Saturday, February 23, 2013.
A New Same Old Breakfast Spot. Waiting For The Game To End.
MA and I went into Mandeville to pick up her car. (I'd left hers there to pick up mine yesterday at the mechanic's.)
Once I get MA out of the house on Saturday morning, it's easy to talk her into breakfast. Especially now that she has a jones for the breakfast menu at N'Tini's. They overcook fried eggs exactly the way she likes them. So it has risen to the top of her list of breakfast places.
Over the years, the roll of Saturday breakfast venues for our family goes like this:
- 1992-1997: Shoney's (our kids were little back then)
- 1997-2005: Marriott Courtyard Café
- 2005-2011: Abita Springs Café (usually just me and ML)
- 2011-Present: Mattina Bella, with N'Tini's and Camellia Café in the rotation
Places we tried over the years but never went to regularly: Mande's, Broken Egg, Jukebox (extinct), Sage (extinct), Fat Spoon, Toad Hollow (very good, but too New Age for the Marys).
Getting back to N'Tini's. . . Mary Ann made sure the grits were of the right non-runny consistency before ordering. That was a big issue for me for a long time, but at the moment I have slipped out of the embrace of grits at breakfast. I sometimes get potatoes, but usually no substitute at all. Really, who needs it? Breakfasts are big enough without them. And since MA loves grits, I always get a taste. I also get a taste of the potatoes, because she makes up for my ordering neither grits nor potatoes by getting both.
My breakfast centered on lost bread. I was so charged up by the almond pain perdu last week at Liz's Where Y'at Diner that I will begin a survey of lost bread around town. N'Tini's version involved whole-wheat Texas toast. Texas toast is a standard (sometimes wider) loaf of bread sliced twice as thick as normal. I checked to make sure that the bread was well-saturated with the custard mixture. (That's the main issue that lowers a potential lost bread down to the level of mere French toast.) Indeed, the bread was so loaded with custard that its texture was very soft--into the yuck-texture zone for MA, but just the way I like it.
The portion was ridiculous, as it always is at N'Tini's: three slices. One would have been too much. So I brought the other two home (something I rarely do), and enjoyed it for breakfast the next three days.
As if that weren't enough to eat, this $10 breakfast came with two eggs, bacon, and (if I'd wanted it) grits. The Chalmette style of cooking eggs must be rather stiff. I am having a problem persuading them that I like eggs moist, not the way MA likes them.
MA and I parted company to run our errands. During mine, I listen to Poppy Tooker's show on WWNO. Most of the food she covers is well off mainstream, and always interesting. Today she had Chef Ryan Hughes, who is getting ready to open a Southern (as opposed to Creole) restaurant called Purloo. (That's the Carolinas name for a chicken and rice stew with lots of allowable variations.)
The early afternoon went to recording about a dozen and a half commercials to run while I'm on vacation. It's easier to do this at home. But it's still one of my least-favorite jobs. Even after a few hours' work, I still have about half of them left to do.
I was supposed to go on WWL's air at three. It didn't happen until almost four-thirty. The basketball game went into triple overtime. If I were paranoid, I would say that the players did this on purpose to keep me from doing my show.
The Marys didn't want to go out to dinner. Mary Ann said she'd join me without eating if I wanted to go somewhere. I suggested Pizza Man. "Why do you want to go there?" was the inevitable response. I want one of their Italian salads, I said. "I'll make you a salad just like that," said she. I went along, knowing that there never was any chance she'd go to Pizza Man. Her salad for me was lettuce with brown edges and florets of cauliflower. Not what I had in mind. I kept my mouth shut. Until now.
N'Tini's. Mandeville: 2891 US 190. 985-626-5566.
