DAY THREE...FRIDAY MAY 22

DAY THREE, Friday, May 22, 2009

Okay, I confess, I was a little slow in getting started this morning and no two mile walk along the riverfront. Luckily the first event was in the Omni and I enjoyed seeing the legendary Dickie Brennan (Palace Café, Bourbon House, and Dickie Brennan Steakhouse) on stage as a panelist for the seminar “Party like it’s 1999.”

The event featured ’99 cabs paired with prime rib debris topped with mashed potatoes with a hint of blue cheese courtesy of Dickie’s Steakhouse Executive Chef Jack Martinez. For dessert dark chocolate bonbons with red velvet cake, so good I had dessert first. Lee Anne Garner (Dickie’s marketing guru) catered to my every need as I huddled in the back with the press groupies.

I said my good byes and trucked over to Harrah’s Theater (good Ipod walk—at least 10 blocks). Donald Link (Cochons and Herbsaint) presented carvings of Cochon de Lait complete with decapitation and sliding the head into a pot of boiling water then subsequent dissecting to prepare head cheese. Four Rohn wines were presented, a lighter white and red sipping wine, then served with the meal, a heavier red and white to dance with the vibrant fatty flavors of the pork and head cheese.

The head cheese was served on Melba toast topped with chowchow, and the pork served atop a biscuit layered with coleslaw. A country boy, Link is quite a story teller recalling the days of his youth in a town nearby Crowley, Louisiana. One of 95 grandkids he recalls his grandfather and many like him raising their own pigs and using every part in making the food go a long way.

It was only 1:30 and my body was begging for a siesta, but the parade of pale clouds and swirling breeze begged me to take the long way back. A quick detour at Urban Outfitters was very profitable…$60 tops for $20, couldn’t resist. Back at home base (Omni Royal Orleans), I changed into my bathing suit and hauled my laptop to the packed seventh floor pool. People were diving into those lawn chairs like sea gulls after Cheetos. Got a little sun, worked on the tan and I got some work done. Who needs surf when you have the current of the Mississippi River in plain view.

After my battery ran out, it was time to get revved up for part II of the day’s itinerary, dinner at G. W. Fins.

On a recent elevator ride I ease dropped on restaurant reviews from tourists who were clearly on a culinary sampling marathon. All strangers, and their number one pick: G. W. Fins. Located on Bienville Street, half a block off Bourbon and directly across from Arnauds restaurant, the warehouse-chic décor with floor-to-ceiling windows sets the stage for a new cast of culinary characters.

Lee Froehlich (Executive Editor of Playboy Magazine) and I gorged ourselves on a nine course small plate meal. OMG!!! Clearly the best seafood I have ever eaten in the city of New Orleans or…anywhere else for that matter.

The stars of the show:
Crabcake with fried slivers of wontons
Lobster salad with slices of mango, papaya, avocado and lemon
Lobster dumplings filled with a mix of red fish and caviar
Smoke oysters cooked in a 500 degree oven in their shells
Soft shell crab and Russian almonds
Grilled shrimp
Black bass served on top a bed of mushrooms
And the Finale…Grilled tuna with foie gras
Oh and dessert, Strawberry shortcake and Apple Pie a la mode

Chef Tenney Flynn joined us as we stuffed the last forkfuls of dessert and gulp down some double espressos. Could have sat there all night chatting with Tenney, although he’s a seafood genius, he’s also the same guy who once owned a rock-n-roll bar in the 70s, now there’s a story!!!

A humble chap, he didn’t talk about his long list of accolades on gwfins.com, there were no medals hanging from his neck, no…just a tablespoon and ink pen peeking above his front pocket. They serve dinner seven days a week so go see for yourself why the 2009 edition of Zagat’s New Orleans Guide listed it as the “Top Seafood Restaurant in New Orleans” and the coveted John Mariani, food editor of Esquire magazine listed G. W. Fins as “The Best U.S. Seafood Restaurant” on ForbesTraveler.com.

Going to be hard to beat my third day, but the fourth day, Saturday, May 23, promises to be a flurry of activity with the Grand Tasting at the Superdome and the Great American Cookoff.

See ya on the flip side…