Thursday, April 27, 2017.
The Devouring Lawn.
For the past few months, we have been trying to get our little old lawn tractor to the repair shop. The weeds have become embarrassing. But that means nothing to the gods of mowing. The first attempt to load the tractor onto a trailer met with immovable wheels. I wasn't around that day. If I had been, I would have noticed that the blades were engaged, and nothing would move the unit when it's like that. Instead, the guy who is doing all this burned out his winch trying to get my tractor to move.
Today he is back with a new winch and a new lawn mower. Once again getting the old one to move was not easy, but we managed to get it done. Afterwards, the guy asked if I would like him to cut the grass with the nice new mower on his trailer. Sure, I said. He had covered one and a half margins of our property when the new tractor got stuck in the mud. After two hours of trying to pull it out--luckily, he had a new winch--he departed with all his equipment intact and the grass continuing to grow rapidly.
Two good guests on the radio show today. The first is Jason Lees, a maker of cracklings at the Jazz Festival this year. His business operates out of St. Francisville, which certainly is a qualification for making the self-named pork product. The ham, ham fat, and seasonings pull it all together to make a crispy treat. I assume that's true, but Jason didn't bring us any. But we have an informative conversation about the possibilities of fried ham fat.
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Merguez sausage t the Jazz Festival, by Jamila's..[/caption]
Next is Moncef Sbaa, who with his wife operates Jamila's restaurant on Maple Street in the Riverbend. Moncef and Jamila have been Jazz Festival vendors for a very long time. Their best item their homemade lamb sausage, called merguez. It is to Tunisian cookery what andouille is to Cajun food. The Sbaas are native Tunisians, and their menu reflects the French-inspired cooking style in that country. Moncef is an interesting man, handy to talk with a few years ago when one of our cruises made a stop (or tried to) in Tunis. He is also one of those people who seems to get younger every time I see him.
Jamila's. Riverbend: 7806 Maple. 504-866-4366.
Friday, April 28, 2017.
Oyster Overload.
I've made it clear that oysters are my favorite food, and that a menu that begins with a half-dozen or so oyster appetizers captures my fancy. A restaurant where this is very true is Mr. Ed's Oyster Bar and Fish Grill. In the former space of Bozo's--always one of the great oyster bars in the area until it closed a few years ago--the place is even on my way home. So why do I eat there only once every four or five months?
It couldn't be because you leave the place hungry. I started with a half-dozen oysters so large that I'm sure that many customers shrink back from them. I possess the knowledge that the bigger oysters get, the better they taste.
Then I put in an order for oysters Rockefeller and Bienville. Three of each. Mr. Ed gives a lot of latitude for these old classics, with the Rockefellers containing artichokes with the spinach in the topping. (This surely means that somewhere else on the menu there will be found spinach-artichoke dip, the signature dish of chain restaurants. But is Mr. Ed's a chain, even when you don't include his neighborhood cafes in Kenner and Bucktown or Austin's, his gourmet eatery? Or, to put it another way: who gives a darn?)
The Bienvilles are loaded with little shrimp--a good use for those pipsqueaks. Also worked into the sauce is a pale yellow cheese. That's a standard item in the Bienville recipe, as long as the cheese doesn't take over. It's a close call here, but the dish survives.
Finally, I get the Mr. Ed variation on Drago's char-broiled oysters, made here with jalapenos in the garlic butter. This may be the best of the eighteen oysters I've scarfed down this day. I am satisfied.
The wind is blowing with insistence as I cross the Causeway. I hear that this is the harbinger of a very stormy weekend. With the Jazz Festival right in the middle. But where can one go to escape heavy weather?
Mr. Ed's Oyster Bar & Fish House. Metairie: 3117 21st St. 504-833-6310.
