Monday, February 6, 2012.
Prime Day. The Van That Won't Die. Big Fat Breakfast.
"My birthday. Hardly worth getting excited about. After all, 'seventy-one' is one of those ridiculous numbers that can't be divided by any other whole number, isn't it?"
Those words are from Year Of Change, E. J. Kahn, Jr.'s 1987 daily journal. Reading it inspired me to start publishing my own diary, which I have been keeping on and off since 1970. If I change "seventy-one" to "sixty-one" (coincidentally, also a prime number) the quotation applies perfectly to me today.
I slept later than usual, too late to make it to the DMV when it opened at eight. Nine people were ahead of me at eight-ten. I put off renewing my driver's license in the hope that my new glasses would arrive first. They didn't, and I had to struggle to pass the vision test using my old specs.
More disturbing was the $225 penalty I had to pay before I could get my license renewed. Reason: the old Dodge Caravan was not on our insurance. But the car was junked at least a year ago in Los Angeles! Jude rented the old van to a series of movie productions in which it received maximum abuse. Finally, it threw a rod. He sold it for scrap (actually, I think he had to pay the junkyard to take it), but apparently the paperwork never went through.
I cannot seem to rid my life of this old car. Mary Ann wanted to bring it home from L.A. for sentimental reasons. That old bus took us on a lot of family adventures. But the last thing we need is a dead car in our driveway, and I fought that proposal all the way. When I called her to see if she knew where the documents were, she said I told you so. I was ready with a parry: it would have cost more than $225 in gas to drive that thing home, of indeed it would make it.
Why does this Louisiana state office accept only cash? Whenever I hear of a cash-only rule, the explanation that immediately comes to mind is that at some point a well-hidden distributary siphons the bucks away from the official books. We already know there is no reason why the state office can't accept credit cards or checks, because they do when you transact with them on line. This would be a good story for an enterprising journalist who knows something about accounting.
All this took nearly two hours. I'm glad I did most of today's work yesterday. That strategy also gave me time to accept Mary Ann's invitation to breakfast in celebration of my birthday. I met her at The Fat Spoon, a new neighborhood eat spot on Highway 59. We had a good lunch here a few weeks ago, and if their breakfast checks out I can write a review.
It did. The waitress--who seems to have at least sprained her arm the night before, and needed some help in serving us--recommended the eggs NOLA as the best bet. That's almost the same as Brennan's eggs Hussarde, with poached eggs atop ham, fried green tomatoes, and sauteed mushrooms, with hollandaise over the top. The hollandaise was less than perfect in texture but tasted good enough, and the eggs were nicely poached. The potatoes are those cubic hybrids of French fries and hash browns. Nothing special, but hot and right out of the fryer.
The much-overcooked omelette that Mary Ann prefers, overstuffed with ham, cheese, peppers, and onions, were to her liking. The grits were coarse-ground, the good kind. We finished up with an order of beignet sticks--a great idea. They look like French fries, but are made of classic beignet dough, dusted with powdered sugar. They just like French Market-style doughnuts, but they don't weigh you down. Unfortunately, The Fat Spoon doesn't have coffee and chicory with hot milk to go with them.
Mary Ann offered to go to dinner somewhere, but even though it's my special day I can wait until tomorrow for a big celebratory dinner. And I already had one last Friday at Galatoire's. As Jack Kahn and I both say, this birthday is hardly worth getting excited about.
Fat Spoon Cafe. Mandeville: 68480 Highway 59. 985-809-2929.
It's over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
