Saturday, May 12, 2012.
Hit The Floor. Sign My Book! Korean Tacos Are Back.
When the kids are coming home for an extended visit, Mary Ann turns into a whirlwind of housecleaning. The winds come nowhere close to getting the whole house cleaned up, but the details on which she lavishes her energies sparkle.
Tomorrow, Mary Leigh comes home, not just for a visit, but for good. Her era of continuous schooling has come to an end, after two years of Tulane education which she found not rewarding enough to continue. Her grades average in the low A range, so that's not the problem--if indeed there is a problem.
Dropping out of school before getting one's degree is not regarded as acceptable for a competent student. All the statistics continue to show that college graduates are decidedly more successful than non-graduates. But in this case, I am inclined to agree with my daughter. Mary Ann certainly is on her side. I suspect ML will finish her education down the road, once she sees what grownup life is like. That's what I did, after two years away from the classroom. My work on the Figaro newspaper was so mind-expanding that I couldn't pull myself away from it for mere grades, even though I didn't feel entirely good about that.
In preparation for ML's return, Mary Ann thought the thing to do was refinish the floors in the living room. She will put down four coats, each of which takes three hours to dry. While they're wet, I cannot get into my office. I had to do the radio show--a three-hour job itself today--from the kitchen.
While the floors dried for the third time today, MA went to Barnes & Noble for the first booksigning session of her life. There she sold twenty-eight copies of The Suzie Homemaker Chronicles--a respectable number for a first-time author whose main recent public exposure has been in this department of this newsletter and guest-hosting my radio show. (She wrote a newspaper column and was a radio talk show host for years, but that's a long time ago.)
She wanted to sell over a hundred of them, though, and came home crestfallen. I tried to cheer her up with reality. She'd sold a book every four minutes! She didn't buy it.
Although she declared that she would not eat anything this entire weekend, she now said she was starving and ready for an early but light dinner. I knew before we even started considering the possibilities that we'd end up at Zea. A few days ago she heard someone call the radio show with the news that the Korean pork barbecue tacos were back, after going the way of last year's summer menu.
We arrived at a quarter to five, which proved barely time enough to get a table. A development restaurateurs have hoped for for years seems to be underway: Mother's Day dinners are being scheduled the night before the overly busy brunch hours on the Sunday itself. The restaurant was well populated with mothers, particularly those on the young side, often as not with their children. When we left, the bar and the vestibule were all full with people waiting for tables.
Our usual regimen ensued. Hummus, followed by salads. Barbecue ribs for MA. A dish I have not had since Zea's earliest days came my way, for the first time in years: grilled redfish topped with a very peppery shrimp etouffee sauce. This would look nicer on a bigger plate, I think, but not problems with the flavor. Two glasses of Guenoc Chardonnay.
Then back to another coat for the floor. (Mary Ann will not let me help, because I don't do it right, she says.) This time I am trapped in my office for the three hours. But I have the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience pages to write for the newsletter.
Zea. Covington: 110 Lake Dr. 985-327-0520.
