I Feel (Rhymes with Gritty)

I've been a dispirited, passionless eater lately. I haven't been cooking. I haven't been eating out much. You know what I've been doing?

Working days, nights, and weekends. My office deals with all-bureaucracy-resulting-from-Hurricane-Katrina, so I think you can guess the amount of work that we dealing with on a daily basis. Yes. That much.

Never in a thousand years would I have thought I could forsake the food (food blogs and the internet in general) to the extent that I have since I moved to New Orleans.

But I hope to post and comment once in a while (it is looking like once every other month right now), and show some signs of blogging life.

But, I should let you see what you want to see. . . Food pictures!

Although I said that I haven't been eating out much, one place that I've enjoyed on several occasions (because it is within walking distance to my workplace) is Mother's. The restaurant is always bustling and boisterous, and during breakfast and lunch, you will have to wait in a significant line before ordering from a crinkled and oil-stained paper menu.

Mother's offers many classic New Orleans items, including po' boys, gumbo, jambalaya, and breakfast grits. And the atmosphere is also classic New Orleans. The servers wear a clean, red and white ensemble complete with an old-fashioned soda shop paper hat and an apron. Also, you order from behind a glass display case-counter (similar to Katz's Deli in New York or Tommy's Joynt in San Francisco).

My recommendations at Mother's include (1) the roast beef po' boy with gravy and debris (the chipped beef and drippings left in the roasting pan), (2) the warm and immaculately fluffy biscuits (literally, the best I have ever had), and (3) the thick, creamy, and buttery grits. The additional picture here is of the shrimp etouffee omelet, but it is a little sloppy and soupy, and the seafood is tough, so I wouldn't eagerly recommend it.

And I was told (and have confirmed) that the best way to eat grits is with eggs that are cooked sunny-side-up or over-easy. You just make a crater with the back of your spoon into the surface of the grits and use a fork to mash the egg yolk into grits.