Wednesday, February 2, 2011.
Ice Pellets? Gyoza At Kazoku.
If we lived up north and saw a sky like the one hung over New Orleans today, we'd know that snow was imminent. It wasn't quite cold enough here for that, but it was for what the forecasters call "wintry mix."
I mentioned this in a call to Jude, who is flying in tomorrow for my birthday weekend. "Oh, yeah, wintry mix," he said. "Snow, sleet, and rain, all at the same time. When I was at [Georgetown] Prep, that was the most miserable weather, because it was wet and cold but it wasn't a snow day, when school would close." He had three years of experience with all this in Bethesda during his glorious evacuation after Katrina.
It was drizzling when I left the Cool Water Ranch, but a funny thing happened on the Causeway. I heard what sounded like rain hitting the windshield, but saw no water drops. Then I noticed something swirling on the road surface behind the cars ahead of me. It looked like river sand spilled from a truck, but lighter. This odd precipitation alternated with drizzle all the way into downtown. There, when I stopped for a red light, I saw little white beads of ice, bouncing around.
I reported all this to the news department at the radio station. "The current weather report for Baton Rouge says 'ice pellets,'" said Shana Rose, one of our news readers. That's a new one on me. I hope it doesn't get to be an old one.
A strange thing happened after the show. The prospect of dining in a room separated by the windy, cold, damp outside by only one door (and that's most New Orleans restaurants) was so repulsive that it defeated my desire for dinner. And that, for me, is saying something. I tried to think of an agreeable place to go, but the next thing I knew I was back on the Causeway, heading north.
By the other side, the momentum in this mental battle shifted to the side of hunger, which suggested I stop at Kazoku, the new and very good sushi bar on LA 59 in Mandeville. The dining room there is so long that I could get far away from the door. I warmed up with some clear soup and an order of gyoza.
Gyoza are pasta dumplings filled with pork and herbs. They're like Chinese pot stickers, but in Japanese restaurants they're usually served steamed. For rather some time now, I've noticed that all the gyoza served by all the Japanese restaurants on the North Shore are exactly the same. They're even served in the same miniature skiff, with the dipping sauce at the stern. They're good enough that I order them often. But the uniformity makes me suspicious. Are these coming in ready-made? Well, that's the trend in the whole restaurant business.
Kazoku's owner and sushi chef Wilson Fung was taking the night off, but his son and daughter took care of business. I started with some seared, pepper-edged tuna sashimi. Then a Burning Man roll, with spicy tuna in the center and salmon, avocado and more tuna around the outside. That should warm things up, I thought. An asparagus nigiri was my vegetable course. Windy, cold, and wet weather don't usually inspire a hunger for sushi, but I wasn't the only one who had that hunger tonight. Kazoku was busier than I've ever seen it.
Kazoku Sushi. Mandeville: 1680 LA Hwy 59. 985-626-8118.
