Bonnie, in her great wisdom, asked why Commander's
Palace is the fanciest restaurant in New Orleans. I,
in my great wisdom, said "it just is."

We decided to have our dinner at midday this time
to facilitate transportation (all our other big
meals were within walking distance of the hotel
or at least a couple blocks of public trans),
get to walk around the Garden District, and pay
maybe $2 less per dish. Plus the 25c martinis,
available only at lunchtime.

We arrived early for our opening time (1130)
reservation to find the place abuzz - turns out
that for the holiday season they open up at 11
to milk as much Christmas cheer out of everyone
as they can. Half an hour extra times, what, a
hundred tables, that comes out to a substantial
amount of additional dough.

To get to the Garden Room, you traipse through the
kitchen, out the garden, and into this semi-lovely
quite cheery and noisy glass-walled room with
many, many tables. Lots of festively dressed one
percenters and social creme de la cremes. It's
like the classiest high-school cafeteria in town.

All the tables right next to the picture windows are
fours plus, with some two including ours across the
aisle but separated from the rest of the room by a
wall of mirrors, increasing the light and airy feeling.
Also the noise. I am not superfond of this room, which
people claim provides the best experience. I'm perhaps
too staid in my old age, and the cackles of middle-aged
women gossiping after having done their shopping for
the day and in the midst of consuming far too many
Cosmos just doesn't much appeal. They could have been
beautiful (some of them looked that way), but they
still wouldn't have been beautiful. Beautiful is as
beautiful does, but rich is rich.

We were served by an odd team of varied styles, from
the aloofish but correct chief to the wisecracking
runner/busboy, and three, maybe four, in between.

Bonnie went for the Classic Creole lunch, which actually
sounded appealing, with two of the dishes for which the
place is famous and a chef's fancy of the season.

Turtle soup with Sherry was pretty normal, but this
time the booze was somewhat better than last. Savory
and James fino at a guess. Rich and flavorful, better
than Campbell's. Yes, Virginia, Campbell's used to make
turtle soup.

Candy Apple Lacquered Quail - Diamond Ranch quail stuffed
with fire-roasted chili boudin over apple-cabbage choucroute
& honey crisp-candy apple glaze. A very large quail, close
on a pound, boned out or rather Statlerized, roasted with a
sweet cinnamon? glaze and plopped unceremoniously over s
large amount of soft spicy rice with some offal ground into
it and a thankfully small handful of thin strands of sour
vegetable matter. The bird was in no way crisp, which meant
that I got a good-size chunk of flabby skin as tribute,
which was very enjoyable if a tad sweet.

The famed bread pudding souffle was suave an very nice,
justifiably renowned. Its heavily brandied sabayon was
beautiful, and when Bonnie had had enough, I drank the
rest, savoring it as if it were a sweet but extra-special
eggnog.

There's a special two-course streamlined lunch that appears
to cater to the rushed or the frugal - soup and low-budget
main course, $18 to 25. I went for the $18 option.

You get soup, which can include the turtle, $9.50 by
itself, plus the main course at a nice price. I went for
the chicken and andouille gumbo, which was pretty perfect,
though there was an abundance of 79c a pound chicken and
a dearth of $3 a pound sausage. The roux was dark to the
point of burning but not crossing the line, the chicken
stock rich and textury. They offer Crystal on request. It
wasn't needed.

A "Cajun tostada" was a crisp-fried flour tortilla piled
with pickled okra, pulled pork with Cajun spices, arugula,
and roast corn set atop that same boudin substance, It
was filling and pretty good, though I felt a slight pang
from my frugality. I'd have been ecstatic with the dish
if it had been a more normal pulled pork, but other than
one nice blob of fat, it was way too lean though tasty.

I vitiated the obvious purpose of having the menu by
getting the pork belly appetizer for dessert. Excellent
fatty pork belly, a maybe 3" cube, braised in cider (mulled
cider at that - my only complaint is that I got a piece of
clove stuck in my teeth). This came with cheese grits and
braised radishes, probably the smoothest and best-tasting
grits I've ever had and possibly the nicest radishes as well,
but after one bite they were pushed to the side as extraneous.

From to the sublime to the ridiculous, and the St. Charles
streetcar, with its unexpected jerks and loud noises, home.
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