New Orleans for the Summer

For the summer, all of my posts will be about the Big Easy. I'm looking forward to this.

Today I had a business lunch at Palace Cafe, one of Brennan's restaurants. I passed on the Bananas Foster - I had it last year when I dined at Brennan's in Houston, which sadly caught fire around the time of Hurricane Ike, weeks after I was there. But I'll be back soon enough for that.

Instead of going for dessert, I had a hearty lunch entree (from their menu): Andouille Crusted Fish (mine was Drum, and it was excellent) Pan-roasted and served with Crystal buerre-blanc, chive aïoli, rissole potatoes, and vegetable du jour. There was enough cream and butter in this single dish to already have me looking forward to the rest of this summer. There was just the perfect amount of spiciness to offset the other flavors. I was impressed with the thought of having a little heat with such a traditional French preparation - truly a New Orleans taste.

I also had their famous turtle soup (the Wikipedia article specifically mentions Brennan's being famous for it). It was good, but not as good as the last time I had it, primarily because it was tepid. The server brought the soup in a metal cup in a porcelain bowl, and poured the soup from the cup into the bowl after presenting it to me. I don't know if the metal cup is just part of the presentation, or designed to keep the soup hot. It failed on both accounts, but the flavor was not bad despite the low temperature.