A New Day in New Orleans

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on the blog – almost a month. I’ve been traveling; went to New Orleans for an extended stay to visit family, to enjoy Jazz Fest (had backstage passes, yes!) and to eat phenomenal food renowned the world over. From the beignets in the Café du Monde and the Muffulettas at Central Grocery to Oyster Po-Boys, Gumbo and Shrimp Creole, the gastronomy of New Orleans is known the world over. As part of the visit, there was the obligatory family crawfish boil – you know “pinch the tail, suck the head”. New Orleans offers an array of dishes that make the mouth water and, by the way, can make your eyes water too. This cuisine isn’t for those who are faint “palated”. You have to have some tolerance to spice otherwise you’ll find yourself missing out on many of the city’s delicacies.

Spice is good if you pair it with the right type of liquid. There’s always water or milk but, hey, this is New Orleans. So I reached for several different types of drinks. There was the famous Hurricane that I tried with the Crawfish Pasta at Pierre Masperos; an OK combination. The Hurricane being a little too fruity and a lot too strong to actually enhance the food flavors. But again it’s New Orleans; if you don’t have at least one Hurricane, you’ve really not done it right.

At the family crawfish boil, however, I really had a great pairing. I lugged all the way from Florida a few bottles of the Deseado Sparkling Wine from Argentina. This sparkling wine is made from the Torrontes grape, which originates in Spain, and has some residual sugar to it making it a perfect match for spicier foods. The combination was decadent. The more crawfish tails you pinch, the more spice you introduce to your palate, so the more you crave the cool sweetness of the sparkling wine. The wine is made in the Charmat method. This method of making sparkling wine allows for secondary fermentation in stainless steel tanks; the sparkling wine is bottled under pressure. The Charmat method is also known as Metodo Italiano as it was invented in Italy and is most widely used in that country especially for production of Asti in the northwest and Prosecco in the northeast.

The bubbles in the Deseado Sparkling wine are small and long lasting and help carry through the fine fruit flavors of peaches and apples. The little bursts of bubbles on the tongue help to regulate the spiciness of Cajun and Creole foods. If you'd like to sample this for yourself, I'll be conducting a food & wine pairing event at Uncorked on Friday, May 16 with, what else, Cajun and Creole foods. I'll be sharing family recipes and I'll have to think of a way to get a crawfish boil going in the back courtyard.