Until then, stimulate your palate Tuesday through Thursday beginning this week. We are offering three courses from our regular menu for $30. A first, main and dessert for $30. Our Monday night prix fixe menus are so popular, we thought you all would appreciate it during the week too.

We look forward to seeing you during Restaurant Week ‘10, and throughout February.
Erik

We now have the next harvest of Mitra’s Clabber fed Chickens, and these are fatter and more beautiful than the past. We will be doing a few of our composed clabber bird plates, or you can always call 24 hours in advance for a whole roast bird with garniture.

Wild game birds, (some still with shot in their flesh) like wood pigeon and red leg partridge from Scotland are on our plates, with traditional accoutrements like Bubble and Squeak, and bread sauce.

Pheasants from the Mid-West (they do pheasant right) are being served with heirloom squashes from Matt, and a whole Veal Calf from Longfellow’s Creamery was reduced to beautiful cuts in minutes. Longfellow’s Creamery is providing us with delicious cheese and some great cream. I made a small batch of table butter this week.

Soon enough, look forward to our Choucroute Garni. We have a whole bunch of Matt’s cabbage on a cure, which will be ready in a few weeks. Scallops are still delicious, and Maine Shrimp season is almost upon us.

Veal blanquette and Coq au Vin blanc are coming…tripe soup is working hard, and Matsutakes are adorning requested vegetarian plates, as well as Veal Sweetbreads. (For the vegetarians and vegans out there, come on in! I have been loving the challenge of cooking Vegan.)

Stephen has a great Autumnal drink list, and our Wines by the glass program has been a huge hit.

Many, many more things are popping up on our menu every day. (I change the menu daily, so please don’t use the menu on the website as a reference.)

I hope to see you all in soon!
Erik

Karen, you are amazing!!!!

I may have misspelled your last name….was it Snider or Snyder?

Some are raised on a small farm and fed nice clabber and whey. They also eat whatever else they want. Those are the birds I serve at Evangeline.

Black truffles prosper during the winter months. They always have, they always will. When it is summer here, it is winter in Australia. There is a gentleman in Australia who, for almost 35 years, has tried to cultivate a black perigord-style truffle. He has succeeded, as has Tom in Tennessee. Tom harvests them during our winter months. They both have dedicated their whole lives to the truffle. These truffles are better than anything I have eaten in France…..harvested when I ask for them to be harvested. They don’t pass through two or three (or up to 10) sets of hands before I put them on a plate. Heidi at Vervacious brings the equal.

Perfectly roasted clabber fed chicken + freshly dug black truffles = simply amazing.

Next time you roast a chicken, REALLY roast a chicken. Forget the butter, thyme, lemon, parsley, ginger, basting, tweaking the temperature, EVOO, marinating, curry powder, paprika, stuffing, blah blah blah. Don’t open the oven door, don’t baste it. A proper chicken doesn’t need to be basted. Learn how to truss it correctly. The skin should crisp and the juice should simmer right under it. You can actually see the natural juices lazily bubbling away. Leave the butter out of the equation unless you have a sub-par bird. A nice chicken doesn’t need all of that stuff. Especially curry powder. Salt and pepper, a nice raw bird, high heat and twine. Roast it until it is juicy and done. Let it rest, turn it over and eat the oysters and pope’s nose first. The thighs and legs next, then the wings and shoulder blades. If it is a good bird, you can actually eat the breasts. That’s what we do at home. If it is a bad bird, make chicken salad. And we try to refrain from the chicken salad.

If you are lucky enough to secure some fresh black truffles, simply shave them over the rested bird. Once it is carved, shave again. But never….I repeat NEVER use a black truffle from a jar or a can for this. It is like using canned snails over fresh. Who does that? Saturated in brine and dirt. Rubbery and flat.
And remember, NFDB.

Have a nice day!

From Leischen Stelter’s attempt at writing, using “big words” like “sequestered” “overseeing” and “each”, to Brian Duff’s failed attempts at writing anything worth reading…….

“Though he is a patron saint of democracy, Rousseau let his disgust with his contemporaries drive him to live out his final years alone in the natural splendor of the ÃŽle Saint-Pierre. When we grow weary of the crowds, the courtyard at Eve’s offers a more reasonable respite.” (Professor Brian Duff…in a food review. What the hell is he doing?)

Just a few years ago, Brian Duff chose to review Ladle, my old soup joint. While he was giving it a positive review, enjoying the soup, he compared soup to what mommy birds regurgitate into their babies mouths. What?

Back in 03, moron ex food writer, Andy King came in to Bandol, and tried to order the braised lamb leg medium rare. We explained that it has been braised for about 4 hours, it is falling apart tender. We can’t serve it medium rare. He looked at my server like she had three heads, unable to comprehend this new technique, the “braise”. He then went on to write the review saying how the lamb came out overcooked and dry. It is a braise. It IS overcooked. It fell off the bone, tender and juicy.

Months later he tried to invite himself to a wine dinner I was holding for author Michael Sanders. I denied him access, as we had no room, and I just didn’t want him there. I got a nasty phone call from then-editor and resident tough guy Sam Pfeifle. He was LIVID. He said some nasty things. He threatened me. He then went on to review his own band, the Grassholes, under an assumed name. He gave his band high praise, naturally.

After a recent interview with Krista about Bresca, Leischen decided to turn it into a 12 Seats story. I chimed up immediately, not wanting my name within the pages, nor 12 Seats. Krista agreed, and asked her to please retract anything said about Erik or 12 Seats. As did I. In fact I asked her superior (superior to shit on a shoe?) Jeff Inglis as well, stating the importance of retraction, and that everything was “off the record”.

I awoke to something different. While she told krista she would retract, she didnt tell her editor, and ran the story anyway. After a few words with Jeff Inglis, he basically told both Krista and I that he “can publish whatever he wants, even things off record.”

“YOU don’t make the rules, Erik. I DO. This wasn’t an article about you anyway.” Was that a muscle flex? I’ve seen a 4 year old with a bigger bicep. I’ve also seen a 4 year old write better than Leischen.

He then told me that Krista was basically lying to me. Nice.

Now, if I was a transvestite looking for a date, a terrible indie rock band, a sub par film maker, a hippie cafe owner, or someone looking for Corona specials around town, I would LOVE the Phoenix. Alas, I am none of the above. Not that there is anything WRONG with any of those things…….it’s just that this group of imbecilic moronic idiots should stay away from things that they don’t understand……like good food and drink, good music, and RESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM. Also, if you meet any of these incompetent fools on the street, please don’t point at them…..avoid eye contact, and DON’T feed them. They may throw their own poop at you. I had one follow me home when i gave it a few little bits of ham sandwich….the poor thing just looked hungry, with its knuckles dragging on the ground, horrid stench seeping from its pores, and vacant look in its eyes.

From the 15 or 16 negative encounters with these guys, it is safe to say I really think they are doing a horrible job. It is a good thing the paper is free, as I’m sure many a puppy has relieved itself on their musings. I think I might do the same right now.