Wednesday, June 8, 2011.
Eat Club At Impastato's. A Big Step.
Our first Eat Club dinner at Impastato's in quite awhile (by their standards, anyway) is tonight. It's also only the second Eat Club even since I broke my ankle, three months ago yesterday. I am almost, but not quite able to go across the lake on my own, but I would not be given that option by Mary Ann anyway. She felt it was too soon. And, besides, she wanted to indulge in the dinner, even though her rigorous diet will force her to forgo the pasta course. Great news! I'll eat all of hers. That's always the best part of dinner at Impastato's anyway.
Not that the rest of it was strictly from hunger. Tonight I had both the pork spiedini, which I love (although the stuffing was a little too soft tonight), and the veal with artichokes and mushrooms. (The kitchen insists on sending me a sampler plate at these dinners instead of just one entree.) Good though it was, I ate less than half of this double entree, because both veal and pork are suspects in the crime of giving me gout. This delighted Mary Ann, because it added to her Leftovers Portfolio. I looked forward to having another taste of the spiedini, come to think of it. But I never saw it again.
No soft-shell crabs on our menu tonight, unless you begged for them. Joe Impastato says that they quality is peak, but the availability is way below normal. Maybe it's the Mississippi River water from the Bonnet Carre spillway causing the problem. The lake is very obviously higher than normal, and unless it's my imagination it looks muddier, too.
We had quite a few past Eat Club cruisers with us tonight. Mary Ann and I sat with Vic and Barbara Giancola, who were with me on the train trip to Chicago last October. Barbara has one of my favorite qualities in a friend: she laughs at almost everything I say. Fun evening.
When we arrived home, I thought I would try walking up the six steps to the door instead of semi-crawling up on one knee and one foot, as I have been doing. I started with the bad foot. I paused, and pushed myself right on up onto that step. No pain, no problem. I went right on up the rest of the way, getting both feet on a step before going to the next one. I wonder if I would have tried this without a few glasses of wine in my recent past. Maybe I'm being overly cautious. Tomorrow I'll see if this is just as easy when I'm sober and going downstairs.
Impastato's. Metairie: 3400 16th St. 504-455-1545.
It has been over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
