Saturday, May 4, 2013.
Lee's Is Almost Great. Magnificent Sushi At Megumi.
I managed to solve an improbable number of nagging minor problems today. Foremost on my mind was last night's water crisis. Our well pump stopped cold, leaving us without any water other than the six gallon-size water jugs I keep filled for just such a day as this. But Water Works--a company specializing in water wells--returned my early-morning call with the happy promise that they'd be here in an hour.
In fact, it took their guy four hours, but that was fine with me. He confirmed that the Cool Water Ranch's namesake water works had a malfunctioning pressure switch. My diagnosis exactly, not that it helped me get it working on my own. He replaced it in ten minutes, I wrote a check, and we could once again shower, make ice, wash dishes, and (most important) flush.
I thought this delay in my Saturday errands would doom my plan to get a haircut today. But the Bayou Barber Shop stays open until one. The barber told me to jump right in the chair (last time, I had to wait forty-five minutes), because he had a dentist's appointment at one-thirty. There's some irony there, but I won't explore it.
Lunch at Lee's Hamburgers. The one in Covington is better than other branches I've been to, and has what may be (they say so, but I'm not positive) fresh-cut fries. Lee's has a long history in New Orleans, but the modern version of it consistently misses being great. Two simple things would do the trick. They need to fire up their grill hotter, so the burgers (and the onions inside them) could get a little crusty. And they should toast the buns instead of just warming them. Lee's has been on my mind for months, but now I can return it to the background.
I bought an air pump for fifty bucks in the hopes that it might bring the tire on my lawn tractor back to life. That looked pretty hopeless a few weeks ago, with the tire completely separated from the rim. But the third miracle of the day occurred. A trick imparted to me last week by a guy at Home Depot--wrapping a ratcheting belt around the tire and tightening it--worked perfectly. It pulled the bead of the tire against the inside of the rim. The new pump--whose box claimed it could fill an auto tire in three minutes--finished the job in far less time than that. Now all I have to do is get a new oil filter, oil and gasoline, and charge up the battery. It is conceivable that I will finally tame the jungle in front of the house tomorrow.
It's a good thing the weather has been cool, because in a normal year the weeks would be high enough to disturb my neighbors. But last night a hard north wind blew the temperature down to the 40s. In May? I hear there was snow in the Plains as far south as Oklahoma City.
To quote Dick Brennan Sr. (and not for the first time): "We've got to put those rocks back on the moon!"
Dinner at Megumi, the original Mandeville location of a two-unit North Shore Japanese chain. I have been impressed by this place since the outset, for a number of reasons. The unusual way they serve chirashi sushi, for instance. The bed of rice comes in one rectangular bowl, topped with another dish containing the sashimi-cut fish. This makes the eating much easier and the presentation prettier.
I don't often get chirashi sushi these days--I can live without the cold, sweet omelette, the shrimp, and the giant squid that usually are part of chirashi ("scattered") presentation. But the extra care in making it here says something about the way Megumi does everything else.
Today I began with something from the markerboard called smashed tuna. That's a good description. It's almost a tuna tartare. But the right side of the dish is striped with caviar in two colors, little crispies that looked like couscous, green onions, wasabi, and one of those mayonnaise-based sauces that are so common in sushi bars these days. This was terrific and much more generous with the una than I expected.
I was intrigued by something called an Amigo Roll, so called because it includes jalapenos and cilantro. The chef suggested something else along the same lines, made with two forms of salmon (one spicy, one not) and a core of snow crab. If I had known about that last ingredient, I probably wouldn't have ordered this. But I'm glad I did. The roll--which stretched out halfway to infinity--was good enough, but the variety of sauces made it even better. The most interesting was a red pepper oil.
That was really enough for dinner. But since I was here, I thought I'd get one more dish. Megumi features a yakimono bar, where various meats and other proteins are seared on a glass-topped grill. They come out on skewers, but they're very different from teriyaki.
The one I tried was called negimaki, and consisted of chicken speared with rolled-up sliced of leeks. It was sprinkled with a variety of garnishes and sauces, and had a bed of what amounted to cole slaw with that ginger dressing sushi bars use on their house salads. I wouldn't call this brilliant in terms of flavor, but it was a nice alternate with the sushi.
And, as if I hadn't already enough to eat, I had mango sorbet for dessert.
I don't know why I don't come to this place more often. It's not hugely popular, probably because the prices are a shade higher than average. On the other hand, they serve bigger portions of everything (too big, in some cases), and intrinsic merit of the fish is admirable.
Megumi is in a well-aged strip mall across from Beau Chene. I can't go there without becoming wistful for a long-running chapter of my life as Daddy during the 1990s. A kids' party and general fun space called Sillyville was next door to what would become Megumi. A former theater was filled with the kinds of recreational equipment you'd see at a big McDonald's, but better. (And without the awful food.)
For about six years I brought Jude, then Jude and Mary Leigh, then just Mary Leigh to Sillyville almost every weekend. We hung out there for hours, eating popcorn and the occasional pizza or hot dog, and drinking punch. They progressed from the little-kid section to the more adventurous equipment. There were a million things to do at Sillyville. Sometimes their friends would turn up, or we'd invite them. They won many prizes by playing the non-arcade games. (Although Sillyville did have a claw machine that we hit with regularity.)
One Saturday, ML and I went to Sillyville for the last time. We didn't intend it to be the end. It just was. Sillyville itself kept going for about another year. Then it posted a sign on the door thanking everyone for being part of the fun, and wishing us good luck in the rest of our lives.
That wish has come true for us, so far. Thank you, Sillyville.
Lee's Hamburgers. Covington: 104 Lake Dr. 985-898-3440.
Megumi. Mandeville: 4700 Hwy 22. 985-845-1644.
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