Autumnal Indulgence

"New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin."

-Mark Twain

New Orleanians have long enjoyed a lusty love affair with food. Of course this City is famous world over for it's cuisine and reputation for sensual over-indulgence. We are as famous for our desserts as we are for our extremely relaxed liquor laws. I think it is the way we approach eating with such unabashed revelry that I enjoy of all of the indulgences here. It is commonly observed that when we are eating lunch, we are discussing what we are having for dinner. My regular readers will remember a previous post entitled "Of Friends and Pot Roast", where I entertained my dear friends and recent newlyweds, Angie and Zak along with my glamorous houseguest, La Shabazz. I recently had the pleasure of combining that marvelous company once again. This time, we congregated over a lot of pleasing and hearty appetizers. Angelique has conquered any notions that you may have about cheese balls and has taken both the idea and the execution to new and dizzying heights. Her cheese balls are about the size of a six year old boy's head and boast twice the heft. They are constructed from an assortment of high quality fromages, scented with roasted garlic and rolled unapologetically in Neuske's bacon (a particularly divine example of the applewood smoked variety from Wisconsin). This was served along with some water crackers and crisply roasted potatoes to drag through the cheese ball. Also featured on our beautiful and enticing buffet was a Nigella Lawson inspired onion pie, redolent with the sweetness of caramelized red onion and the scintillating perfume of thyme. Angelique also brought some rillettes accompanied by fresh bread-and-butter pickles from Cochon Butcher, an offshoot of Donald Link's wildly successful restaurant in the Warehouse District, Cochon. We doused the evening with quite a few bottles of vin rouge, and Toenisha and I led the singing for the occasion with a moving rendition of "I'll Fly Away" with Angie as our special vocal guest. This of course led to another of our high-spirited musicales, singing late into the evening long after our guests had gone home.

When I first returned to New Orleans after Katrina, I remember feeling a little disheartened that the French Market no longer had a bewildering array of produce. I remember on previous visits buying a slice of fresh watermelon from a vendor and walking around enjoying the sweet coldness of my favorite summer melon. I'm glad to report that the newly renovated front portion of the market boasts fresh produce, fresh local seafood, a spice market and a full-service lunch counter that specializes in authentic local fare. The produce section was bursting with an assortment of Autumnal pleasures. The bins were filled with sugar cane, ready to be pressed into juice and berled into the darkly haunting syrup that Louisianians seem to prefer over it's smokily robust sibling, molasses. Pumpkins and gourds also heralded the arrival of Fall with their warty and clementine-hued figures. More nuts than a stick could be shaken at were also a feature of the cornucopia that is The French Market.

Of course, The Eve of All Hallows is upon us. This is such a well regarded holiday in the Crescent City, not that anyone here needs a reason to dress up. What does astonish me, however, is how people decorate their homes with false gauzy cobwebs and spiders and representations of ghosts and ghouls seemingly floating above the Gothic balconies. So much of the gentle decay of this haunted place seems to render such embellishments unnecessary.This place has always had a rather dark and creepy atmosphere anyway. Many examples I've seen of this decor closely resemble the horrors that lie under my bed. That bunny hutch is blood curdling, trust me.