Fish man, fish

This is how I spent the holiday weekend - cooking, frying and eating a bunch of food. Catfish, chicken, shrimp, low country boil, pork shoulder, etc. Yeah, lots of delicious food. The downside - lack of booze. That's what happens when you visit family who no longer partakes of the nectar. Oh well, doesn't stop a person from sneaking in some of that beer and having some cold ones on the sly. I feel like I'm underage again.

Holiday Leftovers

Thanksgiving is a time for gathering with family and friends to celebrate all the things you're thankful for over a heaping feast of food and football.

Drinksgiving is the time you gather with fellow drunkards and drink like there's no tomorrow. We usually throw in a Deep Fried Food Feast for good measure. After several years of doing this we have become pretty good at frying a bunch of favorites without much hassle. The 2010 menu featured the usual suspects including a whole turkey, turkey breast, fresh cut fries, English style fish & chips, Southern style catfish, hush puppies, hand-dipped corn dogs and two kinds of onion rings. All of it was pretty damn awesome. We skipped the fried sweets this year but there were plenty of pies and cookies to make up for it, along with plenty of other sides thanks to hosts Atlas & MC, Tag and MB. Of course booze, beer and wine were plentiful as well. In fact I'm looking forward to a return trip to tackle the leftovers - wine and IPA, that is.

UT Homecoming may as well be a holiday - people come in from out of town, lots of food and drink, spending money, football, good times. Not all of our alumni friends were able to make the trip in this year but we did have representation from Texas and Colorado, so that was nice. Our group behaved very well this year, mainly staying downtown for dinner and drinks. A little bit of front loading at the urban bunker didn't hurt either. It's nice to avoid jail time whenever possible.

2010 Homecoming Day vs. Ole Miss

Old City Revival

Spending more time in the Old City lately has led to good times and rediscoveries of some old favorite hangouts, primarily Manhattan’s but also their “cousins” across the street, Patrick Sullivan’s and Back Room BBQ. I think these places share ownership or at least management but either way they operate relaxing, easy-going establishments with pretty good food and (of course) drink.

There was a time not so long ago when going out for beer and wings was our group agenda. It happened 2-3 times per week and went on for years before finally losing favor for various reasons. Recently I’ve had wings more than usual and stumbled upon Manhattan’s smoked wings when out with some friends who had ordered them as an appetizer. They are fucking delicious! We had them dry (or naked, sauce on side) and these are my new favorite wings. I tried to replicate the order at both Sullivan’s and BR-BBQ on subsequent visits but they weren’t the same wings – they were out of the smoked wings one time, and the other time I think I messed up when ordering, so my fault.

Several of us drunkards met at Manhattan’s last weekend and devoured dozens of these little bastards with beer, bloody marys and shots. I ate all but 2 of my wings without hot sauce or dressing, just plain smoky goodness and dry rub seasoning. These are the wings I was craving and will go back for. It feels good to have a go-to place in the Old City again, and spending time and money at those places plus some of the newer joints is a nice change of pace from my regular haunts. All this “old is new again” reminiscing makes me nervous I’ll have Canadian and Samoan visitors soon and we’ll return to our 24/7 diets of pizza, wings, beer and bourbon. Please, no!

Deep Fried TND

A time honored tradition amongst our group occurred last evening, and for the 2nd straight year it coincided with our weekly homage to boozing during the week. Combine a fried food feast with Tuesday Night Drinks and you get Deep Fried TND! It was a smaller group this year but we managed to have a pretty good time and consumed way too much cholesterol and booze.

Our hosts were able to contain their 3 jungle cats long enough for us to set up the bar and fryer. We took care of the rest. Drinks: Maker’s Mark, Booker’s, 2 bottles red wine, brown ale, IPA, Coors Original. Fried foods: turkey breast & thighs, okra, hush puppies, spinach fritters, fish & chips. Additional foods: deviled eggs, slaw, and baked cookies.

Hangovers that follow nights like this aren’t as bad as you might think. Mainly because alcohol isn’t the main problem your body has to deal with, it’s the grease coursing through your veins and clogging up everything. A bigger issue I have to deal with today is holiday traffic. Damn, I already hate making the long drive across state, but holiday drivers make it so much more damn miserable. So wish me luck, I have two days of sober family time that may kill me. Shit, I still have to pack. Plus I really need to find my flask before I hit the road…