You can give a gal a po-boy, but it doesn't mean she'll stay in New Orleans.

On the season finale of "Treme," Davis McAlary tried to persuade Janette DeSautel to stay in the Crescent City with a day filled with the magical moments that he insisted would never happen to her in Manhattan, and which she countered were just plain moments.

The morning began with a John Boutte serenade, complete with Café du Monde beignets. The couple drove among the live oak trees, napped on the Mississippi, danced at Le Bon Temps Roule and lunched at Domilise's, where they debated the merits of a New Orleans classic.

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It doesn't look good for Creighton Bernette.

When "Treme" last left John Goodman's character, he seemed to have given up on his city. In this week's episode, Bernette has writer's block. "But the rain still came. It rained, one day into the next," he writes before banishing the thought to the blink of a cursor on a blank page.

We should be worried then, when on a spring morning in New Orleans, he puts a smile on his face and begins a day filled with his favorite things.

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After a two-week hiatus filled with news of the latest tragedy in the gulf region - the oil spill - "Treme" fans returned to New Orleans last night for Mardi Gras 2006.

It was a locals-only affair in this eighth episode, with evacuees trickling back to share in the pared-down celebrations. "I'm home for Mardi Gras baby," an evacuee tearfully told Sonny and Annie. "Home for Mardi Gras."

Professor Longhair's "Go to the Mardi Gras" provides the soundtrack as the characters try their best to let the good times roll. King cakes provide a sugar rush - and for Antoine Batiste, a lucky baby - as the episode unfolds.

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John Besh.

His name was good enough to get four big-wig New York chefs a table a couple of weeks ago at Janette DeSautel's fictional restaurant in "Treme." But viewers have yet to meet this Louisiana chef … until now.

With DeSautel ready to shutter her eponymous restaurant, she turns to Besh in episode seven to see if he will take some kitchen equipment off her hands.

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Janette DeSautel is forced to close her restaurant in this week's episode of "Treme," despite winning raves from out-of-town chefs and having a packed house every night. She's got cash-flow problems and despite trying to placate suppliers with Barq's root beer each time they come to collect, they put her on cash on delivery.

"I can't write rubber checks, and I can't cook without food," she laments to her sous chef. She also can't bring herself to ask the staff to work a week for free. DeSautel reluctantly packs up her knife kit and locks up for what may be the last time.

Creighton Bernette, meanwhile, has to make meatloaf leftovers, and he needs some Creole mustard. "I put Creole mustard on everything," he tells his wife. Apparently Blue Plate mayonnaise too. There's a jar of it on his counter. FULL POST

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So chefs Tom Colicchio, Wylie Dufresne, David Chang and Eric Ripert walk into a bar. ...

Is this the beginning of a food awards joke? Nah, it's just the fifth episode of "Treme," when chef Janette DeSautel gets a surprise visit by four New York chefs referred to her struggling fictional restaurant by New Orleans' own "Top Chef Master," John Besh.

"We can't out-New York a bunch of New York chefs – we lowball them," DeSautel tells her sous chef Jacques. "We start with the sweet potato andouille shrimp soup. Then we get the rabbit kidneys out the freezer – they're tiny, they're going to thaw fast. We skewer 'em with some lardons of the Benton's bacon, then we hit 'em with sweetbreads and crawfish over grits." FULL POST