Monday, October 22, 2012.
Fried Chicken And Roast Beef Poor Boys.
Mary Leigh is out of the house pretty early every morning. She is eager to work as an intern with Luis Colmenares, a local artist and sculptor who has designed the dining rooms of dozens of restaurants around town. He has her painting, bending, assembling, and even welding pieces that will wind up in public spaces. Some recent works were destined for Middendorf's, which is doing a bit of redecorating after having to deal with four or five feet of Isaac flood water.
But this week she (and some of Luis's other minions) are carving hundreds of pumpkins for Boo At The Zoo. That kids' program at Audubon Park is sponsored by Carnival Cruise Lines, and Luis came up with the idea of building a cruise ship out of pumpkins. ML is having a ball with this. And she's getting a nice paycheck out of it, too.
At lunchtime, Mary Ann said that she could be wooed by lunch at the Camellia Café. The fried chicken they offer on the buffet gets her going. I usually have a plate of red beans and hot sausage, and the chicken is better than buffet chicken has any right to be.
But today I had a roast beef poor boy on my mind, and that's what I got. It was very good. "Is that the classic poor boy flavor you're always talking about?" Mary Ann asked, after taking a couple of bites of the enormous sandwich. Yes, it was. It would have been a prize-winner if I had remembered to ask them to take it easy on the gravy (it was way too wet) and to toast the bread. There was enough of it that I couldn't even finish half of it. We took the remainder home and, with the help of new bread, ate off that sucker the rest of the week.
No dinner. I am running behind in my work, a problem that would only get worse as the week wore on.
Camellia Cafe. Abita Springs: 69455 LA 59. 985-809-6313.
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