#70 "Feather in Your Cap" September 3, 2013

Click on the Image to make it appear larger!


One of the most popular desserts at the Loup is the Chocolate Pudding. Actually, it is the most popular, hands down. We have a great assortment of desserts, and most of them are fantastic, but the chocolate pudding stands head an shoulders above the rest. I am not quite sure why that is besides the fact that it is delicious. It is simply your basic, every-day pudding, but there is something else that elevates it to a magical plane. Maybe it's the giant chocolate cookie that accompanies it, or maybe it's the fresh whipped cream dollop on top, or could it be the sprinkling of cocoa powder? It could be a combination of all of these things, but I think the not-so-secret ingredient of "love" that Jose puts into every batch is the real reason this dessert is such a hit with the downtown crowd.
In the drawing above, the chocolate pudding is merely a bystander witnessing the scene lain before it. It was the last detail of this drawing to be added if I remember correctly. It stands proudly in it's parfait glass, complete with a spoon just waiting to be gobbled up by someone with a sweet tooth, or maybe someone who really likes dessert and has sweet teeth. The rest of the drawing unfolds before it, with all of the characteristic hi-jinx that are usually seen in this series of drawings. Including a severed head, and what self-respecting T&J drawing is complete with out one of those?
So, as long as I have been working at the Loup, there has always been the chocolate pudding. I have seen some desserts come and go, but the pudding is always going to be around. We used to have this great dessert that is sadly missing from today's menu. It was called Sabayon, and it was incredible. For those of you who have not tried this particular delicacy, it is essentially just eggs, sugar, and some wine. It can usually be found in Italian restaurants since it has Italian origins, but we used to have one that could stand up to anyone's. Light and creamy, served with berries, it was something to behold. But alas, we got rid of it! No one misses it though, not like other things that disappear off the menu. There are still people who call the restaurant on a regular basis asking if we have the brains back on the menu. I have talked about brains here before, and there's a great story about them over here in T&J #55, but they are not a consistent item on the menu. They are the very definition of "special." But people still ask about them. One thing that I am glad we no longer serve, either on the special list or on the regular menu is the Duck Liver Beignets. Those things were toxic (no offense to the guys in the back who made them every day. It was not their fault that they were nature's own heart attack inducer). These things were crazy. They were essentially crepes that were filled with duck liver (think Passover style liver, not fois gras) and then deep fried. Then, they were served with a sweet sauce and served like a pizza, essentially. They were my nightmare, and I stand behind the food that I serve at the Loup, so this was one of those things that was difficult to serve. But people loved them anyway! Who am I to say what people are going to find delicious and nutritious? People would get the Beignets and then still have an entree after eating their weight in duck liver and crepe. It was truly a sight to behold.
But I digress. We started this one off talking about desserts, so I guess we should finish off there as well. Not that it matters where we end. But dessert does come last, so we should stick to that. In the next post, you will see the pudding in color, then you are going to want it. This is the most reasonable response to the pudding. You see it, you want to eat it. I don't think I have ever served someone the pudding and them not like it. Some people can't eat a lot of it because they have already eaten too much rich things like Beignets and such, but they'll still try it out and fall in love all over again. And isn't that what dessert is all about?

#55 "A Day at the Beach" April 24, 2013

(Click on the Image to Make it HUGE!)

I don't remember dropping off my resume to the restaurant. I know that I must have been dropping off a lot of them that day and somehow this one caught the eye of our old manager. He liked the very last line of the "Special Skills" part in which I stated, "likes to take naps." I didn't find this out for a couple of years, but that was the line that sealed the deal. I got the call to work there at one of the lowest points of my professional career. I was on an open call in Times Square at the WWE themed restaurant. You might be thinking, "there's no such restaurant like that in Times Square," and you would be right. However, in the winter of 2002, there certainly was that restaurant and me and 1,000 other people were applying for a job there. I waited in line for an hour and a half, maybe longer. It was brutal. The whole time I was standing there in this cattle call, I knew I didn't even want the job. The longer I was in line, the more this became evident, until finally I was at a desk, talking to a manager. I don't remember any of the interview, but I do know I was so angry about the whole thing that I probably gave a horrible interview. I never got a call back from them, and they ended up closing the place down less than a year later. However, when I left that hideous place, I had a voicemail from the manager at my restaurant. It said that I should come in for an interview the next day. I did just that and got the job, starting the day after that. I was pretty excited about this prospect as I hadn't had a steady job in months. I had been doing some freelance art stuff, but I didn't have a steady income and I was broke. I moved to New York right after 9/11 and so the job market was pretty bleak, hence actually considering a job in a chain restaurant owned by a Wrestling Entertainment group. So, on my first day at the restaurant, I got there early and decided to make a good impression. I listened carefully to my co-workers about how to do the setup and what side work was required. I helped them do all of this, and then it was time for our staff meal. One of the best parts about working in food service is getting a staff meal and a staff drink. A lot of the time, the meals are actually quite good, and this being New York, quite inexpensive. Since I had about $5 to my name at that point, I was thrilled that the restaurant offered this delicious perk. And then I went back into the kitchen to see what it was. It was brains. The restaurant serves calves brains every once in a while as a special. The old folks love it because not too many restaurants serve brains any more and this harkens back to the good old days when you ate every part of the animal. I think they will be making a comeback sooner than later as part of this "farm to table" movement where all these trendy restaurants are trying to outdo each other with crazy dishes using often overlooked parts of the animal. So, we're ahead of the curve, because we've probably been serving brains since the 70's. So, on my first day, we had taken the brains off the menu and put them in a big metal bowl under the heat lamps for us to eat, along with some rice and vegetables. My new co-workers said things like, "you don't have to eat that if you don't want to," and the like, but I wanted to prove that as a new guy on the team, I was up for any challenge. And so, I plopped a couple calves brains on my plate, got a scoop of rice and headed out into the dining room for my first staff meal with my new friends. One of the other waiters got a bowl of ice cream and the other waitress had something else, and as I sat down and picked up my fork and knife, the two of them stared at me in giddy excitement. I felt like they were saying, "oh my gosh he's really going to eat it." Which, I found out later, they were. But I soldiered on, and ate one of the brains. If you have never eaten brains, let me briefly tell you about them, from what I can remember. They taste like fish flavored pudding. I think that the way we prepare them for customers must make them taste better, but I was given plain brains, on a plate with a side of rice. This was also 12 years ago. I am pretty sure I haven't eaten brains since then, although I do plan on doing so some day in the future. It would be poetic if the next time I had them was on my last day, but I feel like that will be 20 years in the future and who knows if there will even be calves in that distant world. Starting any new job can be scary and awkward, but then sometimes you have to eat brains on top of everything else. I guess it's a testament to the place, that even after that crazy first day, I am still working there.