window. It is a wonder to me how she slept through all the commotion in here. "What's the Redfish Belle River", I ask the waitress. It's on the blackboard, but not the menu. "I don't know. What's the Redfish Belle River", she yells out to the manager/bartender. "Cripsy fried filet topped with crawfish and – do you know what etouffé is ?" -I assure him I do – and served over rice". Sounds good to me. The service is pretty slow here today, not like the Mardi Gras day, when the place was packed to the gills. The waiter had plates stacked all the way up his arm and was snaking his way with a sinuous grace through the throngs waiting to jump on any table that might be opening up. You can read my description of our lunch there, and the waiter's great handling of the Mardi Gras crowd at Coop's Place at Blogstream Pain Perdu. The kitty's name is Stella- an appropriate New Orleans name. She flounced around some of the banquettes, and got a belly rub from a gentleman at the table next to mine before going back to sleep. The redfish was fabulous (although a wreck on my blouse) smothered with mushrooms, crawfish tails and a spicy sauce. And I'd forgotten how good the "Creole green beans" are- spicy with big chunks of tomatoes. "What are you eating?" asks the guy at the next table, "it looks good". "It is good, and way more than I can eat. Where can you go and spend less than $20 on a great meal, and have enough leftover to take for dinner? " I asked as I packed the rest to go. "That's true." "I always tell people about this place. I told someone in the airport yesterday. It's good to know that natives eat here, too" I said. I had been listening in on their conversation. "You're not a native"? "No, an expatriate. One of the many on that LA to L.A. path". We chatted a bit about the places that everyone feels compelled to dine when in New Orleans, and their relative value, as opposed...
read moreSitting in a Starbuck’s in New Orleans
Well, I wouldn't normally be sitting in a Starbuck's in New Orleans. I like to support the great local coffee shops like Community Coffee on Esplanade, Rose Nicaud in the Marginy, En Vie in the Quarter, or even the old tried and true tourist icon Cafe du Monde. But I checked into Harrah's Hotel last night, and exited on the Poydras side instead of the Canal Street side, and found myself wandering around uptown- a new area for me. (BTW, New Orleans is probably the only city in the world where uptown in south, and downtown is north). I walked along the River walk, and passed the thanks to Katrina, now infamous Convention Center, which is bustling with conventioneers. The Starbucks is situated on the outer rim of another luxurious hotel, the Marriott. Last night I exited the I-10 at the also now infamous Superdome exit. I heard someone on the radio say a few days ago that the decline of public support for the war in Iraq began with Katrina. Once again, New Orleans gave from its blood to this country. It's my contention that the city has always given more to this country than it's given back. Would that they'd start now. I am staying at Harrah's courtesy of good family friend Leora Gonzalez, who is sharing her luxurious"stay-cation" suite with me. I had a much needed and fabulous night's sleep, after a grueling week of work, and day of travel across country- first flight was a half hour late and the second was an hour late. And regardless of recession, the airports were packed. Leora is comped the suite because she spends hours sitting in their casino, to which she treated me to a tour of at 11:30 last night. "Play the slots" she urged, " you'll probably have beginner's luck". We'll...
read moreWelcome
I am Gisele Perez, native daughter of New Orleans, Louisiana, who was transplanted to Los Angeles as a young child, along with a large number of residents of the 7th Ward of New Orleans. I began a blog in the wake of the flooding that besieged that city in the summer of 2005. It has been posting at another platform since then on my journey form LA to L.A> and points in between. As of today pain perdu is moving here to Typepad. I will be in New Orleans for the next 9 days, attending the Jazz and Heritage Festival. I'll be following some chefs, food vendors and great home cooks, as well as, of course, hearing some fabulous music, and reporting back some tasty tidbits here. Please check in, and please visit http://painperdu.blogstream.com to read up on the past 3 i2 years of my LA to L.A....
read morePassover Seder 2009
Wanted to share a little clip from my recent Passover job. It’s taken me a while to figure all this video stuff out, but here we are. Now that I have, there’ll be more video clips to share. You’ll see Sarah (complete with baby Chloe) in the first shot, whose seashore themed baby shower I wrote about last fall, with her new...
read moreThe Caterer’s Garden – an Update
Here are a couple of Cal- Med style menus highlighting the produce of the garden. Also some pics of the freshly planted little seedlings. Ciao, Gisele www.smallpleasurescatering.com Menu #1 Mesclun Mix of Field Greens and Herbs with Roasted Red and Yellow Beets, Walnuts and Goat Cheese Garnished with Pansies and Served with Balsamic Vinaigrette*** Fresh Pea Soup Puree Garnished with Mint Cream *** Pan Roasted Salmon Served with Swiss Chard, Brown Butter, Mixed Medley of Cherry Tomatoes and Fingerling Potatoes *** Pear Frangipane Tarts Menu #2 Salad of French Green Beans, Fingerling Potatoes, Cherry Tomatoes Garnished with Nasturtium Petals and Herbs served with Tarragon Mustard Vinaigrette *** Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms Served with Tomato Butter Sauce *** Lamb Loin with Eggplant, Roasted Pepper and Tomato Gratin Garnished with Roasted Cippoline Onions ans Marjoram Pesto *** Mixed Berry Lavender Shortcakes with Lemon Curd and...
read moreThe Caterer’s Garden- Working on the Menus
So, as I said last time, Paul asked if I would create some menus for him as a starting point. He wanted vegetables, fruit, herbs, edible flowers, and specifically mentioned a variety of cherry tomatoes. Colorful food- in that Cal-Mediterranean kind of mode- just my kind of thing. When I started thinking about it, my mind first lit on the okra plant. Okay, it’s not exactly Cal-Med, but I started out as a Southerner, and I really have a thing for okra. Also, several years back, I had seen an okra plant growing in the kitchen garden at the erstwhile COPIA in Napa, and had been captivated by its showy flower. I thought it was perfect for the plant which gives us the main ingredient for okra gumbo, one of my favorite foods, and a New Orleans specialty, because the flower would look right at home tucked behind the ear of a sultry jazz singer-even wrote a story about it-the plant, the flower, the gumbo, and the city, but that’s for another time. I paired the okra with corn (because they just go together, right?), tomatoes and fresh shell beans in a kind of succotash. Paul called to tell me that corn was not exactly what he had in mind. “It sucks up a tremendous amount of water” he said. Not a great thing in drought ridden Southern California. “I was thinking more along the lines of zucchini and eggplant.” I also remembered hearing Michael Abelman, urban farmer, author of On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm, From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World ,Fields of Plenty: A Farmer’s Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It , and photographer, say a few years back that he’d never seen a plant that sucked the soil of nutrients like corn. Probably not such a horrible thing in the alluvial soil of the Mississippi Basin, but again, in So Cal… Okay, so think like a farmer, not primarily like a chef, Gisele. So, there was a bit more back and forth between Paul and I: He couldn’t find a dwarf apricot tree for the apricot frangipane tarts which I love in the spring-“maybe berries”? “We’re already using them with Meyer lemon curd to serve with pound cake.” A call: “Hey, I found a dwarf pear tree”- an old standby for frangipane tarts – and now we’re set. Next time -the menus and what’s actually being planted. Bon Appetit!...
read moreThe Caterer’s Garden- A Special Project
My good friend Paul called me a few weeks back. Paul and I have known each other for more years than I like to think about. We met in acting class in New York City, and were neighbors- first on Manhattan’s Upper Westside, then in the Hell’s Kitchen section of midtown Manhattan. Somehow we both ended up in Los Angeles, and have moved on to pursue other creative and career pursuits. Of course, you know I am a caterer, and Paul is jump starting his old/new career as a landscape designer. He called to tell me he had been selected to participate in the L.A. Garden Show-A Festival of Flavors at the Los Angeles Arboretum. The objective of the show is to explore and celebrate the varied edible plants that can be easily grown in city gardens. Paul, great friend that he is, wrote in his description that he was inspired by me, and a favorite quote of mine from the inimitable Julia Child: “Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul satisfying and eternal.” He asked me to design a couple of “kitchen garden” menus using produce which could be harvested only moments or hours before from a terrace garden. Well, the project is on its way now. Paul just sent pictures (which you can see below) of the planters he and a friend built to house the various fruit, vegetable and herb plants. Stay tuned for progress updates. Bon...
read moreNo Caprese Salad in Winter!- Part 2
Last time I mentioned Judith Jones, legendary publisher and pioneer in the area of cookbook publishing, and author of The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food, in my rant about Caprese salad. So here’s what she has to do with my opinion on serving Caprese salad in winter. Jones was involved, in the 1980’s, in developing a cookbook by Ed Giobbi, an artist, and an avid gardener and home cook. Alice Waters, the groundbreaking and seminal chef in the development of “California cuisine”, wrote for the book’s cover “what is so distinctive about the cooking in this book is that there is flavor and richness here that is the product not of manipulation, but of a profound respect for what comes from the earth and a true connection to nature and the cycle of the seasons.” Jones adds her own perspective writing “I certainly learned, as I made one inspired dish after another, how, when the seasons dictate what goes together, flavors and colors and textures play off each other and create a natural harmony that is always naturally delicious.” She even mentions basil in an example, stating that basil leaves… turn tough and slightly bitter if they have to endure too much chill. So I’m sticking with my story- no Caprese salad in...
read moreNo Caprese Salad in Winter!- Part 1
A few weekends back I was in the line at Trader Joe’s, and struck up a conversation with a fellow shopper. The line strung all the way back into the aisles (it was Super Bowl weekend), so he asked me if I could check to see if there was any basil where I was standing. There wasn’t. "It’s not really basil season", I said. He then went on to tell me he was out searching for ingredients for Caprese salad. He had been to a couple of grocery already looking for ripe tomatoes. “Use the cherry tomatoes” I suggested. Trader Joe’s has a great mixed medley pack of cherry tomatoes grown in Mexico, which are fairly good year round. “My wife doesn’t like cherry tomatoes” he responded. “ I found some Roma tomatoes at Pavillion’s that are pretty ripe.” “I don’t even make Caprese salad in winter, and I’m a caterer. I lost a job once because I refused to do it.” … bemused look from him. Now I’ve seen caterers serve Caprese salad with hard pink tomatoes out of season, but what’s the point? Perfectly ripe tomatoes (and seasonal basil) are the whole point of Caprese salad, right? Of course, I felt I was right (ahem!), but I’ve recently finished reading Judith Jones’ The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food , and now feel completely vindicated. Judith Jones is a legend in the world of publishing who helped shape modern cookbook publishing. If you have a cookbook by Julia Child, James Beard, Edna Lewis, Madhur Jaffrey, Lidia Bastianich or any of several others, Judith Jones was responsible for getting it to your shelf. if you are a “foodie” at all, you will want to read this book. So what does she have to with Caprese salad? Come back next time for the...
read moreOne More Word About Brunch
Sunday brunch is a favorite meal, and it’s a great value for catered parties, too.
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