Thursday, March 11. Fogbound. Bosco's. I think I see the end of winter at last. We awakened to a beautiful blue sky and temperatures about ten degrees warmer than those of the last two months' worth of nights. The hardness of the winter remains evident, though. No flowers or budding yet. The water oaks, which in most years hold onto some of their leaves until the next batch arrives, are almost totally bare. And I don't know what this means, but several times a day groups of geese, honking loudly enough that I go outside to see what the commotion is about, fly over the Cool Water Ranch.
The rapid warming had an unexpected effect. When I headed to town for the radio show, I was stopped at the Causeway by fog restrictions, cutting the traffic down to one lane. I'd never make it in time. I turned around and did the show from home, honking geese and all.
My favorite part of staying home for the show is that as soon as I'm finished I can usually persuade the Marys into going out with me on a dinner date. That's not a given--no new places, no ethnic, better have either a good burger or pasta with red sauce. But Bosco's is one of Mary Leigh's favorites, and we haven't been there lately. I was happy to see that they finally hung some pictures on the walls, but I still think the place needs more texture and softening. Tablecloths would be nice. On the other hand, the place is so inexpensive for the quality and quantity they dole out that such fine points are easy to overlook.
Our menu was predictable. Mary Leigh had a big plate of pasta with red sauce, her favorite. And a big house salad, always excellent here. Mary Ann did the artichoke stuffed with seafood, rich but irresistible. I can't resist Italian-style baked oysters, and had a large boat of those. Garlic, bread crumbs, garlic, herbs, garlic, olive oil, a little bacon (or prosciutto?), oysters, garlic. Whose quotation goes something like, "Too much of something good is wonderful!"?
Before any of that came out, Tony Bosco sent out a sampler of his barbecue shrimp, of which he is proud. With good reason. It's a terrific dish, with the butter and shrimp juices and seasonings emulsified more thoroughly than I've ever seen into an intense, complex sauce. I tasted what I think may have been a little crab boil in there. Although I think you're going out on a limb when you jigger a recipe as well-known as that of barbecue shrimp, there's no way one could say he didn't like this. Unless he didn't like shrimp.
The oysters and the shrimp would have been enough for me, but I didn't know the shrimp were coming, and I had another plate of food for the girls to watch me eat. It was Bosco's wonderful cannelloni, which even without an appetizer is too much food. They're big tubes of pasta stuffed with a mixture of veal, cream, cheese, and spinach. Then topped with two sauces: his first-class red sauce, and a variation of it with a bit of cream stirred in. (I'll bet this is a direct descendent of Jimmy Moran's old sauce, because Tony Bosco used to work for Sal Impastato, and Sal used to work for Jimmy.)
Bosco's has a large bar, but I've never seen anyone in there except employees. Maybe it's too squeaky clean. No--I have another idea. "What they need is a guy sitting in the corner with a karaoke rig singing Sinatra songs," I said.
"Yeah, why don't you do that, Dad?" asked Mary Leigh, her Sarcasto-Meter set to ten.
"Say, that's not a bad idea!" I said. Of course, I was thinking about it all along. But with my looks I might cause the bar to do even less business. Still, I wonder if. . . hmm. . .
Bosco’s. Mandeville: 2040 La. Hwy. 59 985-624-5066. Italian.
