Galatoire's Crab Maison
Mom looking chic as hell in the 80s in our friend’s house in Illinois. I love that cape and wish I had it now.
Mom, Elisabeth and me at Windsor Castle in the 70s. Me and my daughter at Windsor Castle in 2012. Funny but I never realized these photos were so similar until today!
My sister and me in London in the 70s. Mom, Dad and my doppelganger daughter, Luca, in London in 2012.
Mom with us in Istanbul in front of the Blue Mosque in 1974.
Note from Dad: “This would have been August 1974. We had just left Israel to go home, via Istanbul and Ravenna to look at Byzantine architecture. We were in the air on August 14 (just looked it up) when the Turks invaded Cyprus. We landed in Turkey and there were no flights out for a week. That was OK with us, actually, since all the other tourists were at the Hilton trying to get buses out of the country and we had the place to ourselves. We were old hands at wartime blackouts and stuff like that, since we’d just been through the Yom Kippur War. More to be said about that week, but I’ll save it until we see you.”
This one takes some explaining. The top photo is of my Great Grandmother, Hattie Reed, with her friend “Miss Elmore” (my parents’ Latin teacher) at the pyramids in 1958. My parents went to Egypt with my aunt Lisa and her partner, Ina, maybe a decade ago. Lisa and Ina recreated the photo down to the head scarves. A side note: Dad, Mom, LIsa and Ina took a cruise down the Nile and one of the staff members thought they were all my Dad’s wives. Polygamy is legal there. Ha ha ha ha!
Music started early in our house. We used to have instrument parades on our birthdays. Also, Mom used to teach a Friday workshop to all of her piano students called “Class”. We would perform for each other and play games with percussion instruments. Now I realize how cool that was for Mom to offer!
The 80s called and they want their John Taylor hat back. Me in the middle after Saturday morning orchestra practice. With Christine Nuzum and Robin Brown.
The one time that I got to be concertmaster of my youth orchestra! I was thrilled to walk out and play the “A” for tuning. The woman in the floral top is Susan Black, our conductor, who was also my violin teacher and the violinist in Mom’s trio (below).
Mom’s piano trio with Susan Black (violin) and Leonid Zilper (cello). They performed in Chapel Hill, NC and Fripp Island, SC.
Mom demonstrating something (?) to our British family friend Sue Clare at Clyde’s Critter Crossing in Pittsboro, NC. Mom collected folk art and was a big fan of Clyde’s.
Elisabeth and Mom in our friend Toni King’s art-filled house. That’s a Chuck Close behind them and a Rauschenberg (which HEAVILY influenced me as a teen) on the far right.
Me showing my high school portfolio to my aunt Jane. Christmas in Kingsport, TN. 1989.
Me at my RISD senior art exhibition in 1994. Mom came up and was super hands on. She helped paint the walls red and made her famous Chocolate Fondue for the opening.
Mom and Dad came to support me at my first gallery exhibition at Moody Gallery in Houston, TX. 2002.
My daughter and Dad in those fun spinning chairs (that are now, sadly, gone) at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (Mom’s favorite museum!). 2012.
It passed on to the next generation! Drawings done by my daughter while we sat around with Mom during her last few days. Clockwise from top left: Dad (this one is particularly good, I think), Mom, Elisabeth, me.
I just found this photo of the junior high students that Mom convinced to be in her production of Bye Bye Birdie when she was an English teacher in Port Chester, New York! Mom was probably 24 or so but she was already inspiring people.
So silly. But, yes, we all danced. Only Mom was graceful. OK, Elisabeth was pretty good, too.
Me and Mom. Christmas in the 90s. Lots of bling! Chapel Hill, NC.
Mom took me to a Bobby McFerrin concert at Memorial Hall. It was a formative experience for me! My husband likes to make fun of that. Still, watch this clip and I’ll bet I can convert you on musicianship alone!
I went with Mom to see the Kronos Quartet in San Francisco when I was in maybe 9th grade. My Uncle Robert had gotten us tickets. Talk about a formative experience! This one was mind blowing for this small town goth. Art, music, and choreography in one thrilling show. Here they are playing Hendrix.
Travel, music, art, theater, dance …. REPEAT! That was my childhood.
Today would have been Mom’s 81st birthday. She would be mellow, not wanting a fuss. She always told us not to spend her money on things she didn’t want or need. But, when we did splurge I think she secretly enjoyed it. One thing Mom did indulge in was the arts. Like, all of them.
I was talking to my friend Steven last weekend. He’s someone I’ve known for years. He tends to be quiet but every now and then you’ll discover a surprising morsel from his past. His delay of delivery makes each crumb of info even more satisfying! He’s the one who told me how to make a roux. I had known Steven for at least a decade before he revealed that in his 20s he managed a minor league baseball team. Wait, what?! I didn’t even know he watched baseball. So, when, out of nowhere, Steven announced that he had an affinity for Bobby McFerrin, I was both surprised AND not surprised at all. To the uninitiated, Bobby McFerrin is simply the dude who sings that insufferable 80s earworm, “Don’t Worry Be Happy”. But, delve a little deeper and he’s actually an incredible musician. Mom took me to a Bobby McFerrin concert when I was in junior high and it was mind blowing! Check out the video above to see what he does. He uses his full body as an instrument, he is simultaneously lyrical and percussive. I guess beat boxing was already going on in early rap music but this young Carolina girl had never seen anything of the sort. It made an impression. My husband likes to make fun of me for geeking out on Bobby McFerrin. I chalk that up to his McFerrin ignorance, he’s firmly in the “Don’t Worry Be Happy Sucks” camp. But, back to my friend Steven. He told me that he spent a late night (or early morning?) with friends in a dark house in New Orleans with Bobby McFerrin’s “Sweet in the Morning” playing LOUDLY on repeat. He said it was eerie but magical. I had a similar experience lying on the floor in a dark room in Boston with art school friends, smoking cigarettes (ah, the old days) and listening to David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” over and over again. Sometimes you have to make music a 4D experience.
Mom was constantly exposing me to cool new stuff. And, sometimes not-so-cool old stuff. One time she drove me to some hotel in Research Triangle Park so we could see a dinner theater performance of The Fantasticks. It was totally mediocre, both the dinner and the theater, but I loved that she had the idea and invited me as her guest. It was just the two of us and I always treasured time alone with her. Mom and I also made frequent trips to Duke University to see touring musicians. I remember staying out late on school nights to take in the Tokyo String Quartet and the Beaux Arts Trio. Duke is also home to the American Dance Festival. We would take in some of those shows when we could. I remember one where a dancer jumped perfectly in time with a strobe light in a dark room so that they created the illusion of floating. It was incredible!
One time on a visit to San Francisco, with the help of my hip Uncle Robert, we took in a Kronos Quartet performance. Talk about shattering preconceptions! These classically trained musicians were also freaking performance artists! The female cellist had a super chic short haircut and a large skirt that appeared to be made of chicken wire or something that was molded to accommodate her instrument. They did a piece where scrolling sheet music was projected so that the audience could read along. I remember something else clever involving a metronome. That concert was riveting to this artsy teenager! A few months later I was sitting in the UNC “Dean Dome” waiting for David Bowie to come on stage and what did he have as his pre-show music? The Kronos Quartet’s version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”, of course! This was before the internet so surprises then were even more delicious. I remember feeling really IN THE KNOW to be able to identify the piece and the artists.
It occurs to me that I have talked plenty about myself (ha ha) but I may have never mentioned that my sister, Elisabeth, is a professional cellist. She’s remarkable. Mom certainly influenced my sister with her passion for music. Elisabeth left home in the 9th grade to study cello at the North Carolina School of the Arts (where I would later go in 11th grade for visual arts). I was eleven with Elisabeth went. She played a lot of concerts. My next few years were basically spent in the backseat of the Chevy Citation shuttling back and forth between Chapel Hill and Winston-Salem where NCSA was. Mom never lost her enthusiasm! I did. (Sorry, E.) Mom knew every piece of music that Elisabeth was playing. Mom knew Elisabeth’s friends and their stories. As I’ve mentioned before, Mom was a surrogate mother to many. I’m eternally grateful that Mom was tuned in and generous enough to encourage us to leave the house early to pursue our interests. I think a lot of parents would have been hesitant. My sister and I both agree that our NCSA experiences were critical to helping us become who we are as adults.
I’ve recently learned about the term Blood Harmony. It’s an expression for when siblings sing together. There’s a biological chemistry that is hard to reproduce. My sister and I have a friend, Cassie Webster, who is an incredible early music singer. (Cassie flew all the way in from the West Coast to sing at Mom’s funeral, bless her.). Cassie’s sister, Chris, is an R&B and soul singer. When they sing together it is magic. (They recorded an album together that I’m having trouble finding online but here’s a link to Chris singing.) They sound alike and yet they also complement one another. My sister joked that when she and I sing together we also sound alike! (ie: bad). We can sing in tune but there’s not mojo there. Just breathy, vibrato-less, church singing. Not sexy. But that doesn’t stop us! We grew up singing: singing in the choir, singing in the car, singing in the shower. I just spent 4 days in the car with my husband and tried to make him sing with me to pass the time. He was not interested. Had he been we would have delved into the Reed family repertoire: “Swinging Along the Open Road” (It has 2 parts!), “There Once Was a Frog Who Jumped in a Bog” (how cute is the lady in the video?!), or the insufferable “Chicken Song”. Wherever my family was there was music.
I miss Mom. She’ll be gone four years in October. How strange. For today’s recipe I picked one of her faves, Crabmeat Maison from Galatoire’s in New Orleans. It should taste great in this hot, muggy weather. (I’m back in Texas.). I’m not sure who wrote the intro part of the recipe but I think the takeaway is “Get the best lump white crabmeat you can afford”! Enjoy –
CRABMEAT MAISON
This is one of the most popular appetizers at the venerable French Quarter restaurant Galatoire's. It's a personal favorite of mine as well, and one that I simply can't resist getting whenever I dine there ('cause ... well, lump crabmeat is so damned good, and it's particularly good there, and this is a light and lovely way to dress it; it's simple, and full of flavor). I'll stop babbling now. Get the best lump white crabmeat you can afford. Your guests will love you for it. While we're on the subject, BE CAREFUL when you're folding the crabmeat into the other ingredients. The reason you just spent a fortune on this stuff is the big, beautiful lumps, so don't break them up! I see people shredding gorgeous lump crabmeat and I just wanna smack 'em.
In most restaurants this dish is called "Crabmeat Ravigote", but Galatoire's -- accustomed to doing things in their own way -- already have a different dish by that name, so they call their ravigote "Crabmeat Maison". Confused? Me too. Don't worry about it. Just eat it.
For the Maison dressing:
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Creole mustard (you may substitute Dijon, or a course, seeded country-style mustard)
1-1/2 cups high quality olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1/2 cup real mayonnaise
3 tablespoons Maison dressing
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 teaspoon small capers, rinsed and drained
1/2 teaspoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 pound lump crabmeat
12 large leaves butter lettuce
12 slices tomato (Creole, if you got ' em)
Lemons
To make the Maison dressing, combine vinegar and mustard. Slowly whisk in olive oil, a little at a time, to form an emulsion. Season with salt and pepper.
Mix together mayonnaise, Maison dressing, green onions, capers and parsley. Gently fold in the crabmeat, making sure you don't break up any of the lumps -- the key to making this dish truly wonderful).
Divide into six equal portions and serve on a bed of butter lettuce, with two slices of tomato and a squeeze from a wedge of lemon just before serving.
YIELD: 6 servings
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