Diary 5|10, 11|2015: Farewells: The Boy, Red Bean Omelette.

Written by Tom Fitzmorris May 18, 2015 12:01 in

DiningDiarySquare-150x150 [title type="h5"]Sunday, May 10, 2015. The Cruise Looms. [/title] Looks like rain this week. I figure I'd better cut the grass so it won't look like a jungle while we're away on the cruise. I cut almost all of the acreage, but a plan for cutting back the brush alongside the road through the Cool Water Ranch goes into abeyance: I have run out of gas. I take a longish walk after parking the little tractor. I cool down after that by sitting at my desk and writing the first edition of Tom's Cruiseletter for the forty-six Eat Clubbers who will travel with me from London to Rome. We leave in two weeks, and our pre-cruise dinner is day after tomorrow. I must make it appear that I am actually working on the project. I harness my compulsion to write hundreds of words, and create a page of news and plans for every day during our travels. Truth be told, our people do a fine job of making their own plans. But they do like to get my Cruiseletter in their mailbox every day. And I kind of like walking all over the ship delivering them, like a paperboy. [caption id="attachment_45483" align="alignnone" width="400"]Queso with chorizo, an addiction for us. Queso with chorizo, an addiction for us.[/caption] We go to La Carreta for an early supper. So what else is new? On the patio are two strangers of interest. One of them is a guy who pulls up to the restaurant in an old VW Beetle. In my teens, I was rather good at identifying the model years of Bugs, after personally owning a 1960, a 1959, a 1968, and a 1972. I tell the guy that it looks as if he's driving a sixty-eight. "Sixty-nine," he says. Well, I was close. The other interesting table is one at which the four diners keep passing a Siberian Husky puppy from one to another. No wonder dogs are so popular. What a beautiful pup! With blue eyes, yet. This dinner is the farewell meal with us for The Boy. Having just squeaked Mary Leigh's birthday into his plans, he must finally report to an Army base in Tucson, Arizona in a few days for four months of basic training. He's driving there. That's not too horrible a journey for three days, but it will not be fun, either. [divider type=""] [title type="h5"]Monday, May 11, 2015. Scoring Fried Chicken.[/title] Two weeks ago, Mary Ann was denied a plate of fried chicken at the Camellia Café in Abita Springs. They have fried chicken on the buffet every Monday at lunchtime, and she likes it. It actually is pretty good, although I like the red beans more. Red beans are among the few foods that benefit from a stay on a buffet steam table. The denial of her fried chicken rights has not released her appetite for them. So here we are again, she with her chicken and me with my red beans. [caption id="attachment_46224" align="alignnone" width="490"]Red bean omelette no more. Red bean omelette no more.[/caption] I see that the Camellia Café has thrown in the towel on serving breakfast. I talked them into adding to the menu a red bean, ham and monterey jack cheese omelette, a dish that tastes much better than it sounds. (If you like Mexican huevos rancheros, you should love a red bean omelette.) Well, now it's gone. Fortunately, the Coffee Pot on St. Peter Street in the French Quarter still has it. That's where I got the idea, in fact. I am pulling together my rosters of the people who are joining us on the cruise. Our dinner tomorrow for them will have nearly 100 percent attendance. And every one in the group has been on a cruise before. Neither one of those conditions has ever obtained in our twenty-five cruises over the years.