Race Weekend, The SmoQue Shack and "E accent-aigu''

My oldest friend Molly was here from Toronto, for race weekend.  She's not actually my oldest friend in age, being younger than me, but she is the friend that I have had the longest.  We have been friends since we worked together in around 1987 or 1988.  That's a long time!!!  Anyway, Molly and her friend Debbie were both here to run the half marathon.  Here they are, post-marathon, still upright, still walking and SUPER CUTE!  Way to go ladies!

Now I'm not a runner.  I really can't see the point.  When I see people running past me ... it just doesn't look like fun.  It looks painful.  And not enjoyable.  But Molly and her group of friends are all runners and overall athletes, generally.  And they did teach me something very valuable about running:  if you are running 21kms to 42kms (including all the training kilometers that you put in in preparation) you get to EAT WHATEVER YOU WANT and PARTY LIKE A ROCK STAR afterwards!!!!!  Finally ... I see why people do this crazy thing called running.

On Saturday night, Molly, Debbie and I went out to for dinner and 'carbo loading' in the market.  I, being the good friend that I am, fully participated in the carbo loading activities, even though I wasn't racing the next day!  At 10pm I wished Debbie and Molly good luck; and headed home.  On Sunday afternoon we would be meeting up again with some other runners for big time post-race food and celebrating.

We headed out to The SmoQue Shack on York Street for dinner and beer on Sunday evening.  There was a group of 7 women ... all runners:  some half-marathoners, a 10km-er, an injured full marathoner and we were meeting up with more runners later in the evening.  Not wanting to be left out, waited too long to go pee after my first couple of beers and I RAN to the washroom!  LOL!!

When I arrived there were already some sharing plates on the table:  a giant poutine, rib tips and chicken wings.  Oh, and obviously some beer.  I tried the wings ... very unique, different and delicious.  The wings are rubbed with a spicy rub and they were very hot but flavourful, crispy on the outside, moist and yum-a-licious.  These are not pub-style Franks Red Hot wings ... and being such a chicken wing lover sometimes I'm concerned about messing with tried and true that I love, but these wings were excellent.  I'd go back to The SmoQue Shack just for the wings.

On to the ordering our main dishes.  The menu is categorized by 'meat' .... mmmmmm meat!  (and yes, I'm still digging the cow meat, what can I say? Its good!).  Anywhooo ... you pick your choice of meat and then you have a choice of tons of sides to add on.  There are meat platters ... with guess what?  Three meats!!!  If I've said it once I've said it a million times:  what's better than one kind of meat?  Three meats ... that's what!!!!!  One of the women, whom I shall call "Camera-Shé" because she didn't want to be photographed, was trying to convince me to get one of the three-meat platters with an additional FOURTH MEAT add on!!!  Now that is just c-r-a-z-y!  Four meats = too much meats!  Even Homer Simpson only contemplates three meats (bacon, ham and pork chops) from the professed "wonderful, magical animal":

One of the top 11 most creative Simpsons tattoos:

 

Anyway ... my point is, I was not about to order a four meat platter!  I actually chose the half-rack of baby back ribs and for my sides I chose the deep fried pickles (god I love that deep fried pickles have made such a resurgence and are so popular now ... all the way from the 1990s at the Loose Moose, I have loved deep fried pickles soooooo yummy-yum-yum-yum) and also ordered cornbread.

As for my meal, the baby back ribs were moist and the bar-b-que sauce was really really good. It was smoky and rich but not spicy. It was very good. I found the ribs a tiny bit tough - I thought they could/should have been falling off the bone (ahahahahaha I said bone) more, but generally very good. The deep fried pickles were excellent! And I think they were one of the best deals for the sides. They were nice and crispy with a bit of dill in the breading. And a nice creamy dill dressing for dipping. I really liked them. I'd go back for the deep fried pickles as well as the wings!  As for the cornbread, I was just kind of ... mehh. It was ok. Not great; not bad. Certainly I make better cornbread muffins than these. I found them a bit dense and a tiny bit oily. But they were cute little shapes. I liked that. In any case, I brought home the majority of my dinner. It was a very good sized portion.

Above is one of the three meat platters: chicken, pulled pork and I'm not sure what else. And look closely ... you can see a little bit of Camera-Shé's ass at the back too!  I tried pretty well everything that people ordered so I had a good sense of what is best to order next time.

Here we have Jo-jo's three meat platter.  I think this is beef ribs, chicken and brisket.  There was nearly a brisket break-up because of a disagreement between who has the better brisket:  The SmoQue Shack or Fat Boy's Southern Smokehouse.  I haven't tried Fatboy's yet, so I'll let the ladies duke it out between themselves.  Or, here's an idea:  only eat the brisket at the place where you like it better!  Its not like there isn't a TON of other meats to choose from!!

Molly, smarty-pants that she is, asked the waitress which is the best side on the list to choose and the mac-and-cheese was the instantaneous recommendation.  It took her no time at all to endorse the mac-and-cheese so Molly had that along with the pulled pork.

Normally, mac-and-cheese is not my favourite thing.  I tend to find it kind of bland and tasteless.  And, if you grew up in my household, you'd have to pour ketchup on all over it, so ... really what's the point???  Just have tomato sauce rather than cheese.  But I have to say ... I tried Molly's mac-and-cheese and it was really good.  It was perfectly creamy with good cheesy flavour.  The toasted crust on the top made a nice texture variation.  It was good, and I would definitely recommend it ... especially for mac-and-cheese lovers.  You'll love it.  The pulled pork was excellent.  You get a huge portion (I don't think Molly even ate 1/4 of it) and its tangy, spicy and moist and tender.  Really really good pulled pork.  I would also highly recommend this.

Everyone was so gracious about waiting to eat their food so that I could take pictures.  Here's Line-ette and her three-meat platter; its hard to decide which is cuter!  I know there was also some jerk pork which I tasted.  It was very very spicy and almost a bit too tangy.  I used to love love love jerk -- but then you get to a point and you say:  enough jerks in my life!!!  no more jerks ... (oh, sorry different kind of jerk).  If you ever want to get a shocking rude awakening sometime, try to google recipes for jerk chicken.  Its not food!!!!

Two women are gluten-free so they wanted me to mention that The SmoQue Shack has plenty of options for people who are gluten free.  Me, I don't even know what that gluten-free means, except that it seems to make eating WAY too restrictive!  And Camera-Shé suggested that if we all went home and rolled ourselves in flour, they might not be gluten-free anymore!  Ahahahaha.  Good one, loves it!

For seven women at the table we had a shit-load of food.  We did our best and packed back a ton of meat.  Here is GP getting down on that beef rib!  You go sista' friend!  But alas, eventually, the meat-sweats set in and you have to call it a technical knock-out!  Poor Jo-jo can't even wipe the sauce off her cheek!

Well not to worry, because at The SmoQue Shack you can "share a wet one"!!!  Ahahahahaha.  Loves it.  You know, to be environmentally friendly and not be wasteful.  That's all ... its not dirty.

Most of us packed up our leftovers to take home for lunch the next day, but because Molly and Debbie were staying at a hotel, they couldn't take theirs home.  Seems like Line-ette and Camera-Shé got a hella deal on the doggy bag situation.

So finally, from the title, you must be wondering what the reference to 'E-accent-aigu' means.  Well Camera-Shé loves to give nicknames to friends.  And it seems the overwhelming theme this weekend, or maybe with this particular group of women, were nicknames that ended in "é".  There were the Pattés (both peppermint and Jamaican), Mollé (not to be confused with molé ... the spicy Mexican chocolate sauce).  So I was feeling a bit left out and I was hoping for a nickname of my own.  Well, Camera Shé did it:  she came up with rcmpé for me.  Loves it!  As a shout out, I came up with Camera Shé for her when I started to write this entry.  After all, she came up with all the other nicknames and deserves her own 'e-accent-aigu' too!

We had a great time.  There were lots of laughs and great stories, good friends and lots of good food and drinks.  Really, what more can you ask for?  Well Molly will be back in another week or so ... so stay tuned.  There could be big-meat part deux!