Eat at Joe's!

Fat Thursday On Tuesday

Had a whole plate of these this morning:

(No, not the little girl, [email protected]$$, so there.)  

Of course, we started a little late: the above pastries are supposed to be eaten on Fat Thursday by good Poles, but we're not Polish.  Maybe we should have tried getting our pączki at, say, Halgo instead of a Publix in Savannah.  But being Amuriken, we get to rip off whatever culinary traditions we want from whomever we like without regard for decency, geography, religion, respect, or taste.  ;)  But we should get them eaten up by Mardi Gras in any case, right?  So down the, er, pie-hole they go.  And we had some yesterday too, on what I guess is Lundi Gras, so there.  

The two boxes we got were mislabeled.  One was the advertised "cheese" coated with chocolaty goodness (with the filling being more like what one finds in a Boston cream doughnut, but a little richer and a lighter, less smooth texture).  The other was the above, but with additional apple filling.  I think we've eaten 6 in ~12 hours, which is pushing it.  :)

Anyone know where I'm supposed to get a pączek (apparently paczki is the plural form of the word) in town anyway, if not Halgo? I don't actually know that Halgo has them.

[A personal note:  Thanks to our special Georgia correspondent, code-named "Agent K," for making the trip & bringing back the goods.  :)  That's right up there with other such culinary odysseys.]

I Wonder If The Hamburglar Will Steal Your Wedding Ring

I'm sorry I'm also late with this incredibly important announcement:  Apparently, McDonald's in Hong Kong does weddings.  I'm not married, so what do I know — maybe a McWedding would be better than an Elvis-themed wedding in Las Vegas.  It does look cheaper then the average wedding ceremony.  And with the money you save, you could go to McDonald's in Sweden and play Pong for food.  

How's It Going At Bullock's?

Does anyone know whether Bullock's has recovered from the unfortunate and apparently undeserved scare they had earlier this spring?  I used to eat there every week or two, scarfing as many hush puppies as I could with my barbecue sandwich and sides.  I know Sam Poley put together a support event of sorts; I went with someone special as soon as I could after hearing about it.  My barbecue sandwich was as good as ever.  :)

Wow, I really would love a quarter's worth of Spam squirted thru a little metal tube

http://gastromatic.net/

[Via Wine Authorities, after they clearly had too much to drink.  Dude.]

BBQ Jew?

Just a few days ago, I was looking down my list of Durham food blogs, and noticing that, while some were happily active, some are dead, about to be dead, or haven't posted in a while.  I've been kvetching for several months on what I considered my own posting suckitude, but maybe I should give myself a break. 

And then, out of the blue, a new Durham food blog:  BBQ Jew.  Jews eating 'cue, so you don't have to, but I think you'll want to.  They only have a few posts up at the moment, but who knows what kind of traif they'll wander in with.  I'm looking forward to it, because anyone who can come up with the concept of "The Bermudacue Triangle" -- look in "BBQ U." -- is OK with me.  They're in the sidebar.  Visit early and often.  :)

By the way, it's fitting I was alerted to this by an ex-housemate Jew who lived here long enough to develop an appreciation for Durham's finer things.  Thank you, DJEJ.   

The Lord Works In Mysterious Ways

Behold!  The "Virgin Mary" pretzel, currently going for over one million dollars on eBay.

Edit: The auction appears to have been cancelled.  Fancy that.  The last time I checked it, the price was over $2,000,000.00.  It had to be people shilling, right?  Right??

NC BBQ Society

Good lord -- how could I have been unaware of this for so long? 

The North Carolina Barbecue Society

They call themselves "The Fun Tribe”™, and their slogan is "Cradle of 'Cue"™.

Mmmm... Chocolate Jesus... Mmmm....

"My Sweet Lord."  I wonder if it has a hollow center? 

Maybe what we really need is a marshmallow Jesus-peep. 

Barbecue Blog

So a blog on just North Carolina style BBQ sounds good, right?  And, IMAO, one on Eastern NC barbecue sounds even better.  Someone else thought so too.  All barbecue, all the time -- ya gotta love it.  :)

Isle of the Dead

Any of my peeps (especially my Latino ones) out there ever heard of this bread for Day of the Dead? 

Merry Whatever & Happy Yak Shaving Day

Eat at Joe's would like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  But we can't.  Why?  The boss at the abattoir sent out a gag order.  Yes, we've had threats.  We're worried the abattoir will be firebombed by whatever group we offend when we try to say something nice.  We think one threat came from the customer we call "Mad Cod Guy."  He snapped when, in our parking lot, he saw one bumper sticker saying "My Child is a Special Gift from God," another saying "I Love Every Pupil At [insert school name here]," while the owners of both cars had a demolition derby over our last salt cod for Festivus.

In addition to being out of meat (we even ran out of hot dogs for the Erisians for Friday), the Tristanian Health Department wants us to close because of yet another health scare -- Mad Swine Disease?  Intemperate Cow Cold?  Wuhan Flu?  Mongolian Death Worm Infestation?  Avian Syphilis?  Postal Carriers' Brain Fluke?  I don't even know.  They told us to close down so they could pack the building with asbestos and light it on fire with $100 bills.  We think they were just pissed: they came to town for Saturnalia, got a little tight, came to the store wanting pufferfish, and were pissed we were out.  We'd given the last fugu to Mad Cod Guy to shut him up.  Anyway, just in case, we're closing for a while, squirting some talcum powder around the place, and calling the attorneys.  Such is life. 

So, the bad news is I'm off for two weeks.  The good news is I'm off for two weeks; maybe I can get caught up on this weblog thing.  I need to post recipes for what I lovingly call eggplant crap, and also tell the long, pig-filled tale of my first attempt at pork rillettes.  But if you sit down to a good meal over the next few days, or anytime at all, we wish you and yours a good meal and a good time, now and always.