Wednesday, December 26, 2012.
Back To Work, Sort Of. Drago's Makes Good Impressions.
I began the day with the fatigue of cooking the Yule dinner still upon me. But it's back to work today, with a column and a newsletter and a radio show all waiting for me to stand and deliver. (And I really do stand when I write. Something I picked up from Winston Churchill, who despite his lavish eating, drinking and cigar-smoking habits lived to be ninety-one.)
When the younger generation appeared, I greeted them with a pan of freshly-baked buttermilk biscuits. Mary Leigh took the first one, but she didn't like what she saw. Although the tops of the biscuits were nice and toasty (a little too toasty, I thought) the bottoms were a yellowish tan, and not only not toasty, but actually damp.
Mystified, I returned the pan to the oven. The oven temperature was right, and the biscuits had been there long enough. I saw the problem: the heating element on the bottom was not even warm. The top one was quite red. Uh-oh. But I had a flash. I pulled off the control knob and reversed it. It was much easier to put it on that way than the way it had been. A few days ago, I cleaned all the oven knobs. I must have put this one on backwards, and what I thought was Bake was actually Broil--heat only from the top.
This also explained why the ham and the roast beef in this oven yesterday had taken so long to cook, and why they didn't come out right.
I did not do so well with my Christmas cooking this year. Dishes that I turn out perfectly most of the time were total failures. Maybe it was my mood. Too much to do to get myself into the proper spirit.
After a pleasantly busy radio program I headed to Metairie for dinner with the gang. Jude was eager to show off the goodness of Drago's to the GF. First some titanic raw oysters (as in about five inches long--the meat, not the shell). Then two dozen char-broiled. Next course: the new shrimp chopped salad for the GF, a wedge salad for ML, grilled drumfish for Jude.
I had walked in thinking about Shuckee Duckee--the funny combination of a grilled duck breast with a creamy oyster pasta. But I changed my mind when I saw what was to me a new pasta dish, made with both a cream sauce and dried tomatoes, and usually with shrimp. I asked to have it with oysters and the florentine sauce as well, and wound up getting a very rich, filling, but wonderful platter. That cheered me right on up.
The place was full of people we knew, but how could it not be? The whole world seemed to be at Drago's tonight. A couple of guys I used to sing barbershop joined me in a cocktail while I waited for the rest of my gang to arrive. A couple from Sonoma who have joined us on a couple of cruises were hanging out with travel agent Debbie Himbert and son, who was one of Jude's pals at Christian Brothers School. Fun evening.
Something else lifted my spirits. Checking yesterday's traffic on the website--and expecting to find the usual slack visitation typical of holidays--I saw that Christmas Day was the biggest day for people visiting NOMenu.com in the history of the site--and by quite a bit. I guess people found my list of restaurants open on Christmas useful enough to pull them away from their other celebrations (or non-celebrations).
Drago's. Metairie: 3232 N Arnoult Rd. 504-888-9254.
To browse through all of the Dining Diaries since 2008, go here.
