I like food

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was great. As I mentioned before, I headed out to Winston-Salem to spend the day with my buddy Dave and his wife's family. It was so nice of them to have me out and they welcomed me in like an old family friend. Dave said I couldn't bring any food, so I brought some flowers instead. The funny thing is that if we ate the flowers, they'd probably taste better than any food I could have made. I made great time on the way out there, arriving a little after 2. We just hung out for a bit, talking and watching some football before dinner was ready a little after three. All in all, there were 10 of us at the table—Dave and his wife Amy, her parents, her sister, her brother, his wife, two kids and me. The food was great. Pretty traditional Thanksgiving fare—turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, orange rolls, green bean casserole, cranberries, pistachio Jell-O salad and homemade apple sauce. However, there were two more southern things that were served: corn pudding and sweet potato casserole. Everything was delicious! For dessert, I had some pumpkin chocolate chip cake with ice cream and then we played some games. It was a great time.

Restaurant checklist
Last night I started flipping through the guide to Durham Cheryl and I picked up when we first got here. I hadn't really looked at it since that first week, but I decided I would try and find a few new restaurants to check out before I leave. Mostly, I found more barbecue places I want to try to see how they match up against The Q Shack & Arthur Bryant's. Here's my checklist...

• Bullock's
• Dillard's
• Hog Heaven
• The Barbecue Joint

Although I may be adding more to that list now that I found this Web site!

The Barbecue Joint wasn't in the book, because it's actually in Chapel Hill. I found out about that place on Google, because apparently Rachel Ray went there when she came to the Triangle for an episode of $40 A Day. Another place she went to was a traditional southern restaurant called Mama Dip's. I'm very excited about going there and I have a feeling that some chicken and dumplings might be in store for me this weekend. I might even try some chitlins too, we'll see...

Man Vs. Food
This is a new show on the Travel Channel that I found tonight and became an immediate fan. The host, Adam Richman, is funny without being annoying as he visits cities to pig out at their best greasy spoons. He visits a few different restaurants and ends the show by taking on an eating challenge. In Texas, for example, he ate a 72 oz. steak in a half hour and in Memphis he tried to eat an eight-pound burger. I wish I could get paid to eat!

Let's wrap this up with some awesome live footage of one of my favorite bands, The Descendents, and their song, "I Like Food." Enjoy!