Diary 10|6, 7|2014: New Ordinary. Burning Man Roll.

Written by Tom Fitzmorris October 14, 2014 12:01 in

[title type="h5"]Monday, October 6, 2014. The New Ordinary, With A Song.[/title] I take my daily constitutional with both dogs on leashes. They seem to be up for just two of my four laps. But when they were running loose by my side, they'd poop out at about the same time, and just watch me as I strutted past. So I get a good aerobic thing going after they're finished. What I'd really like would be for Mary Ann to walk with me, each of us with one dog in hand. But she doesn't like my route, she says. [caption id="attachment_28986" align="alignnone" width="480"]Acme's grilled oysters. Acme's grilled oysters.[/caption] Instead, she and I and Mary Leigh convene at the Acme for supper. The usual: dozen grilled oysters, wedge salad, a cup of chicken gumbo, dinner salad. I am eating light because the very next item on my agenda is chorus rehearsal. I don't think I made much of an impression last week. But today I stand next to a young man just out of college with a degree in music. He had all the notes right. I am still trying to get the part into my head. One of the officers of the Northlake Performing Arts Society passes out the new policy concerning members' dues. I never thought about that when I joined, but the figure seems reasonable. The obvious skills of our director and the accompanist create a solid and enjoyable learning experience for us mere singers. That's what I joined for. [divider type=""] [title type="h5"] Tuesday, October 7, 2014. Kazoku Sushi.[/title] My Radio Round Table has a surplus of visitors today. One half of the guests are hooked up with Emeril's Boudin, Bourbon and Beer event, planned for the weekend after next. It's a fundraiser for the Emeril Lagasse Foundation, which supports an assortment of educational charities around New Orleans and elsewhere. David Slater--the chef de cuisine at Emeril's on Tchoupitoulas Street--is also here, with some different news. He dreamed up a monthly (last Thursday of the month) special offering called "Oh Mah Gasse." The name is a portmanteau of the Japanese "omakase" with Emeril's last name. "Omakase" translates literally as "I leave it up to you," and idiomatically as "chef's tasting menu." The first Oh Mah Kase dinner is this Thursday (October 16, 2014). It goes for $65 plus tax, tip, and wines. A complete wine pairing costs $40. The way I understand it, the dinner is served at the food bar fronting the kitchen. So it's a variation on what Chef Phillip Lopez does at Square Root. (But Emeril's food bar predates Square Root by twenty-four years.) Did I not say a few weeks ago that such a concept would catch on and become the major trend of the next decade? Who will do it next? Also at the Round Table are Tommy Cvitanovich from Drago's and Mike "Mr. Mudbug" Maenza. Either of them make for a great interview, but they are here specifically to tout the Louisiana Seafood Festival this weekend. During our discussion, Tommy let loose a statistic I hadn't heard: that the price of oysters has tripled since before Katrina. He says that a single bivalve on average used to be around twenty cents, and now it's around fifty-six cents. And that for the first time in Drago's history, an equivalent serving of fried oysters is more expensive than fried shrimp. With its view of the French Quarter from the eighth floor, my private office at the radio station is something I will long remember after the management inevitably evicts me from it. While I am there, I enjoy the quiet of it, and get a good bit of work done. I have three years to write a novel, and it's coming right along, changing its direction and background every time I start typing. [caption id="attachment_12500" align="alignnone" width="500"]Burning Man roll at Kazoku. Burning Man roll at Kazoku.[/caption] I am not especially hungry, and wind up on the North Shore before sitting down to supper. I did that at Kazoku Sushi on LA 59 in Mandeville, where I have not dined in a long time. (The only member of my family who also likes sushi is Jude, and he's never here long enough to work our way down the list to Kazoku. The owner-chef (I think he still is) Wilson Fung wasn't on the premises today, but he has a sharp crew behind the bar. Wilson introduced me to the Burning Man roll when he was at Little Tokyo, and his was always the best. I had one of those and a cup of clear soup, and found that it made a satisfying supper. Five years ago, I would also have had some pot stickers, an asparagus negiri, and probably some tuna or salmon or yellowtail, too. But the decline in my appetite is what makes all this newly-loose clothing I find myself wearing possible. FleurDeLis-3-Small[title type="h5"]Kazoku Sushi. Mandeville: 1680 LA Hwy 59. 985-626-8118.[/title]