oh thanks

oh god.

thanksgiving was ridiculous--it was a 2 day food overload. some highlights:

i went over to tom's this year, where plans were in place to host 2 days of thanksgiving celebration. day 1 was for katie's dad's side of the family. because i fell asleep earlier in the day for about an hour between loads of laundry and then had to take the bus from the Beac to West Seattle after waiting for it to finish, I arrived and walked in the door late (while everyone was actually eating at the table). no one cared, because katie's family is awesome. bonus points: 1

tom made this ridiculous gravy with the turkey brine, peaches and brown sugar. oh, sounds gross? wrong. "ew, fruit in your gravy?" yeah, that's right, baby. i'm one of those people that automatically awards a combo multiplier to the king of all flavor interminglings, the sweet/savory one-two punch, and this one was an instant-kill finishing move. bonus points: 3, including the hat-tip to the fact that there were 2 kinds of meat to smother in this delicious ambrosia disguised as what mortals know as "gravy."

since the whole deal went down at a Wils' brother's house and both Wils bros happened to be in attendance--as well as a large group of people, natch--round 1 culminated in a session of rock band 2. bonus points: 2.

after the festivities ended i resumed the game of Fable 2 i had started the week prior. bonus points: 6, one for every hour of Fable i played before falling asleep on the couch. total points for day 1: 10.

day 2 was planned out for katie's mom's side of the family, and katie's brother's in-laws (tom was friends with katie's brother ben before he began dating her, which is why this was all going down at tom's). i began my preparations for this stressful day by waking up at 8 am and resuming my game of Fable right where i left off and played until family members started showing up; about 2 o' clock. since fable is only very slightly less fun to watch than it is to actually play, katie hung out on the couch with me the whole time and gave me tips from the strategy guide.

once the fam started showing up i migrated to the kitchen to help tom out with food prep (i have mad knife skills; i bet you didn't know). tom had been figuratively pulling his hair out about being able to replicate the gravy from the night prior but was ultimately able to pull it off. two kinds of stuffing were prepared as the vessel to facilitate the transfer from plate to mouth.

there was dinner (oof), there was pie (ouch). and then there was Scrabble, with 20 bucks on the line for the winner. i was pretty confident in my ability to trounce all oncomers as i'm pretty good at scrabble but tonight it was not to be. STORING right out of the gate (double word score and a 50 point bingo bonus) and J_BILAN[T] (J on a double letter plus a double word score plus a 50 point bingo bonus) were both kickass plays that were both, unfortunately, not made by me. I came in third place.

night 2 was capped off with wii bowling and wii golf, and after all family members went home, I watched katie play fable for 4 hours before falling asleep on the couch again.

i woke up at 8 again on day 3 (which turned out to be a leftover extravaganza of sorts) to play more Fable 2. katie and I played in shifts with tom supervising until about 10pm at which point we switched to Fred Claus (highly recommended). Then I went home.

probably the best thanksgiving i can remember having in years and years. there was that one family thanksgiving we had in a condo in carlsbad, california, but this topped that even though we had a deep-fried turkey that year.

many happy returns, master wayne.

FLOG: willie's taste of soul bar-b-que

"...whatever comes second, i'll be there with my weapon."

tonight i just happened to be armed with a terrible hunger for some barbecue.

so like i said earlier, we had plans to go to "willie's taste of soul bar-b-que" tonight. here's how it jumped off:

i'm running a little behind so i just head straight there from work. i roll up on my bike and there are 3 squad cars parked on the sidewalk in front of the place. cops are milling around some perp telling him he's gonna go to jail.

i think, "this is going to be awesome."

i lock up and walk in. i'm a little disappointed because the place is very clean and well lit and smells faintly of floor cleaner. i had fully expected grimy wooden tables and metal-framed chairs with torn vinyl upholstery in a dimly lit, woodsmoke-filled dining area but sadly(?) this isn't the case.

emily shows up with the rest of the crew. we sit down.

our server seems skeptical about our group because while we order more than half of us (myself not included) are inquiring as to exactly how hot "hot" is at their establishment. server gives us a look that i take to mean that she thinks we are clearly a bunch of punk-ass bitches.

food comes.

i am wrecking the shit out of my helping of potato salad. i similarly decimate the remainder of lynsey's and emily's potato salad. i normally do not like potato salad so this comes as a pleasant surprise to me. the potatoes are well cooked. there are small chunks of orange bell pepper throughout and i believe they use a generous amount of yellow mustard in the recipe but i could be wrong. again, i am hardly ever (read: almost never) impressed with potato salad but this place definitely knows how to do it up right.

i move on to the mac and cheese. i am hearing universal praise around the table for the mac as i dig in but i am ambivalent about it. i have had more than my fair share of macaroni and cheese around this city and i can think of at least 6 places that do it better. not to say that that willie's has bad mac and cheese but i wouldn't go in there before a picnic or whatever and order an extra large portion to go (like i would with the potato salad). whatever, the mac is average. i move on.

i snag a bite of chicken. the sauce takes me by surprise. it is the dry kind of spicy, not the kind that drowns your mouth in heat and makes you sweat but it is definitely very peppery. there is a sweet note at the end and is not as thick as i thought it would be. the chicken itself is very tender and moist. there is a visible smoke ring in the meat. my biggest complaint is that there is not enough of the chicken--it is a full order of chicken and i expected there to be more for the price.

the hot links that came with the order are something i've been anticipating since i first looked at the menu. they are not quite what i expected. it seems to be an andouille-type sausage that has been cut into small pieces. it does not appear to be very fatty; the meat is a bit drier than i thought it would be. it is heavily spiced with something i am unable to identify but the flavor is enjoyable. emily finds them to be too heavily spiced and loses interest. good. more for me.

the cornbread muffins are moist and crumbly. willie's incorporates red bell pepper into the batter which i am unable to detect with just my tastebuds. they are crusty on the outside. they don't hold up too well to my attempts to sop up some barbecue sauce so i decide to finally holler at the brisket and stack some on top of a corn muffin. it is the fucking bomb so i decide it's time to go one-on-one with the brisket.

first brisket-only bite and am fucking blown away. it is by far the best thing on the table. it comes apart with next to no effort and is not stringy at all. it's tender and very juicy. the sauce is a wonderful compliment to the meat. it's perfect. it's the best brisket i can recall eating to date and seals my decision to go to willie's again in the future. if a person or place can barbecue some meat better than my brother can then a) maybe there's a problem and b) i am automatically sold.

overall willie's is good. there are a lot of things on the menu that i didn't try (collard greens, baby back ribs, coconut cake, peach cobbler) and i will have to cop that shit next time i go. they lose a few points for not having beer on tap--beer is only sold by the bottle there--but at least they have red stripe and sierra nevada. i also should say here that if you ever go there you better bring an appetite because the amount of food you get is kind of ridic. everyone was stuffed to the point of food coma, which sounds kinda whatever but the combo we picked "feeds 4" and there were 5 of us. i straight up embarassed so much food tonight too and if you know me then you know i can put food away like it's my job.

and yeah I KNOW this isn't a proper flog post without actual food porn so don't sweat me. for some reason NO ONE remembered to bring a camera so you're just gonna have to let my way with words play nice with your imagination for now.

see you next time.