The Smolker Letters, Letter No. 1 (The Spirit of New Orleans and of Restaurants in New Orleans, October 25, 2011)

“The Spirit of New Orleans and of Restaurants in New Orleans”

by Gary Smolker

Smolker Letter No. 1, October 25, 2011

Tuesday night, Oct. 25, 2011

Lele

I think cities have identities based on spirit and that identity matters.

For example, New Orleans has the reputation of being a fun city.

Judi and I ate dinner in New Orleans on Saturday night and Sunday night.

Now that I have been there, I can see how New Orleans got that reputation.

Burbon Street is truly an amazing street.

It is a total party street.

While we were walking down Burbon Street, on Saturday night, a man standing on a second floor balcony, threw a necklace to Judi.  Judi caught the necklace and  brought the necklace back home to L.A..

While in New Orleans for the weekend, Judi and I spent a lot of time eating at restaurants.

At each restaurant where we ate dinner, 

• we closed the restaurant, we were the last customers to leave
• the staff stayed an extra half hour to hour after all the other diners had left while we finished our desserts,
• our waiters talked to us while we were waiting for dessert and after we got our dessert
• we took two or three or four hours to eat each dinner on Saturday and Sunday night.

At Bayona (Saturday night) our waiter joined our conversation on whether Chinese is a simple language or complicated language in comparison to English and whether English is a simple language or complicated language. Another waiter joined in — the other waiter told us that the way the restaurant performs depends on the clients dinners.  That “tonight” we were having a brilliant conversation that he couldn’t help but overhear and that increases the level of performance of everyone working in the restaurant. 

At Stella (Sunday night) we had three waiters.  All three waiters and the manager of the restaurant joined in our conversation.  We talked about the use of cherries in desserts, different kinds of cheeses, whether to have a port or a wine with the assortment of cheeses Judi had for desert.  Judi settled on a Madeira. 

We also talked about the history of Madeira and where different kinds of cheeses are made in France.

We had our last meal in New Orleans (lunch on Monday) at Commander’s Palace.  At Commanders Palace the charge for a martini is 25 cents, limit 3 to a customer — because that is enough.

Judi, being the classy woman that she is, opted to have champagne instead of a martini.  The manager of the restaurant was so struck by Judi having champagne that she came over and told Judi — “That is what I do too. Why have a martini when you can have champagne?”

The waiters and manager and service staff buzzed around us all through our meal.  They laughed at my jokes — that is Southern Hospitality.

I was turned away when we first arrived because I wasn’t wearing a shirt with a collar.  I asked what I could do.  I was directed to a street full of botiques and told to purchase a shirt and return. At the end of the meal, I offered to leave my shirt on “consignment” with the receptionist to rent out to gentlemen who would otherwise be turned away because they were not wearing a shirt with a collar.  

But, on second thought, I couldn’t part with it because that shirt was chosen for me by the female proprietor (a cute woman in every positive sense of the word cute) of a funrock’n pop culture emporium of fashion, art, music — who took charge of my wardrobe when informed of my fashion plight.

I plan to introduce her to James at Runway Magazine and to introduce James at Runway Magazine to her when she is in L.A. 

If I go to a Runway event there is a good chance I will wear the funky fun straw hat she chose for me.

But, to degres even more: In its early history, in the 1920’s Commander’s Palace had a spicier reputation: Riverboat captains frequented it and sporting gentlemen met with beautiful women for a rendezvous in the private dining room upstairs.  Downstairs however, the main dining room (with its separate entrance) was maintained in impeccable respectability for family meals after church and family gatherings of all sorts.

For my desert (at my last meal in New Orleans at Commander’s Palace) I had a gingerbread roasted pumpkin cake: creole pumpkins baked into a rich gingerbread cake with chait iced cream roasted apple jus in bourbon infused molasses.

For my main course (entree) I had griddle seared gulf fish, with crab boiled mirlitons, carrots, celery, mushrooms, corn garlic and fingerling potatoes with burleed lemons in a brown butter vinaigrette.  I forget what I had for an appetizer.

I recommend New Orleans for all dads who “have their act together” and want to have a memorable father-daughter weekend with their 26 year old single daughters.

New Orleans is a fun city.

Judi and I will remember this past weekend for the rest of our lives.

I couldn’t resist bringing Louisiana Music back to L.A.

More on that later.

Love,

DAD

The Smolker Letters, Letter No. 2 (A Meal That Ends Without Cheese Is Like A Beautiful Woman with Only One Eye, November 4, 2011)

“A Meal That Ends Without Cheese Is Like A Beautiful Woman with Only One Eye”

by Gary Smolker

Smolker Letter No 2, November 4, 2011

November 4, 2011

Jorge

As far as I am concerned, your wife is one of the best chefs in the world, dinning as a guest in your home is supreme delight and the discovery of a new dish or a new wine at your house does more for my human happiness than the discovery of a new star.

You prove the fact that he who plays host giving his personal care to the repast is worthy of having friends to invite to it.

My life is a trip made more enjoyable by sharing a meal in the company of good friends (such as you) and their comments.

That being said, thank you for your comment below about fancy meals in fancy restaurants and finding your way in Paris — that most people can’t tell the difference between a dish prepared in a 3-star restaurant and in a 1-star restaurant and the enjoyment that can be found by following crowds and noticing where people congregate in Paris.

About comments on food and wine: Another friend of mine once told me that very few people can tell the difference between a bottle of  wine costing $8 a bottle and a bottle of wine costing $20 or more per bottle.

I am interested in good food and wine for many reasons.  One reason: I am in the midst of creating “Social Networking” events for the Beverly Hills Bar Association.  I would like those events to showcase the best food and wine the world has to offer.

 

Last night, at an Executive Committee Meeting of the Social Networking Committee of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, I described a dessert I had at the Commodore’s Plantation in New Orleans, a couple of weeks ago, in support of my suggestion that we (the committee) have a wine and cheese event.

My reason for doing so is my firm belief, that there are few things in life as interesting as eating “good food” and drinking good wine. In the words of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin: Animals feed themselves, men eat; but only wise men know the art of eating.

I described the desert I had at Commander’s Palace as follows to make the point that eating is great fun was: I had a gingerbread roasted pumpkin cake: Creole pumpkins baked into a rich gingerbread cake with chait iced cream roasted apple jus in bourbon infused molasses.

 

One of my favorite quotes is: Without taste genius is but sublime folly. 

That being said, I enjoy the rich tapestry of your stylish mind, your restrained discretion, your thinking man’s well-balanced attitude towards life.

By the way, Brillat-Savarin’s THE PHYSIOLOGY OF TASTE, published in 1825, remains the gastronomic classic against which all subsequent works must be measured.

 

I am happy you find yourself in the happy state of being able to think and to recollect in tranquility while you advise me regarding Paris. 

Getting to the subject of cheeses: Two weekends ago, while on a weekend eating trip with me, after eating an assortment of artisan cheeses for desert at Stella’s in New Orleans, in the French quarter, my 26 year old daughter Judi exclaimed: “I know heaven exists, for I have been there.”

Judi was commenting on the following assortment of cheeses which she had eaten with a glass of a Charleston Sercial Historic Series Maderia wine made by The Rare Wine Company:

1. Delice de Bourgogne — a soft cheese made from cow’s milk. This cheese is incredibly rich, full flavor with a melt-in-the-muth texture.
2. Cremont — a smooth and creamy cow and goat’s milk cheese with a hint of Vermont Cream.  It has a complex and nutty rind taste with notes of cooked bread, hazelnuts, yeast.
3. Little Boy Blue — a crumbly blue cheese made from sheep’s milk with a mild and somewhat citrus flavor.

I remain sincerely yours and look forward to talking to you about the best things life has to offer and dinning with you soon.

Sincerely,

Gary

Attached Message

From:	Jorge
To:	Gary S. Smolker <gsmolker@aol.com>
Subject:	Paris in Spring
Date:	Fri, 4 Nov 2011 09:45:33 -0700 (PDT)

Gary:

Dining at any Michelin 3-Star restaurant, be it in the Eiffel Tower or (until 2007) at the Essex House in NYC, is a kind of experience. I think few can truly appreciate the epicurean and culinary apex (for instance, I think few can tell the difference (if there be any) between a certain dish at a 3-Star and the same dish at a 2- or 1-Star); but many enjoy saying they paid to eat as such-and-such a place.

In many densely populated cities I have enjoyed walking around areas known for particular traits, observing where people seem to be congregating, and following them into the establishment, be it a restaurant or something else. In the Northern Hemisphere, this obviously works better in May and June than in December or January.

In Paris I have enjoyed doing that in the 16eme Arrondissement, and in the 5eme and 6eme, generally below the Rive Gauche and the Jardín de Luxembourg, and Saint-Germaine-des-Pres and the Sorbonne. From there, the Rue des Écoles leads to the Latin Quarter. Some portions may be dripping with tourists, but others provide more authentic experiences. At the Jules Verne, I suspect, most of the faces you will see will be Chinese.

Jorge

———————————————–

In a message dated 11/3/2011 5:05:20 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, JF writes:

I like the Jules Verne restaurant on the 32nd floor of the Eiffel Tower.

Also, I recommend seeing the Napoleon apartment in The Louvre.  It shows how to decorate when you have an unlimited budget, as Napoleon did.

JF

————————————–

JF’s e-mail above was sent in response to the following e-mail.

If you’re looking for “experience” in Paris, enjoy the cuisine at Nomiya, which was declared by the food magazine as such, and Neil & myself do agree after having the chance to dine at this place.  They only serve 6 couples at a time, and its almost impossible to secure a reservation.  You need a few months in advance to get in.

Good luck on getting a reservation, though.  Even the locals  have a hard time getting in.

Becky

The Smolker Letters, Letter No. 3 ( The Best Places in the World Are the Hippest Places, November 5, 2011)

“The Best Places in the World Are the Hippest Places” by Gary Smolker

Smolker Letter No. 3, November 5, 2011

Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011

JF

I look forward to reading “The Triumph of Cities.”  thank you for recommending it to me.

I ate dinner with my 23 year old daughter Leah tonight at Sushi Roku in Santa Monica.

A couple (a man and woman not married to each other) sitting next to us were from London.

We (that couple, myself and Leah) started talking about the “world” after I asked, where he was from and he told me “London.”  I then asked, “Does England make anything except financial products?”

They both replied that it was too difficult for entrepreneurs to start a new business in England and that relatively speaking nothing was being manufactured in England anymore.

[ Aside: I realize Britain is still a cultural and fashion center and exports cheese, scotch whiskey, clothing, Rolls Royce cars and engines and good nannies and butlers.  It has an excellent worldwide airline with superb first class service.]

During this conversation, the woman sitting next to us (from London) was very emotional and highly animated.

She said:  Highly talented large money earners in England are so highly taxed that they leave England to live in other countries, because even if it is possible to for them to avoid the high taxes it is too much trouble.

I then mentioned that according to a recent article in the WSJ, half the millionaires and multimillionaires in China want to immigrate — leave China.

Then, Leah explained how dreadful it is to live in China: Even for rich people there is no quality of life in China; restaurants are not exciting and are empty; architecture is not exciting; life is dreary for everyone.  

[Many visitors to mainland China find it depressing because of all the pollution. Because of all the pollution, the sun does not shine through the haze and they do not see any birds flying anywhere.] 

Leah also said, “Although China has skyscrapers and bullet trains, China is not a 21st century country.  It is not even a 20th century company.  It has just started laying train tracks.”

[It is true that China just started laying train tracks, however, a friend reported to me that the train from the airport into Shanghai is the fastest in the world.  When he was on it, it ran at 431 kph.]

Leah then said, “Seoul Korea is a very impressive city.  It will be difficult for any city in China or Europe to be as impressive.”  Leah went on to explain how modern and update date Seoul is and how you can see an ancient palace in the same neighborhood as a modern building while explaining that statement.  Leah also commented on France when I told her about the jaw dropping architecture.  Leah’s comment: France is living on the past.  It doesn’t do anything now except serve as a  Disneyland like place for tourists to see what France did in the past.

I am a fan of Richard Florida’s books “The Rise of the Creative Class” and “Who’s Your City?”

Florida argues that “where you live is the most important decision of your life” and that “great cities attract the creative class.”

By the way, in “Who’s Your City”, Florida states: Toronto is a significant economic center with superb universities, leading arts, entertainment, design and culture industries; it also has what is arguably the most diverse population in the world. Like London, but unlike most major U.S. cities, Toronto offers schools that work, low crime and safe streets. Unlike London, New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco, it also remains reasonably affordable, which allows it to retain a wide mix of social and economic classes. Nearby, Waterloo in Ontario provides a major technology center, housing Research in Motion, the BlackBerry company. Montreal is home to Cirque du Soleil and a world-class music scene that produced the Arcade Fire, one of the leading and most successful bands of the early 2000s. On the U.S. side of the border, Rochester, though losing residents, remains one of the worlds leading centers for optoelectronic and research-intensive companies such as Xerox, Kodak and many of their key suppliers.

[ Aside: Kodak and Xerox are 20th Century companies.]  

 In “Who’s Your City?” Florida explains what a mistake it is to conceive of the U.S. economy as composed of fifty states.  In reality, the core of the U.S. and North America economies is made up roughly of a dozen mega-regions that stretch from Canada and in some cases Mexico, and generate the great bulk of the country’s economic output.

At dinner, I mentioned to Leah that the people in the restaurant where we were are so much more stylish than people I see wherever I go.  

Leah replied, “L.A. is the ‘hip’ center of the world.”

Leah, herself, was looking very hip. 

Before driving to Santa Monica to join Leah for dinner, I had coffee (actually I had Chai Tea Latte) with a very charming lady, who told me story after story about people in the entertainment industry’s purchases of houses in the areas in which I now  live and work, and in areas surrounding where I live, including Malibu.

I like where I live very much.  I live in Woodland Hills.  There are lots of trees, very big trees including many orange trees.  There are many flowers, including many front yard rose gardens.  When I go for a walk, sometimes the smell of the orange trees is overwhelming. Sometimes the smell of the roses is overwhelming. Chip monks and rabbits run across everyones’ yards and in the streets.  Birds are everywhere.  My office is 15 minutes away in Encino.

All of the above reinforces my basic belief that the “value” of real estate is directly related to the productive value of whomever is occupying the real estate (the value of what they produce); that “productive” creativity is HIGHLY rewarded and the most important component of success. Not coincidentally very productive people want to and do live in very beautiful places (whether the beauty be physical setting or culture or hipness) as well as places where they are close to other creative skilled talented and productive people.

In their own way, without saying so directly or indirectly, Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum are saying the same thing in their new book “That Used to Be Us.”  In their book they dwell on the need for education, a good educational system, and the need to have a government that can get large scale things done.  

They introduce the concept that “Average Is Over.”  They dwell on how fantastic certain schools are in China. According to them the Shanghai school system creates the best prepared for the future 15 year olds in the world.  

Friedman and Mandelbaum’s mantra is “the country that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow.”  They make it very clear that education and “good government” are economic issues because companies will locate their factories where they find the most productive workers.  This is not just about cheap labor.  It s about skilled labor.

 Friedman and Mandlelbaum realize that having a transparent legal system, strong property right, modern infrastructure, n big and efficient financial system, modern infrastructure and a government that works efficiently and is capable of putting together and accomplishing big projects is also important.  

Additionally, it is also important to have affordable housing, a pro-growth government and a government that isn’t corrupt.

If you wonder how Chinese parents raise stereotypically successful kids, read Yale University law professor Amy Chua’s book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.  According to professor Chua, “Studies indicate that compared to Western parents, Chinese parents spend approximately 10 times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. The Chinese believe that the best way to protect their children is by preparing them for the future, letting them see what they are capable of, and arming them with skills, work habits and inner confidence that on one can ever take away.  Friedman and Mandelbaum remark: When children come to school knowing their parents have high expectations, it makes everything a teacher is trying to do easier and more effective. Self-esteem is important; but it is not an entitlement. It has to be earned.”

I can’t wait to discuss all of the above with James at Runway Enterprises, Runway Magazine, Runway TV etc.  

James considers his publication to be the cultural barometer of America.  

James spends a great deal of his time breathing in the parfum of life.

As a result, James is expert in putting “style and fashion” in the context of the bigger world we live in.

That makes James qualified to know “hip” when he sees it and in some respects to be one of those persons who define  “hip” and elegance.

My philosophy of life is: It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others,  to embrace life as feast where all wines flow, and to pay attention to the fundamental changes in the world in which Americans are living and the need to adjust to them.

Where the creative people are is where I want to place my money.

A good friend with a cosmopolitan background and analytical gifts recommends New York, Hong Kong and Toronto and not necessarily in that order.  That friend recently asked me: Have you been to Hong Kong lately?  Not where you’d expect, but you can get a view of the new Apple store in Hong Kong at apple.com in their long presentation on the iPhone 4S.  I think it is more interesting than my neighborhood Apple store that is two blocks away on Fifth Avenue.

As you might have noticed, I see life through rose-colored glasses and try to spend my time with the best educated and most energetic, cosmopolitan and talented people.

Warm regards,

Gary

—–Original Message—–
From: JF
To: gsmolker <gsmolker@aol.com>
Sent: Sat, Nov 5, 2011 11:23 am
Subject: Re: Your Order with Amazon.com

If you start reading this book, you’ll want to continue.

—–Original Message—–
From: Gary Smolker <gsmolker@aol.com>
To: JF
Sent: Sat, Nov 5, 2011 1:32 pm
Subject: Fwd: Your Order with Amazon.com

Book ordered at your recommendaiton

—–Original Message—–
From: auto-confirm <auto-confirm@amazon.com>
To: gsmolker <gsmolker@aol.com>
Sent: Sat, Nov 5, 2011 10:19 am
Subject: Your Order with Amazon.com

Thanks for your order, Gary Smolker! Want to manage your order online? If you need to check the status of your order or make changes, please visit our home page at Amazon.com and click on Your Account at the top of any page. Purchasing Information: E-mail Address:  gsmolker@aol.com Billing Address: Gary Smolker 16055 Ventura Blvd., Ste # 525 Encino, CA 91436 United States Shipping Address: Gary Smolker 16055 Ventura Blvd., Ste # 525 Encino, CA 91436 United States Order Grand Total: $22.03 Get the Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card and earn 3% rewards on your Amazon.com orders. Order Summary: Shipping Details : (order will arrive in 1 shipment) Order #: 002-9415757-4444242 Shipping Method: Standard Shipping Shipping Preference: Group my items into as few shipments as possible Items:   $18.04 Shipping & Handling:   $3.99 —— Total Before Tax:   $22.03 Estimated Tax To Be Collected:   $0.00 —— Order Total:   $22.03 Delivery estimate: Nov. 10, 2011 1 “Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier” Glaeser, Edward L.; Hardcover; $18.04 In Stock Sold by: Amazon.com LLC