Monday, October 29, 2012.
We Feel Sandy Down Here. A Roast Beef Poor Boy As Big As My Arm.
I seem to have turned the corner in the computer upgrade, after three days of constant work on it. I am reassured now that all my files are intact. I just don't know where they all are. And it seems like every time I try to do something, I have to install three or four software programs.
The bad news is that the website's hosting company still hasn't fixed a big ball of chaos in its system. With their area shut down by the flooding and downed power lines caused by Hurricane Sandy, they can't guess when they'll be back up to full function. This has made it almost impossible to publish the Menu Daily today. No graphics or photos, for instance. My subscribers are getting much-degraded email editions from me. I feel very vulnerable when I put out substandard work.
Mary Ann took Jude to the airport early this morning, and is mourning his departure enough that she never really got back to sleep. So she invited me out to lunch. Camellia Café, she said. She's hungry for fried chicken. Perfect! I have a hankering for a roast beef poor boy, and the Camellia Cafe make those well.
It was a long time since the last roast beef over there. In the meantime, the specs have changed. It's two or three inches longer–the approximate measurement from my wrist to my elbow. A legend says that's how long a poor boy should be, but I have no idea who would be able to eat one that big. I brought half of it home, and I was still uncomfortably full.
One other thing: too much gravy. But I like less gravy than the average Yat, and I forgot to ask for it that way. Mary Ann, who ate a couple of bites, said it was just the way she liked it. She also asked whether this is the classic roast beef poor boy flavor that I always talk about. I wouldn't say that, but it's pretty close. The reference is to the flavor of the first poor boys I had when I was a kid–specifically those at Clarence and Lefty's. In these times, I find that flavor at Johnny's, Parran's, Parkway, and Pontchartrain. But it's not something I don't need to be satisfied. The roast beef at Bear's, for example, has nothing like the classic flavor, but I still think it's one of the best sandwiches around.
The rest of the day was all about the computer matter, but I'm even boring myself with it now.
Camellia Cafe. Abita Springs: 69455 LA 59. 985-809-6313.
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