Monday, November 15. Gutter Crashing. The rain that didn't afflict the Po-Boy Festival yesterday came through overnight. It must have been a powerful downpour, because it yanked down about thirty feet of gutter from the eaves of our house. Along with all the fascia to which the gutters were attached.
I have nobody to blame but myself. I haven't cleaned the gutters in years, not since I retired from years of doing my own home repairs and renovations. I don't have the time or the skills, and even though I put in a lot of studs, wallboard, and even a very striking living room floor, I hated every minute of it.
The weight of the accumulated wet leaves was the problem. Some of it had deteriorated into rich humus and was supporting a healthy mushroom culture. It all fell on top of my car. No damage there, but there was cause for concern: one of downed gutters and its attached fascia board was leaning on the electric power line. Getting it off wasn't too challenging--the line was insulated. But I had to cut through a screwed-on connection to the bit of gutter still hanging on.
In the rain.
Not a good start to my day. A registered letter from the IRS was no bonus. There was nothing for it but to go to lunch with Mary Ann. But she had something else to do, and so did I. I was supposed to have recorded a pair of commercials yesterday while I was in town for the Po-Boy Festival, but I forgot. That and all the other stuff filled the day through the end of the radio show.
By then Mary Ann was back and hungry. We ran the routine wherein she wants me to pick the place, so she can pick a different place and tell me how mine is faulty. In this case, she thought we should go to New Orleans Food and Spirits.
I think it was the first time I've been there at night. They have a new "bistro menu." (We're sure getting a lot of varied uses from that word "bistro.") What you get is an entree, a soup and a salad for around the price of an entree alone, if you show up Monday through Thursday night. Started with the house's crawfish chowder. Very rich and thick, somehow it avoided being cloying, and I liked it. The entree was catfish with pecans and brown meuniere (below). The catfish they use here is too big, but not even that got in the way. It was a good plate of food.
Even better was the hugely oversize shrimp remoulade salad in front of Mary Ann. They grill the shrimp instead of frying them, and right there is a large step up. But how could anyone eat such a pile? With a strong hunger is how. Mary Ann polished it off and then went into the orgy of self-recrimination--the one with which all of us are so familiar--for eating more than she should have.
New Orleans Food and Spirits is a better restaurant than it gets credit for. Even looking for things to complain about, all I find are little things. Most of it they get right. They even had oysters through the oil disaster.
New Orleans Food & Spirits. Covington: 208 Lee Lane. 985-875-0432.
