I had much to do at the radio station today, but I couldn't get there. It was one of those days when the atmosphere looks normal at the Cool Water Ranch, but when dense fog parks over the entirety of Lake Pontchartrain. When I arrivedat its shores, I found traffic forced into only one lane. I took a chance on it anyway, hoping it wouldn't be too slow. No such luck. By the time I was a third of the way across, movement had come to a complete halt three times. No way I'd make it. In fact, I barely was able to get back home in time to connect there.
Good thing I didn't get stuck behind the jackknifed truck I saw on the southbound side as I made good my escape.
The Marys were thinking about an unusually uninteresting bunch of restaurant possibilities for supper. I was able to steer them in the direction of Bear's. I've had roast beef poor boy on the brain for a couple of weeks. The Mandeville branch of Bear's has a salad that Mary Leigh likes a lot, a cross between a Caesar and a wedge with blue cheese, and a large component of fried, sliced chicken fingers on top. You know, like what people enjoy in Anywhere, USA.
[caption id="attachment_40121" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Chicken salad at Bear's in Mandeville.[/caption]
Mary Ann ordered me to get the large roast beef poor boy. I can't finish a small from Bear's, and usually wind up bringing half of it home. The Marys conspired to eat half of it themselves.
You know you're in a good poor boy shop when you have to cool your heels for five or ten minutes between the ordering and the receiving of the sandwich. Poor boys are not fast food.
While waiting at Bear's, we requested an order of fried sliced pickles. The concept strikes many as weird, but they're really pretty good–greasless, coated in light cornmeal, and sent out with a variation on ranch dressing as a dip. But pickles contain so much salt that I have to watch myself. So I was happy to see that the order was smaller than I envisioned.
I wasn't the only one to notice that. We were halfway through the pickles when a second, much larger basketful came to the table. "The kitchen said that the first batch was too small," the waitress said.
[caption id="attachment_40122" align="alignnone" width="400"]
Roast beef poor boy from Bear's in Mandeville.[/caption]
I put a bunch of the fried pickle chips on the sandwich. That's not as good as a lot of unfried pickles. The presence of pickles is essential to the authenticity of the distinctive roast beef poor boy. Beef, gravy, mayo, tomatoes and pickles: that's the unique flavor.
On the other hand, adding fried pickles to a fried seafood sandwich works great, even though it overloads your digestion.
It got even colder tonight than it did yesterday. It would have been the perfect night for my annual dinner at the Bon Ton, which for nostalgic reasons must take place during the Christmas season, on a cold, windy night. But it appears that I will have more such opportunities shortly.
At home, the old dog Susie was already in her spot under the house when Mary Ann tried to lure her inside. She will not move once she's snuggled into whatever place that is. I keep telling MA that if the dog were really miserable, she'd come inside. As she would do the next day. But MA must bemoan something at all times.
Bear's Grill & Spirits. Mandeville: 4700 LA 22. 985-674-9090.
