shrimp

Bourbon House knows the season’s spirits

Bourbon House knows the season’s spirits

I didn't make it to Dickie Brennan's Bourbon House (144 Bourbon St., New Orleans, La.; 504-522-0111; bourbonhouse.com) for a Reveillon dinner. But there was always lunch. I didn't want to leave New Orleans without enjoying a plate of shrimp and grits. One of New Orleans top seafood restaurants seemed like just the right place. With plump shrimp, spicy sausage, and creamy grits, the dish (at right) hit all the right flavor notes. I'd always assumed that the restaurant took its name from its location on the French Quarter's fabled Bourbon Street. But it turns out that proprietor Dickie Brennan, scion of a celebrated family of New Orleans restaurateurs, is a Bourbon connoisseur. The bar stocks about 250 American whiskeys. It's said to be the most...Read More
World on a Plate: Shrimp and grits

World on a Plate: Shrimp and grits

Some dishes so speak of a region that they are touchstones of the local cuisine. In general, we think of shrimp and grits as quintessentially Southern. Let's face it—most Yankees can't tell grits, cornmeal, and polenta apart. More specifically, we think of shrimp and grits as a signature dish of the coasts of both Carolinas and Georgia. In the best possible scenario, the dish employs fresh shrimp just off the boat. But the wide availability of excellent flash-frozen shrimp has certainly spread the dish far from its origins. One of the most memorable versions we've had was prepared at the Lexington, Kentucky branch of Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse (101 West Vine St., Lexington, Ky.; 859-554-7000; jeffruby.com/lexington). The small regional chain originated in Cincinnati and has since...Read More
Backhouse realizes Niagara’s great potential

Backhouse realizes Niagara’s great potential

Too bad the great French gourmand Christian Millau didn't live long enough to visit Ryan and Bev Campbell's Backhouse in Niagara-on-the-Lake (242 Mary St.; 289-272-1242; backhouse.xyz). In 1968, Millau revolutionized the way the French (and, given the era, the world) regarded haute cuisine when he announced that he had discovered “the best restaurant in the world” in the provincial town of Roanne. He might have said something similar had he discovered this grill-centric, hyper-locavore restaurant in a shopping strip at the edge of this Lake Ontario resort village. “Best restaurant in the world” is hyperbole, of course. But the comparison to Les Frères Troisgros is more than fair. Backhouse serves brilliant food far from the metropolitan restaurant scene. Asador Etxebarri in the small village of...Read More
Jumping ship for a taste of the port

Jumping ship for a taste of the port

When Oceania Cruises (oceaniacruises.com) culinary director Kathryn Kelly designs the culinary shore excursions for Marina and her sister ships, she asks herself one essential question. “Where would I like to go if I had one day in this port?” she says. In Europe, the answer might be a visit to a winery or a three-star restaurant. In the western Caribbean, culinary expeditions are more likely to focus on local foods and foodways. Arboretum looks to future of Roatán food We joined Kelly for the “Honduran Farm & Ocean to Table Experience.” This shore excursion on the island of Roatán starts at the Blue Harbor Tropical Arboretum (blueharbortropicalarboretum.com). The plantings on this 160-acre property represent most of the economically significant plants of the growing zone, including...Read More

Little Italy simmers with many new tastes

There are certainly fancier coffee shops than Café Diplomatico (594 College St., 416-534-4637, cafediplomatico.ca), but few that so consistently screen European soccer matches on the TVs. Since 1968, it's been one of the principal landmarks of Toronto's Little Italy. Ironically, that's just about the time that the neighborhood was beginning to lose its accent. We met Kevin Dupree, owner of the Culinary Adventure Co. (647-955-8357, www.culinaryadventureco.com), in front of “The Dip” for a walk around the neighborhood along College Street between Euclid Avenue and Shaw Street. Dupree's company offers a full menu of neighborhood sampling tours and a number of other gastronomic activities—including a summertime canoe trip to the Toronto islands with a master chef who prepares a picnic. But this particular evening, we concentrated...Read More

It’s smart to get Luckee in Toronto

Susur Lee was always my favorite contestant on season two of Top Chef Masters, but it took a while until I got to eat his food instead of watching him make it on TV. This year I finally made it to his jewel box contemporary Chinese restaurant, Luckee, at the Soho Metropolitan Hotel (328 Wellington St. W; 416-935-0400, luckeerestaurant.com). This polished restaurant serves some of the best meals in an already food-obsessed city. Much more than a gastronomic shrine directed by a celebrity chef, it's flat-out good fun. I'm not the only one who thinks so. On my last visit Will Smith was in town shooting yet another movie where Toronto stands in as a generic North American city. He and his entourage took over...Read More

CIA classes bridge to Latin cuisines

There's nothing like a cooking class to build bridges across cultures, and the San Antonio branch of the Culinary Institute of America has a special interest in the cuisines of Latin America. Its spacious and modern campus opened in 2008 in some of the larger buildings of the former Pearl Brewery. It was a keystone in the development of the Pearl District, a lively area of restaurants and shops and site of a Saturday farmer's market. In addition to professional chef training, the CIA offers enthusiast classes for home cooks. During Culinaria in May, we joined a Latin Boot Camp class for a crash course in several styles of South American cooking. The class was led by Sergio Remolina, who hails from Mexico City and...Read More

A prawn by any other name

Few things are as quite as confusing as the wonderful array of crustaceans available in southern Spain. When we were in El Puerto de Santa María in February, we photographed some of them at the Romerijo fish market (www.romerijo.com). The same crustacean (per its Latin name) may have two or three different common names, depending on size and where it is caught. The six images here, for example, only show four different species. Here they are, from left to right, above: Camarón (Palaemon serratus) is the common rock shrimp (common prawn to the Brits) found in abundance at the mouth of the Río Guadalquivír. When they are small like this, they are comparatively inexpensive. In Andalucía, they are often fried up, shell and all, in...Read More