Sunday, May 27, 2012.
A Day Off. Return To The Acme.
I suppose I could have gone to the Greek Festival today, as I usually do. But it's been a hectic week, and I needed to deflate. Other than the usual writing--which is a seven-day-a week thing for me--I left the schedule open.
Mary Leigh told me last night that she wanted to have lunch at the Acme today. Ah, our old regular place, where we hardly ever go anymore, what with the competition from Zea, Chimes, La Carreta, Camellia Cafe and Mandina's for the default restaurant honors.
I'm glad we went, because the Acme had a few new things on the menu. One of those was perfect for my appetite: a crab cake on top of corn maquechoux, squirted with remoulade sauce. At six dollars a copy, I knew in advance that this wouldn't really be a crab cake, but a stuffed crab without the shell. The difference is that a crab cake is (or should be) should be ninety percent crabmeat and ten percent everything else.
A stuffed crab, on the other hand, can have the opposite formula (although one hopes for visible crabmeat). Whatever it's called, the Acme's new dish was good for the price, and big enough to make a meal with the addition of a half-dozen grilled oysters and a salad.
ML did not veer from her standard Acme menu in the slightest. First, the soaking up with French bread of the oyster-herb butter from the shells. Then the almighty wedge salad with blue cheese and bacon.
It was as if we were still coming in once a week.
Then a stop at the grocery store and the Home Depot. I needed some mouse traps at the latter. Mary Ann saw a critter run across the floor a couple of days ago. Easy to believe: we live in the woods, the owls and the cat Twinnery don't catch them all, and Mary Ann leaves the doors open a lot.
Both of the Marys were concerned that the mouse might get hurt in its entrapment. I knew that was coming, so I bought the new style, which has a sort of tunnel that the mouse enters to get the bait. When he nibbles, the thing snaps shut. You take it outside (far away), let the critter loose, and tell it not to follow us back.
As of this writing (Wednesday), the mouse has either gone away on its own, or it has not been fooled by the trap. At least he has not been seen or heard again.
After all that, the day waxed very dull, just as I was hoping it would.
Acme Oyster House. Covington: 1202 US 190 (Causeway Blvd). 985-246-6155.
It's over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
