pPrepare yourself. We are about to embark on a multi-episode King-stravaganza. You really should become a paid subscriber. I am more excellent than usual. As everyone knows, I am too humble to say this myself. Keep those cards and letters coming, folks!
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Mrs. Allison runs the kitchen at Segnette landing, the second best restaurant in Westwego. Mosca's is the best. Everyone agrees. Mosca's is only open for dinner.
Mrs. Allison is famous for her crawfish pies. They are impossible to resist. They satisfy even a hard-working shrimper's appetite when he ambles over from his boat tied up to the dock down the street. Shrimp boats pull out early, before the sun comes up. When they come back to port to unload their catch, it is still afternoon. Mosca's doesn't open until 5:00PM. Segnette Landing opens at 11:00AM at 450 Laroussini Street.
Segnette Landing shares a zip code with Mosca's. In Westwego, the zip code is 70094. Mosca's mailing address is 4137 U.S. Highway West, on the edge of Westwego but still in 70094. The area code for Westwego phones is 504. Westwego may be on the West Bank but it is still in New Orleans' orbit.
One time, a long, thick, black snake slithered into Mrs. Allison's kitchen at Segnette Landing. The restaurant is located on the picturesque shores of Bayou Segnette. The restaurant is just behind the fish market at the Westwego Shrimp Lot.
The Shrimp Lot has been a Westwego icon since 1978. You can find shrimp there and a whole lot more. The management at Segnette Landing respectfully requests that customers make purchases at the Shrimp Lot after their meal at the restaurant. Nobody likes a dining room that smells like raw fish.
Imagine Louisiana crawfish stuffing in a flaky pastry crust served with a side of sautéed asparagus. Nobody sautées asparagus, fresh in season or canned out of season, like Mrs. Allison.
When Mrs. Allison saw the black snake, it was as big as the black mambas you find in apartments on North Scott Street. Needless to say, she was taken aback. The West Bank is not the East Bank, the swamp may be less tamed in Westwego than it is in New Orleans (except in the East) but that doesn't mean people aren't decent and civilized.
When people find a big black snake in their house on the West Bank, people don't welcome the snake into the cozy warmth of their kitchens, they call Mr. Mosca, of Mosca's Restaurant on the fringes of Westwego. Since 1946, the Mosca family has been dispatching the biggest, blackest snakes on the West Bank. On the East Bank, in New Orleans proper, in Mid-City or Central City, or in Black Pearl, or in Hollygrove, or in Gert Town, or Tremé or the 7th Ward, or the 8th Ward, or Desire, or the Lower 9, or out in the East, big black snakes are welcome indoors with open arms.
City air sets one free.
And now, alas, we put up the pay wall. You really should be a paid subscriber. You will be in the know.