Monday, December 12, 2011.
Dreams Or Realities?
The dog Suzie awakened me with whimpers at six-thirty. Her concern? The cat Twinnery was standing outside in the cold, looking inside through the glass door. On another morning a month ago, the animals' positions were reversed, and Twinnery sounded the alarm. These two look out for one another.
I let the cat in and went back to bed, hoping to resume a dream involving an old bus and criminals. It didn't happen, but I kept trying until a shameful question entered my mind. Why am I in bed attending to this fantasy instead of entering the real world waiting for me in the next room?
That got me up. The burst of energy pushed me through Monday's agenda, but I can't say it resulted in anything brilliant.
Mary Ann returned from her weekend with Jude, which amounted to following him around and having a few meals at their favorite places (Bottega Louie, the Pink Taco, and Take A Bao--a dim sum fusion restaurant). A lot of her time was spent waiting for Jude, who was busy with his work. And, of course, hours and hours went by sitting in the car as mother and son nudged their way through the ceaselessly dense Los Angeles traffic.
MA and I reunited at Carmelo, where we started with a pizza. (We did this for the pizza's sake, but also to get the free second pizza on Mondays). She stopped her meal after three slices of pie and an order of tomato bruschetta.
I went on to have a dozen oysters areganata, the classic Italian name for the dish that we call oysters Mosca around New Orleans. Carmelo bakes them on the shells, with a thick topping of bread crumbs, olive oil, fresh herbs, garlic, and more cheese than I've seen on other versions. It could almost be said to be a hybrid of oysters Mosca with oysters au gratin. Big oysters, good flavor. I could have stopped after a half-dozen. But what kind of entree is a half-dozen oysters? Especially after having eaten nothing else all day?
Well, there had been those two slices of that pizza.
Ristorante Carmelo. Mandeville: 1901 US Hwy 190. 985-624-4844.
