Monday, October 17, 2011.
Captain D's Crabs And A Roast Beef Poor Boy.
Doing the show from home on Mondays gives time and appetite for lunch, rare during the rest of the week. Mary Ann said she'd consent to joining me for a midday meal, and accepted my suggestion of Captain D's. Three times was the charm, and this time somebody was there to take the order. I asked for the roast beef poor boy that's been on my mind since Saturday. MA is a boiled seafood fanatic, and asked for a half-dozen boiled crabs. So far, so good. Even the price: the crabs were about a dollar apiece.
The crustaceans were meaty and fresh and fat. But eating them there at Captain D's was a problem: they had no utensils capable of cracking the shells. All the claw-crackers had been stolen, the lady running the place said. She had steak knives, but the handles were made of plastic too light to create much impulse. And holding the blade of a steak knife while swinging its handle around is not the safest idea. (The standard method--for those reading this who haven't picked boiled crabs--is to use the heavy metal handle of a standard dinner knife to break through the obstinate chitin*.)
When MA asked the lady if there were any other options, the lady
gave her a packet of plastic picnic utensils. Which were about as useful in breaking crab claws as a toy wrench would be in removing lug nuts.
We packed it all up and went home. The roast beef poor boy needed help, anyway. It had been made on what looked like supermarket French bread, which only looks like poor boy bread. The only way to give it anything like a crust was to pop it in the oven for a few minutes. Which made it edible, but nothing special. We'll reserve this place for buying boiled seafood.
*The last and only other time I used the expression "obstinate chitin" was in a 1973 article in the Vieux Carre Courier about the old Jaeger's on Elysian Fields. If I keep up that schedule, this will be the last time you ever read it.
Captain D's. Covington: 969 E. Boston St. 985-871-8700.
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.
