Friday, May 21. Peppermill. It was one of those days. It began with a lengthy conversation with a representative of Network Solutions, the host of my web site. We are assembling a program to make NOMenu.Com show up better in searches. Even though we have incomparably more restaurant information on the website than any other New Orleans dining resource, it doesn't show up very high in the rankings--or, really, at all. I know why this is: Google and most of the others don't rank on quantity or quality of content, but on popularity.
Story of my life. I will go to my grave with sneaking suspicions as to why I'm not as popular as I wish I were. ("You're a jackass!" is my wife's terse explanation.) But no clue as to what to do about it. Enough people tell me I'm wonderful to persuade me that I'm not really so bad.
Well, I have one clue. I don't like it, but I do know it's the truth: most people would prefer to deal with a total scoundrel or nincompoop that they like than a brilliant, accomplished person they can't warm up to. (I can think of a few examples from the world of politics, but I will leave them alone.)
Anyway, this exercise with Network Solutions--lubricated by about a grand a month--promises to fix at least the web manifestation of my outsider state. We'll see.
The Marys had other things to do than have dinner with me. (I'm not even popular in my own family!) Today Mary Leigh completed two weeks of an internship with a design store on Magazine Street. She is now fully and truly done with all the requirements for graduation. She came home early to work on her graduation dress. It requires the assistance of Mary Ann, who is a much more skillful seamstress. So they are hors de combat as far as I'm concerned.
The restaurants are very busy. There's a large convention in town, and it seems like the gold old days again. I wound up in the last good place to eat before the Causeway, the Peppermill. I like it, but wind up here too often.
My dinner began with crawfish bisque. The Peppermill considers it a house specialty, and serves it year-round. It was better than I remember, but still not what I would call a great version. It's too light in every way but texture. They serve it with crawfish boulettes instead of stuffed heads. I prefer that. Eating stuffed crawfish heads from a bowl of bisque is a mess. (My saying so will surely trigger a few responses from readers who feel that stuffed heads are indispensable in crawfish bisque.)
After a little salad (they make a very fine Italian dressing here), some pan-seared veal with shrimp, crabmeat, crawfish, and bearnaise played the role of the entree. Veal dishes like this were immensely popular when the Peppermill opened in the 1970s. They are not so often seen now. As it does with people, popularity plays almost no role whatsoever in the goodness of a dish. I like this dish, and dishes like it. The veal was a little tough (most cooks overcook veal), but that was hardly worth mentioning.
At home, the Marys were still working on the dress. They will be fine-tuning it until minutes before it's needed a week from tonight, as tension rises. I give them a wide berth in these times.
Peppermill. Metairie: 3524 Severn Ave.. 504-455-2266. Creole. Italian. Breakfast.
