Thursday, May 12, 2011.
Raw Oysters, Oyster-Artichoke Soup. . . And A Hamburger.
My physical therapy has settled into a predictable and not very effectual routine. There's not much they can do, really, until I can put weight on my left leg again. The therapist agreed that it made sense to just do one session a week until they pulled the screw out of my ankle, as long as I kept up the exercises they taught me.
Mary Ann offered to drive me to lunch afterwards at K Gee's. That Mandeville seafood house will celebrate its first anniversary in about a month. It's a spinoff of a famous old seafood restaurant on the South Shore. Neither they nor the K Gee's people feel comfortable about having that connection brought to light, and it adds nothing to the reportage on the place to leave the matter out.
I started with a half-dozen raw oysters. Big ones, not as salty or as good as the ones I had at Drago's last week, but nice. Next came oyster-artichoke soup. The restaurant critic special version of that had about a half-dozen oysters in a cup of soup. But what caught my attention was the rest of the recipe. Here we had something midway between the LeRuth's-inspired, herbal version you find in most local Italian restaurants, and the milk-and-butter oyster stew from the old West End Park days. I love both of those, and to have their respective pleasures in one cup was unique.
Mary Ann, being a sucker for chain restaurants, ordered spinach-artichoke dip. (That used to be the marker dish for chains, but now everybody makes it.) K Gee's wrinkle is that they bake it in an oversize casserole, and serve it not with tortilla chips but with fresh-cut potato chips. Mary Ann was thrilled.
The restaurant in K Gee's backstory has a great housemade hamburger. So K Gee's does, too, as well as excellent homemade hot sausage. The burger's appearance on the specials board--with grilled onions and blue cheese--pulled me into its orbit. It was too big--a common problem among hamburgers these days. The worst part of big hamburgers is that they're served on big buns. Do the math, and you see why there's too much bread in an oversize burger. This one would have been better if it were three-fourths the size on a smaller bun. From a marketing stance, however, it's perfect for Mandeville.
Meanwhile, Mary Ann demolished a pound of boiled crawfish, served hot and good. They're finally getting big enough to eat now. The crawfish have run late all year so far.
K Gee's Oyster Bar. Mandeville: 2534 Florida. 985-626-0530.
