Spring eats – road and kitchen

For a measly four bucks, the Turkish potato salad at Café Mediterranean (4347 Perkins Rd.) is one of those unassuming dishes that packs a wallop. It features nothing more than sliced baked white potatoes with olive oil, lemon juice and a generous dusting of paprika, but its tang and simplicity are incredibly refreshing and inspiring. The eatery, formerly on Third Street and now next to the all-purpose Thai Kitchen, also does a mean vegetarian mousakka and some seriously flavorful baba ghannouj.

Elsewhere in foodland this week, I returned to Catahoulas Restaurant in Sunset, La., where the vibe was serene and the service spot-on, and most of the dishes nicely done. Some things didn’t wow me, but I think it’s a matter of ordering right. The scallops were perfectly seared, no grit and full of flavor. The lamb was tender and rosy. And the enjoyable (and huge), bacon-wrapped tuna special, cooked mid-rare, was accompanied by some fab, gussied-up mashed potatoes topped with sautéed spinach. Deelish. On the other hand, the fish Marguerite was unnecessarily spicy and the Pecan Grove shrimp was fried hard in a thick coating of batter. Among desserts, the gently-filled pecan cake, Gateau Nana, was sumptuous. And the molded white chocolate bread pudding, requisite among rural road restaurants, was tender, toothy and moist.

Finally, all this sunshine has me thinking about guacamole, which was last night’s dinner, in fact, along with a bag of chips. What magic that emerges from a gently-smushed avocado with kosher salt, lime juice, tomato and a little minced garlic….!

Happy eating.