Wednesday, August 9, 2017. Terrible Lunch. I went to a little restaurant that turned out to be the worst place to eat I've found in many a decade. There's almost nothing worth saying about it, except that someone who doesn't understand cooking and eating should take some training before starting in on that business, even if the person believes he can do it with his whole heart. There's more to it than that.
After having left behind ninety percent of my order, am still in keeping with my basic dietary regimen: I don't eat lunch often. Here's one I escaped from unharmed.
And perhaps I should be thankful to the Terrible Restaurant for creating a startling contrast with our dinner, which could not have been better. It's Mary Ann's idea to have dinner at Keith Young's Steakhouse in Madisonville. It's in the top three or four restaurants on the North Shore. Further proof of this arrested our eyes when we arrived: on this Wednesday night in the dead of summertime, Keith Young's is entirely full, with a private party or two on top of that. Even Keith and his wife (who manages the dining room) are astonished by how busy they are in this usually-slack season.
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Keith Young's (and my) oysters Bienville.[/caption]
I am less amazed. Everything that comes to our table lives up to its popularity. We start with eight oysters Bienville, the recipe for which Keith says he got from my cookbook. I think he cooks it better than I do, and I'm pretty good at it. Mary Ann has taken to eating this sort of thing lately, so I don't have to pack away the whole eight.
Keith tells us that he has two steak specials he thinks we ought to try. They're both familiar, and were turned out unusually well. One is a spinalis, the cap of a beef rib roast. I suspected that MA would love this, and she did. Very tender, that, with a crusty near-blackened quality at the edges.
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Bone-in filet-mignon.[/caption]
Mine is a bone-in filet mignon, cut in a way I've never seen before. The bone covered about half of the exterior sides. Unusual. It's also expensive, which might explain everything. Worth every dime, I'd say. More important, though, is that this is the tenderest steak of any kind that I've , had in a long while. I've put up with too many chewy filets lately. This one was the kind of beef I hope to have every time.
Keith Young's Steak House. Madisonville: 165 LA 21. 985-845-9940.
