A few weeks ago, I was reading some comments on the San Antonio City-Data forum about places to get catfish, and one nice person suggested a place on Austin Highway called Podna's. What else could I do with a day off from work besides drive over and try the place out?
Now you are probably thinking that I wanted to go for the catfish - and eventually I will, but the mission for today's visit was to try the Muffeletta sandwich. Just as I have been on a quest to find the better Reuben sandwiches, I have this distant memory of a muffeletta in the back of my mind, and I need to know where at a moments notice I can obtain one if the urge overcomes me.
By the way, I usually don't pass up on catfish, but this evening, we are going to Clear Springs where I will summarily gorge myself by shoveling a pound of fried catfish down my gullet and rinse it with some beer. Naturally, I'll have a full report on that, later.
From everything I understood about Podna's, it was some what of a dive - and I mean that in a good way. In San Antonio, we know that some of the best restaurants are the "hole in the wall" places with only enough room for a dozen or so patrons at any one sitting. So in my mind, I was not expecting anything fancy, and potentially, it could be crappy. My wife was only going to humor me so much. The real problem with this whole adventure was, Podna's is about 500 feet down the road from Earl Abel's and she would have easily allowed me to drop her off for some comfortable dining at EA's and let me go off Muffeletta hunting and come to pick her up when I was done. But, I prevailed and we went into Podna's.
The place was packed. Granted - it was Friday so a lot of folks were there for the fish. When you go in, you order at the counter then you find a seat, and as we looked around, I was sort of worried that we might have to get it to go. But by the time we had paid, a few tables cleared up. 
As expected, I ordered half a muff and my wife opted for a Caesar's Salad. You have to accept that many restaurants have their own version of various dishes, and perhaps, this is the Cajun style of Casear Salad we had not experienced before. My wife joking asked if I would care to share her plate of lettuce. With the Earl Abel's sign visible out the window in the distance, she took a few bites and simply told me she was not impressed. The taste was of spicy Dijon mustard. And who knows, perhaps that is the Cajun way - I just don't know. But seriously, no croûtons or anything - it was just some Romain lettuce mixed with Dijon mustard. But seriously, who goes to a place like this and orders a salad? I'm gonna have to assume that they just don't do a lot of these.
A standard muffeletta is prepared on a big round piece of bread so two or even four people can share one. In this case, I ordered a half-muff and it was definitely more than enough to feed a fat guy like me.
The bottom of the bread is covered with some sort of olive spread and then it contains ham and salami. The sandwich is then toasted making it a warm and delicious treat. I felt bad enjoying my sandwich so much while my wife picked at her salad and even offered her half, but other than to taste a little bit of it, she was not interested.
So, as if someone could sense that she was down, the waitress came over and handed us two servings of bread pudding and said they were compliments of Paul in the back. We looked back and a man was smiling and waving. The waitress then said to my wife, "You are Linda, right?" We just looked at one another and the lady just said, Oh well - enjoy the dessert.
My order of bread pudding was awesome! It was steaming hot with a scoop of ice cream melted around it (I assume it was ice cream) and I was enjoying it immensely. Somehow, it occurred to my wife as she poked at hers, that mine was hot and hers was cold. So, we couldn't really complain that the complimentary dessert intended for some lady named Linda was inconsistent. But if you do order it, definitely ask for the bread pudding to be heated up. Good stuff!
Oh, as we were leaving, Paul the guy who sent us the dessert came out and introduced himself and immediately my wife recognized him from high school, and he immediately remembered that her name wasn't Linda. Small world.
In the end, I was pretty pleased with my muffeletta. If in the area, I'll definitly give the catfish a shot. My wife will probably try something besides the salad if I can get her to come with, instead of leaving her off at Earl Abel's.
If you have had the catfish or something else from Podna's, I'd love to know how it was for you. Tell me about it.
My wife and I had an important errand to run Saturday afternoon at 3PM but through the use of modern cellular communications, we were able to learn that we would not be needed downtown until closer to 4PM. Since we were already on the road and since I had a watch that stopped at 11 o'clock (it was closer to 2), I suggested we run into Ingram Park Mall and get a battery for the malciferated watch and kill a little time.
I really only have a handful of reasons that can get me to the mall these days. One is JC Penny's. I like the slacks they sell and more importantly, you can get into Penny's without going into the mall.
There is also a Security Service Credit Union outlet in the mall, so if for some insane reason you need to make a transaction that can't be done at an ATM machine and it is after 5PM, you can go in there. Oh, and it is at the entrance to the mall, so technically, you don't have to go into the mall.
But on this day, we would have to actually go inside the inner bowels of the mall where one must negotiate crowded spaces with undesirable elements of society - teenagers and such. The little kiosk my wife always goes to for watch and jewelry repair is on the lower level, I think where there used to be a Luby's. I'm not sure if it is still there or not. Anyway, Sears is the anchor on that end of the mall.
So the guy there is extremely nice and recognizes my wife right away from the repeat business and takes a quick look at my watch and says he can fix it up in about 15 minutes. So, what this means is, we had to stay in the mall for another 15 minutes.
We did run into Kirklands and buy a picture but then decided that we better eat. Okay, in theory, the concept of the food court is a great idea. You take a dozen or so diverse restaurant outlets, put them in an open space, then provide shared seating so that people in the same party can eat different foods but sit together. The problem with this is, you have to sit with other people. Mall people.
If you ever have a poor body image, feel as though you are too overweight, have a bad complexion, don't dress right, or are generally ugly, I'd like to offer up a little advice. Take a day trip to the food court and Ingram Park Mall some weekend and I promise, you will come out of there feeling like you could win the Miss Teen USA contest without having to know where America is on a map. You can ask my wife; I'm no fancy dresser and once, I was able to leave the house wearing white socks and sandals (much to the embarrassment of my wife), but after mingling with the people at this food court, I actually looked reasonable.
One word people: Mirror. Look at yourself in the mirror and if it looks good to you, you need to change. That's right. If you are one of the men I saw at the food court yesterday who looked in the mirror at your Capri pants and said, "I look good being a man wearing Capri's" you are no longer able to trust your own instincts. I know gay people who think that men who wear Capri's look too gay to be seen in public.
Okay, so we were in the food court and my wife had a hankerin' for Chic-Fil-A . No thanks. So while she was rounding up some of that, I saw this place that sells Philly Cheese Steaks. I looke over the menu and I saw that they also sell a Muffuletta.
The Muffuletta's I know about come on a big round piece of bread and have some sort of olive salad on the bottom, then covered with the meats and cheeses. This one came on a sub bun, and there was no hint or discussion of olives at all. It was simply some fried salami or something with cheese melted on it. So, in the same way that Subway asks you what toppings you would like on it, I asked the lady for some black olives to go on my fried bologna sandwich.
Hell, I ought to be a sandwich creator because the end result was pretty darn tasty. I ate the entire thing without complaint, other than it wasn't what I thought I was ordering.
In the meantime, my wife and I used the time to observe the unfortunate people put upon this earth to congregate in a place for the sole purpose of providing us reason to feel better about our looks. We aren't shallow people, we just use the tools we are given.
From everything I understood about Podna's, it was some what of a dive - and I mean that in a good way. In San Antonio, we know that some of the best restaurants are the "hole in the wall" places with only enough room for a dozen or so patrons at any one sitting. So in my mind, I was not expecting anything fancy, and potentially, it could be crappy. My wife was only going to humor me so much. The real problem with this whole adventure was, Podna's is about 500 feet down the road from Earl Abel's and she would have easily allowed me to drop her off for some comfortable dining at EA's and let me go off Muffeletta hunting and come to pick her up when I was done. But, I prevailed and we went into Podna's.
The place was packed. Granted - it was Friday so a lot of folks were there for the fish. When you go in, you order at the counter then you find a seat, and as we looked around, I was sort of worried that we might have to get it to go. But by the time we had paid, a few tables cleared up. 
As expected, I ordered half a muff and my wife opted for a Caesar's Salad. You have to accept that many restaurants have their own version of various dishes, and perhaps, this is the Cajun style of Casear Salad we had not experienced before. My wife joking asked if I would care to share her plate of lettuce. With the Earl Abel's sign visible out the window in the distance, she took a few bites and simply told me she was not impressed. The taste was of spicy Dijon mustard. And who knows, perhaps that is the Cajun way - I just don't know. But seriously, no croûtons or anything - it was just some Romain lettuce mixed with Dijon mustard. But seriously, who goes to a place like this and orders a salad? I'm gonna have to assume that they just don't do a lot of these.
A standard muffeletta is prepared on a big round piece of bread so two or even four people can share one. In this case, I ordered a half-muff and it was definitely more than enough to feed a fat guy like me.
The bottom of the bread is covered with some sort of olive spread and then it contains ham and salami. The sandwich is then toasted making it a warm and delicious treat. I felt bad enjoying my sandwich so much while my wife picked at her salad and even offered her half, but other than to taste a little bit of it, she was not interested.
My order of bread pudding was awesome! It was steaming hot with a scoop of ice cream melted around it (I assume it was ice cream) and I was enjoying it immensely. Somehow, it occurred to my wife as she poked at hers, that mine was hot and hers was cold. So, we couldn't really complain that the complimentary dessert intended for some lady named Linda was inconsistent. But if you do order it, definitely ask for the bread pudding to be heated up. Good stuff!
