Just Eating

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

I know it’s almost unbelievable, but today we just ate (and, of course, Keith worked). We had gumbo for lunch from Café Reconcile that we brought home yesterday. It was just as good the second day.

I walked down St. Charles Avenue to go to Bernard’s Praline shop. We had seen it the night we walked all the way to Mr. Ed’s and I was intrigued. It is only open from noon-5pm Monday-Friday. How do you have a business that is only open a little while? I mean, I guess you know when you need to be there. I was also intrigued with a little shop that only sells pralines being on St. Charles Avenue. The streetcar runs here, of course, but is it really a tourist area? I definitely feel like I am the only tourist in the area when I am out and about. There aren’t many people around at all, but the people I do see are without a doubt local. Anyway, we have been here days and days and have been eating and eating, but there have been no pralines. So, I went.

I got there, and there was a lady behind the counter and just me in the store. Obviously. I looked around. They had a lot of flavors – including nut free (what?) – of pralines. The regular pecan ones weren’t the individual ones I’m used to but squares in plastic containers, like they made a big ole sheetpan of them and cut them like brownies. Huh. I had decided beforehand that I was going to get one and taste it, to make sure I liked it, before committing to a big purchase. Of course, I immediately forgot that while I was busy feeling awkward being the only one in the store, while the lady watched me. There was a little fridge of sodas and a counter with pralines. Not a lot to get lost in looking around. I bought one of each of the flavors I thought looked interesting – butterscotch, chocolate, rum, rum raisin, banana, almond, and coconut. I started eating the rum raisin one (Keith does NOT eat raisins, so this one was just for me) on the way down the street, and I didn’t think much of it. It’s okay, but there are very few nuts and nuts are the key to a good praline for me. The sugary praline bit needs to be there, but primarily I want to be eating pecans. Keith had no problem gobbling (I didn’t actually see him eat it, so that is maybe not the right word. I saw him start, and then it was gone. Gobbling is probably the right word) the chocolate one. He said it was good. I will shop elsewhere, if I can, for more pecan-y ones.

We ordered from Copeland’s for delivery for dinner. There used to be a Copeland’s in Minneapolis (it closed after Katrina in 2005. I can’t believe it has been that long) and it was our favorite place. There are three still in New Orleans, but we would have to Lyft to any of them. We found out it would be about $50 (plus tip) to go and come back, and it was $5 for delivery (plus tip, OF COURSE!) so we did delivery.

I had steak labouchere, which was always my favorite. It’s steak…of course…in sauce. It’s sorta brown and probably has a beef base (good guess, since it is on steak) and there are definitely mushrooms involved, and some other things. In order to be more precise, I just researched. I found a terrific article by a guy who likes it as much as I do, and he did all sorts of research to learn how to make it. What he learned from a former employee is that it involves mushrooms, duck stock (I wasn’t ever going to guess that) and wine. He dug farther and learned that the roux and whatever liquid goes with the roux is made at the Copeland’s “factory” in New Orleans and shipped to all of their restaurants. No one at any of the restaurants can make it from scratch. Huh. This guy used his information and best guesses to create a copy and figured out that labouchere sauce cannot be made at home. He and I will continue to enjoy it when we can get it from Copeland’s.

Keith had Blackened Bayou Chicken. [Keith here…] BBC is one of my long-time Copeland’s favorites. It is blackened chicken and cornbread dressing smothered in a Cajun cream sauce with crawfish and tasso. It’s delicious poured over delicious. When I worked at Thomson Reuters, I would travel to the Dallas area occasionally and would always try to make it to the Copeland’s in Southlake, west of town, while I was there. One time I took my long-time work friend Abhinav (from Hydrabad, India) there. When we went out for dinner together (which we usually did as the out-of-towners), he often had me pick the meal for him because he always liked whatever I picked. After eating BBC, he said it may have been the best food he ever had in his mouth. When they flew Abhinav here, it was a big enough expense (they had to fly him first class because of the length of the trip, due to company policy) that he usually stayed for about a month before going back. At home, his wife only cooked vegetarian, but he loved all food and didn’t limit his choices much on the trips. He told me that his wife didn’t like that he came home fat from every trip because of all the rich food and the giant American servings.

Another one of our Copeland’s favorites in Minneapolis was Big Mike’s Chocolate Cake. On the New Orleans menus, the same thing is Big Al’s Chocolate Cake. I don’t know who Mike was, but Al is Al Copeland (the namesake of the restaurant and the man also behind the Popeye’s Chicken food chain, who passed in 2008). It’s traditionally a giant piece of dark, fudgy cake with several layers and fresh whipped cream on top. “Tall Cakes” are a thing in New Orleans, layered sometimes as much as a foot tall. Tonight’s cake was much smaller, but no less tasty. And no whipped cream (I don’t know about that). We also ordered some cheesecake with caramel pecan topping, but haven’t tried that yet. Maybe tomorrow for breakfast.