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I have the body to show my love of eating!

The worst part of life is dieting. I am an expert at both dieting and eating. I have clothes of all sizes. The wonderful physicians and staff at Pennington Biomedical have me in the Hall of Shame as a dieting failure.

I really enjoy the smell, the taste, the ambience and the service involved in fine food. My wife, Ms. S, is a good cook, but over the years has become cooking impaired. My mothers cookbook consisted of two handwritten pages and she remodeled the kitchen into a den. She always said that the happiest day of her life was not my birth or her marriage; but getting rid of the stove.

We eat out a lot. I also enjoy going to lunch with my friends, PR, who is notoriously frugal and Doc, who is always late and often in a hurry. I will share their observations about food from time to time.

The purpose of my blog is to give you my view of the good and the bad of dining in 225. Cost is not the criteria for inclusion in these dining messages. I will feature fine dining establishments and not so fine eateries. Through years of traveling, I have experienced great meals in cheap restaurants and not so good meals in expensive places. One thing is for sure, you cant judge a restaurant by the price. I will rate these spots on price, quality and service, with five being the very best.

Lets start with fine dining in 225. We have been blessed with really good restaurants in Baton Rouge through the years. Chalet Brandt was the best and its high ratings were well deserved. Since chef Charles Brandt retired, a number of 225 chefs have continued to fill the void, including his son Greg and daughter-in-law Paula with their Brandt's Maisonette Restaurant at 3786 Government Street.

Although small, the food is wonderful and reminiscent of many of chef Charles Brandt's recipes. When I went recently with an out-of-town guest, the restaurant was packed with couples celebrating birthdays (never over 40 though) and anniversaries, and business people on expense accounts.

The Maisonette's wine list features the Coppola Diamond Series chardonnay, cabernet and merlot wines. Try the baked oysters as an appetizer. It is a wonderfully rich dish. You cannot go wrong with the rainbow trout with toppings, rack of lamb, pheasant breast with foie gras mousse or quail with oyster dressing as main courses. My friend PR has trouble even reading the prices, though I think they are reasonable for the quality of the food and service. Call ahead for reservations.

Into Mexican? An authentic Mexican restaurant is Y Taqueria at the corner of Seigen Lane and Cloverland. It is not fancy. The wait staff really tries. Dont be in a big hurry, don't expect tablecloths and don't dress up.

Ordering in Spanish would definitely give you an advantage. I am a member of a Saturday lunch group and we recently had a good Mexican meal here at a reasonable price. While the tamales were dry, the fajitas, nachos and burritos were the real thing. The salsa, definitely not out of a bottle, was spicy. The Jarritos soft drinks were straight from our neighbor to the south. The lime and grapefruit Jarritos were the best.

I had a good experience at this little restaurant. There is a Super Mercado and a La Tiendia, a little store, next door to the restaurant that provides Mexican goods for you to cook at home. The price was right. In fact, my friend PR even reached for, but did not actually get, his wallet.