Saturday, October 15, 2011.
La Carreta. Birthday Party.
I was thinking about trying Captain D's, a new seafood and poor boy shop next door to the dry cleaners. It would work into my once orderly but now rarely observed Saturday routine of errands. But Mary Leigh called to say she was on her way over, and ready for lunch. That made the venue inevitable: La Carreta in Mandeville. It's one of the two candidates for Best Mexican Restaurant on the North Shore. (The other is La Iguana, the sole source of molé poblano over here.)
Every time we go to La Carreta--which is too often--the menu seems to have changed. Always for the better, I think. Last visit I had an exemplary fajitas, made with the actual skirt steak for which the dish is named. The enchiladas potosinas I tried today is not new, but it's been so long since I last tried it that I couldn't remember it. Ah, yes. Three cheese-and-bean enchiladas, stuck to one another in a row, topped with the same green tomatillo sauce they put over the much less good enchiladas Suizas. Grilled chicken on the side. Works for me.
Everything else on the table was predictable. A boat of chili con queso, which in texture and flavor beats all local comers. Several carafes of the excellent salsa, and three or four baskets of chips. Mary Leigh with her street-style steak tacos. Mary Ann with bacon-wrapped spicy shrimp, avocados, and a salad.
The conversation addresses the missed trip to New York (they'd be there now if they'd gone ahead with it), whether ML will leave Tulane, what she will do if she does, and the deeply unsatisfactory campus social scene. The boys are simply not doing their part, ML says. I explained that most guys are clueless about these matters (Lord knows I was at that age), and that the ones who aren't clueless have girlfriends who are unlikely to cut loose such a rare prize.
To drinks and appetizers this evening at George and Margo Bragg's. It's her fiftieth birthday. Their son Ben was one of Jude's closest buds during their decade in Boy Scouts. Their outfit was so tight that Ben was close to being a son to me, and his parents almost like family. He died in a freak accident a couple of years ago. We're happy to see that is no longer Topic A at our get-togethers, even though Ben remains on our minds.
We love their house and their parties, and wish they would have them more often. Last time, I was the Martini Maker. I kept myself away from that operation this time, and contented myself with wine.
La Carreta. Mandeville: 1200 W Causeway Approach. 985-624-2990.
