Day after Thanksgiving.
Had most of the kids and their significant others at the new house in North Carolina. They brought along three rowdy dogs, so it was all good.
Unlike past Thanksgivings, we did not have a paella, nor did we share our day with the Native Americans at the local Indian casino. I figured, we are in North Carolina, and we would eat accordingly. I, therefore, ordered a massive "tailgate" meal from a local BBQ shack: pulled pork, ribs, sausage, hush puppies, fried okra, potato salad, and other good stuff. My wife ordered a vegetarian meal (gag!) from a local pretentious shop which seems to cater mostly to relocated Yankees--the meal, in truth, wasn't bad. In fact, we haven't had a bad meal since coming to NC. Things went well, lots of politics and culture discussed, and nobody was beaten or killed; the dogs ran wild all over the new house and property, and even managed to encounter a small herd of six or seven deer making its leisurely way through our woods. All of us were quite thankful that Hillary is not president.
The news? What can I say? The Religion of Peace showed its true colors yet again massacring hundreds of fellow Muslims at a prayer service in the Sinai.
At home, the progressive implosion continues as the lefties denounce each other for sexual improprieties. The election of Trump has revealed their madness. As noted above, all good, all good.
Off to be a tour guide.
Diplomad, we are glad you and the Mrs. are settling in so well with us! Question, according to the NY Times, diplomats are being escorted out the door at an alarming rate...to them anyway. Any truth to this or is the Times just being alarmist?
ReplyDeleteYes, I'd love to hear your opinion on this story.
DeleteThey are in the process of offering $25,000 incentives for retirements.
DeleteDelilah
Good eatin' in NC and VA, looks like you got the meal right. Welcome, and enjoy!
ReplyDeletePlease educate me, I'm from the Great Southern Land.
ReplyDeleteWhat sort of food are hush puppies and fried okra?
Down here Hush Puppies used to be a brand of shoe.
Hush Puppies are corn meal batter balls that are fried. The mixture can be regular, or sweetened with sugar or corn syrup/cane syrup/sweet liquid of some sort or another. Also, the puppy can serve as a delivery vessel for lots of fillings, being jazzed up with just about anything. Onion, Corn niblets, Okra (vs Fried Okra), Crawfish, meat, etc.
DeleteOkra is a vegetable that Yankees think is disgusting. Looking kinda like a weird cross between a cucumber and a bean, the inside is full of seeds. Boiled, the inside is kinda slimy, no, seriously slimy. Sliced into rondels, drenched in a corn meal batter and fried crispy, very tasty. Also good pickled. Found a lot in real Gumbo, as Okra grows like a weed just about anywhere you plant it (in Louisiana, that is.)
Okra and Grits (ground corn hominy, think 'cream of wheat' made with corn) are two Southern (USA) dishes that Westerners and Northerners just don't get. Which is fine by me as it makes more for us.
And, well, fried food. Yet another great southern tradition. I am sure if someone ever found an alien animal, some Southerner will batter up chunks of it and have a good old Fry. Or BBQ. Or toss it in a gumbo (if from Louisiana.)
Thanks Andrew. Cheers
DeleteAndrew nailed it pretty good. I do enjoy slicing battering and frying summer okra. Okra, btw, is an African food that has followed Africans everywhere.
DeleteIt would grow in Queensland. Maybe you know it as "ladies' fingers"? Anyway, it's widely available in Britain: often eaten with curry.
Deletehttps://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-okra/085475-43540-43541#reviews
careful.. more than two dogs is a pack.. and packs can become very suddenly unpredictable.
ReplyDeletejust... seen it happen... so I get antsy when people talk about three or more dogs playing together.
Great to hear the move went well.. have a chance at relocating from the bay area to SD... which is a step in the right direction... baby step, maybe.. but there seems to be nothing to the left of SF...
- reader #1482
Those of us that have 3+ dogs know there is no problem...
DeleteBarry
I do know people with 3+ dogs and no problems. I was not intending to say that every three or more dogs are a problem.
Delete- reader #1482
Anon Q ? Any thoughts ?
ReplyDeleteSounds like you might be in Asheville. That's not real NC, but a hippie enclave.
ReplyDeleteAnywhere from west to east would fit as related here. I have no idea why you infer Asheville. Could be, but then it could be anywhere else with the information expressed.
DeleteCould be metro Charlotte, or, Winston-Salem Greensboro High Point triad area or- Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill triangle area or- Wilmington coastal region. NC is a very wide state.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear NC is suiting you. That is an exquisite North Carolina Thanksgiving meal.
ReplyDeleteBarry
Sounds like a great T'giving dinner, Dip. My wife and I are big pork-eaters, too (and to think that one of my great-grandfathers was a kosher butcher!).
ReplyDeleteNorth Carolina sounds like a great place!
BTW, don't knock vegetarian food--unless you're knocking a species of dreadfully self-righteous and prissy vegetarian, of whom the woods sometimes seem dull. In Taiwan and China, they had a lot of good vegetarian places. They were marked by a bif swastika, but flat-footed, and with the upper part opening to the left instead of right. In the Far East, it's a symbol of Mahayana Buddhism. I remain an unabashed carnivore,and a Christian of Jewish descent rather than any kind of Buddhist, but life in Sinitic Asia at times tempted me towards vegetarianism--the stuff can be really good.
As for the deer on your property, how lenient are NC game laws about shooting deer on your own property out of season? Venison is good eating. Back when my wife and I were in a semi-rural part of the eastern USA, a friend of ours turned us on to it.
"Brought you venison." was pretty much a curse... I'm just unable to get past the gaminess. Hope I never have to adjust to that!
Delete- reader #1482
Venison sausages might be a gentle route into enjoying it.
DeleteDear SIR -
DeleteWELCOME to The Old North State! We're Mighty Happy to have You and Yours here. That Said ... PLEASE do not refer to BBQ as "pulled pork" as that phrase is a Foreign (read: Yankee) description of the Manna from the pigs that God put on This Good Earth. That Miz Diplomad was able to order vegetarian pretty well narrows down your local AO - I'll not add to previous speculation offered above.
Beyond the details, Be Thankful this Holiday Season that you have made the transition away from CA. NOT EASY! It may take a bit to feel like Home, but you are well-versed in the Trials of Moving Hither and Yon. I'm betting/hoping The Old North State will grow on you and Miz D. like an old shoe and it will soon Be Home for you both.
Until Then ... Welcome, Brother!
PS: Always remember: BBQ is a Noun - NOT a verb!
PPS: We stopped in to our son's new NoVa house over the Holiday - DoS just moved him and his wife there. AH, to be Young! Feel free to pop smoke if you'd like to chat privately.