GOOD GUYS/GOOD FOOD
By Nancy Only, Published: Jul 4 2006
Restaurant News Links
I never cease to be amazed at how busy our local chefs and
restaurateurs seem to be, and how nice they manage to be in spite of
that.
I’m thinking about this because I’ve enjoyed meals at two of our local
eateries recently where the owners were especially helpful to me when I
was working on Managing the Munchies. Both of them have become people I
think of now as friends.
Each was unsparingly generous with time, information and recipes, and each has already begun to help me out with the next book.
At
Bless My Soul Café,
Marie Wilkins — of Sweet Mama Janisse fame — does the shopping and much
of the cooking. She also makes and markets her own line of products and
oversees Bless My Soul’s catering jobs to boot. It’s a life that
doesn’t leave a lot of breathing room, but she does it with remarkable
good humor and manages to be an engaging personality who shares what
little time she has left as well.
Raised in a small Louisiana town, Marie learned to cook from her
grandmother. Life was lean, but Marie learned her lessons well. Today
she serves up the only real soul food in the area, catering when
requested for the fans who love her down-home food and down-to-earth
style.
I visited Bless My Soul with my youngest son. He had eaten — and loved
— catfish for the first time on a visit to New Orleans several years
ago. Several weeks ago, on sharing our mutual concern about the ravages
of last year’s storms and how little real restoration seems to have
been done since then, we decided that a visit to Marie’s might be an
antidote to our melancholy. Both her food and her hospitality helped us
over the hump.
When my middle child was in town last week, a day of sightseeing ended
in a visit to Ferndale. I can’t seem to go to Ferndale without stopping
to eat at Curley’s. As my friend Nita told him recently,“We dream about
those coconut prawns at night.”
Indeed, I’ve indulged there twice lately — each time on the prawns and
a cup of his remarkably good tomato-basil soup. It’s always hard to
choose because the Portabello Mushroom Tower also beckons me, and I’m
tempted to add it to my order. But the prawns are so-o-o divine — and
so filling — that if I can remain rational in the face of such sensory
appeal, I realize that I can’t possibly eat it all. At least not at a
single sitting.
Like Marie, Curley is excellent company. And he’s a splendidly willing
spirit. I have this hang-up about asking for time from people I know
are as busy as both of these fine folks seem to be. Yet neither of them
has ever turned me down about anything. I not only enjoy their food, I
feel honored to have them as resources in my life.
What especially intrigues me is that both Curley and Marie have lived
in the fast lane. Curley managed Spanky and Our Gang and the Charley
Miller Band when those groups were at their peak. Marie lived in
Topanga Canyon, where she danced in films, and then switched careers to
cater to productions on location. Check out the impressive list of
celebrities she’s fed on Bless My Soul’s Web site.
Curley’ roots are in Chicago and Marie’s are in Louisiana. Yet both of
them sought to escape the rat race, and both love the haven they’ve
found in Humboldt County.
These two “superstars” are well aware of the blessings of living behind
the Redwood Curtain. The rest of us can be grateful that they found us,
chose to make this their home and continue to provide their fabulous
food options so that we can partake and enjoy.
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