[title type="h5"]Thursday, May 1, 2014. Beating The Breakfast Habit, But Not Today.[/title]
One of the challenges of keeping a daily journal without skipping days wholesale (this one hasn't missed a day in over six years) is that the most interesting days require the longest entries. Every day of the European trip that ended two days ago gives me a tremendous amount of reportage to perform. Some of the pieces ran to over 2000 words. I hate to think how far behind I will get before it all stabilizes. Let the record show that I am writing this on May 19, which puts me almost three weeks behind.
Which is why I work at home today. Do I dive right into the workpile? No. When I mention to Mary Ann that I am completely out of clean clothes, and need to pick up a load from the dry cleaners, she suggests that we may as well head into Covington and have breakfast at Mattina Bella. The reason for this is obvious. We are so accustomed to eating a big breakfast these last sixteen days that we can't go right back to toast, juice, and coffee.
[caption id="attachment_36391" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Blue crab eggs benedict at Mattina Bella.[/caption]
And it's nice to have the likes of Vincent Riccobono's superb crabmeat and mushrooms on poached eggs with hollandaise. Not even in the best restaurants during the vacation had anything to match the local goodness of that.
This lavish opening meal obviates the need for lunch or dinner, and indeed I do get caught up more than I thought I would.
[divider type=""]
[title type="h5"]Friday, May 2, 2014.
Pascal's Manale, The Boy, And My Girl.
[/title]
I'm back in the radio studio, where everybody wants to know how the Italian visit was. Some of my co-workers respond as if just hearing the tale of our travels was as wonderful as doing it. I try to deflate the marvelousness by talking about how grueling it is to keep up with my wife's pace. They either don't believe me or brush the complaint off as an easy price to pay.
Mary Leigh calls in mid-afternoon to invite herself and The Boy to dinner, if I am game. For once, the calculation of where we might dine devolves quickly onto Pascal's Manale. When ML was still living on the Tulane campus in her student years, we went there once and she liked it enough that we went again when The Boy entered the scene. He found it to his tastes, too. And I have been thinking about the old place lately, myself.
I arrive first, giving me enough time to palaver with two of the DeFelice brothers. They represent the third generation of the family that opened the restaurant 101 years ago, complete with a long-running stubbornness to change.
But that may be giving way to betterment. The menu was reworked and expanded since the last time I was here. The most surprising change is correcting, after at least 35 years, a grammatical/translation error in the name of Manale's Italian salad. This is the one called a "wop salad" by many Italian restaurants around New Orleans--although the usage has become rare in recent years.
Its name here was "Ensalada Manale." But "ensalada" is the Spanish word for "salad." The Italian word they were shooting for is "insalata." Bob DeFelice says that he and one of his brothers (he didn't say which one, which is just as well) had argued about this for a long time, and finally he won.
They also repaired a similar error that I never noticed. "Gamberi diablo" is an Italian word followed by Spanish word. It is now "Gamberi diavolo." We can all breathe a sigh of relief.
But these multilingual menu terms are hardly unique to Manale's. One that comes immediately to mind is the ubiquitous "turtle soup au sherry." That's two English words, one French word, and one that could be used in either language--although in France itself they seem to prefer "xeres" to "sherry." So this should be either "soupe de tortue au xeres," or "turtle soup with sherry." One or the other. I avoid the whole massacree by rejecting sherry at the table. (It's good in the simmering soup pot, but adds alcoholic bitterness when added right before eating, if you ask me.)
We start with an amuse bouche of sea scallops en brochette (here we go again), wrapped with bacon. A new dish for Manale's, but one that seems destined to make the permanent menu. We split an insalata Manale, in celebration of its rechristening.
[caption id="attachment_42303" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Pascal's Manale's sirloin strip with a side of spaghetti.[/caption]
The Boy goes though a thick sirloin strip steak. Steaks are a big deal at Manale's, although not even its regular customers know how good they are. The Boy likes it well enough, with a side order of spaghetti with red sauce. ML indulges in a wedge salad with blue cheese, tempting fate. Charlie's Steak House, the undisputed home of the wedge for many decades, is only a block away.
[caption id="attachment_42304" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Oysters Bienville and Rockefeller.[/caption]
I slip a mixed half-dozen oysters Rockefeller and Bienville into my dinner, followed by chicken bordelaise. I haven't had that in a long time, and this version was everything I would hope for.
[caption id="attachment_42305" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Chicken bordelaise.[/caption]
Garlicky chicken with pasta and more garlic tossed with mushrooms. Dishes like this are almost a thing of the past. Which is why I have a soft spot for Manale's and other centenarian restaurants.
[caption id="attachment_42306" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Bread pudding.[/caption]
Bread pudding ended the big meal. Heavy but rich, riddled with raisins, this is yet another old-fashioned version of a dish that has continued to progress all over town. That doesn't make this one any less enjoyable.
[title type="h5"]Pascal's Manale. Uptown: 1838 Napoleon Ave. 504-895-4877.[/title]
Written by Tom Fitzmorris May 21, 2014 01:04 in
