Seafood Gumbo
We are not living an ascetic life at this yoga conference. Continental dining almost every night. Not really the way you want to roll into bed when you are waking up at 545 am every morning.
This evening, dinner at Etoile, a funky, filled-with-art and lots of old, paned-glass windows separating tables. Mussels in a white wine and cream sauce, sweet potato fries and a salad. And wine, a Sancerre ordered by a fellow student whose son apparently has had sommelier training at the only good restaurant in Iowa.
Yesterday, my favorite meal. I scoped out the place when I was in Madisonville a few days ago, taking a walk and getting away a bit. Sign outside the restaurant: "Fresh Boiled Seafood. When Sign is Lit." No lights blinking, but a group of people walking out of the place. I asked them how the food was. The women looked at me as though I was a different life form. But the man with them was friendly, and told me over and over, "The gumbo's great." So, between the sign and the gumbo, I had to go back.
The only truly Louisiana-style meal I've had since I arrived. Amazing seafood gumbo, dark and rich and plenty of shrimp and rice and whitefish. Crusty bread. Hot tea with milk and sugar. My lunch partner also had an oyster Po'Boy: basically an excuse for eating fried oysters, but sandwiching them between crusty bread, mayo and tomato. As we left the place, I walked by a table where a woman was tucking in to a large platter of just-opened oysters. "That looks great," I told her, "and I don't even like oysters."
I'm hoping to go back, just to try a po'boy. Maybe I'll break out tomorrow on my own. Take a book, have dinner, read, and look out at the river that runs beside the restaurant.
This evening, dinner at Etoile, a funky, filled-with-art and lots of old, paned-glass windows separating tables. Mussels in a white wine and cream sauce, sweet potato fries and a salad. And wine, a Sancerre ordered by a fellow student whose son apparently has had sommelier training at the only good restaurant in Iowa.
Yesterday, my favorite meal. I scoped out the place when I was in Madisonville a few days ago, taking a walk and getting away a bit. Sign outside the restaurant: "Fresh Boiled Seafood. When Sign is Lit." No lights blinking, but a group of people walking out of the place. I asked them how the food was. The women looked at me as though I was a different life form. But the man with them was friendly, and told me over and over, "The gumbo's great." So, between the sign and the gumbo, I had to go back.
The only truly Louisiana-style meal I've had since I arrived. Amazing seafood gumbo, dark and rich and plenty of shrimp and rice and whitefish. Crusty bread. Hot tea with milk and sugar. My lunch partner also had an oyster Po'Boy: basically an excuse for eating fried oysters, but sandwiching them between crusty bread, mayo and tomato. As we left the place, I walked by a table where a woman was tucking in to a large platter of just-opened oysters. "That looks great," I told her, "and I don't even like oysters."
I'm hoping to go back, just to try a po'boy. Maybe I'll break out tomorrow on my own. Take a book, have dinner, read, and look out at the river that runs beside the restaurant.
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