Thursday, October 19, 2017. I Eat Like A Normal American. This doesn't happen to me often, but sometime between the fifteen-grain whole toast with four-berries jam and the three quarters of turkey and ham finger sandwiches, or perhaps the mirliton-and-banana bread baked by Helen at the radio station. . . somewhere the middle of all that, I lost my appetite.
The only exceptional part of these nibbles were Susan Spicer's bread (holding the sandwiches together) and the mirliton and banana bread. Otherwise none of this is exceptional. At the end of the day, I was hungry for nothing more than a small ice cream sandwich from Walgreens (they say the ice cream is made from the same recipe that the drugstores served when they had fountains.
While I was at Walgreens, I had a flu shot and a pneumonia shot from an exceptionally pretty pharmacist/nurse. This did not keep me from thinking that I might be getting the flu from the shot--I was a little queasy for the next two days, after which I returned to normal. I'm sure I mentally caused that problem. I'm very good at that.
Friday, October 20, 2017. Oktoberfest At Peppermill. Chicken Dusseldorf.
Saturday, October 21, 2017. Keith Young's Steak House, With Keith Off Site. The Marys want to have dinner at Keith Young's Steak House, our favorite on the North Shore and perhaps the whole area. Neither Keith nor his beautiful and friendly wife Linda were in the house. Some months ago, they opened a stunning reception operation in Mandeville, and that's where they were tonight.
If their absence made a difference, we didn't feel it. The restaurant was full, with a bar full of people waiting. I was one of those. In fact, I was there before the Marys were. They took long enough for me to have a sudden need for a martini. It would be the first such cocktail in five or six months. I enjoyed it as well as I had before I decided to quarantine my favorite post-Katrina tipple for awhile. The bartender made the drink with less cutting edge than usual, but that suited me fine. I think it may also have
healed (if that's the word) the after-effects of yesterday's flu shot.
I get my own recipe of oysters Bienville (that's what Keith told me, anyway) like I always do. New York strip for my entree--perfect as usual. Same report from the Mary's with their 14--oz. ribeye. A wedge salad was in there somewhere. Another great dinner.
Keith Young's Steak House. Madisonville: 165 LA 21. 985-845-9940.
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Sunday, October 22,2017. Sunday Brunch @ Café Lynn With Friends. We are invited to join our friends the Billeauds. We have remained in touch as our daughter and their two went to the same schools, then moved on to their own lives. We're not that close with any other people who we're not related to.
We have something new in common now. We're all trying to figure out the next step in life what with all the changes pursuant to the kids' heading out on their own. Desiree Billeaud takes the spotlight today. She is working out the details of retirement. She seems to be ready for that--in fact, happy. That's something MA and I haven't discussed even in passing. Maybe the tons of mail we get on the subject makes up for this.
I don't know who suggested that we meet up at Café Lynn, but it's a consistently fine little bistro in Mandeville. Its owner Joey Najolia opened the place after spending several years of cooking and learning from Chris Kerageorgiou at La Provence. He has stayed with his own take on French-Creole food, and that is a very good thing.
I've dined there many times, nut this is the first time I've done lunch. What came to the table was impressive: crab cakes with hollandaise and poached eggs. Lots of that going on around the mostly-full tables. Good stuff.
Chuck offers to buy a bottle of wine to share. I'm still feeling the effects of the martini from last night. What's that about? It's not the first time. But I keep that to myself.
I don't think we get together with friends often enough. Indeed, this could be true of many people, perhaps all of them. When's the last time the average American went out to dinner with friends?
Cafe Lynn. Mandeville: 2600 Florida St. 985-624-9007.
Written by Tom Fitzmorris October 27, 2017 12:11 in
