Sunday, August 1, 2010. Not Enough Readers In Slidell. Zea. There's something wrong when you come back from vacation more frazzled than you were when you left. The last four days were not my idea of a vacation, or even of a good time. My readers aren't happy, either. I thought I would be able to publish limited editions of the Menu Daily while I was gone; in fact, not a word came out for three days. Three dozen letters came in wondering if I was all right. (I almost never miss a day's edition.) Fortunately, their tone was kindly.
Book signing today at the Books-A-Million in Slidell, in the North Shore Square. When it was a Barnes and Noble four years ago, few people visited for my new cookbook. Signings in Houston attracted more people. The same thing happened today. Do they read in Slidell? Someone must.
A nice surprise during the two hours was a visit from Don Wilbanks. For several years before the hurricane, he was the traffic reporter on my radio show. I haven't had traffic reports since K, and I miss them, because they added a sideshow to the main program. Don has an interesting lifestyle. He lives way out in Mississippi, and commutes into town for his radio production job either on a motorcycle or one of his 1970s-era muscle cars.
I almost didn't recognize him. He's lost almost a hundred pounds. He's doing it the popular way: surgery to make it nearly impossible to eat too much. Three other people I know have also gone under that knife, and are currently shrinking.
Dinner with Mary Ann at Zea. She is bemoaning the fact that she has not seen Mary Leigh since we left on our Texas misadventure last Wednesday. ML is spending a week on the Florida Gulf Coast with one of her friends. She left hours before we arrived home from Houston. MA is stuck with me for companionship until she leaves for California in three days. My gang sure gets around a lot. I'm usually stuck here.
I'm glad I didn't have my heart set on Zea's tuna stack, because they had no avocados. That also made their summertime-only guacamole off limits. Why won't they send someone to any of the three supermarkets across the street for a few alligator pears? Restaurants are very loathe to do that, for some reason.
We made do with an order of the good roasted garlic hummus, then a platter of their thin-cut catfish. "Medium-cut" would be more accurate, but that's a minor complaint. It was hot and crisp and spicy, and the roasted corn grits and red beans on the side made for an unchallenging, comfortable, and ample meal.
There's a lot to be said for that.
Zea. Covington: 110 Lake Dr. 985-327-0520. Eclectic.
