Wednesday, January 5, 2011. Dream Font. Andale. A root-soaking rain came through in the wee hours this morning. It awakened me but also put me right back to sleep.
I resumed a dream in which I made letters out of icing for the top of a birthday cake. The typeface for the letters was Cheltenham Bold Condensed (sample at right). I spent over a decade in the typesetting business, and the fonts in my dreams are always well defined.
Mary Ann went across the lake for a few appointments. One was with a doctor who was concerned about something she asked about. She was in a panic about this, and so was I. But the tests showed no big problem, and the little problem doesn't really need much attention.
When MA told me that news, she added that they were convoying cars across the Causeway because of fog. I'm glad she told me that. I wouldn't have made it over there on time for the radio show, which I just did from home.
Dinner at Andale!!, a Mexican-Cuban restaurant in Mandeville. It was Mary Ann's idea. Nine months ago Andale! opened in the space vacated by Casa Gomez. That restaurant also served Cuban and Mexican food. I guess if a restaurant owner is looking for a location, he might favor one that had established itself for the same kind of food.
The place wasn't very busy, but it was cold and wet outside. The servers were almost effusive in their friendliness, pointing out various items they recommended. One such was on its own sheet of paper: El Comal, available for two to four for the magical price of $13.50 per person. It's named for the flat pan used for cooking tortillas. In this instance the pan was filled with chicken, beef, chorizo, shrimp, crawfish, and pork, and a couple of seared poblano peppers. This was place atop a tall metal box on the table with a Sterno can burning within.
Fajitas without the excitement would be a good way to describe this. On the side were hot flour tortillas, three different salsas, sour cream, and pico de gallo, and you made your own tacos from this. I'd say this fell a bit short of what it could have been, mostly because almost everything was overcooked to near-dryness. (The shrimp and the chorizo avoided this problem, but the beef had it bad.) The most interesting part of the ensemble were two of the salsas, one orange and one green, both very, very hot but delicious.
As was the case with its predecessor, my sixth-sense reading of Andale!'s menu tells me that the Cuban dishes might be better than the Mexican. We will get that next time. We finished off the dinner with a large piece of tres leches cake, well soaked with coconut milk and beautifully served.
I wish I had been able to take better pictures of it all, but I forgot my camera at home. That forced me to use the camera function of the iPhone passed down to me by Jude, who of course has the latest model in didn't need this one anymore. It took better pictures than I expected, although it couldn't adjust for my wobbly fingers as well as my regular camera does.
Andale!. Mandeville: 643 Lotus Dr. 985-626-1534.
