NOLA

Like you, I can't stop thinking about New Orleans. All three of us were there in May, 2004, and I can't stop thinking about the poor folks hanging around Canal St. on the blocks between the Radisson Hotel and the French Quarter under the old theater marquees. I'm also thinking about the chambermaids and cab drivers, workers in shops and restaurants, friendly women all over town who smiled at the kid and remarked on his cuteness. Some of them are probably fine. Some of them are probably not at all fine. I can't fathom their loss. I can't fathom the loss of a city.

I read today that the Bywater neighborhood is totally inundated. That's where we ate the best food of our trip, a lunch at Elizabeth's Restaurant. I know it's just a restaurant and that its loss (if it is lost) is nothing next to even one human life. But a city is made up of lots of places, big and small, and the people who spend their time in them. I feel like this small place belongs to me a little bit, too.

Elizabeth's signature dish is praline bacon, bacon encrusted with pecans and brown sugar and broiled crisp. I want to go back there for more.