Saturday, July 7, 2012.
Nostalgic Breakfast. Big Rain. New Sushi.
Began the day as the kids and I did every Saturday for years: with breakfast at the Marriott Courtyard's little hotel buffet. The one in Covington is much better than most. Faith the waitress and Chef Gloria were both there, as they were throughout the golden years. Gloria makes the best scrambled eggs ever. They're so soft and perfect to be almost sexy. A little rich, too, but I know the secret: they stir sour cream into the curds.
I was pleased to see that bacon was back. Some ill-advised manager thought the kids who come in for breakfast eat too much bacon. I know that they do, but that's not a good enough reason to penalize the rest of us.
I ate too much, and resolved to eat light the remainder of the day. The next meal would not come for eight hours, which would also help. In between, three hours of radio. I like doing the Saturday show on WWL because a) it's much easier than the weekday show and 2) I can catch up on filing photos on the computer--a job that requires point-oh-one percent of my attention, so it can be done while I'm talking with people on the air.
Dinner at Kazoku Sushi in Mandeville. "Kazoku" means "family." Indeed, the place is managed by the family of Chef Wilson Fung, who is not just a good sushi maker but also entertaining.
Trying to keep the starches down, I had as my main course a riceless sashimi assortment. It was more generous than I expected, with tuna, salmon, red snapper, and escolar--all beautiful--plus spicy seared tuna, shrimp, and two minimal sticks of snow crab. Very good.
I could have stopped there, but I already had an order in for a passion roll. New to me, this is salmon and tobiko caviar wrapped around rice, with spicy, macerated salmon in the center. Slices of mango gave it an unusual flavor, one I'd say was perfect for a hot summer day.
Good as he is, I had doubts about how well Wilson would do here. I can dismiss those. The restaurant was nearly full. And he and his kids seem to be having a ball.
Jude called several times, asking for advice on how to make barbecue shrimp. He's having friends over for a party and wants to wow them. His challenge will be in finding heads-on shrimp. I told him to go to an Asian market for that, which he surely should be able to find in Los Angeles.
And then I congratulated myself for living in New Orleans, where great shrimp is something we can take for granted. I saw in the newspaper today that the shrimp catch will be bigger this year than in a long time.
Courtyard Cafe. Covington: 101 Northpark Blvd. 504-871-0244.
Kazoku Sushi. Mandeville: 1680 LA Hwy 59. 985-626-8118.
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.
