I haven’t posted a blog entry in over two months. What have I been doing? I…

* Finished a new, slow, “grade 3” lyrical piece, “Sheltering Sky.” It premieres in April, and I’ll write more about the piece when it’s available.  Are you excited? You should totally be excited.  It’s a slow piece – and it’s EASY!  If you know how to play a Cb. (Hint: just play a regular C, only play it super flat.)

* Finished a short, fast, lots-of-notes, “grade 5” piece, “High Wire.” It premieres in May, and I’ll write more about this piece after I’ve heard it for the first time. In the meantime, you can check out the demo recording and see the score right here. It was fun to write a new no-holds-barred piece after a grade 3, I’ll tell you that.

* Visited New Orleans for the first time! Let’s focus on that.

I was brought in by Charles Taylor, the Director of Bands at the University of New Orleans. The plan was to work with the wind ensemble at his school, and also to work with an area honor band that UNO was hosting. The wind ensemble would perform “Strange Humors” and “Kingfishers Catch Fire,” and the honor band would perform “Undertow” and “Foundry.” Great! I’m in. Let’s do it.

A few days before the trip, I took the crazy step of reading my contract and realized that I was responsible for covering the expense of my hotel (but not responsible for making the arrangements themselves), but I had no idea where I was staying. When I pay for a hotel out-of-pocket, I put myself somewhere completely un-fancy. I emailed Chuck to ask where he’d reserved a room. Weeks before, he’d told me he’d booked a room in the French Quarter of New Orleans, and that sounded fantastic — until I realized it was on my dime. How much was the room going to be, I asked? Without answering, Chuck panicked and changed my room reservation, thinking the original room was going to be too expensive. I appreciated that he’d found me a cheaper room… until I reached the hotel. This was the view from the front door.

Very handy, if you plan on doing freeway work during your down time.  Have you seen my hands?  They are soft, lotioned, non-callused hands.  I’m too weak and wussy for freeway work.

It’s not like there wasn’t stuff around the hotel. I could have checked out the mattress sale across the street.

I mean, it was clean. And surprisingly quiet, considering it overlooked the freeway construction. But before I’d even checked-in, I begged Chuck to put me back where he’d originally planned. This hotel wasn’t even in New Orleans (it was 15 minutes away, by car), so my grande (yes, with an “e”) plans of walking around the French Quarter were going to be a non-starter. I was happy to pay an extra $50 a night to be in the French Quarter. I didn’t care if it was nice — the location was what mattered. If you go to a cool, unique city like New Orleans, you want to stay in the heart of the action, right? Chuck made some calls, and the next morning, I changed hotels.

Holy crap, this place, built in 1855, was incredible. The “Claiborne” of Claiborne mansion was the ancestor of fashion designer Liz Claiborne.

When the owner realized that I was paying for this out of pocket, and that I was a composer (“you must be so very poor, and I’ve never heard of you because you’re not yet dead” – I’m paraphrasing), she charged me less than I was paying at the first hotel. She had single rooms and suites, but she only had a suite available for the nights I was there, so she gave me the suite at the single room rate. This was my sitting room! I HAD A SITTING ROOM! If I may quote Fonzie from Happy Days, “SIT ON THIS, BITCHES!”  And that’s not some camera trick distorting the ceiling height. Those are 14-foot ceilings.

Just a reminder. This was the hallway in my first hotel.

And this was the hallway at my new hotel.

The place was right on Washington Square. Here’s a picture of the hotel itself — it’s the yellow house — as seen from the park across the street. My room was on the second floor, facing the park.

In case you can’t tell, I loved the hotel. And I already loved New Orleans, and I’d been in New Orleans-proper for all of 20 minutes. So let’s go for a walk!

First, I stopped by this huge flea market.

I considered getting one of these to wear during clinics. It could totally be my “thing.”

There’s some awesome food in this city (we’ll get to that in a moment), but if you don’t like seafood, it gets a little trickier.

More of the open-air market.  Shouldn’t these children be in school on a Friday afternoon?

The night before, we’d had a quick bite on the way to rehearsal. Being that I was in New Orleans, it seemed I should have fish — and more importantly, hush puppies. I f-ing love hush puppies, but I think I’d only had them at Long John Silvers. These were better.

But what about lunch the next day? My first real meal in New Orleans? I realized I was close to NOLA, one of Emeril Lagasse’s restaurants. That seemed like a good choice. It was.

I sat at the bar because I hate to eat alone in a restaurant, but it doesn’t feel weird if you’re at the bar alone. Although now that I think about it, drinking alone at the bar in the middle of the day may not be wise, nor is it socially acceptable. Ah, but I was in New Orleans, a city with no open container laws, so I’d already seen people walking down the sidewalk with cups of beer at 11:30am. I didn’t have anything official until 8pm that night, so… Screw it. I bet they make a mean bloody mary.

Yes. Yes, they do. The vodka is infused with spicy peppers, and it’s incredible. Maybe I should live in New Orleans part of the year…

Since it’s a regional dish — and when you travel, you should always eat the specialty cuisine of that region (don’t go to Ohio for Mexican food, or Boston for barbecue) — I had shrimp and grits for lunch. Sauteed gulf shrimp, grilled green onions, smoked cheddar grits, apple smoked bacon, crimini mushrooms, and a red chili-abita butter sauce. In. Sane.

I chatted a bit with the bartender, who was very cool, and he kept topping off my bloody mary. By the time I was leaving, I’d had three. I love you, man. I love you.

So I walked/stumbled towards the Mississippi River, and thought I’d hang out there and watch some boats go by. It was a beautiful day with some crazy clouds.

On the way back to my hotel, I checked out some antique shops. There’s probably a joke about this.  I don’t know what the joke is.

I almost bought these for me and AEJ to wear around the house. (I don’t know if you’ve seen her, but she’d be the one in the taller suit.)

MPG don’t matter when you’re pimpin.

After a shower (by this time, it was in the low 80s outside, very muggy, and I was carrying a heavy camera, so I’d gotten a bit stinky), it was time to head to dinner. I picked, based on recommendations, and based on liking him on Top Chef Masters, one of John Besh’s restaurants: August.  But you can figure that out from the next picture.

Again, I sat at the bar. I don’t remember what this cocktail was called, but it may as well have been called “super girly pink thing that tastes like pears.” It had Grey Goose Pear vodka, and I thought this might be the one time that pear vodka could work in a cocktail. I was wrong.

Everything else about this meal was incredible – even the warm bread. (I say that like “warm bread” usually sucks.)

The amuse bouche was this delicious truffle custard with caviar. (Was that a parmesan crouton? I forget.)

I ordered the vegetarian tasting menu. I love a place that offers such a thing, and I love it even more when it’s less expensive than the standard tasting menu. (As you can see from most posts here, I’m quite the bargain hunter.) The first course was this salad of Covey Rise Farm’s heirloom beets and Ponchatoula strawberries, St. Martinville goat cheese, and tangelo.

I love beets. Love ’em. I’d never had them with strawberry before. And this goat cheese was so soft and creamy, it was almost like whipped cream — the fancy kind of whipped cream, not the equally delicious kind from a spray can.

Next up: cast iron roast broccolini with local pecans, candied fennel, and aleppo pepper. This was pretty spectacular, especially when you re-read what it was. It’s broccolini – and it was delicious.

Next: acorn squash risotto with brussel sprouts in brown butter (nom!) and mushroom parmesan crisps. Yeah. Mushroom parmesan crisps. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Hot damn, those were great. The whole dish was a stunner.

Dessert! Ponchatoula strawberries (same as the beet salad above) with sablé Breton, pistachio, and creole cream cheese. Lordy. Just… lordy.

You know a restaurant is fancy-pants when they bring you Bonus Food, like the amuse bouche above, and this extra dessert offering.

August was the best dinner I’ve had in a long time.

The next morning, I decided I’d have the famous beignets from Cafe Du Monde. Nobody warned me that I wouldn’t be the only person with this idea. The line, which you don’t see pictured (although you can see a small part of it in the back) stretched for probably 75 yards.

There was powdered sugar everywhere.

Like, everywhere. For a second, I was like, “is that powdered sugar, or cocaine?” but then I remembered that I was in New Orleans, not Miami in 1985.

I couldn’t deal with the wait for a table, so I waited in line for the to-go coffee and beignets. That line still took about 20 minutes, but I eventually had this.

Inside the bag: this.

Honestly, it wasn’t so special. It was weirdly chewy. I had a feeling it might have been better on a weekday morning when they weren’t mobbed. This seemed like it had been fried along with 4999 other beignets, maybe 90 minutes earlier. Eh, it was fine. Not worth all the hubbub, though.

For dinner that night, Chuck picked the restaurant. I’d requested a John Besh restaurant earlier in the week — before I decided I’d go to August — and Chuck made a reservation for another Besh place, Lüke. I was fine with two Besh meals in two days. This is what is called a “first world problem.”

These are not actual size. The real jars were even smaller. Very cute, but it reminded me a little of that story from The Onion, “‘How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?’ 30 Million People Wonder.”

Lüke (can we just call it “Luke?” That’s how everybody pronounces it. Er, pronoünces it.) is a more casual place than August, serving a hybrid French+German bistro menu. You can’t be in a place like that and not have the French/Freedom Fries. Fantastic.

Chuck and I both had the pasta special — house-made pasta with lobster, shrimp, and jalapeno. Just spicy enough to have a little kick. A great dish.

Chuck’s dessert was this berry tart.

I had the warm bread pudding with pecan caramel sauce. Lordy Lauridsen, it was delicious.

I wish I’d had enough time to really check out the music scene in New Orleans. I had some great meals, but I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what that city has to offer. I guess I’ll need to go back.

Oh, and the honor band kids were awesome. I heard the best high school oboist I think I’ve ever heard. And thanks for introducing me to the band Dream Theater, honor band kid!

This was the first Christmas that both AEJ and I have been mostly-vegetarian (I say “mostly” because AEJ is a “real” vegetarian, and as I showed in my over-the-top dinner at Next: Childhood [did you read that post?  You should!], I’m a little more wishy-washy about it), and vegetarian = a trickier Christmas Dinner. No turkey, no ham, no chicken? Hmm. So on Christmas Eve, we opted to make vegetarian chili.

It starts with sauteed onion, green pepper, green chiles, celery, oregano, and salt.

I’m skipping some steps here, but eventually: chili!

For dessert, what says Christmas more than peppermint ice cream? This particular brand was tasty, but looked more than a little like a scene from Dexter.

Christmas morning, as is our tradition: monkey bread!

There were lots of fun presents this year, but the best one to feature here on the photo-heavy blog is the new Canon 100mm f/2.8 L IS Macro lens. (Thank you, Santa!) I shot all of the following photos with the new lens.

KITTY!

And from the tree… PONY!

Not only is December 25 Christmas Day – it’s also the birthday of Isaac Newton. (For those who don’t believe in science, Newton’s basically your satan.  Also, you’re a moron.) AEJ is taking a course called “The History of Science Prior to Newton’s ‘Principia’,” so it seemed only appropriate that her Christmas gifts would include a Newton finger puppet.  (She got other philosopher finger puppets, including Hegel, Galileo, and Kant.  Now she can do some awesome puppet shows for the neighborhood kids.  Kids love philosophy puppet shows about as much as we love kids.)

Here’s a sprig of rosemary that David Rakowski brought to us a few weeks ago.

Every year, AEJ gets me a Lego treat. This year, I found Lego Snowman in my stocking. He’s sort of weirdly menacing-looking with his evil Geordi La Forge visor.

AEJ likes colorful things, and cozy things, so she got some.

On Christmas Day, we made homemade cornbread (to accompany our chili), using one of Ina Garten’s recipes.

Vegetarian? Okay. Vegan? No way.

In case you can’t tell, this is corn meal.

Flour.

It’s very exciting to be aluminum free!

Also essential to any cooking experience: a cocktail. This is a Pimm’s with ginger ale, and the Pimm’s is homemade by my long-time friend Kelley Polar.

These are “eggs.”

Jalapeno.

Jalapenos being friendly.

Jalapenos, chopped.

Scallions.

Scallions, chopped.

Same, with cocktail in the background.

I’m digging the shallow depth-of-field of this lens.

Sharp knife.

Jalapenos, scallions — and the “wet ingredients.”

Not as pretty when combined.

Same chili as earlier in the blog, but shot with the macro lens.

With sour cream on top.

What does one need after chili? A peach gummy from Japan. They’re super juicy.

Cocktails: tasty. Also tasty: wine.

This lens is fun.

Gotta go. It’s puppet show time.  Call the kids!

Before we get to the real reason for this blog post – the pictures from dinner at Next: Childhood – here are a few pieces of news from last week’s Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago:
1) It was fun
2) The Hilton bar has been remodeled, I think for the better (and not just because the new color scheme matches our house).

3) “Foundry” won the 2011 CBDNA Young Band Composition Contest. Here’s a video – with the focus on the critical percussion section – from an incredible middle school band:

But enough about work. Let’s talk about food.

Two years ago, I had dinner at Alinea, which remains the most fun and exciting meal I’ve ever had. (It was blogged in detail.) This year, the chef at Alinea, Grant Achatz, opened a new restaurant, Next, also in Chicago. Next has an usual hook: each menu is thought of as a “show,” and each “show” has a theme which changes every several months. Like a Broadway show, you buy tickets for your dinner, and the tickets are all-inclusive – roughly $200 per person, but including food, wine pairings, and gratuity. $200 is a lot for a dinner, even with wine and tip included, but it’s not as bad if you think of what it would cost to see a Broadway show and get dinner beforehand. (It’s also a relative bargain compared to the cost of dinner at Alinea, which runs three times that.) Tickets for a dinner at Next are hard to secure, with the entire run of seats for a given “show” — all three months or so worth — go on sale, exclusively on the restaurant’s website, late one night, with little notice anywhere except via the restaurant’s Facebook page, and all tickets are gone by the next morning. Somehow, Jake Wallace – longtime friend and writer of my best program notes – secured four tickets.

The “show” that Next was running last week was called “Childhood,” and as Achatz says in the note you receive when you sit down – a note printed in the color and font from an Apple IIe – they could have called the menu “Michigan, 1985.” This would be a three hour trip back in time to revisit the foods of Achatz’s Midwestern childhood in the mid-80s, but as interpreted today by a kid who grew up to be one of the greatest chefs in the world.

Our first course was “a gift from all of us at Next.” What better way to start a meal during the holiday season than with a present?

Beneath the wrapping paper was a box, and inside the box was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Sort of. “Eat it all in one bite,” we were warned, and for good reason. Inside this little fried ball of yum was warm, gooey, delicious peanut butter. The box contained all sorts of crunchy goodness, including little red solidified hints of jelly. We had no utensils (this would be a running theme of the evening), so the only good way to eat those crispy sweet bits was to try to pour them from the box directly into your mouth. I think we were all covered in crumbs by the time we were done, but it was worth it.

Course #2: chicken noodle soup, but with no noodles — “a noodle of chicken.” That little noodle-looking thing at the bottom is, in fact, a noodle made of chicken.

The broth was insanely good, like the most deliciously concentrated liquid chicken ever. (It reminded me, in a good way, of the story my dad once told me about the time he tasted dry cat food. “It’s like a million fish exploding in your mouth,” he said. This was like that, only, you know, not nasty.) It probably didn’t hurt that I’d been avoiding most meat for the past 9 months or so, so any meat tastes good at this point, but this was exceptional. The noodle-of-chicken was an amazing texture, and the vegetables… Lordy McFly, the vegetables. Carrots of various colors (there’s a red carrot?!), and then, the onions, which were the size of pearl onions, but they were sweet like Vidalias, but they were red. No idea what they were, but I could live on just the broth and onions, even if it meant I’d forever reek of leek.

Course #3: Fish ‘n’ chips, “drawn by a child.” Deconstructed, moving clockwise from top left: the sun is Meyer lemon, the fisherman is reduced malt vinegar, the ground is beer batter and caviar, the foam is tartar sauce, the net is potato with a piece of walleye caught inside (underneath the net, and out of view), over a cucumber sea. (Thank you, Jake, for taking notes.)

This angle lets you see the walleye. This was not only fun, but delicious, with sashimi-quality fish, and incredible sauces (although it was kind of sad to mess up the drawing in order to eat it).

A detail of the beer batter and caviar “ground.”

Like I said, it was delicious. What I didn’t mention is that cucumber is one of my Most Hated Foods.

Mac and Cheese over “a merry-go-round of garnishes.” The accompaniments (clockwise) were ham and arugula (out of view, behind the glass), apple, reconstituted hot dog (weirdly good), parmesan, tomato, Kraft Mac & Cheese (you can spot that one, I assume), and manchego custard.

But how will I get to the macaroni and cheese? Ahhh…

Spectacular. The best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had. The accompaniments were a lot of fun (my favorite may have been the apple – or maybe the manchego custard), but the mac and cheese itself was insanely rich and creamy, and (unlike in childhood) cooked perfectly al dente.

This next one was beautiful. Achatz is a poet when it comes to the use of smell to evoke memory (he did it with burning campfire embers at Alinea), and he’s done it again with this dish: “Winter Wonderland – A walk through a Michigan forest.” Crispy greens and mushrooms over a hollowed log with smoking juniper. This vegetarian (and nearly vegan, other than one dollop of sauce hidden beneath) dish tasted like, well, earth – the way mushrooms taste of earth. It was crispy but with splashes of moist relief (I’m going to call my next middle school piece “Moist Relief”), and the smell… Oh the smell…

Here’s a shot of the fresh juniper that was beneath the glass plate. You can see the hot stones in the center, which heated the juniper to release the smell of winter. (It was like a Christmas tree on crack.)

Did I mention that all of these dishes came with wine pairings?

It was incredible, but it got to be a little much. Please don’t barf, Jake.

Next up: Hamburger. “McDonald’s, Burger King, White Castle… no?” Like the fish and chips, this was deconstructed with all of the elements you’d expect – onions, mushrooms, ketchup, mustard, a “special sauce.” The beef, rather than being of the questionable White Castle “slider” variety, was lovely short ribs.

And now: The Lunch Box.

We all got different vintage lunch boxes. Jake observed that we all got “manly” lunch boxes, while the table of women next to us got things like My Pretty Pony. I traded lunch boxes with Dae so that I could have this one.

Inside the lunch box… a note. Mine was from “Mom.”

What did mom pack? A Nutella “snack pack,” Wagyu “beef jerky” (where was this when I used to eat beef jerky on road trips?!), an apple-brandy “Fruit Roll-Up,” a truffled “Oreo,” a homemade “Funyun,” and inside our thermos, a mixed-berry drink.

Oh! And chocolate pudding!

Mixed-berry drink. (Sadly, non-alcoholic, although I’m pretty sure I was beyond shitfaced by this time. Note the gradually degrading focus of these pictures as the evening progressed.)

When drinking from a plastic thermos cup, it’s classy to point your pinky.

The magic… of Lassie (and West Point conductor, Dae Kim).

More dessert! This is “Foie-sting and donuts,” with the instruction to “lick it off the beater.” That’s right: no utensils provided. These were cider donuts with a beater covered with – get ready for it – foie gras frosting.

Seriously. Frosting, made from one of the richest (and normally savory) ingredients known to man: fois gras.

Me likey.

Now in the home stretch, we have Sweet Potato Pie: “a campfire on your table.” Those are sweet potatoes.

And THAT is the camp fire. The sweet potatoes just became campfire logs.

Here’s the sweet potato pie.

With the toasty, cozy fire in the background.

If you have a campfire, and you have marshmallows, there’s only one logical place to go with that…

Finally, hot cocoa with a side of cognac. The cocoa was great, but I was beyond full, so I drank little of it. The cognac was the only misstep of the night – harsh and kind of nasty after everything that had come before – but that’s easy to forgive.

Alinea is a more elegant dinner in many ways, but it’s not without humor. (AEJ and I laughed more about the food during that dinner than any other meal I can remember.) Next: Childhood, in no small reason due to the theme of “childhood,” was light (in tone, not much else – blargh) and fun throughout. I also think the food itself may have been more delicious than it was at Alinea, but maybe I just remember more about Alinea than the flavors themselves. (Go read my Alinea blog post if you never have.)

Thank you to Jake and Travis for making the dinner possible!