Friday, January 11, 2013.
Best Bananas And Beets Dish I Ever Ate.
The continuous rain of the past few days moved off and allowed some sunshine. I began the drive to town a little early, in a brightened mood--bright enough to not notice a critical fact not apparent until I was on the Causeway: one lane was closed.
Fog.
After four miles, dense fog. If the bridge is foggy at two in the afternoon, it will only get worse. I considered turning around and going home, but took a chance. By luck, the traffic only occasionally slowed below sixty, and I made it to the studios with a few minutes to spare. By then, the low clouds blanketed downtown, and from my eighth-floor studio I couldn't see the Mississippi River Bridge. Not even when darkness fell and its lights were on.
No point in getting in traffic through this, so I headed up St. Charles Avenue looking for dinner. Not a fertile place for that quest. St. Charles has never been a great street for restaurants, given its length, prominence, and location. I was thinking of dining at One, but I couldn't find a place to park within two blocks. Walk two blocks in this fog, and it may as well be raining.
I was on the River Road before an idea struck me. It's been a long time since my last dinner at Mat & Naddie's. And there it was. Lots of parking and a nearly empty dining room. It would shortly become better occupied, as places this cool have a way of doing later in the evening.
The menu at Mat & Naddie's has come a long way since a couple of years ago. Most of the menu was nearly as original as what one would find in a place like Root or Maurepas. I must push my old self to be swept into these currents, but I'm always glad I do.
So here were two two-inch sections of banana, with the peel still attached, but with the segments cut like a poor boy loaf and filled with what looked like pesto, but tasted sharper. Caramelized beets were in there somewhere, as was a dark red sauce with the texture of ketchup and a much better flavor. In the middle of everything was a bright yellow scoop of something unidentifiable beyond a curry component, and very good. The whole concoction seemed utterly foreign, but it was a pleasure to eat.
I had a second appetizer of Belgian endive leaves with crabmeat and beets. So beets showed up twice tonight, once warm, once cold. Works for me, I like beets.
At this point in the meal, moving along at a nice clip, I threw the gearshift into reverse. One of the entrees was chicken Clemenceau. Really, it was chicken Pontalba--the bearnaise and ham made it so. And chicken Pontalba is a dish I love and see too rarely to pass up. Good stuff, and nice contrast with those things from the portal to the future.
Pecan and sweet potato pie with caramel ice cream for dessert. The pie was poorly made from a visual perspective, but tasted good.
The fog still covered the Causeway, in a dangerous way. Somehow, I made it home.
Mat & Naddie's. Riverbend: 937 Leonidas. 504-861-9600.
To browse through all of the Dining Diaries since 2008, go here.
