Thursday, March 25. Wife To L.A. The Red Maple. It being a full five days since she'd seen Jude, Mary Ann packed up and left for Los Angeles to spend an undetermined time in his apartment. She believes he is lonely. All young men in their own apartments are lonely, especially when living far from home. Few young men would believe that having his mother move in with him for awhile is a particularly apt solution to this problem. But neither he nor I can persuade Mary Ann of that.
She went into town in the morning with Mary Leigh, who took her to the airport after school for a late afternoon flight. MA's plan was to meet me at the radio station to say good-bye, but she forgot that the show broadcast today from the Red Maple. She couldn't make it over there before the flight, and left without a warm farewell. At least the weather was good, and she didn't need me to talk her onto the plane this time.
The broadcast from the Red Maple went off easily. In the middle of it we were visited by Bob Dabney, a genial guy I used to work with at the old WGSO (1280) in the early 1980s. I knew him before he began doing newscasts over there; he hosted a very good jazz show on WTUL during his years at Tulane. He later went to work for the mayor's office, and is now doing p.r. work. I didn't recognize him at first. It's been awhile, and like mine his beard has gone gray. That has a more dramatic effect on a dark face than a light one.
The dinner suffered a familiar effect when the venue is across a body of water. I had thirty-six people signed up; twenty-four made it. I will never understand why this happens, but it drives me nuts.
Otherwise, the dinner was fine. It started on a high note: crabmeat Remick, a nearly-extinct appetizer that deserves to be preserved. The Caribbean Room at the Pontchartrain Hotel was famous for it. It's an au gratin dish filled with jumbo lump crabmeat, with a sauce combining mayonnaise, chili sauce, and a little mustard spooned over it. Two short strips of bacon top it, and the whole thing goes under the broiler. It sounds like the kind of thing you'd find in a community cookbook, but it's nothing short of delicious. As it was this night.
I usually have turtle soup at the Red Maple, and I did--but at the beginning of the program. I was hungry from skipping lunch. Later, I went after crab and corn bisque, no less good. That was followed by a unique salad of arugula, eggplant (sort of like caponata) and tomato.
The entrees were grouper with crabmeat, which looked appetizing from a distance, and was, said people who ordered it. The veal chop with demi-glace and portobello mushrooms (below) also looked good, but wasn't, really. It seemed more roasted than grilled, and while that's perfectly legitimate, it gives a texture I'm not nuts about. Come to think of it, it's been a long time since I've had a veal chop I really enjoyed. To think that this was one of the hottest dishes in the local restaurant business just twenty years ago! Now it's relatively uncommon.
While our dinner rolled along, much else was going on in the restaurant. It was ladies' night. There were indeed some striking ladies in the building. Where were they when I was single? Any time I went to ladies' nights anywhere, there were nothing there but other guys. Then again, I may be the only person who lived in the French Quarter for an extended time but never saw a girl show off her top assets when the crowd below said, "Show us your ----!" (I've also gone to nude beaches on the French Riviera a few times without seeing a single underdressed woman.)
As an interesting counterpoint to ladies' night, it was also raw oyster night at the Red Maple. Twenty-five cents an oyster, all night long.
The dinner ended with the restaurant's excellent bread pudding. Good enough for me to have two of them.
On my way home, I called Mary Ann to see whether she made it. She was indeed in her beloved Los Angeles, with her worshiped son. As for me, I soon came home to an empty house. Mary Leigh is off to the Mu Alpha Theta (math--get it?) competition in Baton Rouge, where she will be until Saturday. I dusted off my bachelor routines and got right into them.
Red Maple. Gretna: 1036 Lafayette 504-367-0935. Steak. Creole.
