Tuesday, November 6, 2012.
Election Day. Taste Of The NFL At Zea.
As usual in recent Federal elections, I didn't vote. I think voting is important, but it's also important to maintain a bedrock of civility on a marriage, and voting would mitigate against that. Besides, the Louisiana electoral results are a foregone conclusion. I'm sure Mary Ann voted, just to feel that sense of control.
Mary Ann programmed the guests on the radio show around the election in a harmless way. She'd heard somewhere that Mitt Romney's favorite dish was meat loaf, and that Barack Obama's was chili.
Representing the meat loaf faction (not necessarily politically, but culinarily) was Cindy Farnet of Joey K's. The most curious thing that came up was the way in which certain daily specials show up on menus across town on the same day. If a restaurant has meat loaf, it is most likely to appear on Tuesday, with Thursday coming in second. Liver and onions is always a Tuesday dish. So lamb shank, two of which Cindy brought to share. (It was good, but lamb shanks don't work well as finger food.)
Representing chili (but not, perhaps, that political side) was Alan Diamond, the executive vice president of Corky's in Metairie. Corky's is celebrating twenty years in New Orleans this year. Is that possible? I remember having a talk about the possibilities of opening the first branch of the Memphis-based Corky's with owner Sam Chawkin, who believed (rightly) that New Orleans was all but bereft of barbecue, and was ready to get some.
Also in the room were Sara Kavanaugh and Kristen Butterworth. They respectively manage the front and back of the house at the Windsor Court Grill Room. For the first time in its twenty-eight years, the leaders of the Grill Room are female. I think that's a great idea. Who likes to go to the Windsor Court more, men or women? I rest my case.
As for the political issue, I don't think the Windsor Court serves either meat loaf or chili.
The Zea guys hosted a grazing dinner at their St. Charles Avenue location, part of the Taste of the NFL program. Numerous culinary events--notably a really big one right before the Super Bowl--raise money for hunger charities. I bought a pair of tickets thinking that $50 was a good deal for what sounded like a six-course dinner. In fact, this was served buffet style, but one could not question the value received, with or without the charitable aspect.
I got to talking with Harlan Pearce, a longtime friend, seafood wholesaler, and chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Marketing Board. He asked me a surprising question. Did I think that things around New Orleans were headed up or down? Up, no question about it, I said, pulling out my usual statistic about the continuing rise in the number of local restaurants. Harlan thought otherwise. I didn't want to delve into whether he blames the current U.S. administration for this, as Mary Ann does. What with all the televisions tuned into the election results, it had a good chance of being on his mind.
So I asked him how the seafood situation was. I know I'll always get a straight, accurate answer to that from Harlan, who is plugged into every aspect of the seafood world. He said that every part of the commercial fishing industry in Louisiana is moving ahead full bore. All the fish are back. And within two years there would be a tremendous glut of top-quality Louisiana oysters. So much for all those people who said that many of the beds were permanently dead and would not be back for a decade, if ever.
The food was good, and featured all of my favorite Zea specials--notably the tuna stack and the Asian fried sesame oysters. The alligator and andouille stew over corn grits was much more delicious than I expected. A few nice wines were about.
After an hour, Mary Ann wanted to leave so she could watch the election returns, which she did at her brother's house, the better to avoid me. I didn't watch it, but I confess that when I went to bed at around eleven I tuned into the CBS Radio internet channel. And then I went to sleep. Tomorrow and the weeks to come may be very chilly around here.
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