Sculptures Within a Garden Within a Park

New Orleans' City Park is the sixth largest city park in the US.

If the park consisted only of this section populated by the live oaks, it would be a beautiful park worth visiting.

But it was a five-acre section near the New Orleans Museum of Art that supplements the natural beauty of a garden and its lagoon with the artistic beauty of some sixty works of an international group of sculptors that drew us to the Park. This is the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden.

The setting and the works were impressive, so we want to highlight some scenes from our walk through the garden.

Deborah Butterfield
Restrained (Horse)

In this piece, the slightly larger than life-size horse was cast in bronze pieces. In this process, Butterfield constructs a horse from found wood pieces. The wood she chooses for these pieces are evidently weathered and well-worn. The artist constructs her horse from found wood and then photographs the wooden sculpture from all angles. Then the scupture is disassembled and each wood piece is individually cast in bronze. Butterfield then reconstructs the horse with the bronzed
“wood” using the photographs of the original wooden horse to put each bronze piece in its exact place. The bronze horse is then painted with patina to make it look like the original weathered wood.

A close-up view of the horse shows the driftwood appearance of the pieces.

The next work was especially interesting--especially the story behind its creation.

George Rodrigue
We Stand Together

“It was probably ten years ago that George Rodrigue started work in earnest on the concept of a Blue Dog sculpture….

“From the beginning there was a real challenge in creating the dog as a sculpture, because for George the Blue Dog only exists in two dimensions—on a flat plain within a Rodrigue painting.

“Rodrigue was in search of a sculpture that would stand on its own while retaining the strong, well-defined Blue Dog shape….

“As I mentioned above, it was probably ten years ago that the idea of a sculpture became almost a daily part of George’s creative process. He played with paper and cardboard, bending and pasting and cropping, with occasional add-ons such as toothpicks and mini-easels, in hopes of creating a model that was more than just a shape cut from a painting.

“And then one night in 2003, as we sat talking at a restaurant bar while waiting for our table, and George played (so I thought) absentmindedly with the cocktail napkins, he suddenly stopped, looked up with a huge grin, and said,

“I’ve got it!”

“Got what?”

“The sculpture. I know how I’m gonna do it.”

“And that was how three cocktail napkins, each balanced on one edge and held together in concave arches between our pinching fingers, became the design for the Blue Dog Sculpture. Each side would be a dog-front, with the feet matching up at the bottom” (wendyrodigue.com, “Musings of an Artist’s Wife”).

Some sculptures evoke a smile, others a response of wonderment, while others are simply creepy.

Rona Pondick
Monkeys

A really strange piece. Made of stainless steel, these hybrid monkeys seem to be crawling from the center. Rona Pondick's works have always been about fragments: body parts, such as teeth and objects associated with bodily functions.

“Monkeys present a gleaming tangle of maniacally gamboling creatures. Pondick has fused casts of her own body parts—her face and arms—to several monkey bodies. These hybrids embody cultural fears about genetic manipulation and experimental mutation” (The Sculpture Garden's walking tour booklet).

“Pondick has been teasing and provoking audiences since the 80s with her eccentric and unnerving sculpture…. (T)he artist makes seamless mergers that unite the improbable and the impossible, the emotional and the intellectual, the sublime and the grotesque, the aggressive and the pathetic, the rough and the smooth, tradition and technology” (ronapondick.com, article by Barbara MacAdam).

Arman Fernandez
Pablo Casal’s Obelisk

An exponent in France of Pop Art, Fernandez creates his sculptures by combining dozens, sometimes hundreds, of similar objects discarded by the consumer culture, such as empty toothpaste tubes or tin cans.

Here he has sliced a cello into fragments, cast them in bronze, and duplicated them to create a massive tower—a tribute to cellist Pablo Casals.

At different points in the garden, we took time to enjoy the natural beauty of the Park.

Arnaldo Pomodoro
Una Battaglia

The columnar themed sculpture translated into a later style as can be seen in Una Battaglia (A Battle). His interest in buildings and destruction is evident in this work from 1971. The artist was also greatly influenced by his upbringing in war-torn Italy. In Una Bataglia, a shining shaft made of stainless steel penetrates the bronze decaying base. Pomodoro’s metal work appears deeply gouged and deteriorated, revealing the inner structure. The absence of metal is just as important as its presence in Pomodoro’s work. Technology and the passing of time are his themes. The Museum of Art’s Una Battaglia is one of two castings of this piece. The other was commissioned by the City of Modena, Italy, as a World War II memorial.

There were many more thought-provoking works to see.

Continued…

our dinner at Ancora. In yesterday’s blog, I said that our evening was not yet over. Today, we will tell you why. But first,....

Let me introduce you to Chuck’s mother, Caroline. Like my mother, she was an old-fashioned Midwest cook. Meat was cooked well done. Vegetables were boiled long enough to insure that any taste and nutrition was in the cooking water. But, boy, could Caroline bake. She could bake anything, but her specialty was sweet rolls. So well-known was she for her rolls that the crowds would gather at the church’s bake sales well in advance knowing that Caroline would be bringing her sweet rolls. And every time she came to visit us, Chuck would procure all of the necessary ingredients, so that he and Caroline could spend time in the kitchen.

Did we feel guilty about putting her to work? No. She loved it. After three days of non-stop baking, Chuck and Caroline came in one morning to visit me at work. She looked at the clock and exclaimed: “It’s only 10:30 a.m. We still have time to go home and make more rolls!” To which Chuck replied: “Mom, I’m tired. I need a day off.” But they baked. And when she left, we had a freezer full of rolls that we enjoyed for weeks thereafter.

So I believe that Chuck, who very much wants to bake bread, is channeling Caroline’s spirit. In a conversation with Jeff about how much we enjoyed his bread, Chuck mentioned that one thing he wanted to do in retirement was to learn how to bake bread. So when Jeff Talbot, co-owner and head chef at Ancora, offered to one evening show Chuck how he--Jeff--makes his bread, Chuck jumped at the chance.

This was that “one evening,” so back to the kitchen we went.

Now I am going to tell you up front that I am not a baker. Baking entails precision and adherence to rules. I view a recipe as a “gentle suggestion” and one that can be ignored at will. So, I’m now turning over the writing to my favorite traveling companion.

What an opportunity--and one for which I felt very unprepared. My hope was to follow directions successfully and ask intelligent questions.

Jeff began by chilling the water with ice cubes.

Crucial to baking is weighing. Jeff weighs the water,

he weighs the flour,

he weighs the starter (left and below) that he has "fed" and maintained for about six years.

He weighs so often that his scales need regular and frequent replacement. I think he would actually like to do more baking, but the process is very time-consuming given that he is running an excellent restaurant and, I think, would find it hard to devote time to this endeavor without adversely affecting the restaurant.

After a brief rest, a portion of the starter was combined with some of the water. Jeff demonstra-ted the next step in which small pieces of the starter were separated from the mass and gently rubbed with the water in order to mix them.

I then had the opportunity to complete the step. This was a relatively slow, delicate process. It would not be rushed by using a beater.

With most of the starter dissolved in the bowl of water, the other ingredients were combined. The mixing was done by hand, but the mixing was not "completed" in the usual meaning of the term.

The completion of this step was a "raggy-looking" mass. Then came a period of rest.

I was expecting to be kneading the dough, so I was prepared to learn how to tell by touch when the kneading was complete. But no kneading.

After the rest, the ball had lost much of its raggy look. Jeff used a scraper to move the ball into the center of the bowl with a minimum amount of scraping. Then more rest.

Then followed an overnight in the refrigerator. The next morning another scraping, another rest, and then baking.

I’m Back

Kate that is. Jeff suggested that we stop by the following day to sample the bread that Chuck had helped to make. So we made a point to arrive during the lunch hour – this time for pizza and salad.

The lunch salad was arugula with a light olive oil dressing and topped with very thin shaved raw fennel and a shaving of asiago. Again, Chuck is no fan of licorice or anise so he was very happy that the fennel had been applied with a light hand.

For his pizza, Chuck stayed with the basic Margherita with a “sauce” of crushed San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil. As always, it was delicious.

I ventured forth in a new direction and chose the Puttensca Pizza. If you have eaten pasta with puttensca sauce, think of the sauce on a pizza and not on pasta. It contained all of the elements of a classic puttensca – tomato, garlic, anchovies, capers, and black olives. “Puttanesca translates as ‘in the style of the whore.’ The name derives from the Italian word puttana which means whore…. Now I’ll bet your wondering how this tasty dish became associated with such sordid content… (T)here are multiple explanations. The first interpretation is that the intense aroma…would lure men from the street into the local house of ill repute. Thus, the Napolese harlots were characterized as the sirens of the culinary world.

Three additional accounts all hinge on the fact that Puttanesca sauce is easy and quick to make. The first is that the prostitutes made it for themselves to keep the interruption of their business to a minimum. The second is that they made it for the men awaiting their turn at the brothel. And the final version is that it was a favorite of married women who wished to limit their time in the kitchen so that they may visit their paramour” (foodreference.com).

Then it was time for bread--in this case grilled bread topped with thin sliced speck which is described as “a delightful and nuanced merging of Northern European and Mediterranean traditions. Speck is much lighter in flavor than the heavily smoked hams found north of the Alps, but more robust than the delicate, Mediterranean-influenced prosciutto made in San Daniele, Parma, and points south” (seriouseats.com).

Before our New Orleans visit ends, Ancora will be offering a lunch menu of sandwiches on this terrific bread. We can’t wait.

“Hard to Believe, Harry”

For years, Harry Kalas and Richie “Whitey” Ashburn were part of the broadcasting team for the Philadelphia Phillies. Both – alas – are no longer with us and both were inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame. And, as points of home town/state pride, Harry Kalas was born in Naperville, IL (just a stone’s throw from Chuck’s hometown of Plainfield, IL and was a graduate of the University of Iowa, our common alma mater). Along with Harry’s signature “outta here” whenever a Phillie hit a home run, a favorite phrase was Richie Ashburn’s “Hard to believe, Harry” whenever a spectacular or unusual play occurred.

So what do two baseball announcers have to do with a food blog? Well, first, do you think it’s easy coming up with original blog openings? Second, here we are at one of our two favorite pizzerias—Ancora Pizzeria & Salumi—in the country, and we didn’t eat pizza. “Hard to believe, Harry.”

As I have mentioned earlier, Ancora’s menu is as minimalist as its sleek décor. The regular menu offers: one bruschetta—with ricotta, salt, and olive oil; five pizzas; and one dolce – assorted biscotti. But there is a chalkboard menu that changes regularly and on this visit everything we ordered came off the special menu.

We started with the day’s bruschetta which was burrata and beets on Jeff Talbot’s grilled bread. We had sampled this dish at our lunch the previous week (see 3/13/12) and it was a “no brainer” that this would be part of the meal.

We next moved on to the Affetatti Misti or cured meat plate. Each evening, Ancora offers a different selection of four or five of their house-cured meats and this evening the offerings were (clockwise from top right) calabrese, mugnano, anatra, soft napo, and fennel. The calabrese, mugnano, and fennel were all hard salumis. The soft napo, served again on Jeff’s grilled bread, was—as the name implies—a softer salumi with a texture not unlike a cooked German sausage. The final item on the plate—the anatra—was new to both of us and was truly amazing. This is air-cured duck breast whose texture is similar to prosciutto and, like prosciutto, has a layer of fat intact. And again like prosciutto, the fat is as flavorful as the meat. Rounding out the tray were a kumquat and mustard chutney and a mild house-made red cabbage kraut.

There were three contorni (sides) on the menu and we chose two as additions to our meal. The first was roasted shrimp with a garnish of warm green olives and slivered garlic. Although the shrimp’s heads still remained, the tails had been peeled. The grilling imparted a slight smoky taste and the briny olives and sweet garlic harmonizes with the shrimp.

And now came the contorni that blew us out of the water—the gnocchi with Brussels sprouts and pancetta. Gnocchi are small dumplings that can be made from semolina, wheat flour, or potatoes. These were potato gnocchi and the lightest potato gnocchi I have eaten. I even needed to ask Bren, our server, because I couldn’t believe these were made from potatoes.

Again, Chuck is no lover of Brussels sprouts. I don’t know if he has objected in the past to the sulpheric smell that comes from boiling them or whether he disliked them on general principles. What I do know is that we watched each other carefully to make sure the other didn’t get more than his/her share.

We finished with the evening dolce—house made and fire grilled fruit and nut bread served with sweet mascarpone cheese and drizzled with honey. This is a prime example of why I so love this restaurant. The concept here is so simple, while the finished product is so refined. This is a dessert that we could all make on some level—as long as you can bake bread as good as Jeff’s—but few of us would think of.

Our meal was over, but that wasn’t the end to our evening at Ancora. But that will be the subject of tomorrow’s blog.

So we are going to fast forward one week. It was an iffy weather day, but as we got to late afternoon it seemed to clear. Let’s go out to dinner! Where? Where else? Back to Ancora.

We started with the Affetatti Misti which on that evening included (clockwise from top right) Genoa salami, toscano, soft napo, and calabrese—again with the kumquat mustard chutney and mild red kraut.

Next was the bruschetta—duroc rillette. (Duroc pig is an older breed of American domestic pig that forms the basis for many mixed-breed commercial hogs [Wikipedia.com]). This was a coarse spread of pork slow cooked in its own fat. It got me to wondering. What is the difference between confit and rillete? After some on-line research, I still really don’t know the answer. It may be—as in the case of duck confit—that after the meat is cooked in its own fat it is shredded and made into a rough paste and then becomes rillette. This presentation had the rich pork spread topped with a small amount of house-made sauerkraut (sharper in flavor than the red kraut on the meat plate) that minimized the richness of the meat.

Gnocchi was again on the contorni menu—this time in a rich cheese sauce with sweet sautéed onions. I would give a small edge to the Brussels sprouts/ pancetta gnocchi from the previous week, but this was still delicious. I only took a small taste and left the remainder to Chuck. The reason for my generosity follows.

There on the board as a contorni was one of my favorite foods—mussels. And not just mussels but Prince Edward Island mussels in a tomato sauce with house-made sausage. I think that mussels have a more pronounced flavor than clams and this stronger taste makes them perfect in more aggressive dishes. This is why you often find mussels in black bean sauce on Chinese restaurant menus. And here the mussels held their own against this sauce of tomato, sausage, and garlic. And on the bottom of the bowl were a couple of slices of Jeff’s bread that soaked up all of these tasty juices. I did give Chuck one only mussel. His response: “It’s good but you should feel free to eat the rest yourself since I know how much you love mussels” told me “Don’t push it, Kate.”

We finished with the dolce—apricot and walnut bread that was again served with honey and mascarpone cheese.

As we are driving home, Chuck asks “Can we go back again next week?” So hang on, you may well be reading a weekly blog about this 5.0 Addie restaurant.

Oh, again no pizza. “Hard to believe, Harry.”

A Dog Day Afternoon

From our position on the three-quarter-mile-long Zemurray Trail, we had a beautiful introduction to New Orleans' City Park.

We could see the Museum of Art across Big Lake. Even though we had arrived almost two hours before the event of the day was to start, we had a walk of some distance ahead of us. But this was one of those rare (in recent weeks) sunny days, so the walk was quite pleasant.

Along the trail, we passed large outdoor sculptures, a replica of a Venetian gondola, and a large sculpted white pelican (the Louisiana State Bird). Out on the lake itself were many species of waterfowl, including ducks, geese and swans, and a fountain that shot water about 30-40 feet in the air. Paddle boats were also available for rent.

Across the lake, we could see the event tents.

As we neared the center of activity, we could see that the vital services--portable toilets, a food vendor, and an ATM--were taking up their positions.

We noticed that a unique tree provided shade for vendors and partici-pants--a half dozen sets of wind chimes were hanging from its branches.

A plaque beneath it identified it as the The “Singing Oak.”

"Created by Jim Hart, the wind chimes, some up to 14 feet tall, are tuned to the Pentatonic scale (5 pitches per octave) to create this amazing instrument/art piece."

Near the tree was this booth, and when we saw it, we thought the presence of the furry person in the booth made perfect sense. The day's event was the Louisiana SPCA's 30th Annual Dog Day Afternoon

The festival is a fun opportunity for the community to help raise funds for the over 15,000 homeless and companion animals the LA/SPCA cares for each year. We saw a greyhound rescue pen and wished that we could have adopted many of this breed as well as the other guys with the "vests" that expressed their wishes.



The day provided an opportunity for socializing among the humans and among the canines.



The major fund-raising activity is "The Gatsby Strut."

"The Gatsby Strut is our annual fundraising dog walk-a-thon and one of the oldest dog walks in the state of Louisiana. You can sign up as an invdividual walker or as a team (or "pack")! Once you sign up, you will receive your own personal fundraising page that you can customize with your own message & picture. From there, it is easy to send out emails to friends, family & coworkers to raise money for your favorite canine (or feline!)." (The Gatsby Strut raised over $40,000.)

Walkers get the chance to win a prime spot with their pet as "Chair Dog" for the following year's event by raising the most money. A couple of the walkers enjoyed a ride around the lake.

A number of players on the the New Orleans Saints are active volunteers for the LA/SPCA. Among them is Jeff Charleston, who served as a celebrity emcee for the afternoon events.

One of the events was an appearance by Gail Mirabella & the Dynamo Disc Dogs. Mirabella travels with 14 dogs and seven were included in the program of acrobatic demonstrations and freestyle routines that feature high jumps, jump rope and hoop tricks, vertical jumping, and disc-catching at "amazing speeds and with mind-bending accuracy."

In an interview with the Times-Picayune, Mirabella noted: "Any sport or class one does with their dog increases the relationship tenfold. You as a person learn how to better communicate with your dog and he to you. I recommend that everyone with a dog, whether a young one or an older one, and especially one that's just been adopted or rescued, attend a class if you want to attain that special bond."

It was indeed a performance by the magnificent seven--most of whom were adopted or rescued--marked by energy and enthusiasm.