Familiar Place, Good Taste. Bananas Foster Everything

[title type="h6"]Thursday, October 3, 2013.[/title] Mary Ann is having a fine time in Albuquerque with her three sisters. But she is beginning to sweat the prospect of going up in a hot air balloon on Santa Fe this weekend. Meanwhile, it's just me and Mary Leigh at home. She has almost as much work to do as I do. She is decorating cakes for a bakery in Abita Springs, and having more fun with it than she thought she would. I love going out with her when it's just the two of us. But I hate the limitations it places on our choice of restaurants. Her list of acceptable restaurants is short. Since it's also limited by our presence on the North Shore, we wind up going to the same places all the time--something a restaurant critic can't really do. But it's what a father must do, and that wins. [caption id="attachment_14628" align="alignnone" width="400"] Acme's oysters on the grill.[/caption]   Today it was back to the Acme, for the second time in a week. ML made a breakthrough. Although she has long been in the habit of mopping up the blend of oyster juices and garlic butter from the grilled oysters, until today she had never actually sampled an oyster. "It tastes the same as the sauce," she said, with perfect logic. Of course, the sauce has always tasted like the oysters, too. Let's see if she eats any of them next time. The soup du jour was stuffed artichoke, which I suspect is only featured in that role in the ambit of New Orleans. It's everything you'd put into a stuffed artichoke, made into a soup. It's a good idea. But a straight-ahead oyster-artichoke soup would be better. I had a cup of that with half an oyster poor boy. The Acme continues to serve some of the best fried oysters around. The manager, who well knows who I am, always sees to it that I get big oysters. But that's what they also do for any other recognizably regular customer. In case anyone reading this finds the situation unfair. Bananas Foster cheesecake for dessert. "Bananas Foster" has become a flavor unto itself. Everybody knows now that it means bananas, brown sugar, and cinnamon, in the presence of something cool and creamy. That used to be ice cream by definition. But now we get bananas Foster bread pudding, creme brulee, profiteroles, lost bread, and--I have no doubt--many more such matrices to come. Let's hope it doesn't find its way into pizza or hamburgers. But I wouldn't bet against it. [title type="h4"]Acme Oyster House. Covington: 1202 US 190 (Causeway Blvd). 985-246-6155.[/title]