Tales of the Cocktail

New Orleans is yet again playing host of the Annual Tales of the Cocktail. This festival of spirits (not the ghost kind- I haven’t done ghosts or anything scary since I threw up during the Exorcism of Emily Rose) has been bringing bartenders, chefs, and alcoholics from around the country to the birthplace of the cocktail for 8 years. The weeklong event is centered around seminars, demonstrations, and tastings, and is highlighted by Spirited Dinners. The cocktail centered dinners feature 5 to 6 courses, each paired with a different specialty cocktail. At $85.00 – $100.00 a piece, the dinners are not very affordable for a young married couple with enough student loans to fund the next season of Power Rangers. Instead of completely scrapping the idea, we decided to have our own cocktail and food inspired week.

It started with a tasting of a cask conditioned Vanilla Turbodog Thursday at the Bulldog on Magazine Street. Apparently everybody else in New Orleans wanted to try a pint of this limited release beer. The tasting started at 6:30, and at 6:28 I found myself standing in line for another 20 minutes just to get a pint. It was definitely worth the wait. The beer was a little sweeter and was also a little smoother, partly from the vanilla, and partly from the lower carbonation from the cask conditioning, than the original Turbodog. In the spirit of the Spirited Dinner, we felt we had to pair this with something. And how can you go to a dingy bar, and not get some kind of greasy bar food?

Thank God for chili cheese waffle fries. But it almost caused a repeat of the Vicksburg City Hall Incident of 1998.

This weekend was apparently West Bank Weekend, too. We made 3 trips to the “best bank” over the span of 48 hours. To this day, I’m still not sure how this part of metro New Orleans got its nickname. We were there Saturday to try some pho and banh mi at Pho Tau Bay with a friend who writes for Saveur. Set in a sketchy shopping center off the Westbank Expressway, this joint serves up some of the city’s best Vietnamese soups and sandwiches. Since it was a late lunch and I was so hungry, I could ride a horse, I ordered more than I could stomach. The Pho Nam Bo Vien (a soup with scallions, thin, tender slices of beef, and a hearty broth) and chicken spring rolls were good, but the highlight of the lunch was the liver banh mi. The Vietnamese version of the New Orleans poboy (both are French influenced) was stuffed with crispy cucumbers, pickled carrots and daikon, cilantro, house made mayonnaise, and a velvety smooth chicken liver pate.

We continued the Asian theme throughout the afternoon with a trip to Hong Kong market. Most of my assumptions and expectations were met, except for the fact that there wasn’t a City Wall. The Super K-Mart sized Asian market had just about every foul thing imaginable. Fruit that smells like dirty diapers. Containers of pig blood. And my personal favorite, fermented duck eggs. I can feel the Emily Rose effect coming again.

Sunday, we developed our own grill-inspired beer dinner, which paired 3 courses with 3 different beers. Usually “grill time” starts off with huge bowl of cheese dip and a cold Budweiser. This time we started off with char grilled jalapenos stuffed with shrimp and cream cheese and wrapped in bacon, and paired it with Abita’s SOS Pilsner. The crisp Pilsner subdued the heat of the first course, as well as the humidity on the porch, and also aids in the Gulf recovery efforts.
The second course paired Bayou Teche’s LA 31 Bière Pâle with a ½ pound hamburger and hand cut Belgian fries. Once I got through the crispy bacon, the grilled avocado exploded like molten lava and mixed with the mayonnaise, and melted provolone to form a mass of gooey deliciousness. The crispy, twice fried fries were accompanied by a house made wasabi aioli and red pepper barbeque sauce. The slight bitterness of the hops in the pale ale adequately complimented the spiciness of the sauces, and the charred beef of the burger.

Remaining consistent with the grilling of the previous courses, we decided to try a grilled dessert. The final course consisted of grilled peaches, glazed with rum, butter, and brown sugar, and topped with crème fraiche. The robust chocolate malty characteristic of Rogue Mocha Porter counterbalanced the sweetness of the peaches.

The sweet ending to the beer dinner capped off our affordable version of our personal Tales of The Cocktail weekend. At least this way, Power Rangers can continue filming, and Gatlin can get in on the eating and drinking, too. New Orleans even makes dogs want to eat some good groceries, and enjoy more than just the occasional cocktail.