Saturday, January 21, 2012.
Breakfast At Camellia Café.
My appetite was back this morning. I knew better than to invite Mary Ann to breakfast. When she is amenable to that idea, she brings it up herself.
My first choice was The Fat Spoon, where we had such a good lunch a few days ago. But they're closed on Saturdays. Too bad. The menu looked terrific.
I headed back up LA 59 to the Camellia Café. Some months ago, they resumed serving breakfast after a long hiatus. They do not seem to have attracted a big breakfast trade yet. At least not on Saturdays. LA 59 is mostly a commercial strip, with few big residential areas.
The waitress came right over with the juice and coffee. She apologized that she was not really a waitress, but a cook who had to be pressed into service today. That worked out well. I asked whether the skillet potatoes--noted on the menu as an alternative to grits or shredded hash browns--could be thrown inside an omelette with a little cheese.
She made the face you make when you're thinking about a new idea. "That sounds great!" she said, and was off to get it done. With that as the centerpiece, the platter was an oversize collection of rich, buttery food. I'm glad she didn't bring the order of bacon I foolishly ordered. I could only finish half of this in good conscience. Not as delicately good as Mattina Bella, but delicious.
Now that Saints and LSU football are over, my Saturday show on WWL is back on the schedule. Although it's really a surplus gig--almost nobody else on our six radio stations puts in a six-day week--I don't mind at all. The show is incredibly easy, because unlike the weekday show on 1350, it's riddled with breaks. And the standing audience is so large that the calls flow as endlessly as water in the Mississippi River.
A few days ago our friend Ceil Lanaux asked us to attend the big annual fundraising ball for the local Croatian-American Society. I was happy to be there. The Louisiana restaurant and oyster-fishing communities here would be very different without the Croatians. Ruth's Chris Steak House, Drago's, Bozo's, Uglesich's, P&J Oyster Co., and numerous other major institutions of good taste sprang from Croatian roots.
I would have bet that Krasna Vojkovich, whose husband founded the Crescent City Steak House in 1934, would be on hand. She was, beautiful and smiling as always. Krasna still works at the steakhouse, and every Mardi Gras she makes tripe stew for our Eat Club Farewell To Beef dinner.
I met a lot of new friends who know me from the radio show. Many are in the oyster business. They had chilling news. "There are no baby oysters in the beds that were killed by fresh water after the oil spill," one of them told me. He should know. He gets his oysters from that area. "Nobody can figure out why they are not coming back. They won't grow on the old shells. We have to dump concrete to get any of them to grow."
From another oyster guy I learned that Ralph Pausina--Drago's main supplier of oysters until freshwater diversion wiped him out--has opened a restaurant. It's called Café Ralphie, and it's in a strip mall on West Esplanade near Transcontinental. Pausina and his family had the Barataria restaurant on Harrison Avenue until Katrina put an end to it. The place is Susan Spicer's Mondo now.
The fete was attended by Croatian diplomats who flew in for the occasion and gave speeches. Dances by young women and men in traditional Croatian costumes went on. A band played Croatian music all night.
All this was at The Foundry, Chef Horst Pfiefer's event facility in the Warehouse District. He also did the food, I guess. It was good enough, but I was disappointed that not much Croatian food was here. I was hoping especially for cevapcici, the great oniony grilled sausages. I haven't had any of those in a long time. Krasna says they're a lot of work.
Camellia Cafe. Abita Springs: 69455 LA 59. 985-809-6313.
It's over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
