[title type="h5"]Sunday, September 14, 2014.
Zea And Jeopardy. Salmon With Pistachio.[/title]
The second most often-asked question people ask me--after "What's the best restaurant in town?"--is "How did you get a job like that?" I defuse this interest in my career by revealing a) that I pay for all my meals out of my own wallet, with no expense account and 2) there are aspects of my work that are as numbingly boring as bookkeeping, manning a toll booth, or applying small labels to small bottles.
Today I finish one such task after months. The website's list of recipes--about 700 of them--has the problem that most cookbooks have: they're hard to index. Alphabetical order seems obvious. But what one person calls "crawfish pasta" another recipe-seeker thinks of as "pasta with crawfish." Some dishes have many possible titles.
A better system, used by most large cookbooks, is to index recipes not by name but by main ingredients. Then, if you find the wrong name, at least the right one will be nearby. This new index is in the main menu, where moving the mouse pointer over the word "Recipes" gives you a choice of "Recipe Index By Main Ingredients" and the old A-Z index.
With that done, I take the rest of the day off. After a long walk and a nap, Mary Ann and I go to dinner at Zea. On our way there, she turns on the radio to hear how the Saints did. We listen for a long time without hearing the score. But we know within seconds that it was a loss. Something in Bobby Hebert's tone of voice. And I don't even follow this stuff.
The televisions behind Zea's bar (where we usually dine) are not showing a football game, but "Jeopardy!" If this were the only time you ever saw that show, you might conclude that the fatter you are, the less you know. But things really dumbed down when the manager discovered there was something other than football in the screen, and found a game to be in compliance with the law that says all restaurant televisions shall show nothing other than sports, all the time.
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Zea's salmon with pistachios.[/caption]
I have a new Zea dish for the third time. It's a slab of fresh salmon seared with a crust of pistachios, then wet down with a deep brown sauce with an Asian quality. Mary Ann said it had a smoky flavor and aroma. I see what she means. The flavor, however it's described, is terrific. You get a dozen overcooked asparagus. No choice of two sides, as there is for the rest of the menu. This and a few other dishes are in a new section of the menu called "Finished Plates." It would be credible in any gourmet bistro hereabouts. But didn't I say that a few weeks ago here?
[title type="h5"]Zea. Covington: 110 Lake Dr. 985-327-0520. [/title]
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[title type="h2"]Monday, September 15, 2014.
Oysters, Beans, Hot Sausage And A Wedge.[/title]
It's Monday. I radio from home. Walk with the dogs, who for a change stay with me for the full three miles laps. I see deer tracks in the soft silt at the southernmost point of my route. I haven't seen an actual deer out here in a long time. But they must be out here, because commercials for insurance against collisions with deer are running on my radio lately.
The Marys join me for our most habitual meal. The Acme Oyster House sends out a half-dozen grilled. They are bigger than they have been lately, and better, too. Mary Leigh gets her favorite wedge salad with blue cheese. I have a plate of red beans and rice with hot sausage. Mary Ann gets a small plate of cole slaw.
During the ordering of all this, I notice that the Acme has a new menu with many new prices. The oysters remoulade have reached $10; seems not long ago it was $6. ML's wedge went from $5 to $7. I don't even want to think about the price of the oysters.
This is not happy news, but isn't exceptional. Food prices are way up during the past year, and restaurants are in a tough spot. They have to keep up with food costs, but they're leery of rasing prices and driving customers away.
No wonder fewer places are now using tablecloths and cloth napkins.
[title type="h5"]Acme Oyster House. Covington: 1202 US 190 (Causeway Blvd). 985-246-6155.[/title]
Written by Tom Fitzmorris September 23, 2014 12:01 in
