Text 4248, 70 rader
Skriven 2013-09-03 20:43:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 99
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Met my friends Dave and Ruthie at Redbones, where I hadn't
been in some time but where I've been an irregular regular
since 1988, the year after it opened up. I suggested 5:30
as that was before the evening madness started, and maybe
there would be parking; there wasn't, as it turned out, and
Dave had to drop Ruthie off at the front and then cruise
around a while for to find a space.

They gave us the choice of upstairs (bright, open, noisy)
or downstairs (dim, smelly, hip, extremely noisy). I said
we were too old for downstairs, so Dave, who is 69 years old
but looks half that age, hopped downstairs to see, until I
summoned him back up.

My choice of quaff was Ayinger Oktoberfest, which I was
surprised to see on tap outside Germany, and which made up
for my not having gone to Europe for beer-a-rama this year.
Dave followed my lead; Lilli and Ruthie had ladylike glasses
of Malbec (pretty good) and water (better) respectively.

Ruthie got a half order of Memphis ribs, which looked pretty
good; not enough to share, and I was tempted to stop her and
say, get a full order so we can have tastes, I'll pay for it,
but I reflected on how I didn't care what the ribs tasted
like, I wanted to keep the taste of brisket in my mouth, that
same taste I've had in my mouth for the last 25 years.

Three briskets - one regular plate (beans and slaw), one
extra fatty, mostly ends (I didn't notice the sides), and
one "meat and three," burnt ends with dirty rice, collards,
and fried okra. Dave reported that his regular sliced was
melt-in-your-mouth tender; Lilli's ends were good - I had
her leftovers next day and was thankful that they were
moderately but not overwhelmingly fatty, as fat goes from
being the greatest of all foods when translucent and warm
to merely okay when at room temperature to pretty weird
when you have to scrape it off the roof of your mouth. My
serving was bigger and more expensive than hers, and it
was almost all bark and fat, exactly as I wanted. My three
were dirty rice (never really good here, but one always can
hope, and I only wanted two sides anyway), which tasted like
Uncle Ben's made with beef bouillon and an onion; collard
greens, listed as simply greens on the menu, which gives them
some leeway, which were really good, especially the pot likker;
and fried okra, which were standard - Dave had a taste and
pronounced them good except for the degeneration into slime
upon chewing, and the ladies passed disdainfully.

For dessert, I had a porter made by Slumbrew, a local
outfit (we were in Somerville, jokingly referred to as
Slummerville).

It was a quick half hour back on the subway, where to
facilitate slumber I popped a Hogue Merlot that was
disappointingly cherrylike and cheap-whiney. We didn't
even finish the bottle. I should have gotten another
Argento Malbec at a buck less.

=

In the morning, I saw Lilli off at the station (she had an early
flight), returned, finished the wine, and then went south to
Rosemary's: Silver Line SL1 to the train station, train to the
airport, then the bus to to the other bus, which owing to my bus
being late had already left, so I stayed on the bus all the way
to Newport and got dropped off on Jamestown on its return route
(it seldom goes that way, but this was the one time during the
day when it did, thank goodness).
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