Thursday, November 12, 2015.
The End/New Beginning Is Near. Del Porto.
Two believable false alarms sounded during the past couple of months, as Mary Leigh, a ring on her finger, drove or flew to the vicinity of Washington D.C., there to meet with her fiancé, with whom she is making plans for a new life. But in both cases, she came back to the Cool Water Ranch and stayed for a few more weeks.
The follow-through will finally take place for real tomorrow. Both ML and Dave have full-time jobs and an apartment waiting for them. Tomorrow, she and Mary Ann will make a loaded-down trip to DC with all the essential home furnishings that will be making the move. Today, she is packing all this stuff into the SUV. This is it! She really is going forth on the biggest change she has ever undertaken. All is well.
I felt the need for a proper farewell. Will she walk around the Cool Water Ranch with me? Of course. I tell her about a guy named Hans who worked with me at the Time Saver. The house I shared with two friends and their girlfriends would break up at the end of 1971 (they all got married), and I needed a place to live. Hans was about to leave town (on a Fulbright Scholarship!) and return to his native Austria. His landlord was looking for a new tenant, and it was the perfect spot for me: corner of Spruce and South Carrollton in a converted garage, a few blocks from the Time Saver.
I helped Hans--who didn't have a car--to get his stuff out of there. He sold most of his furniture to me. When we finished the job, he asked if he could go back into the apartment for one last look. He stood in the middle of the place for a moment. Then he smiled and shook his head. "There was a lot of happiness for me here," he said.
As Mary Leigh and I walked around the five acres where she lived her entire life so far, I told her that she should always remember all the happiness she had here. I thought she might cry a little to think about that, but we both did.
[caption id="attachment_49595" align="alignnone" width="480"]
White bean dip at Del Porto.[/caption]
We wrapped up all this emotion at dinner. As usual, we changed our minds five or since times before deciding to go to Del Porto. I think it's the best Italian restaurant in the metro area. Mary Ann says it's a sexy restaurant. Mary Leigh had never been there before.
[caption id="attachment_49594" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Polenta fries.[/caption]
We begin with the white bean dip--sort of a hummus, but then again, not really. Mary Ann has polenta fries, which come out with the texture and flavor I remember from a restaurant I visited once in Friuli. By coincidence, I am drinking light red wine from Friuli. We usually see only the whites from that northeastern part of Italy.
[caption id="attachment_49596" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Del Porto's baked oysters.[/caption]
I have some baked oysters on their shells with bread crumbs and herbs. They are excellent. I could have eaten a dozen of them, but they only gave me four. Which is a good thing, because I am already on my way to what I expect will be a filling meal.
[caption id="attachment_49593" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Radiatore pasta with shrimp.[/caption]
Indeed, here is my second course: radiatore pasta with shrimp. The Italians were very proud when they created radiatore, which looks like the fins in a car radiator. It was the first new pasta shape in years. The irony is that all pastas are made from the same dough, so what difference does it make? All that said, Del Porto's treatment of it was tasty to me.
[caption id="attachment_49591" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Ravioli.[/caption]
By this time, the Marys are complaining that the food isn't coming out fast enough. I explain that this is because I have four courses in my dinner, not the two that they have Oh, they said, happy to know who to blame.
[caption id="attachment_49590" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Risotto with mushrooms.[/caption]
More food. Ravioli with a red sauce for ML, a risotto with mushrooms for MA. My third course is some nice seared scallops. . .and that's where I went over the top in my eating for tonight.
[caption id="attachment_49589" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Ice cream on a cookie at Del Porto.[/caption]
But there was a dessert to be had. It was ice cream in a sort of bowl made of cookie dough. The pastry chef came out and said that it was baked at a high temperature, which explains its hardness. Nice contrast with the ice cream.
This fine dinner is blessed by chilly weather outside. Too cold even for Mary Ann, who otherwise would have insisted that we eat on the sidewalk.
Del Porto. Covington: 501 E Boston St. 985-875-1006.
White bean dip at Del Porto.[/caption]
We wrapped up all this emotion at dinner. As usual, we changed our minds five or since times before deciding to go to Del Porto. I think it's the best Italian restaurant in the metro area. Mary Ann says it's a sexy restaurant. Mary Leigh had never been there before.
[caption id="attachment_49594" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Polenta fries.[/caption]
We begin with the white bean dip--sort of a hummus, but then again, not really. Mary Ann has polenta fries, which come out with the texture and flavor I remember from a restaurant I visited once in Friuli. By coincidence, I am drinking light red wine from Friuli. We usually see only the whites from that northeastern part of Italy.
[caption id="attachment_49596" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Del Porto's baked oysters.[/caption]
I have some baked oysters on their shells with bread crumbs and herbs. They are excellent. I could have eaten a dozen of them, but they only gave me four. Which is a good thing, because I am already on my way to what I expect will be a filling meal.
[caption id="attachment_49593" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Radiatore pasta with shrimp.[/caption]
Indeed, here is my second course: radiatore pasta with shrimp. The Italians were very proud when they created radiatore, which looks like the fins in a car radiator. It was the first new pasta shape in years. The irony is that all pastas are made from the same dough, so what difference does it make? All that said, Del Porto's treatment of it was tasty to me.
[caption id="attachment_49591" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Ravioli.[/caption]
By this time, the Marys are complaining that the food isn't coming out fast enough. I explain that this is because I have four courses in my dinner, not the two that they have Oh, they said, happy to know who to blame.
[caption id="attachment_49590" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Risotto with mushrooms.[/caption]
More food. Ravioli with a red sauce for ML, a risotto with mushrooms for MA. My third course is some nice seared scallops. . .and that's where I went over the top in my eating for tonight.
[caption id="attachment_49589" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Ice cream on a cookie at Del Porto.[/caption]
But there was a dessert to be had. It was ice cream in a sort of bowl made of cookie dough. The pastry chef came out and said that it was baked at a high temperature, which explains its hardness. Nice contrast with the ice cream.
This fine dinner is blessed by chilly weather outside. Too cold even for Mary Ann, who otherwise would have insisted that we eat on the sidewalk.
