1001: Frank Sinatra: In The Wee Small Hours

Frank Sinatra: In The Wee Small Hours

First Listen: While Driving, Car Audio Speakers via Bluetooth

Second Listen: At Home, Bose Lifestyle 15 Audio via Chromecast.

Third Listen: Coffee Shop, Samsung stock headphones with Galaxy Note Three while reading lyrics.

I’m pretty familiar with Frank Sinatra, as I sure most people are, but to be honest, when I heard this album, I don’t think I ever heard any of these songs before.  The songs on this album haven’t quite reached the level of popularity as such tracks as Come Fly With Me, which is incredibly popular.  For what it’s worth, the album itself is extremely melancholy.  The songs themselves are short and direct to the point.

The Music

Favorite tracks:

-I Get Along Very Well: This is a perfect break up song.  I love the overall sarcasm of the song. 

-Can’t We Be Friends: It’s the start of this song that I love more than anything.  It hits you as pure storytelling.  There is something pure to the vocal quality that Frank has that is further showcased by the limited number of instruments in the beginning.  For the first few moments of that song it is just you and Frank with a few simple notes on a piano.

Unfavorite tracks:

To be clear, I don’t really dislike any of the tracks on this album, here are just the three I like least of all.

-Last Night When We Were Young: Call me crazy but I don’t care for the dramatic buildup of the song.  When you measure the lyrical content of the song against the slightly overproduced orchestral music in the background, the lyrics almost come across as an afterthought, and are the most unmemorable of the album.

-I’ll Be Around: Sweet or Creepy? Though this song doesn’t particularly drift into the sheer stalky nature of say Sting’s Every Breath You Take, still even though it isn’t quite as creepy, it sort of flirts on the edge of that territory.  Then again, that may just be a quality of there being no hopelessness to my romanticism.  Unrequited love is quite foolish.

Overall Listing

1. Frank Sinatra: In The Wee Small Hours

The Food

Completely unnecessary but I did make fresh pasta for this.
Recipe is not included because I don't know how much of anything I used
and I ended up making like 3 pounds of pasta.

It was rather difficult to track down food of the 1950’s era that I found appealing.  I did do some digging in order to see what were Sinatra’s favorite food and drinks were.  He loved Italian as well as Whiskey and Water.  I wanted to take some of the popular dishes of the era and adapt it into something tasty with a bit of a fresh twist that is a departure from the overuse of canned products during the era.

Menu:

-Italian Style Gougeres with Sun Dried Tomatoes:  A slight bit of French/Italian fusion into this easy appetizer that combines salty Parmesan with tart sun dried tomatoes to make this near perfect puff of pastry that is reminiscent of a nice pizza.

-Chicken A La King: Not Italian again, but it was wildly popular in the 1950’s.  I also wanted to do a versatile dish, because Dylan was there.  This dish allowed me to share the sauce that I built that was pretty tasty between the two proteins that I used Chicken and tofu, to make a omnivorous dish for me and a vegetarian one for him with just one more pan.

-Creamed Asparagus:  This was a very simple dish.  I used the water that I had on for the pasta to quickly blanch the asparagus before pairing it with a simple roux based white wine and cream sauce.

-Classic Sidecar:  Whisky and water was a bit to simplistic of a drink for me so I went with something traditional and tasty.  This version is one of the few sweeter drinks that I really enjoy and has a nice tartness from the lemon.

Italian Style Gougeres

1 cup water

1-1/2 cups flour

½ Cup Grated Parmasean Cheese

¾ Cup Butter

½ Teaspoon Salt

Four Eggs

¼ Cup Sun Dried Tomatoes Diced

Preheat Oven to 425F

Bring Butter, Water and Salt to a boil.

Adding flour and stir until dough starts to form and then add Cheese and tomatoes.  Stir until you are left with a dough ball

Add to the bowl of a stand mixer, and let cool for a couple minutes.  Start the mixer on low speed.  Add the eggs.

Pipe out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and dot each with a bit of water before baking.

Bake at 425F for 10 mins and then at 350F for another 10 mins.

Chicken A La King

8 Ounces Mushrooms

3 Red Peppers

1 Sweet Onion

2 Cloves Garlic

3 Bay Leaves

1 Cup Sherry

½ Cup Stock

½ Cup Cream

2 Tablespoons Butter

½ Tablespoon Dried Herb de Provence

1 Pound Protein (I used Chicken thighs for the chicken dish and firm tofu)

Roast red peppers, they take the longest so you should start with this.  I roast the peppers  on my stove by placing the peppers over high heat directly over the flame of my gas stove.  This can also be done under a broiler.  I then transfer them to a covered bowl and leave them until they’re cooled, then I remove the skin under running water and slice the peppers.

Sweat the onions with the bay leafs and season with salt and pepper.  When the onions start to become translucent, add the mushrooms sherry and stock cover and simmer.

If you’re doing the chicken, season it with the salt pepper and herb de Provence and brown it on both sides.  Once the chicken is done browning add the sauce and simmer until cooked through.  Finish the sauce with the cream.

If you’re doing the tofu, once your liquid has reduced by about half brown the tofu and add the tofu and cream to the sauce.

Serve all this tossed in cooked egg noodles.

Creamed Asparagus

½ Pound Asparagus

¼ Cup Dry white wine

1 Tablespoon Butter

1 Tablespoon Flour

¼ Cup Cream

¼ Cup grated Parmesan Cheese

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Combine the butter and flower in a small sauce pan over medium heat.

Whisk in the white wine and parmesan cheese.

Add cream and continue whisking

Serve sauce over blanched asparagus woody ends removed.

The Drink: 

Sidecar

3 Ounces Whiskey

½ Ounce Triple Sec

Juice of Half a Lemon

1 Teaspoon Sugar

Shake all the ingredients together and serve in a rocks glass with a lemon twist.

Change Wings

I wanted to redeem my birthday from those shitty wings I had to start off my birthday with and make some awesome ones.  I was inspired by the night tat made a good wing to bring thigns back full circle from my totally awesome birthday experience partying with Robert Delong. I know insane that I got to party with one of my favorite artists for my birthday   Robbie ordered the wings at the bar and favorite liquor being Jameson,  I decided to bring things full circle here with named for one of my favorite tracks on the album here are Change wings. For more on my birthday go here.

Change Wings

For the wings:

Up to 5 lb chicken wings (For vegan varation use Gardien Wings)

¼ Cup flour

¼ Cup fine Corn Meal

Salt and Pepper to taste

Oil For Frying

1 Tablespoon dried Thyme

For the Sauce

½ Cup Jameson Irish Whiskey

1 Cup Butter (For a vegan variation use Earth Balance Butter Sub)

1 Cup Hot Sauce (I use Frank’s For This)

3 Cloves Chopped Garlic

2 Tablespoons Siraccha (Ease back if you don’t like wings pretty spicy)

To Cook the wings:

Season the wings as desired with salt and pepper.

Mix the flour and cornmeal together and dredge the wings in the mixture

Let the wings rest on a wire rack for about 5 minutes before adding to the oil

Preheat Oil to 350°F.

Fry until fully cooked and golden brown and cooked throughout.

Let wings rest on wire rack to get rid of excess oil  for a minute before saucing.

To Make the Sauce:

In a medium sauce pan, add the Whiskey, garlic.

Cook over medium heat until liquid is reduced in half.

Add Butter and stir until melted

Add hot sauce and stir until incorporated

Mix in the sirracha and toss wings in sauce

For frying I use the T-Fal fryer that has a integrated filter system.  It is a little large, yet convenient.  

Do I like Pies, Bacon and Beer? Yes, Chef!

My Saturday started off with me driving up to Snaidero in Chicago for a signing of Marcus Samuelsson’s book Yes Chef.  He is touring for the release of the book in paperback form.  The venue was basically a showroom for all of these amazing Italian kitchen setups that I will probably never be able to afford in my lifetime, though they were pretty good and interesting to see. The little marketplace that they were displayed in could be a cool little place to window shop.  It’s kind of how I feel whenever I browse through some outrageously priced store.  I make a pretty decent amount of money but there’s nothing like walking through a place like that to make you feel absolutely poor.

Chef and I

I’ve been a big fan of Marcus Samuelsson ever since his somewhat underdog victory on Top Chef Masters.  Being a big fan of Top Chef in general, it was pretty good season to watch him compete and I honestly didn’t he would win at all until a few episodes before the end of season two.  He was born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden.  His dishes take on that eclectic global fusion cuisine.  I did get a chance to eat at C-House, his restaurant in Chicago and I thought that it was okay, but it was a deviation from his typical cuisine which introduces bold and vibrant African flavors.  In all honesty, I don’t think that Chicago needed another contemporary American restaurant.  Though the food there was good, I think that the citizens of Chicago and I were in agreement on this sentiment as the C-House went to restaurant heaven.  Someday I will make it to Harlem to try Red Rooster.

Signing My Book

Marcus is an easy going person.  My friend Tiffany referred to him as that jerk on Chopped, but I don’t think you can judge the character of a person based on them doing their job, to be critical of the food which is served to them in a competition.  He’s actually a pretty nice guy and I actually got a chance to show a couple of pictures of some of the food that I made.  He seemed a little impressed by my presentation, and I felt a little validated as a home cook.  In hindsight I wish I could have overcame my overwhelming starstruckness in order to be able to ask him a few questions about technique cooking wise.

I would enjoy the casual mingling among the crowd and tasting the various hors d’ouvers at the singing.  For $50 I felt as though it was an awesome bargain to have the chance to meet a celeb chef, have a couple of glasses of wine and have some tasty little bites.  There was smoked salmon accompanied by a thin dressing of lemon and dill served on thin slices of bread.  My favorite was the cured beef with a little bit of a mango jam and orange zest.  It was slightly salty from the cure and the meaty strong earthy flavors of the beef were balanced by the sweetness of the jam.

Tiffany's Pie

For dinner I picked up my fiend Tiffany and we went to dinner at Pleasant House.  I wanted to get something relatively cheap and quick and that’s what we eventually decided on though we talked about going to Red Door and also tried to go to another place that was not yet open.  The only downside to Pleasant House is if you aren’t really looking for it you can drive by it several times.  If it was a snake it would have bit me, after circling the block twice we ended up dining at the place.  There was a little bit of a line but we ended up making an order.  I would have the steak and ale pie and she would have the chicken pie.  The crust on the pie is very tender flaky and buttery.  Once you got through that amazing golden brown crust you had this amazing combination of very tender and delicate steak surrounded by a rich sauce that bought me back to my childhood.  I remember growing up enjoying many of those frozen pot pies.  This was so far elevated from that standard though.  On the side I had mashed potatoes that were very smooth and buttery and the gravy was one of the tastiest I’ve had in a long time.  I’m still wondering what gave that gravy such character.

Tiffany’s pie had chicken and was accompanied by a subtle acidity but more sweetness than anything based on the quality of tomatoes cooked into her pie.  It also came with this chutney that really reminded me of a chimichurri.  

They did not sell alcohol but they did have a great artisanal drink selection.  I ended up having the house made ginger soda.  I could have had a little more spice for my taste but my threshold of spice is much higher than the average person so I can understand the choice to rein it in and create a slightly sweet drink that was palatable for the masses.  She ended up having the house made hibiscus soda, which was good as well, but we ended up making the right selections because she enjoyed her drink better and I enjoyed my drink better.  

After checking into the place on Foursquare I found out that the mushroom and kale pie was one of Time Out Chicago’s best dishes.  I had to try so I ended up ordering it to go.  They asked me if would be okay to pack a cold one and I that was just perfect for me since I didn’t plan on eating it until much later.  They gave heating instructions that I would follow.  It reminded me why I no longer eat those pot pies, 45 minutes is quite a bit of a wait.  My patience was rewarded by the great combo of those earthy mushrooms and kale.  For me I can’t really decide if it was better than the steak and ale pie since I am judging a fresh pie against a reheated one.  That aside it was honestly almost as good as the steak and ale pie which was a bit of a surprise.

Fast Forward to Tuesday night.  I went out to dinner at Heaven on Seven.  They were having a bacon and beer dinner.  Eight course of food containing bacon alongside a beer by Ommegang with each course.  I got there much too early because I guess anticipation built up so much that I thought that the dinner was a 6:30 instead of 7. Anyway the dinner got off to a great start.  The first course was popcorn.  I am not really a fan of popcorn but this popcorn was particularly good because where butter would have been used bacon fat took it’s place.  If they did this at movie theatres I would probably weigh 300 pounds easily.  There is something magical about surrounding light and airy kernels of popcorn with rich and salty bacon fat.  That subtle smokiness can turn popcorn haters like me into a huge fan.  With that first course they served the Gnomegang, a light beer that I liked quite a bit.

"BLT"

Next up was the BLT.  Applewood smoked bacon jam, on a crostini with arugula.   I have my complaints about this dish.  The size of the tomato made it a little difficult and unwieldy to eat, even though the jam was quite tasty.  I liked the idea of playing on the sweet and salty parts of the palate and then balancing off with a bit of acidity from the tomato.  I also thought that the one single leaf of arugula kind of left me there thinking what is the point really.  You couldn’t taste the arugula at all alongside the overpoweringly strong flavors of bacon jam.  It went well with the biere D’ Hougoumont.

The next dish was the one that I was the most interested in and also the low point of the evening.  An avocado soup with double hickory smoked bacon.  In my mind I expected the soup to be cold because who in their right mind would heat avocado.  Excuse my writing, I don’t think that point had quite enough emphasis… WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD HEAT AVACADO?!?!  It just ended up being very weird, a creamy taste of nothing that was trying to be redeemed by some wonderful tasty smoked bacon.  Avocado on it’s own doesn’t have the greatest or most memorable flavor in the world and they robbed that avocado of what I think was it’s best quality.  It’s creamy texture.  It was accompanied by white, which was ironically the lightest and most tasteless beer of the night. 

Chicken Creole

Things picked right back up after those couple of stumbles into a blissful combination of pecan smoked bacon and chicken.  The chicken creole had rich gravy whose amazing taste and complex flavors could only be achieved by a long cooked dark roux.  Piling that on top of perfectly creamy cheesy grits and you’ve got something special.  This dish had everything the subtle acid of a bit of tomato, built upon a strong combination developed by the trinity.  I wish I had more of it.  It was also topped with raw scallions to provide another light touch of onion flavor.  It went well with the Iron Throne.

Scallops

Wild boar wrapped scallops with a habanero red bean puree.  Someone else at the table commented that they liked the red beans and they liked the scallops but didn’t like them together.  I am not personally a fan of bacon wrapped around scallops because it ropes you into one particular preparation.  Baking.  Scallops are one thing that is an exception to the rule of everything being better with bacon.  One thing I love about getting scallops is getting a good sear and enjoying the wonderful taste that golden brown carmelization produces.  Baking does not give you that.  Searing off scallops for a dining room of that many people could have proved to be a challenge for the kitchen though. The dish was nice though, and the habanero in the red beans did not prove to be overwhelmingly hot so they were used with just the right hand.

The firth course and I weren’t spectacular friends.  It was tasty don’t get me wrong, but when you break down the play by play it was really just a bacon burger.  There were good points to the slider the caramelized onions, but the barbecue sauce was borderline too sweet for me.  The shoestring potatoes were good to me but most people passed on tasting them.  

Pork Belly

The main event, the star of the show was the pork belly.  I will always have a soft spot in my heart (and a warm place in my stomach) for pork belly.  Pork belly is what bacon is made from.  This particular version was glazed with root beer and served over johnnycakes.  I’m surprised there wasn’t much uproar about it because looking at the plates come out of the kitchen, they definitely lacked consistency in the cutting of the pork belly.  I had no reason to complain because I had the biggest piece of pork belly at my table and it was almost twice as large as another one.  It was just a major failure as far as consistency goes.  That aside there is something great about a well-cooked piece of pork belly.  There was a little bit of sweetness from the root beer and I wish they would have had a little more of the glaze, because the johnnycake was a little dry.  Otherwise it was often.

I took one bite of the pecan pie topped with bacon before I decided that if I took just one more bite my stomach would probably explode.  It had great texture, good sweetness and I love how the saltiness of the bacon went with it.  It would make a great snack later on.

Go Cubs Go!

I used Park Whiz in order to get my parking space for the Cubs game at the Nationals.  The parking that I would get was in a Safeway parking lot about half a mile away from the park itself.  It was my first time at Nationals Park.  It's my 7th MLB park, which totally reminds me that I have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to seeing MLB stadiums.

I made the mistake of getting dressed without knowing how cold it was outside and 65 was just a little bit too cold for the stadium weather.  Not to mention the fact that it was very windy at the Stadium.  I got there extremely early though.  I thought that the 2pm game started at 1:30.  It gave me a good chance to walk around the stadium and get some good pictures though.  I still had a very good view of the field from the the section I sat in 200 level off of the first base line.  I couldn't beat the price either.  $12 off of Stub Hub.  My only complaint about where I was siting is that you couldn't really see the catcher and part of the batter.  Though it wasn't like I was sitting close enough to be calling balls and strikes anyway.

I ended up trying the garlic Parmesan fries and they came with a smoky bacon sauce.  They were pretty tasty but the line to get them was slightly absurd.  I must have waited for about 20 mins, but there wasn't anything going on at the time so I didn't really mind that much.  It seemed as though every place there that didn't serve the standard ball park fare had an extremely unreasonable line.  The best beer I could find there was a Blue Moon which isn't too shabby.

After leaving the park I had dinner at Founding Farmers.  I really wanted to try the Deviled Eggs and Pot Roast, since I had seen both on TV, but I wasn't really in the mood for either.  I took some time looking over the menu and the great thing I liked about it was that they had designations for menu items that were vegetarian, vegan and nut free.  It shows real care.

Fried Green Tomatoes

I ended up trying the fried green tomatoes.  They were nice and crispy and just a little bit spicy.  They came with this cream cheese spread.  It's a very good combination because you get that spicy kick tagging along with the creaminess of the cheese just slightly cut through by the acidity of the tomatoes.  They were fried just right and weren't at all greasy.

Along with my appetizer, I enjoyed the Chelsea's Manhattan it was the priciest drink on the menu but it was well worth it.  A Manhattan is usually my drink of choice, and this particular version had a chai-infused Dolin Rouge Vermouth, which is one of the better Vermouths that you can buy.  It added a subtle hint of spice to the drink.  I also got to try a whiskey that I have never tried before in the drink, The Black Maple Hill 8 yr. Bourbon.  This drink had a lot of character  strong and not very sweet.  Just the way I like it.

Chicken and Waffles

Then came out the very crisp Chicken and Waffles.  I ended up getting the green beans as a side.  The green beans were cooked nicely and came with some candied lemon that added some sweetness and acidity at the same time.  The mac and cheese that came alongside it wasn't that great in my personal opinion.  I did like the blend of cheeses on it but I could have gone without it all together.  It is an unnecessary and unadvertised extra starch when you already have waffles.  The chicken was good and crisp.  I really liked the gravy that was 

After dinner, I left to visit my friend Sam’s work.  I couldn't believe that that jerk worked right across the street from a Dogfish Head Ale House.  Who does that honestly?  He also claims that he didn't know it was a big deal.  I mean seriously?!  I got to see his work which is actually pretty interesting.  Sam works at a research reactor.  It’s pretty cool to watch that reactor generate power for experiments that many people do.  Many of the researchers get approval to do their projects as the scientists review the experiments to basically see if they are worth preforming.  Then they either pay to use the time there if they want to keep their findings private or it’s free if they choose to share their findings.  It seems like a pretty laid back gig.

I went over to the Dogfish Alehouse for a  beer before heading back to Sam’s house to crash for a few hours before catching the plane home.  I was awake well before they woke up and was up and checked through security about a hour before my flight.  United has flights going from DC to Chicago just about every hour or so.  While I was there some huge jerk got all mad because he missed his flight.  The flight he was on had closed the doors about 10 minutes early.  He gave some angry excuse about how it took him a long time to get through security.  I guess he didn't think that a major airport would be busy on a Monday morning.  Anyhow his meltdown granted me with some much needed entertainment before my flight, which also ended up being the flight that he would be on started to board.

Sweet Life Festival

My day started with a little bit of Shaun T's Insanity before waking up and hanging out with Sam and his son for a bit and breakfast of some scrambled eggs and toast.  He also agave me some of the most horrible coffee I've had in a long time.  I can't remember when the last time I've ever even seen anybody buy Chock Full O Nuts.  With good reason.  I think my great grandma used to drink Chock Full O Nuts.  It tasted like sludge.  We then headed over to Rio to do some of the greatest window shopping ever.  I have been budgeting myself for the most part to prepare myself for my upcoming trip to Europe.  I only made one purchase, a 750 mL bottle of Duvel.  I love that beer and was determined to get him to try it.  I would then introduce Sam to some good coffee.  Starbucks.  Not many people know this but you can order a short at Starbucks.  It's great when you want just a little bit of coffee.

The Best Method for making coffee at home starts off with good quality fair trade beans.  I would rather not drink coffee at all than to drink coffee that exploits the farmers that grow it.  I just believe that when love is put into a product it tastes that much better.  The other thing you need is a coffee grinder.  I keep two at home, one for spices and one for coffee.

We ate lunch at BGR.  I was very interested trying the lobster burger, but was drawn towards the Wellington.   It was a symphony of earthiness brightened up with the sharpness of the Dijon mustard in the sauce.  It was a messy burger, but all really good burgers are really messy in my personal opinion.  Somehow I managed to eat the entire thing like a grown up without getting any of the burger on my white shirt.  I passed on getting the roasted garlic on my fires which would have likely been my topping of choice but I figured it wouldn't be a good idea to eat a ton of garlic when I would soon be in close quarters with so many people.

I ended up going with the Parmesan to top the fries and thought the fries were pretty good as well.  I loved the mosaic tiled tables and the kid in me arose to sit at the table that had the superman logo on it.  Who passes up on Superman? (With the exception of that one Superman movie where Superman lifts an entire island of kryptonite into space.  Not only does that defy all logic of the movie, I mean a little piece of kryptonite brings Superman to his knees, now he can suddenly lift whole islands of it... Give me a break.  Not to mention the fact that the acting in that movie was abysmal.  I would rather watch slug documentaries rather than see that movie again... but I digress).  I also liked that they served beer and ended up getting a Hefewiezen.

Then as we got ready to leave disaster struck.  Car battery deadz.  After much pacing around, I had the brilliant idea of going to Target and getting jumper cables.  (I mean I am the smarter one between me and Sam).  We eventually got somebody to help us out and give us a jump because everyone we talked to before we got the cables was "Driving their wife's car which does not have jumper cables."  Why would you not have jumper cables in your wife's car?  I don't have jumper cables but I live on the wild side.  

I quickly checked into the Doubletree.  I wanted to drop off my bags and get into my room before I went out to the festival.  I mainly wanted the hotel room in case I got too drunk out there, I'd be able to take a cab back to the hotel, without bothering Sam or his very pregnant wife.  The hotel was pretty nice.  I loved the fact that it had open elevators, which may be a point of contention for those acrophobic types.  Though it is only four stories.    I checked in got the warm chocolate chip cookie and ran upstairs to the room and almost left forgetting the ticket.  A quick double-take and I was off to the festival.

I got there just in time to see Gary Clark Jr. start to preform.  I missed him a Lollapolooza last year.  I've been a pretty big fan ever since I got a chance to listen to his album Blak and Blu.  His voice is soulful and he combines skillful guitar play reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix with an amazing singing voice onto melodies that range from bluesy to upbeat.

One of the pluses at the festival was that the food and beer was pretty good too.  I had a great crabcake sandwich, but the star of the show would have to be the lobster roll which was packed with awesome fresh lobster.  The best thing I had there was the kale and chicken sandwich.  I had to go for it after hearing the guy in front of me diss it by saying that the pork and slaw sandwich had to better.  The chicken was slightly spicy and went very well with the rich lemony aoli resting against the hearty kale.

The star of the show that day for me was Robert Delong.  I love his music.  It was a few months ago when I was driving to Atlanta when I heard the song Global Concepts on the radio and had to buy it.  Then in a search for his music video, I happened across this video:

I mean in my personal opinion, the song Global Concepts is amazing in and of itself, but to watch and see him create that amazing sound all by himself.  It is amazing to me.  The music is awesome and has a bit of that electro vibe to it.  Amazingly enough the lyrics are good and pretty complex as well.

I left a little bit early since I'm not a huge fan of Pheonix or Passion Pit and I was pretty wet and cold.  I like their music just fine, after the rain, it wasn't fun at all since it was like 60 outside.  In hindsight I could have went for the regular tickets vice the VIP since I didn't get any of the benefit of the VIP.  The bar for the VIP section had a longer line than the other bars.  The VIP bathrooms also had a huge wait.  Oh well now I know.

The next morning I enjoyed breakfast at the hotel, and it was pretty good.  I'd say a little above average as far as hotel breakfast buffets go.  One added bonus was that thay had crepes.  They were filled with a sweetened up cream cheese.  It was a good start to the morning.  I enjoyed the crepes alongside crisp bacon  scrambled eggs and potatoes.  Topped everything off with some Orange Juice.

Suburban Cajun Showdown: 3 Deuces vs. Heaven on Seven vs. Moe Joes

The Service:

Heaven on Seven:  Servers are very friendly and attentive.  Your water glass never goes empty.

3 Deuces: Very understaffed for the night that I went.  I felt ignored most of the time throughout my meal.  Plenty of tables that had not been cleared down.

Moe Joes: Probably the most welcoming of the bunch.  The Appetizers were a little slow to get out but after that the food flew out of the kitchen.

Edge: Moe Joes

The Food:

Bayou Chicken

3 Deuces:  Execution wasn't exactly perfect, but they get points for the creativity of the menu.  Though the menu size is kept small and concise, the dishes also seem to be a bit unique.  The Bayou Chicken signature dish was very good.  The chicken was perfectly fried and crisp and the sauce was quite nice.  It came with broccoli that was steamed to perfection as well.   It took a solid 25 mins to get out my appetizer which consisted of a lukewarm crab cake that in it's defense tasted very fresh and filled with crab and had a very good remoulade sauce accompanying it.  The greens in the salad that were served with it could have been better and some of the greens in it had wilted.  I passed on dessert because they seemed so overwhelmed in the kitchen.

Heaven on Seven:  I started with the Fried Green Tomatoes over a  Warm Remoulade Sauce.  The tomatoes were fried and crispy and the remoulade wasn't the mayonnaise based one that I am accustomed to but is one that is made from a very dark roux that gives a little bit of an acidic punch and a little bit of spice. I settled on the Chicken Fried Steak for the main course and it was tender with that perfectly crisp breading.  Combined with that tasty gravy and you had the perfect execution of a southern favorite.  Not to mention that the portion was so big that I had enough to take home.

Alligator Po Boy

Moe Joes:  I started off with the Calamari, the only problem with this dish was the plating.  It was a good price for the dish the plate it was on made it look as though they were skimping on the calamari  Also it was just slightly greasy though it had a good spicy kick to it.   The turtle soup was tasty and had a strong tomato notes.  You could definitely get the complexity of it from the thick roux that was used to  create it.  The Alligator Po' Boy, was perfectly fried.  It as a little messy to eat but the bread was nicely toasted, and it was a well seasoned dish.  I asked for the sweet potato fries to go along with it and they put cinnamon sugar on their sweet potato fries.  I hate that.  There are some scenarios in which sweet potatoes should be treated like a dessert, say when your making a pie and other scenarios in which they should be treated like a substantial savory side dish.  Like say when they're being fried and subbing in for traditional french fries or onion rings.  There are so many seasoning combinations that would have been better. 

Edge: Draw

The Cocktails:

3 Deuces:  Why am I drinking a halfway decent White Russian at a Cajun themed restaurant? 

Heaven On Seven: The Voo Doo Juice made me feel like I was was walking down Bourbon Street.

Moe Joes:  The Old Fashioned was a pretty epic cocktail made the way it should have been made.  I also tried the Give Me Some Beads, which hides the very strong nature of the drink among fresh juices with a bit of red Bull for some kick.

Edge: Moe Joes

Decor:

Heaven on Seven: More of a casual approach with tons of unique hot sauce bottles bordering the walls.  The place remains fun and casual.

3 Deuces:  An intimate and more of a upscale approach.  3 Deuces lends itself to more of the atmosphere of the more exquisite Cajun restaurants. 

Moe Joes: Lands somewhere in the middle of the two.  Though the jazz music is slightly obtrusive.

Edge: 3 Deuces

Hot Sauce:

3 Deuces: Tabasco.  It is a Louisiana hot sauce but at the same time you can get it anywhere.  Their food stands on it's own anyway.

Moe Joes: Tabasco and Crystal.  Crystal is usually one of my hot sauces of choice and it is a Louisiana hot sauce.

Heaven on Seven: A bunch of unique hot sauces are on every table.  How can you not be tempted to try one named ass on fire?

Edge: Heaven on Seven.

Verdict:

Moe Joes and Heaven on Seven are clearly ahead of 3 Deuces.  That being said I would have to give just the slightest of   victories to Heaven on Seven.  It may only be a victory as controversial as a split decision in  boxing but it is a win none the less.

Cajun Chicken Salad

I decided to use  the remains of the roast chicken I made in order to make a chicken salad. You can also make this salad pretty quickly using a rotisserie chicken from your grocer. Visits to these places had me thinking outside the box of my normal Mediterranean direction that I usually plant myself in using capers and giardiniera and settled on more of a light remoulade to coat the salad.

Ingredients:

1 Half Roast Chicken, Shredded and Deboned, skin removed
1/4 Cup Mayo 
1/4 Cup Hot Sauce (I prefer Frank's or Crystal)
1/8 Cup Grape Seed Oil (Any light oil will work here, Extra Light Olive Oil, Canola Oil, Safflower Oil, etc.)
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Egg Yolk
1 Teaspoon Tomato Paste
2 Tablespoons Pickle Juice
1 pound pasta of any type cooked and drained (Almost any, would be a little silly to use a strand type of pasta like spaghetti or linguine, go with something along the lines of macaroni or farfale, but even orzo would work)
1 Tablespoon Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning (Should almost be illegal to do Cajun cooking without it)
1/3 Cup of Dill Pickles Chopped (There are lots of good pickles out there, at the very least use Claussen, but if you have a good local pickler, go with those.   I would never advocate the use of the store-bought stuff that has likely been sitting on a shelf since the Reagan Administration.)

This recipe is pretty simple.  Whisk the Egg yolk (ff you want to take your salmonella risk to near zero, you can put the egg and boiling water for a few seconds and remove I usually skip this since your odds of getting salmonella from eggs is about 1 and 10000 to begin with, but hey I like to live dangerously) and Mayo together  Slowly drizzle in the Olive and grape seed oils while continuing to whisk.  Then do the same with the tomato paste, Pickle Juice and Hot sauce.  Then toss the remaining ingredients together and viola.  A very quick and easy dish.