We met Genius for lunch on the day after we took The Pony to the casino. Genius and Friend were passing through, on the way to Boys State, where Genius works every summer as a manner of giving back, since he attended as a high school student. He works in the IT department.
Anyhoo... he only had a brief window of time for lunch. They left Pittsburgh at 3:00 a.m. I'm sure several cups of coffee were consumed. Time was even shorter than he imagined, having opened an email he'd been ignoring, and finding out he was invited to a fancy-schmancy dinner event. So he had to budget in a stop to buy a dress shirt.
We chose to eat at Bandana's BBQ. Not because we are such fans of the food, but because it's at a convenient location near the city, easy for us to meet and for Genius to get back on the highway.
Hick had the pork, with baked beans, garlic toast, and what I think is potato salad. Could be mashed potatoes, but with no butter or gravy, I'm not sure. He added sauce to his pork, from one of the six squeeze bottles on the table.
Friend had the turkey, with baked beans and fries. He gave one of his garlic toasts to Genius, who was toastless.
Genius had a burnt ends sandwich off the lunch menu, and a side of macaroni and cheese. His sandwich looked tasty.
I had the loaded baked potato, with a side of slaw. They gave me generous helpings of butter and sour cream. I didn't touch the butter, but used the sour cream to hold together my mealy potato when I got down to it. The topping was excellent, with beef and pork and more cheese than was necessary. I gave the larger of my garlic toasts to Genius and Friend, because strapping young men need carbs more than our gal Val. Genius ripped it in almost-half, and declared that he was taking the larger portion. The slaw there always disappoints me, because it is like slaw soup!
There was one little problem with my loaded baked potato:
The very first bite, which I assumed to be a nugget of pork, was actually a BONE! Good thing I didn't break a tooth! It made me cautions while feeding on the rest of that behemoth.
In catching up with their lives, we found out that Genius's balcony peppers are not growing as well as last year's crop. Genius still loves his job, which is programming driverless vehicles for a company that starts with the first letter of the alphabet. Mostly known for their driverless semi trucks in the state of Texas right now. Friend received a promotion, which entails more money and a supervisory role in his team of employees who set up credit card presentations for corporations, often traveling internationally.
A nice visit was had by all, and we went our separate ways with full bellies.
Hi Val, Of course I had to read your blog before having breakfast and all of the meals from Bandana's BBQ have me drooling:) I bet you had fun catching up on the happenings with Genius and Friend.
ReplyDeleteYes, I even got to see a picture of how they dressed for an '80s party. Genius should have won a prize (though none were given) with his fake mustache and workout gear. Friend did a touristy sock/slides cargo short h
DeleteHawaiian shirt look, complete with a pith-helmet-looking hat.
All the food looked great. The only thing not worthy of your drool was the BONE!
Genius's meal looks like the one I would choose. If I had that slaw "soup" I would scrape out the sour cream onto my plate and drain the slaw into the now-empty sour cream cup. They should use a slotted spoon to serve that slaw, not a scoop.
ReplyDeleteI was looking around for something to drain that liquid into. I didn't think of the sour cream or butter cups. I ate it with a fork, so I didn't consume any of the "soup."
DeleteMaybe next time, I'll take my own draining vessels! I have a bunch of those plastic sour cream cup thingies. When I get my Dairy Queen pretzel sticks, the queso dip comes in them, and they often have an extra stacked on the bottom of the full one with the lid.
I do not care for Bandana's slaw for the same reason. Hick's side of "potatoes" looks almost like a scoop of ice cream. That would be an acceptable side for me!!
ReplyDeleteIt would be acceptable to Hick, too!
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