Photo Essay

This is where my food vacation started.  Upon getting home I had to go to the oral surgeon and get two wisdom teeth removed, so the role of food in the beginning of my break was to annoy me.  I didn't eat anything except for soup and ice cream in the beginning of break, on account of the stitches.  However my food frustration didn't last forever and I was eventually able to diversify my diet, and to be honest time flies when you're on vicodin.

After a few loopy days of soup and ice cream my mom hired me to help her in preparing a dinner for some of her friends' birthdays.  This was great for me because I knew I'd get snack on and make some great food, and getting paid a little made the deal even sweeter.  Less enjoyable duties included setting the table, seen here.

Though I don't frequently help my mom prepare multi course meals, this job was indicative of the role food plays in my family in general, where eating and cooking is also something that brings people or our family together.  My family is passionate about food and for me part of going home is getting to experience that again.

The first course of the meal was home made potato gnocchi, which required us to bake some potatoes, put them through a ricer a couple of times and then make a dough with some flour and egg.  After that we rolled the dough into strands and cut them into gnocchi sized pieces, heres a picture of my masterful rolling technique.  These things were so damn good, mostly due to their being perfect vehicles for unnecessary amounts of butter.

Sauteed onions with butter sauce and fried sage leaves was served with the gnocchi.

The second thing we made was an oven roasted cauliflower dish.  It was roasted with lemon and olive oil and then my mom threw some spices and capers in it, im not sure what really went into it though because I was still cleaning the stuff from the gnocchi while it was being made.  

This was an appetizer my mom cooked up without me.  These are little filo cups, kinda like mini pie crusts, that are filled with buttery lobster, called lobster bites, (imagine lobster roll meets crumbly mini pie crusts).  

Last but not least on the menu was roast leg of lamb.  The lamb was cooked with a bread crumb crust that contained orange marmalade, cranberry jelly, garlic, dijon mustard, and some things I forgot.  Though the recipe sounded sort of strange, it actually turned out really well and gave a sweet but also sharp accent to the lamb.  

Patois

Having worked behind the scenes at a fancy restaurant I was immediately interested in examining the reviews of Restaurant Patois, which seemed to hold a standard and price point that reminded me of the River Cafe.  As I began reading and trying to analyze the reviews in terms of the role it plays in the community I noticed a number of things. 

First off, Patois is predominantly given a four and five star rating, asides from a few concise reviews every now and again that criticized it with misspelled words.  Secondly, I began to notice the types of people who ate at and reviewed Patois seemed to be predominantly either foodie tourists or people who weren’t concerned about the cost of the meal as much as they did of the alcohol: “The only aspect of the meal that I did not enjoy was the wine service” (Susan W.).  In terms of the audience indicated by the reviews the that Patois plays in creating a community is minimal compared to the New Orleans institution type restaurants I’ve attended.   Not only is Patois’ primary target group not the residents of the city, but it sometimes plays a negative role in the community, like harboring enmity between it and less wealthy or educated people: “The worst dinner ever .The ribs were burned and tasteless(Burn taste)” (Deniz S.).  Nonetheless Patois does seem to have one redeeming aspect in terms of its role within the social and food communities of New Orleans, that being its Sunday brunch.  Patois’ Sunday brunch attracts a lot of locals, who praise it highly as well.  One local reviewer cited it as a favorite place to bring guests of the city, saying of the brunch, “what better way to break someone into New Orleans then forcing them to eat rabbit while washing it down with a mimosa or a French 75” (Whitney J.).  Ultimately what seems to hold Patois back the most is its service, which causes most of its three star ratings.  One customer complained that “I asked the waiter to describe one of the dishes and the response was: ‘what do you mean’ followed by him taking the menu from my hand and reading me the description” (Katherine S.).

Ultimately Patois fails to live up to its reputation and the standard of a New Orleans institution because the role it plays in the community and its culture is an estranged one.  Not only does Patois seem to fail to make itself a place in the community by catering to tourists, but it abandons the food’s integrity by abandoning the people of the city that pioneered the very same cuisine and style of dining it claims.