Friday, May 27, 2011. Mile-High Pie. DiMartino's Roast Beef Poor Boy.
It's a catch-up day for yesterday and a get-ahead day for tomorrow and Monday. I managed to not only finish everything I needed to do, but a few other matters.
For example: The publisher at Pelican says he'd like to see the recipe for Mile-High Ice Cream Pie, the way it was done at the Caribbean Room, for the Lost Restaurants book. I know how, but calculating the amounts for just one pie and other minor issues took awhile. And I needed to get Mary Leigh's recipe for peppermint ice cream. She makes it from scratch every Christmas. You can't find peppermint ice cream easily, but it's easy enough to make it yourself with vanilla ice cream and candy canes.
UPS made a delivery of a thousand dollars' worth of my cookbook and Hungry Town, both of which have been selling well lately. For some reason, the driver though the perfect place to drop them off was at the front end of our driveway, about a hundred feet from our house. He left all four boxes out there, plus some laser cartridges, and just drove off. What if it had rained? Mary Leigh was good enough to carry the heavy boxes inside, one by one. "As long as you don't say for the millionth time, 'I'd do it myself if I could,'" she told me.
I didn't have a meal of any substance until supper. The Marys tightened their resolve not to dine out today, but they were willing to pick up something for me during one of their errands. My appetite was inspired by a report on our food messageboard about DiMartino's, the long-running muffuletta specialist. They have a new restaurant over here. I find their muffulettas just okay--the bread isn't great, and they slice the meats and cheeses too thick. But one of the posters said their roast beef poor boy was good, and that was just what I was in the mood for.
It was better than I expected, particularly given the look of the beef. I may be wrong, but it didn't impress me as having been roasted in house. The bread had the same issues the muffuletta bread does. (It seems to be the same bread in a different shape.) But for all that I thought it tasted pretty good. It even interested Mary Leigh, who has yet to try her first roast beef poor boy. She took a big bite and liked it. Well! We're getting somewhere with indoctrinating these kids to like the local specialties at long last.
DiMartino's. Covington: 700 S Tyler St. 985-276-6460.
It has been over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
