Saturday, April 21, 2012.
Monday Omelette. Christopher's On Carey.
My first red bean omelette was cooked by the Coffee Pot in the French Quarter, back in the early 1970s, when my circle of friends--most of them fellow [LS]UNO students--ate there frequently. It was one of several unique egg dishes at the old café, which was much less touristy than it is now. (It's not the restaurant's fault, but a reflection of the demographics of the French Quarter.)
Some twenty years before, Leah Chase got her first cheffing gig at the Coffee Pot. I wonder if the red bean omelette was her idea.
The concept of the dish doesn't sound right, and that was even more true back then. Nobody ate red beans with anything but rice and sausage. No red bean soup, even. But a lot of the Coffee Pot's customers in the 1970s were slightly addled by various substances, and would try offbeat dishes. I enjoyed a straight plate of the restaurant's beans, and the next time after that I tried and liked the omelette. Which, in addition to the beans, included cheese--something the Coffee Pot added to all its omelettes as a matter of course.
Today, Mary Ann agreed to have breakfast with me, as long as I would forgo any other claims on her time today. We went to the Camellia Café, where I have had both excellent red beans and excellent omelettes. I asked for a red bean omelette with ham and pepper jack cheese. The server seemed intrigued, but took the order right back to the kitchen.
It took them a little longer than usual to get the omelette out. It was even better than I was hoping for. I will have this again.
My radio show today followed a baseball game, a happenstance that has plagued my entire career in radio. It takes at least a half-hour to drum up an audience big enough for the show to be viable. But there are harder jobs in the world.
To Slidell for dinner at Christopher's on Carey. It's in sleepy old downtown Slidell, which is in good shape and has a scattering of other active businesses. But it's not what you could call the French Quarter, and even on this Saturday night, the dining room was sparsely settled. Where are all the people who call and write me about how much they love the place?
I think it's pretty good, too. I began with a very generous Manhattan, followed by fried oysters en brochette. Then a salad of beets and greens--better than the one I had last time here, and an excellent salad by any measure, with reduced balsamic and several colors of beets.
For the main, my gut called for the filet mignon au poivre. But my brain made me ask the young woman serving me whether I'd be happier with anything else. "You really should get the red snapper," she said, without the slightest hesitation. I go along with advice like that, delivered with such certainty.
The snapper was advertised as being prepared in the Livornese style, named for the Italian port city where cruise ships dock for Pisa and Florence. Galliano--the yellow liqueur in the tall bottle--is made in Livorno. I've been there four times, but never ate. So I don't know whether Christopher rendered their style of cooking fish (the town is famous for seafood) correctly. I doubt it. This seemed more French than Italian, but never mind. The fish was as good as the server said, and the sauce of capers, peppers, and onions was fine.
Dessert was bananas Foster bread pudding, and excellent. The chef also sent out a caramel custard, which he said was to make up for the overbaked one I had last time.
On the way home I finished listening to a BBC reading of Catch-22. I never read the 1961 book nor saw the 1970 movie. But some of the friends with whom I went to the Coffee Pot for red bean omelettes in the 1970s thought the film was very cool. Especially in light of the Vietnam War, which was still going on then. Now I know why.
Camellia Cafe. Abita Springs: 69455 LA 59. 985-809-6313.
Christopher's On Carey. Slidell: 2228 Carey St. 985-641-4501.
