Monday, May 15, 2017.
Mandeville Seafood And Thin-Cut Fried Catfish.
An unusual coincidence brings Horst Pfeifer to our radio show after Mary Ann and I split a platter of fried catfish. The catfish doesn't come from Horst's restaurant Middendorf's--approximately the most famous fried catfish restaurant in a hundred-mile radius, at least.
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Horst Pfiefer.[/caption]
Mary Ann and I have lunch in the dining room side of Mandeville Seafood. Mary Ann ordered me to place the food order at the window, in case I am short on time. I mess up the order, calling for fried oysters instead of catfish. (Oysters are near the top of the lists that MA reads about, in which certain foods are identified as being the preventative for the damage done if you eat, say, a sandwich.
The catfish is as thin-cut as promised, and emerges from the kitchen with a perfectly toasty coating. These are, however, farm-raised catfish. I learn--not for the first time--that there still is such a thing as excellent farm-raised fish. In this case, it could and probably is explained by Mandeville Seafood's deft cooking routines.
Horst Pfeiffer is on the air for no particular reason other than to remind people about Middendorf's, and perhaps to look ahead to the tropical-storm time of year. Hurricanes have hit Middendorf's very hard several times in the past decade. But Horst and his wife keep turning the damage around to build a larger, higher group of restaurants, with surroundings which could come from no other place in the world. The ancient cypress trunks-- fished out of Lake Pontchartrain after resting there for hundreds of years--make for a unique environment.
And Middendorf's own thin-cut fried catfish continues to set the standard.
Mandeville Seafood. Mandeville: 2020 LA Hwy 59. 985-624-8552.
