Diary 1|17|2017: Sweet Thai Cooking. Wife Arrives.

Wednesday, January 17, 2017. La Thai Cuisine.

Mary Ann did indeed drive from Abita Springs to Washington, D.C., all in one day. She has much more stamina than I do, driven by her passion for the new political world. She arrived in the city late in the evening, and took a room at a hotel where she has finagled an unusually good deal. I'm surprised that there were any hotels at all in D.C. (She will not reserve, of course.) She picks up tickets to attend the inauguration through the office of Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. (She had a strategy all figured out, and the staff of the senator was very helpful.) Getting around D.C. is grueling even for Mary Ann, what with streets blocked off all over the Capitol area. A lot of walking--she says ten miles--is necessary. And when she gets back to the hotel, she is exhausted. But she's ready to attend everything she can tomorrow. She asked me to tell you that she is going to give her own account of this adventure in her own blog when she gets back to town. Mary Leigh calls to see if we could have dinner tonight. But of course! She is a bit broader than usual as we try to figure out where to go. Her idea is La Thai Cuisine on Prytania Street. She lobes Thai food at least as mcuh as I do. It's a good choice, because it's been some time since my last visit to owner, chef and genuine Thai Cajun, Diana Chauvin. Not only that, but the restaurant was recently renovated, deeply enough that I was briefly disoriented. It looks very much nicer than it was last time, and it wasn't bad then. Diana spots me and comes over to update me in. She is pregnant again. She loves children. Her brother has long since moved out of the business, but I knew that. Her mother--known always as "Mama"--has been backing away from the restaurant, and Diana is pretty much the boss. We split an order of spring rolls. I have a large bowl of hot and sour soup. Here as in most Thai places, that is more like the Chinese kind than the classic Thai soups. It's good and enough to make a meal. I move ahead with Thai red curry with pork. Vey good, with only one cavil: seems to me that all the dishes I've had tonight were a bit sweeter than I am accustomed to. ML, whose entree is drunken noodles, also detects the sweet aspect. I don't remember that from past dinners. It's easy to fix: I just ask for more Thai pepper. As we head back to her apartment, the main topic aside from MA's escapade is how ML's dog is doing. The animal is very unusual to look at, but lovable. Finally, she tells me that her job is rolling right along, and that she's having a lot of fun with it. [divider type=""]

Thursday, January 18, 2017. Di Martino's Takes Good Advice.

This afternoon is the presidential inauguration. Mary Ann pushes herself to the limits as she attends as many ceremonies as she can. She's miffed to have missed the prayer breakfast. But she is in the middle of things as the actual inauguration takes place. Most of the time she stands adjacent to a television new camera, which makes her have to lean around it at times. But she is interviewed and may well have made one of the networks. But I learn all that when the event ends. She hikes another ten miles to get around all of the security hangups. Can't just go anywhere on a day like this. My day is much calmer. I have one meal, at DiMartino's in Covington. I was emailed a few days ago by one of the DiMartinos, who told me that my review of their Covington spot (they have three more on the West Bank) is out of date. The email didn't say why, but I haven't been there in awhile. Heavy rain accompanies me to the place. This has always been a very good-looking restaurant, and the only major criticism I've had is that with a comfortable dining room with marble everywhere, it didn't seem right that you ordered and picked up your food yourself. They had waiter service on the weekends only. Untill recently. The order-pickup windows have been covered over. More tables have been added to the dining room. The menu has expanded to a great degree. In fact, they changed the outdoor sign to note that they serve steaks and seafood now. The waiter, who told me that he was new on the job, needs a bit more training. Otherwise, the lunch was just what I wanted. An Italian salad to start, then an order of angel hair pasta with marinara sauce with panneed eggplant disks. A very large order for about $15 looked too big to finish, but I darn near packed it away. Angelo Brocato's spumoni completed the order. I think this will add another restaurant to my A-list. The rain was intense on my way home. I almost was killed when a car came out of a side road just as a barrage of big raindrops shot down and obscured the road. Somehow, we both did the thing that took us out of the path of the other, but it was a very close call. All the rest of the day, I had to keep myself from rehashing that. Just thinking about it scares me. Overnight, even more rain fell. I watched it carefully on Accuweather, and saw what would be a large tornado heading for Hattiesburg. Later that day, I learned that four people had been killed by that. This is bad.

DiMartino's. Covington: 700 S Tyler St. 985-276-6460.

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