Sunday, January 24, 2010. Unavoidable Football. Sesame Inn. The forecasts did not predict a rain torrent, but one passed through in the night, awakening me around three. Rain on a tin roof is pleasant--up to a point. A downpour roars.
Today the Saints played the Vikings for the right to play in the Super Bowl. I don't remember a time when the population was as focused. The game was in the Superdome, and those who weren't there were watching it on television this evening. The restaurants--who by now know what a catastrophe for their business these games are--did an end-around run. The Pelican Club was a good example. It's usually open only for dinner. But today they moved service to the brunch hour, and shut down by kickoff time. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
I'm not trying to beat anybody, so I didn't join 'em. But the Marys did beat it across the lake to join a tailgate party put on by Tommy Cvitanovich, son of Drago. Tommy is proud of his new toy: an antique fire engine, retrofitted with grills for char-broiling his famous oysters and other grillables. The unit also has a pair of televisions mounted in it. A gang of friends joined him to watch the game that determined the Saints' Super Bowl opponents. Interesting: it will be the Colts, led by New Orleans-born Peyton Manning. If a fiction author put that into a novel, he'd be accused of being corny.
I took a break from my labors around the house to have lunch at the Sesame Inn. I hit them at a slack moment--I think the football mania is making some people forget about eating. A number of others came in while I was there. The hot and sour soup was as fine as usual. So were the spring roll (exceptionally crunchy with cabbage on the inside) and the crab rangoons.
The Sesame Inn has the most inconspicuous specials I've ever seen, hand-written on a tiny scrap of paper attached to the inside of the menu. Today's specials were XO chicken or shrimp. I went after the beef, and liked what I found: the sweet-spicy sauce (a complexity made with ham, although you'd never know that), with an interesting assortment of mushrooms and vegetables.
Steve, the owner, alerted me to the approach of Chinese New Year, when we will usher in twelve months with the tiger. (I wonder if LSU is doing anything about that.) He says he's bringing back some of the favorite dishes from the past for a special promotion. Chinese New Year is February 14. That's already Valentine's Day and Bacchus Sunday. And the day I arrive home from our cruise. Some dates have all the luck.
I wasn't listening to or watching the game, but I knew when the Saints won it. The fusillade of fireworks at about ten-thirty told the story. Must have gone into overtime, I thought. The Marys didn't get in until quarter to one in the morning. I heard Mary Ann say, "My heart can't take much more of this. Apparently it was another squeaker.
Sesame Inn. Mandeville: 408 N. Causeway Blvd. 985-951-8888. Chinese.
