Where Y'at?

Warning: This post has absolutely nothing to do with Ann Arbor, except that I’m writing it.

Holiday greetings from Louisiana! The Brouhaha is being brought to you this morning from The Cottage, our home away from home at the Olivier House Hotel in New Orleans. Over the years I’ve become friends with the Danner family, owners of Olivier, and they are always kind enough to let me decamp to one of their nicest (and most quirky) accommodations. Long ago, The Cottage was actually the home of an elderly lady – it has a kitchen, working gas fireplace in the parlor, and the little private courtyard off the hotel pool that you see in the photo at right. When the lady passed away, the Danner’s bought the house and made it a part of their hotel. Tres jolie!

I’ve been in Louisiana since before Christmas, enjoying a somewhat sub-tropical take on the holidays. I spent five relaxing days in Baton Rouge, where my hostess Beth threw a party at her lovely new home on Sunday night (photo left). The weather was 55 degrees, clear and beautiful, but everyone was complaining about the cold. Meanwhile, I was running around barefoot! And I totally overdosed on bourbon punch, sweet potato casserole, butter beans, cornbread dressing, and turkey (not to mention enough chicken salad sandwiches to feed a small army). They really know how to eat and drink down here, but I’m afraid to check my cholesterol level or step on a scale. And Beth's father gave me electronic files of all his late wife's recipes. I told Beth that since I don't have a legacy of down home cooking in my own family, I'm going to co-opt hers!

Speaking of fantastic food and fearing the scale, I have to tell you that I enjoyed a meal last evening that probably has to go into my top ten pantheon of dining experiences. I’ve been wanting to go to Stella! in New Orleans for years, but usually haven’t been able to convince my traveling companions because the food isn’t Louisiana vernacular. Since I was on my own last night, I dashed down to the little place on Chartres Street in the French Quarter and found a slice of culinary heaven.

The meal started with an amuse bouche of Tasmanian wild salmon served sashimi style with a kimchi and mango sauce. Loved it. Then I ordered the foie gras appetizer, which was grilled and served over a toasted brioche with CHEESE GELATO (don’t ask me why, but this worked) and a drizzle of wild blueberry sauce. The rich, buttery foie gras combined with crunchy bread and the cool, creamy cheese of the gelato brought together several layers of “mouth feel” that were as surprising as they were delicious. For my entrée, I ordered one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, Duck Five Ways. The two more traditional preparations, the seared duck breast and the "laquered" leg and thigh, were perfect. But the duck miso soup and the moo shoo crepe interpretations were only so-so, and the wontons were not appealing at all. The niblet of foie gras in the middle slid out of the wonton like a little glob of fat. So, while not a home-run, the entrée was definitely a stand-up double.

After all that, how could I have had room for dessert? Yet, when I heard my waiter Adam describe the grilled cheese and chocolate to my neighboring table as his favorite thing on the menu, how could I resist? Yes, you read that correctly – grilled cheese and chocolate. It was a little sandwich of brie and dark chocolate, buttered, grilled, and drizzled with more of that lovely wild blueberry sauce. To. Die. For. Speaking of Adam, the service was certainly top notch. Discreet and knowledgeable, plus a team of non-uniformed hosts who would swoop in to assist. And I was impressed that Owner/Chef Scott Boswell was actually in the restaurant, out mingling among the guests. I was also impressed by the rose petals in the loo. Since I was too self-conscious to take flash photos of the food in the small, dark dining room (even I have limits), I thought you’d find this pic entertaining.

Besides eating like a glutton, social calling has been on my agenda and one day I drove over to Lafayette to visit Arthur and Terry McViccar. They are Ann Arbor expatriates recently relocated to be closer to family in Louisiana, and you may have known Arthur as the facilities manager at the Michigan Theater. They are living the bayou life, literally – they’ve got crawfish, fig and pecan trees, and a menagerie of pets. "I haven't quite gotten into the whole Cajun lifestyle yet," Arthur told me. "For instance, I didn't offer you a beer when you walked in the door this morning, and I didn't offer you a beer for the drive home."

In addition to visiting with Art and Terry, I was invited to attend a Christmas Eve Bonfire, a holiday tradition along the River. Trent and Kay James live in 150-year-old Creole-style plantation house named Bagatelle that they inherited from his family. Located on the River in Iberville Parish, the house was originally downriver in St. James Parish, but–get this– Trent and Kay put it on a barge and moved it upriver 30 years ago! They felt the area in St. James was getting too industrialized. On Christmas Eve, they invite all their friends and family to an open house and bonfire. Trent spent weeks building up the pile of wood, and after a generous dose of diesel they lit it around 7pm and I have to tell you, the flames must have been shooting 30 or 40 feet into the air. Biggest damn fire I've ever seen. And as if that weren't enough pyro, they set off fireworks, too! "Do you have to get a permit to do this?" I asked Kay and her daughter Kate (right). They turned and looked at me like I was some kind of crazy woman.

Two years after Katrina, many residents of Louisiana like the James family appear to be going about their lives much as they did pre-storm. In my next post, I’ll tell you a little bit about what I’ve observed of the people and places who continue to be impacted by recovery from the worst natural disaster in our history.