Diary 5|2, 3, 4|2015: Good New Seafood Place.

[title type="h5"]Saturday, May 2, 2015. ZZZZ. [/title] For the third consecutive Saturday, I have no radio show. Mary Ann, who has enjoyed guest-hosting the Saturday program, is upset about this. I think she wants to tell the story of what happened to us at Bouligny a couple of days ago. I'm just happy to get the days off the radio so I can devote them to working on the website. Now that the Jazz Festival is ending (in four days of perfect weather, in contrast with the typhoon of the first weekend), I have to assemble my 100-best list for NOMenu's Mother's Day feature. No end to that project. The eating aspect of the day is so ordinary that I don't want to embarrass myself or bore others by outlining it. Instead, MA and I, like two aging citizens, watch an ancient (1950s) movie I never saw before: "Not With My Wife, You Don't." It may be time for a sequel entitled, "Not With My Wife, I Don't." [divider type=""] [title type="h5"]Sunday, May 3, 2014. A New Seafood Source, And A Crisp Platter.[/title] A beautiful day, and we enjoy it by working on an assortment of relaxing projects. Mary Leigh delivers a First-Communion cake to one of her regular customers. It shows its usual perfection. Mary Ann has wanted to try the food at the relocated Mandeville Seafood since it opened a couple of months ago. It's a combination retailer of fresh seafood and neighborhood-style seafood restaurant, occupying the building where once was Petunia's. (Not the one that used to be off Bourbon Street.) Petunia's became good when it shifted to full table service. But the Mandeville Seafood guys reversed that, and one must place his order at the window, then wait at the table for it to be brought over. Theory: when most of the restaurants in a given area operate this way, you are decidedly in a rural area. Mandeville Seafood's menu offers all the local favorites, poor boys and boiled seafood on up. This is the peak of the crawfish season, so there is much commerce in hot mudbugs. I had roast beef on my mind, and confirmed something I've always known to be true: never order a meat dish from a seafood-oriented restaurant, nor seafood from a meat specialist. [caption id="attachment_47530" align="alignnone" width="480"] Seafood platter at Mandeville Seafood.[/caption] Mary Ann showed better sense by getting a seafood platter of fried shrimp, oysters and catfish, with hush puppies and cornballs. The latter rings a bell, because the word describes my style of humor. (Inherited from my father as well as from my father-figure Dick Brennan Sr.) In reality, these are what the French would call beignets, filled with a few whole corn kernels. The platter's contents are so hot that they require a short delay before eating--a good thing. The elements were seasoned well with different coatings for each. [caption id="attachment_47529" align="alignnone" width="480"] Mandeville Seafood's house salad. Remember when a salad like this was found only in gourmet bistros?[/caption] While waiting for the food to arrive, I take a look at the retail part of the business. The first thing that catches my eye is the price of a pound of jumbo lump crabmeat: $30. This is no rip-off, but the going price these days. Damn Yankees drive the price up. I count a half-dozen species of finfish: red snapper, redfish, drum, catfish, tilapia, and one more I can't identify (but it looks good). Everything else is here: shrimp of many sizes, oysters, and--of course--crawfish, live and boiled. Good source of seafood, this place. [title type="h5"]Mandeville Seafood. Mandeville: 2020 LA Hwy 59. 985-624-8552. [/title][divider type=""] [title type="h5"]Monday, May 4, 2015. Corn And Shrimp And Oysters.[/title] I give forth with the radio show from home, as I always do on Mondays (a tribute to Johnny Carson, one of my broadcasting ideals.) As soon as it's over, I head to Covington for NPAS's choral rehearsal. We are working on an ensemble of songs the group has performed over its twenty years, the anniversary of which is a month away. I love the music, and I regret that we will be in Europe with the Eat Club when the show goes on. [caption id="attachment_47528" align="alignnone" width="480"] Corn and shrimp soup at N.O. Food & Spirits.[/caption] I have time to stop for dinner--I had no lunch--at New Orleans Food and Spirits. First, a cup of their good shrimp and corn soup. Then a half-dozen (eight, really, because I am a regular) grilled oysters. None of this will scratch up my vocal cords. (Not to suggest they are worth all that much.) [caption id="attachment_47527" align="alignnone" width="480"] Grilled oysters, after I ate two of them.[/caption] Among the songs we rehearse tonight is "When The Saints Go Marching In." Never one of my favorites, since hearing it when I was a kid and ever since. The first time I ever went to Preservation Hall, I laughed when I saw the sign that requires an extra-high ante if you request "The Saints." Musicians of that stripe hate the song, because everybody asks for it. This may be the same force at work that results in McDonald's being the world's most popular restaurant. When I was singing barbershop, we used the typical four-part arrangement. For the NPAS performance, John Rutter asks for first and second soprano, alto, first and second tenors, baritone, bass, and two generic-melody choirs, male and female. I'll probably never hear it done that way, and am I glad.