Saturday, July 2, 2011.
Upstairs. Grillot's, With The Chef Away.
Thought about going to the Courtyard for breakfast, but didn't. Just the usual orange juice, café au lait, and a croissant.
I was intrigued by something my sister Lynn told me at dinner last night about the sugar content of orange juice. Mary Ann, who is under the voodoo spell of not one but several low-carb diets, also told me I should cut out my daily ration of three oranges' worth of juice because of the sugar. I ignore this, because I know her main motive is her hatred of my morning juicing routine. She says is solely responsible for the clouds of fruit flies we sometimes experience. If that were true, why would the biggest infestations of fruit flies in history have come during the many weeks when I wasn't juicing oranges? (Of course, the rotten tomatoes and onions in the pantry have nothing to do with it.)
The whole juice matter was on my mind this morning, so I checked out the numbers. An orange of the size I juice has between 85 and 100 calories, all from sugar. So my glass of juice from three or four oranges has the sugar of drinking two cans of regular Cokes. That's more than I thought. It's as natural a form of sugar as can be found, though, and orange juice has a lot of other health benefits.
But the main reason I'm going to keep on juicing, cleaning up the mess, and drinking the juice of three oranges every day is that its flavor is wonderful. I like it as much as I like any wine. And I love wine.
Still, I'm going to try to cut down to two oranges.
The WWL radio show was pushed later again, and went from three until six. I thought we'd have an all-grilling show on this Fourth of July weekend. (Grilling is usually the number one topic on this show anyway.) But, as often happens, the conversation went in every direction but the one I was expecting. Busy show.
My first thought about dinner involved Kazoku Sushi in Mandeville. One more taste of their food would be enough to base a full review. But the closer I got to it, the less I was in a sushi mood. And I don't go to a restaurant I'm not in the mood for if a review is on my mind.
And I thought of another place in Mandeville, one I haven't been to in years. Grillot's is a seafood restaurant opened by Roy Grillot, the chef at Drago's at the time the restaurant created its now-famous char-broiled oysters. Naturally, Grillot's has an oyster bar and an oyster grill, as well as a full neighborhood-cafe-style menu. Mostly seafood.
"Just okay" was my feeling about the place after eating there a few times in its first year. But I would not get a fair review out of the dinner I had tonight. Roy was not in the kitchen, but cooking at the Mandeville Seafood Festival. (Maybe I should have gone to that. But the loud music there is enough to keep me away.) This would not be a typical evening at Grillot's, since Roy does most of the cooking himself.
I began with an assortment of grilled and baked oysters. The barbecue version is like the one at Drago's. Less cheese, which I'd consider a plus. The oysters themselves were big and nice.
The second topping was made with spinach and mozzarella cheese. I've never liked this idea anywhere I've found it. Cheese, as I say, needs to be minimized when in contact with oysters. There was no hint of a Rockefeller flavor, which one expects whenever oysters and spinach come together. The third variety had a thick seafood dressing smothering the oyster. I got through one of the four made that way and stopped there.
Among the chef's specialties was listed panneed veal with crabmeat in bordelaise sauce. Sounded good. "Panneed" means "breaded and pan-fried." This looked as if the chef had dipped the veal into the egg wash, but didn't pass it through the bread crumbs. The crabmeat was just sitting there, and the sauce lacked any garlic flavor at all. It was accompanied by some grilled vegetables I could not identify by either appearance or flavor.
The best part of this dinner was a large brick of very light, very good bread pudding, striped with white chocolate sauce. I shouldn't be eating dessert at all, but I couldn't resist this. The sweetness was restrained--a good thing.
Back at home, I called the girls. They were on the beach in Miami, but at a different hotel from the unacceptable one they resided in yesterday. (The Marys must have only the best hotels.) Mary Ann sounded depressed. "This was going to be 'The Marys Take Miami,' but it's turning out to be 'Miami Takes The Marys," she said. "Mary Leigh says she wants to come home. We're going to go down to the Keys tomorrow and look for a better beach." It will never be good enough, I knew, but I kept my mouth shut.
Grillot's. Mandeville: 2100 Florida. 985-624-8849.
It has been over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
