Uptown Messenger (https://uptownmessenger.com/author/kristine-froeba/page/3/)
Kristine Froeba is a journalist and tenth-generation Louisianian whose varied background includes food and travel writing, military writing, celebrity ghostwriting, public relations, social media management, fundraising, and preservation. She describes herself as part foodie, part writer, part historian, historic renovation zealot, and full-time dabbler.
Three Weekends of das Oktoberfest! Prost! Deutsches Haus and Oktoberfest are back in town. Das Deutsches Haus, New Orleans’ German cultural and heritage center, aka the German house, is back in the city proper and celebrating Oktoberfest. This year marks the organizations 90th anniversary and its inaugural Oktoberfest at its new location in Mid-City.
New Orleans’ Restaurant Week has only two days and nights left to enjoy. September is one of the slowest months of the year for restaurateurs, but it’s an excellent opportunity for locals to experience new chefs and new menus from old favorites. Celebrating its eighth year, Restaurant Week New Orleans offers a line-up of restaurants with innovative menus at discounted prices. The week, a brainchild of the Louisiana Restaurant Association in partnership with New Orleans & Company, runs through Sunday, September 16. “In New Orleans, dining out is many things—a celebration, a sport, an adventure and above all else, a necessity.
#TeamBabyCakes
If there is one thing New Orleans likes more than controversy—and even baseball–it’s a social media war. This time it’s not the kale lady, the Disney gumbo video (an abomination), or even that New York travel writer (#besafe). But, yes, the yanks are at it again, literally. The New York Yankees’ minor league baseball affiliate are attacking our team’s king cake baby on several fronts. The Scranton Baby Bombers, to put it delicately, are battling our New Orleans Baby Cakes.
France’s La Fête Nationale, or national celebration, commemorates the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. La Crêpe Nanou, our resident French bistro, has been an Uptown touchstone since 1983. At 35 years of age, it hasn’t a long history, but in restaurant years, remarkable nonetheless. In a city where things are changing more often than not, the familiar is appreciated. A plate of steaming Moules et Frites bathed in a garlicky white wine sauce and a crusty baguette at La Crêpe Nanou’s qualifies.
The Sassy Private Chef’s Shrimp n’ Grit’s Recipe as featured on Bravo
Each series has one breakout character, and while the Bravo Southern Charm New Orleans series offered little to locals other than indigestion, it did present us with the sass of New Orleans’ private cook, Mr. Benny Poppins. Poppins, aka Benjamin Levasseur, originally from Algiers, plies his trade amongst New Orleans’ families as a personal cook. “The name ‘Benny Poppins’ came from working closely with families and their children as a personal chef, and it stuck,” said Levasseur. In the Bravo series, Benny Poppins, of the bow tie, eye-roll and discreet side-eye proved popular amongst the audience who enjoyed the series. Levasseur portrays the cook and private assistant to New York documentary film producer Nicelle Herrington – also a real-life gig.
Where to begin with this contrived foolishness? I’ll start with the rent-a-voodoo princess who wears the bejeweled and feathered turban of a Hindu Maharaja. If that isn’t enough, she also travels with a Home Decor store crystal ball, Italian Tarot cards and sprinkles Arabian frankincense and myrrh from a miniature broom–the type my grandfather kept under the seat of his car. Bravo states that the Southern Charm New Orleans television series will follow an “elite circle of friends…born into prominent families,” presumably from New Orleans. “Presumably” being key.
As Black History Month comes to a close and the concurrent, much-needed addition of a “Black Restaurant Week” winds down, I have pondered the lack of celebrated minority chefs in our little hamlet of Uptown New Orleans. The discouraging results after searching memory, calling fellow habitual diners, and ultimately an internet hunt, is that in a city whose famed culinary prowess is shaped by its black cultural contributions, we don’t have nearly enough celebrated, household name, black chefs or black-owned restaurants, past or present. Other than iconic Tremé Chef Leah Chase of Dooky Chase fame, what other black chef pops into the New Orleanians’ dining-centric mind? Chef Mary Sonnier, my go-to expert on all things culinary NOLA, immediately mentioned our dear departed Chefs Austin Leslie and Louis Evans. Chef Evans was beloved by generations and known as the “King of Red Beans” at the Pontchartrain’s old Caribbean Room.
Story by Kerri Ebanks
Special to NOLA Messenger
Walking into Backatown Coffee Parlour while DJ Chinua is spinning Caribbean Funk vibes could make you feel a little guilty because you’re out on a weeknight, but when it’s carnival season, the word “guilt” is never mentioned. There’s more of a crowd than there would be on a typical weekday, and that’s all due to a pop-up event hosted by Eat NOLA Noir. Just in time for Black History Month, Eat NOLA Noir previewed New Orleans Black Dining Week last Wednesday (Jan. 31) at Backatown. The semi-annual event will begin Feb.
My commentary is usually filtered through nostalgia—in this case, my fond memories of Mardi Gras. Two words sum that up: McKenzie’s and Doubloons. Mardi Gras was fun, easy, laissez-faire, with no tattletales, no politics, no bead safe-spaces, and no King Cake scalping—yes, this is really a thing in 2018. Why can’t we just enjoy the greatest free show on earth without government intervention, irate commentary, division, and scary cakes? City government confiscated many toddlers’ personalized Mardi Gras ladders this year.
King Cake Ice Cream, King Cake Cocktails, King Cake Macarons, a King Cake Festival and… King Cake Burgers? NOLA chefs and bartenders have jumped on the King Cake bandwagon, and nothing is sacred. Locals—who are game for most anything—are documenting the King Cake craze with enthusiasm. If Instagram excels at anything, it’s the cataloging of what we eat. And New Orleanians love to eat.
