Saturday, January 1, 2011. Good Oysters, Bad Roast Beef Poor Boy. Terrible Cheese Enchiladas. When I was single, I never knew what to do with myself on days like New Year's Day. I usually got into the car and drove out into the countryside of Mississippi, trying to get lost. Mississippi's a good place to do that, because many of its roads are unmarked by either names or numbers. I considered it a good day when I drove five or six miles down what looked like a through road and find myself dead-ended at a creek. Now, with GPS on one's cellphone, another of my eccentric pleasures is gone.
The last few years, we had a New Year's Day party at our house, attended by people we didn't see very often. Different people every time. I enjoyed these, because the guests expected good food, but not a formal dinner. Tapas, it would be called now.
But I'm the only one here, and if I threw a party without rest of the family, Mary Ann would likely (and rightly) take it as my making some kind of protest. I'm not protesting, so I'm home alone, still moving virtual recipes on the web.
Not many restaurants open for lunch, but I knew the Acme would be. I had the good little fried oysters remoulade and half a roast beef poor boy. I specified that the sandwich not be made with an overload of gravy. (I reject the widely-held idea that the more gravy, the better the roast beef poor boy.) But the Acme's roast beef is simmering in gravy all the time, and they can't wring it out. Although they could have tried a little harder. It wasn't very good, as I then remembered was the case last time.
The New Year's cabbage came in the form of cole slaw. The Acme didn't have blackeye peas, so I made do with a cup of their good red beans.
Dinner was even more disappointing. I should have skipped the meal, but instead went to Los Sombreros. That's a small chain with a location in downtown Covington. It was reasonably good the first time I tried it months ago. It was not good tonight. The guacamole came in a large load for the price, but was tasteless. The cheese and onion enchiladas with chili sauce were similarly jejune. But I suppose that the first string staff in the kitchen wasn't there late in the day on New Year's.
This was the only depressing moment of the holiday weekend. A full day with nothing interesting to eat! And the first meals of the year, yet! A mediocre meal is always cause for gloom in my book.
Acme Oyster House. Covington: 1202 US 190 (Causeway Blvd). 985-246-6155.
Los Sombreros. Covington: 716 W 21st Ave. 985-892-5950.
