Monday, January 19, 2009. Julio's.
A chilly day, with really cold weather to come later in the week, I hear. I don't understand why, when my office is quite warm, my fingers are cold. It's as if they know it's cold outside. This does not make for easy typing, and typing is what I do all morning long.
Lunch at Julio's, the little Mexican place up the street. Of all the new Mexican restaurants that opened after the hurricane, this is the only one that really turns me on. I've had nothing less than great food on four visits now. And it's always offbeat eats, too. Today I had chuletas rancheras --pork chunks cooked in a ranchera sauce (that is to Mexican cookery what marinara is to Italian, although with a different flavor), shot up with jalapenos, mellowed with chunks of fresh tomato and onions. It took a long time to come out, even though I was one of only two diners there (it was almost two in the afternoon). The reason for the delay was clear: the dish had been prepared to order. Even though the pork was from a cheaper part of the pig than I'm accustomed to seeing, if anything that made it better. Rice, beans, salad, guacamole, an enormous plate of food--nine bucks. It would have been a good deal at twice the price.
During the wait, Julio came by. He told me that he was coming to my house. Mary Ann commissioned him to install the door on the shower in the $10,000 bathroom. Julio works at the glass company next door, it turns out, and he does the café on the side. He must be quite a worker. He's the only one to really make a go of this location in all the years we've lived here. I think we've seen a half-dozen past restaurants come and go here.
The meal ended with a big dome of flan--cooked longer than they would at, say, Galatoire's, as is the practice among Latina American places. Delicious. I wrote more about Julio's as soon as I got home, planning to post it in the New Orleans Menu tomorrow as one of the 200 Essential Restaurants. It's in my top three or four Mexican places.
The girls made their six-hundred-mile round trip to Savannah today. I didn't hear from them, and couldn't reach them by cell. If everything were the way I'd like it, I'd be there with them. But someone must make the money to pay for all this, and they all elected me to the post. 
Julio's. Abita Springs: 21025 La. Hwy. 36. 985-892-8563. Mexican.
