Thursday, February 18, 2010. Dining With My Daughter In The Usual Places, Eating The Usual Things. Mary Ann left early this morning for Atlanta. Her niece Jennifer Donner is allegedly having a trying time with her newborn third child. Or is it the first two that are causing the problems? In any case, Mary Ann thought she should pitch in. We owe an eternal debt of gratitude to Jennifer and her husband Bob, who took us in for two weeks after the hurricane. (In fact, she invited us to evacuate there even before the storm.) We'd do anything for the Donners.
I remained in Abita Springs to shovel down the work pile a little. Mary Leigh is off school all this week. Before she left, MA left the string suggestion that ML and I have a nice daddy-daughter dinner--as if we need help with coming up with that idea. Mary Leigh was hungry by noon, though, so we took a lunch break at the Acme Oyster House. Nothing new to report there: grilled oysters, very large. We both had wedge salads, making us responsible for dispatching a half-head of lettuce between us. (I'm tempted to use shorthand whenever this meal comes up in this journal, as it frequently does. How about "Acme Goys12, qtr-hd blu"?)
I was still hoping for a nice dinner with my big little girl, but she has breathtaking control of her eating and said she'd rather stay home. I pushed her a little bit, and she deigned to join me at Zea. This dinner was primarily for commercial reasons. Radio commercial, that is. Zea runs spots on my radio show, and their Lenten seafood menu is so good that I like talking about it in the commercials. They add a few items to it every year, and I wanted to see what they were.
It was with regret that I passed up the Asian sesame oysters, a thrilling dish that only runs on the Lenten menu. But the new Thai mussels needed investigation. A large bowl of black mussels (the good kind, as opposed to the larger but tasteless green-lipped mussels) came out in a sauce of coconut milk, red curry spices, and the juices from the mussels. It was peppery and delicious, both while the mussels were still around and as I spooned up the broth after the bivalves were dispatched.
I counted the shells and found about two dozen mussels. I asked the server, who knew exactly: "Twenty-eight," she said. "They actually count them for every order back there." That's just like a chain restaurant. In this case, it's a great number for eleven dollars.
The entree was grilled black drumfish with an artichoke and oyster sauce. The fish was good, the sauce less so; I think it needs a little more lemon juice or something else sharp.
Meanwhile, Mary Leigh passed on her usual hamburger and had a half-rack of ribs, dry style. She ate half of those. Again, her restraint is amazing. I know she loves good ribs.
Back home, I resumed a desultory online search for a new camera. I checked out Lakeside Camera's website to see if the purchase could be made locally. The store had an eBay auction going on. One of the items was an Olympus camera like the one I bought Mary Leigh for Christmas a year ago. That camera has been pinch-hitting for the Nikon that was robbed from me in Belize. I must say I like it better. The one on eBay--brand-new--was the next model up the ladder, and came with two lenses. The bid was at $300. I looked around and found it selling for about $850 in stores.
I've never bid on eBay before. But this looked too good. I put down a bid for $350 and crossed my fingers.
Zea. Covington: 110 Lake Dr. 985-327-0520. Eclectic.
