“This is definitely one of my favorite dishes. I guess I could trace the whole thing back to when my dad and I used to make fajitas. My dad used some
store-bought marinade, really close to a salad dressing, and when you’d cook it, it’d reduce to almost a paste and it’d latch on to the [...]
“I don’t think I ever did learn to cook, honestly. I just made up a bunch of stuff as I went along. It’s something I started doing out of necessity. Either because I was trying to impress somebody, or because I created small people who were hungry and I was obligated to feed them.
I started [...]
Catch the shots that didn’t make it into our February 2010 issue. Includes photos taken for the stories “Framed”, about Quintron and Miss Pussycat’s show at NOMA; “A Good Fit”, the Helen Gillet cover story; and this month’s The Gravy, “In the Kitchen with Debbie Davis”. All photos taken by Elsa Hahne.
“My family is from south Texas and my grandfather got a job with Gulf Oil. They had oil camps down in the countries where they had their oil fields, and my grandparents moved down to Venezuela. My father actually spent most of his childhood there. My grandmother started to learn all these Venezuelan recipes and [...]
Mona’s Café and Deli
504 Frenchmen St.
(504) 949-4115
Why do you come here?
I’m on Frenchmen Street so much. I’m either playing at the Spotted Cat or at La Maison de la Musique or just on the street, or there’s a band I like to see at d.b.a., so I’m always here. In any given day, you’ll see [...]
Herbsaint
701 St. Charles Ave.
(504) 524-4114
Didn’t you use to work here?
I did. In January, I went over to Cochon Butcher and became the shop manager over there. I slice meat all day, Lord have mercy.
What was your job here?
I was in that pantry for four years, making salads. My beloved pantry. I remember coming in really [...]
Korean food is a lot of little dishes, basically tapas, but they call it banchan. You have your bowl of rice and then all around you are all the little side dishes, one of which is always kimchi. And you’re picking, you share, it’s communal. Another dish is bean sprouts, which is called kohng namool. [...]
Dooky Chase
2301 Orleans Ave
(504) 821-0600
Why Dooky Chase?
I remember the first time I came here. I was in my early teens and came with my parents. My grandfather was a trumpet player but he also played piano and arranged for several big bands and for Dooky Chase’s band. Dooky Chase knows my whole family. My grandfather [...]
I was kind of an afterthought in my family. My parents were both 43 when I was born and I have three older sisters. Consequently, my mom spoiled me. Did not have to cook for myself at all. Then I went to college and ended up getting really hungry. ‘Wow, I have got to learn [...]
“I worked at restaurants coming up, several of them. I worked at a few vegetarian restaurants in Ithaca, New York, my hometown, and I worked at a deli run by Hungarian Jews that had a really good chicken soup with matzo balls. I was mainly the carrot cutter.
I’ve been working towards getting more into the [...]
