Adventures in prairie Cajun country

One of my favorite things about Cajun country is the food. Boudin, cracklins, ponce, sausage, courtbouillon, rice and gravy, bouie are just so damned good and outside of Cajun country just doesn't compare. Of course I love the people, the country side and the accents, but the food here is simple, one pot meals and full of flavor. 

Last night, the Deshotels family dinner was loud with conversation, little ones underfoot and delicious fried Louisiana wild-caught catfish and catfish courtbouillon. Hosea, the patriarch, knows his way around a rice and gravy, and this was made to celebrate sister Danielle's birthday. 

My all time favorite Hosea joke goes a little something like this. "How can you tell a true Cajun? He can look at a field of rice and tell you exactly how much gravy it takes to eat all that rice."

This morning after visiting with the family, we headed over to the Superette in Eunice for boudin, cracklins, smoked sausage and boudin balls. Drue's competing in a tailgate competition and wanted the sausage for his duck jambalaya*. 

*Jambalaya isn't a common dish in prairie Cajun country.

Ruth's Chris & Bulleit Bourbon, a marriage rooted in New Orleans

It was a luncheon that will live forever in my mind-Ruth's Chris and Bulleit Bourbon announce a partnership, one that results in the New Orleans' born steak house featuring non other than Bulleit Bourbon mint juleps on its cocktail menus national wide.

The spread was flush with tapenades, medium rare steak and jumbo lump crab martinis paired with either a sparkling pear mint julep or the traditional version. It was divine. 

During the presentation Tom Bulleit and his whiskey expert daughter Hollis banter back and forth but ultimately Hollis says the relationship with her father is certainly mutually beneficial. After all, "she knows what a whiskey mash smells like cooking."

Tom's great great grandfather Augustus invented the recipe in the 1830s and while transporting his elixir to New Orleans he disappeared. With an incredible entrepreneurial spirit, Ruth Fertel was the originator of the American Steak House category straight out of New Orleans. 

In 1987, Tom fulfilled his lifelong dream of reviving his family's bourbon legacy.

Hollis emphasizes the importance of the bourbon finish in cocktails and says, "it should be a marriage, not a masking."

When pairing Bulleit with steak, you'll have a sweeter finish, with bread pudding more of a pepper finish. 

While chatting with him and Ruth's Chris National Beverage Program Director Helen Mackey, he advised her to capture the countless late Ruth Fertel stories for a book to celebrate the brands' 50th Anniversary in 2015. 

"We are still looking for Augustus and our history," Tom says. "He may be here at Tales of the Cocktail for all we know."

Mezcal shots for breakfast

Only a handful of Mexican states are licensed to produce mezcal, and the majority of the spirit comes from this mountainous region where conditions are perfect for farming agave. In these mountains, there is blood honor in the creation of mezcal. For generations, mezcaleros have crafted their own distinctive styles of the spirit in small, family-run distilleries called palenques.

Montelobos Mezcal Joven is mezcal at its peak, born from centuries of ancient mezcalero craft and enlightened by the methodical pursuit of true perfection. 

The Montelobos Mezcal & Reyka Vodka tasting room began with a Montelobos shot followed by a bite of an orange wedge dipped in crushed worm spice. The smoky flavor with the orange and spice was a walk up call on this third day of Tales of the Cocktail. 

We met Ivan Saldana, creator of Montelobos Mezcal and all-around agave academic.

Spiking coffee with 42 Below

In 1999, Geoff Ross, a New Zealander, was reading a magazine and saw an ad for a vodka claiming to be from a pure country. He thought it ridiculous firstly and secondly, that his homeland was just light years more pure.

Fast forward a little and Ross begins to make it and shop it around to local friends and bars, then finds an investor quits his day job and dives head first into his product toddlerhood. 

Then in 2008, Barcardi learns of 42 Below and offers to purchase the brand. And when Barcardi gets a hold of something, we'll the rest is to be revealed with mega marketing and promotion, such is the reason they are at Tales of the Cocktail 2013. 

Na Zdravi, a toast "to your very good health"

Billed as a Bohemian Cocktail Party, the Becherovka Tasting Room at Tales of the Cocktail Wednesday left me thinking I clearly don't have the same definition of bohemian. Their version is much more upscale than anything I could have conjured. But the definition is actually a native or inhabitant of Bohemia, the Czech dialects of Bohemia or what I have come to know it to mean, a gypsy, itinerant person or vagabond. Clearly I was thinking gypsy.

Upon arrival I was handed a small porcelain cup and encourage to fill it from the fountain. The herbal liqueur hints of clove and reminds me of Christmas. The host encourages us to participate in a traditional toast, "Na Zdravi" which means, "to your very good health!"

I made a lap around the room and tried two cocktails, the first by the "Aristocrat of the Working Class" Russell Davis, now of San Francisco and Night Club and Bar's 2012 Best Bartender of the Year called, "A Monkey in Prague During the Dead of Winter."

Made with Becherovka of course, fresh lemon juice, simple syrup, strawberry, balsamic vinegar and a slapped basil leaf to garnish, Davis' style of preparation was entertaining to say the least. He donned a cowboy hat, aviator sunglasses, a henley shirt and shook his concoction in two shakers, one in each hand, like a Wild West character in a dual, drawing and rolling the "guns" before firing. After straining the mixture in tiny tasting cups, he then slapped the basil leaves before gently placing on top. The cocktail was quite good and refreshing but the performance stole the show. (He's a native Texan turns out...)

Then I tried "My Lady" by Seattle's Erik Hakkinen of Zig Zag Cafe made with Becherovka, bourbon, lime juice, grapefruit, honey and cinnamon syrup. I struck up a conversation with Hahhinen when I said, "Oh, I just got back from Seattle." We swapped stories and he tried to share some insight on my experience and told me his good friend worked at Steelhead Diner where we had a delightful meal the last night, no doubt because the chef/owners were by way of Louisiana.

Trying new product or new to me in many cases is one of the exciting things about attending Tales of the Cocktail each year. Complimentary branded items is also a really cool feature. In this room, I received a porcelain cup and a really cool flask to no doubt carry my Becherovka with me in the future.

Tales 2013 kicks off Tuesday with Bowmore & Bivalves

Upon arriving at Arnaud's Restaurant, where Drue and I celebrated our wedding reception in 2008, we were handed a playing card in the suit of Kings and a refreshing Bowmore single malt scotch whisky cocktail. The main dining room of Arnaud's had been cleared of all but a few scattered high boy tables and eight footers lined the room sporting a pirogue of Gulf shrimp and P&J Gulf oysters on the half shell. 

Arnaud's servers Kevin, Gerald and Danny were passing oysters en brochette, mini beef wellingtons and oysters Bienville, the restaurants signature oyster dish, named for the street on which the restaurant's block long series of connecting buildings resides. Chef de Cuisine Tommy DiGiovanni pops in and out of the dining room to survey the cuisine and longtime resident party guru Lisa Sins makes the rounds to ensure everyone is having a great time. And we are. 

Sins comments on how casual some folks are and how nice I look in my iris floral dress. She thanks me for making my husband wear a jacket to which I inform her that I didn't make him, he knew we were coming to Arnaud's. Drue always says, the women are always dressed so nice and the men look homeless. New Orleans is a gentel Southern city, he says, show some pride. 

Bowmore brand representative grabs the microphone and begins with a welcome and notifies the crowd that this is Bowmore's first appearance at Tales of the Cocktail. He then introduces New Orleans' famous oyster man, Sal Sunseri of P&J Oysters and he shares that prior to this opportunity, he'd never considered pairing oysters and scotch whisky, but he'd come to realize the two complemented each other quite nicely. 

In preparation for the oyster luge, Sunseri divides the room by those who like raw oysters and those who prefer them cooked. The servers descend with tasting glasses of 18 year Bowmore and we are instructed to sip, swirl, taste the oyster and sip. If eating the raw oyster, sip, swirl, slurp the oyster, pour a little Bowmore into the shell and shoot. We happily oblige. 

But what about the playing card we were handed upon arrival? Well, we are broken into two groups, Aces and Kings. Kings are directed to the Richelloux bar and handed a blind fold. We are going on a sensory journey with Bowmore Master Distiller and Malt Iain McCallum who is burning peat behind the bar to set the scene of his guide tour of flavor. 

McCallum is young. You wouldn't guess that he's been working for the brand for more than 20 years and is so entertaining he took 2012 World Whisky Awards Scotland Brand Ambassador of the Year for his technical knowledge and storytelling abilities.

He walks us through tasting the 10 year and 18 year discussing flavors along the way which I cannot entirely recall, because I was blind folded and not taking notes. 

The group was then lead to another room to discuss scotch and water and how aromas are released when a few drops, in this case 10, were added. I definitely prepare a little water in my scotch. 

A quick stop in French 75 to pay our respects to Chris Hannah and proprietor Katy Casbarian and we were headed out.  

Ps. We did see Tales co-founders, Mr. & Mrs. Cocktail, Paul and Ann Tuennerman briefly. 

Not long enough in Seattle

My coworkers and I made a quick trip to Seattle for the annual Council of State Restaurant Associations Membership and Marketing Conference. We stayed at the Washington Athletic Club and spent the majority of our time in meetings. 

However, we did have two really nice meals, the first at Assaggio Ristorante and the second at Steelhead Diner. The first night out, we hopped in a cab and told the driver where we were headed. He said, that's just around the corner, you don't need a cab for that. Well, we did. It was about a 15-20 minute walk. The other half of our party was in the cab behind us and their cab driver said, "he didn't want to take them because he wanted an airport run." 

Dinner was light and fun and we worked up an appetite hoofing it to the restaurant to make our reservation time. I ordered the pasta special with scallops, crab and shrimp and drank Aperol Spritzers with my meal. It was quite lovely. 

Sunday, I had about two hours to kill between my last meeting and dinner, so I took a walk. Across from the WAC was a really cool park with an amazing waterfall fountain and manicured flower beds. What was disappointing was the number of bums and the smell of piss which was literally breathtaking, and not in a good way. 

The second night, we opted out of going to the conference dinner, which turned out to be a great idea. The conference dinner was at Salty's on the other side of the sound and all we kept hearing was it has a great view, nothing about the food. I can get that great view on a postcard. The next day all we heard was how terrible Salty's was and how they served family style and ran out of food. 

Instead we went to Steelhead Diner which was awesome! Turns out the couple who own it are from New Orleans. The crab and andouille tater tots were slamming and the crab cakes were some of the best I've ever had. I order the cioppino which was full of clams, mussels, shrimp and flaking mild fish. My fellow diners order sole, halibut and cod. We were all highly pleased with our selections and the company. 

On Monday, we hailed a cab to the Space Needle for meetings. We were so pressed for time, we only saw the needle from the ground as we approached and didn't have time to go to the top or hit the gift shop. 

Instead I bought my souvenirs at the airport on the way home Monday night and didn't get to see Pike Place Market.