Open-arms New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS

“Neverhungry; never lonely,” said the ladies’ room attendant at Brennan’s, the famous restaurant in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter. “Not in New Orleans.”

She’s right. New Orleans’ Ninth Ward remains a wasteland and Lakeview is still struggling to restore itself, but the Quarter, the beautiful Garden District, the developing Warehouse and Magazine Street districts are flourishing and eager to welcome tourists.

There were 809 restaurants in the Big Easy before Hurricane Katrina nearly killed New Orleans’ unique cuisine. Thanks to the pluck and spirit of the residents and culinary professionals, more than 700 restaurants are once more spreading a table.

Food has always been an important part of New Orleans’ culture, which local chef John Besh defines as a combination of food, music and literature. Mr. Besh, with his restaurant, August, has won national acclaim for his superb cooking and his sense of civic responsibility. “What makes us special,” he says, “is that (good food) is inherent in every neighborhood,” and “the best food in New Orleans is found at home.” Yet it would be hard to beat some of the food we tasted in New Orleans restaurants on a visit to celebrate the annual Tennessee Williams festival.

Louisiana can be divided into three distinct culinary traditions: northern Louisiana, where the cooking is primarily Southern, a combination of British and African cooking; southern Louisiana, where Cajun cuisine combines Southern and French concepts; and New Orleans, with its Creole cuisine.

The French settlers expelled from Acadia in Canada in the mid-18th century because they refused to take an oath of allegiance to the British. Cajun cooking is essentially country cooking made with whatever was available in the area where the Acadians settled; it also includes American Indian influences. It consists primarily of hearty one-pot, slow-cooked dishes served over rice, such as etouffees (smothered food cooked in tightly covered pots over low heat), lots of pork and rich dark roux made with flour and animal fat or lard.

The term “Creole” is from the Spanish “criolla,” a name given to people of European descent who were born in French or Spanish colonies in the New World. The oldest families call themselves either “Spanish Creole” or “French Creole.”

Creole cooking reflects the waves of European immigration combined with American Indian and African influences, emphasizing butter, cream, tomatoes and a lighter roux made with butter and fresh herbs. It includes African and Caribbean influences, and Mr. Besh says it’s the “only cosmopolitan cuisine native to America.”

Gumbo, along with red beans and rice, is perhaps the most famous Louisiana dish and one of the best examples of “Creolization,” as the cultural blending process is called in Louisiana. “Gumbo” comes from Bantu for okra, “nkombo.” Gumbo is a rich, souplike dish usually served over rice. It contains two or more kinds of meat or seafood and can be dark-roux-based, or thickened with okra or with file, a powder made from ground sassafras leaves. There’s also a variation made solely with vegetables.

Creole cooking is never stagnant, says Leah Chase, a distinguished cookbook author and chef of her family restaurant, Dooky Chase’s. Red beans and rice was the traditional Monday supper dish in New Orleans. Monday was wash day, when wives didn’t have time to cook elaborate meals.

Restaurant culture in New Orleans began in the 1830s, and in 1840, French expatriate Antoine Alciatore started serving meals in his boarding house. In 1868, he opened Antoine’s, and it’s still in its original quarters on St. Louis Street.

Other old established restaurants are Galatoire’s, Commander’s Palace, Arnaud’s, Acme Oyster House (which is known for its gumbo as well as oysters) and Tujague’s.

These restaurants all are prospering, rescued from Katrina’s wrath. So, too, is Brennan’s, which serves one of the most famous breakfasts in the world. Brennan’s bananas Foster at dinner are world-famous, imitated by many an amateur cook. So is its milk punch, best enjoyed on the patio.

Commander’s Palace, which required more than a year of renovations after torrents of rain poured sideways for three days through windows blown out by Katrina, continues to prepare its delicious bread pudding souffle and shrimp remoulade, although more contemporary notes have crept into the menu. Thanks to Katrina, the restaurant has a fabulous new state-of-the art kitchen.

Friday lunch at Galatoire’s is not to be missed: the restaurant opens on the dot of 11:30, and if you are not in line by then, your chances of getting in are slim (no reservations). The waiters, in formal attire, stand at the ready with buckets filled with ice for bottles of champagne to celebrate birthdays, college reunions and just Friday. Lunch usually lasts until about 4 p.m. and starts with Galatoire’s divine pommes souffles with a bearnaise sauce for dipping the crisp, airy puffed potatoes — truly the stuff of which dreams are made.

In the spring, it’s crawfish time and each restaurant prepares its version of crawfish etouffee with the delectable little morsels. Galatoire’s makes a delicious, mild version with a tomato base.

New Orleans crab and shrimp are fresh: The crab is served in big, sweet lumps; the huge white shrimp are prized particularly. At $7 per pound — there are about nine in a pound — they were selling like hot cakes at the weekly downtown farmers market.

Once, there were more than 30 publicly owned markets in New Orleans, including the arcaded French Market. They disappeared, unable to compete with the growth of private grocery stores and, later, supermarkets. Now only the Crescent City Farmers Market remains. It takes place every Saturday in the Warehouse District in an empty lot adorned with a delightful mural depicting a verdant rural scene. On Tuesdays, there’s a market uptown. When we visited the Saturday market, a shopper, overhearing a mention of Washington, asked if we were visiting, and when told that we were, thanked us profusely for coming to New Orleans. “Please tell your friends; we need visitors.”

The French Market has been restored and converted into open stalls and retail shops and boutiques catering primarily to tourists, but the flavor of the marketplace remains, and it’s fun to go and browse.

Along with the old established restaurants, there are many new ones, opened before and after Katrina. Riche, Harrah’s new high-rise hotel near the river and at the beginning of the Warehouse District, is by Todd English.

He creates the menu and oversees the kitchen, where the food is essentially French with minimal Louisiana touches. Steak tartare arrives at the table as a minitower with a base of truffled mashed potatoes; the bouillabaisse is adorned with a bright lobster in the shell. Breakfast dishes come with potatoes, not grits (more like Las Vegas than New Orleans). Chef Emeril Lagasse has his very New Orleans Emeril’s Restaurant a few blocks from Riche.

Besh Steakhouse reigns in Harrah’s Casino, across the street from the hotel. With its open silvery kitchen and large brilliantly colored Blue Dog paintings by Cajun artist George Rodrigue as a backdrop, this is no ordinary steakhouse. Mr. Besh and his chef de cuisine, Ilon Chaia, interpret steaks playfully, adding local seafood and such New Orleans-inspired dishes as jumbo shrimp with andouille sausage and grits; crabmeat cobbler, pairing shellfish with bacon; and Besh barbecued shrimp to the menu.

Mr. Besh’s flagship Restaurant August is a few blocks away, where the gnocchi are splendid, the duck breast perfect, soft shell crabs crisp and sweet, and desserts sublime. It’s an elegant restaurant with food that is French-based but touched with Mr. Besh’s New Orleans origins throughout. The hot, slim French rolls that come to the table promptly are irresistible. He recently opened La Provence, a country restaurant.

The new Cochon in the Warehouse District specializes in suckling pig with turnips. Cochon’s chef and co-owner is Donald Link, whose restaurant Herbsaint is one of New Orleans’ best.

La Petite Grocery, and Lilette’s — more traditional French than Creole — are in the Magazine Street area. The Palace Cafe, downtown on Canal Street at the edge of the French Quarter, is another favorite for Creole dishes, as is the uptown Upperline, where free-spirited owner JoAnn Clevenger makes fried green tomatoes with remoulade sauce a must-try.

Magazine Street has become a six-mile stretch of shops, cafes, restaurants and small art galleries. A fine place for lunch on Magazine Street is the Savvy Gourmet which doubles as a cooking school. The restaurant, open only for lunch weekdays and for brunch on Sundays, serves delicious salads and unusual sandwiches.

The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Contemporary Arts Center and the National D-Day Museum (which is changing its name to World War II Museum) are the glories of the Warehouse District, one of New Orleans’ most interesting neighborhoods. Aside from the museums and galleries, there are many fine restaurants throughout the neighborhood.

The Ogden showcases Southern art, including outsider art, and has just acquired the gorgeous 1888 brownstone Howard Memorial Library, the only library designed in the South by New Orleans native Henry Hobson Richardson. The library, still in the process of restoration, does not contain books but is being used as exhibition space.

New Orleans’ music and literature are alive and well, too.

The sounds of classic jazz are everywhere in the French Quarter, where musicians seem to play on just about every street corner. A large crowd gathered one sunny afternoon to listen to a group of five musicians on Jackson Square.

In Preservation Hall on St. Peter Street in the Quarter, traditional jazz concerts are held on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and on Sunday afternoons for an admission charge of $8. Sometimes, there’s a free concert.

New Orleans’ music plays on. In late spring, the Jazz Fest is a major food and craft as well as music event.

Every year at the end of March and the beginning of April, New Orleans hosts a Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, during which prize-winning authors, actors and others celebrate the life and work of New Orleans’ favorite writer.

The festival ends with a “Stella” shouting contest. Panel discussion, interviews, performances, guided tours and food events take place during the four days of the festival.

The city is still suffering from the ravages of Katrina, and the storm remains on everyone’s mind, but tourists are warmly welcomed.

Entrepreneur and hotel owner Sean Cummings has a plan for developing the four miles of Mississippi riverfront. Hopes are high.

Patricia Brady, president of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Williams festival and author of the well-received “Martha Washington: An American Life,” says it best: “We will never give up. Never.” The good times are rolling again.

New Orleans barbecued shrimp a la Brennan’s

15 to 20 (about 1 pound) large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/4 cup (1 stick) butter

1/4 cup water

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 tablespoon thyme leaves

2 teaspoons chopped parsley

1 teaspoon pepper

pinch of salt

pinch of white pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Slice shrimp lengthwise down the back, being careful not to cut all the way through. Melt the butter in a large skillet and saute the shrimp for 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir in the remaining ingredients and the water. Cook briefly, then transfer the shrimp and butter mixture to a shallow ovenproof dish. Bake in the hot oven for 3 to 4 minutes.

To serve, divide the shrimp among four plates, then pour some of the butter sauce over the shrimp. Serve with sliced French bread.

Makes 4 servings.

Brennan’s Creole cream cheese Evangeline

2 cups Creole cream cheese (see note)

2 cups mixed diced fruit

Place the diced fruit in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Spoon ½ cup Creole cream cheese into four bowls and top with ½ cup chilled fruit. Drizzle any fruit juice over the cream cheese and serve.

Note: Creole cream cheese is a New Orleans specialty. If unavailable, blend together 12 ounces softened cream cheese, ½ cup sour cream and 1 tablespoon sugar. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Red beans and rice

This recipe is from “The Dooky Chase Cookbook” by Leah Chase (Pelican Publishing Co.).

1 pound red kidney beans

2 quarts water

1 large onion, chopped

½ cup vegetable oil

1 pound smoked ham, cubed

1 pound smoked sausage, cut in ½-inch slices

1 cup water

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon pepper

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 teaspoon whole thyme leaves

1 to 2 tablespoons salt

Pick through beans, removing all bad beans or any other particles. Wash beans well. Place beans in 5-quart pot. Add the 2 quarts of water. Add onion. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and let beans boil slowly for 1 hour. When beans are soft, stir well, mashing some against side of pot.

Heat oil in frying pan. Add ham and sausage. Saute in oil for 5 minutes. Add the sausage, ham and oil to beans. Deglaze pan with the cup of water, then pour into beans. Add all other ingredients. Let simmer for 30 minutes. Beans should be nice and creamy. Serve over rice.

Makes 6 servings.

John Besh’s pot de creme cafe au lait

This recipe is from “New Orleans Classic Desserts” by Kit Wohl (Pelican Press)

3 cups heavy whipping cream

½ vanilla bean split lengthwise

½ cup whole black coffee beans

6 large egg yolks, room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons strong coffee

2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Scrape inside of the vanilla bean and place husk and seeds into the cream. Pour whipping cream and coffee beans into a saucepan and place over medium-low heat. Bring the cream to a simmer (do not boil) and remove from heat. Strain through a fine mesh sieve. Remove and discard coffee beans and vanilla bean husk.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is lemon-colored, about 3 minutes. Gradually whisk the hot cream into the yolk and sugar mixture. Stir in the brewed coffee and melted chocolate.

Pour the egg-cream mixture into 8 4-ounce pot de creme cups or ramekins, filling each cup 3/4 full. Fill a large, shallow baking pan with ½ inch of warm water. Place the filled cups in the water bath and bake for about 45 minutes.

The cream should jiggle slightly when done. Remove the pan from the oven and let the cups cool in the water for 10 minutes. When cooled, remove from water and chill for at least 2 hours.

Serve topped with a dollop of whipped cream, dust lightly with cocoa or espresso powder.

Makes 8 servings.