Wednesday, March 7, 2012.
Every Time, It's A New Fat Hen.
Mary Ann continues to be overwhelmed by the endless parade of tasks that precede the publishing of a book. She is publishing it herself, doesn't really know much about the business, and has let me know in no uncertain terms that she wants me to butt out. Unless she needs some help, of course. Fair enough. She never had anything to say about my books.
Mary Leigh and I had dinner at the Fat Hen Grocery. It's really a restaurant, but it used to be a grocery store. And Chef Shane Pritchett is making and bottling a lot of his own sauces and other stuff. His menu is riddled with notations that this or that is "Shane Made." The day will come when it will begin to dawn on restaurant customers that not everything made in house is better.
We started with a unique guacamole, made not only with avocados but mangoes, and with a scattering of claw crabmeat. I said nothing about the crabmeat to Mary Leigh, who has an aversion to any seafood whose presence she is aware of. (She claims to hate oysters, but avidly soaks up the juices from the shells of grilled oysters.) She seemed to like this guacamole well enough, and so did I. We also agreed that fried flour tortilla chips are distinctly inferior to corn tortilla chips for the purpose of scooping up the stuff.
Also on the table but functioning much less effectively as an appetizer was a large plate of fried chicken livers. They were left whole and encrusted with what I think was a flour batter. A pepper jelly dipping sauce was on the side. This was not especially good, compared with other versions of this underrated dish around town. I only ate about fifteen percent of the plate, but thought the cat Twinnery would enjoy them. But I forgot to bring them home.
The Fat Hen has crowed loudly about its Reuben sandwich since it first opened in Harahan as a deli a few years ago. They smoke their own corned beef (they may even cure it themselves, because it's "Shane Made"). The bread was a rustic rye, and if they didn't bake it in house they certainly sliced it there, because the thickness different from point to point. The Reuben concept (corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing, all served hot) sounds better than it really is, I think. But this one was pretty good. The usual problem of the sandwich's disintegration from all that wet stuff in there was avoided by the dryness and thickness of the bread.
Mary Leigh is a barbecue fan. She has ordered Fat Hen's pulled pork platter three times. She didn't seem to be eating much of it today. "Every time I get it, it's totally different," she said. I reached over and took a few forksful. Pulled pork? It looked great, but it was on the dry side and not especially smoky or flavorful. Plenty of it, I'll give them that. Fat Hen considers barbecue as a major specialty, but they hit the spot with it only sporadically. Tonight was not one of those nights.
As soon as we arrived, Mary Leigh saw an enormous chocolate cake sitting in a pedestaled, covered cake pan on the counter. Also there were a couple of other cakes. We got a slice--enormous--and thought ti pretty good.
Mary Leigh doesn't know what she will do with her life. I didn't at her age, either. I think she should become a pastry chef. She's pretty good at it, and gives it the care and attention the art needs. Could be a good career. But. . . ah, growing up. It's not easy.
Fat Hen Grocery. Uptown: 7457 St Charles Ave. 504-266-2921.
It's over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
