As usual, I took a lot of pics this weekend and wanted to make a quick post showing the weekend in photos.

We all know what the outcome of the game was, but as you can see, Midget was prepared for a victory either way!

Yes, that’s Kiwi… riding a stuffed cow.

On Sunday, we decided to check out the Delta Fair at the Agricenter. This is a new fair to Memphis, billed as the “alternative” to the Mid-South Fair that comes to town the last week of September each year.

See why we call her Midget now?!

It’s not every day that you get to see a camel. The petting zoo was kinda neat, but most of the animals looked like they had seen better days.

Keith and Airica should catch the inside joke on this picture

We went inside the Agricenter to cool off and check out some of the exhibits. While there, we came across a “hypnotist” show that was about to start. We encouraged Kiwi and Adam to participate and they both got picked to go on stage. The show was entertaining at first, but as you probably suspected, nobody was really hypnotized; everyone just “played along” so the host wouldn’t look like a complete idiot. Big waste of time hah.

In the end, we weren’t really that impressed with the Delta Fair. It was smaller than the Mid South Fair and just didn’t seem to have the same “fair-like” feeling. Needless to say, we will be hitting up the “real” fair at the end of the month.

After the fair, we were all pretty hungry and since we were just down the street from Corky’s, we decided to drop in for a bite to eat.

Adam and I went with the hot tamales with chili appetizer; it rocked!

Of course, a trip to Corky’s wouldn’t be complete without the barbecue nachos appetizer also!

We didn’t get our traditional photo in this week, so this one will have to hold us over til next weekend. Speaking of, next weekend is the first home game of the season as the team takes on Missouri. Ole Miss got spanked at Missouri last year, and payback is certainly on a lot of people’s minds as Saturday approaches.

I came in town yesterday for the Nickelback concert later today at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. Sarah and I were both hungry when we arrived in OB, so we called up Midget and The World Famous for a trip to Corky’s.

Corky’s makes some of the best barbecue in the world, so needless to say, we were all ready to get our eat on!

We started with a barbecue nachos appetizer. This consists of nacho chips topped with pulled pork, Corky’s BBQ sauce and cheese. Yes, it IS as good as it looks!

For my main course, I went with the pulled pork dinner with a couple buns on the side for making BBQ sandwiches. The dinner included cold slaw and baked beans, but I opted for double beans instead of cold slaw.

You know you are eating it right if you are making a big mess: check!

The overall experience at Corky’s was great. Our waiter was extremely prompt and the food was served hot and fresh in just minutes. I was pleasantly surprised at how cheap the food here was. My 1/4 of the appetizer, main course and beverage (sweet tea, a Must in the south!) was less than $13 total.

If you ever find yourself in Memphis, you owe it to yourself to give Corky’s a try. They even ship their products worldwide via FedEx overnight delivery!

Saturday night we decided to eat at Pineapple Willy’s since we didn’t get a chance to do so Friday.

We got there around 6 p.m. and there was already an hour wait to be seated.

Seating options included the outdoor pier seen above, inside or first available - we went with the latter.

I had been to Pineapple Willy’s once before back in 2001 but had forgot all about it until I got inside and was like “wow this looks familiar”.

I had seen several people walking around with these 32 oz. Pineapple Willy’s / Fat Tuesday mugs so we decided to get our own. I went with the Voodoo Brew while Adam got the 190 Octane. My drink was alright but I don’t think I would order it again. Adam’s was much better; had an orange taste to it. I should have stuck with the Pina Colada heh.

For our appetizers, we went with Alligator Bites and Calamari. I saw the alligator on the menu and just had to try it. How often do you get an opportunity to eat gator?! The alligator was served with honey mustard and actually tasted pretty good; I’d order it again.

I had my fill of seafood earlier in the day at Harpoon Harrys so I decided on the Prime Rib dinner. This was, without a doubt, the best prime rib I have ever had. The photo doesn’t do it justice; the dish it is sitting in sinks in about an inch. The meat itself was probably 1 1/2 thick and oh so tender.

I wasn’t able to finish the prime rib so we took the leftovers back to the hotel. Kiwi wanted to try the Chocolate Volcano dessert - I was too full to even take a bite of it, but it looked very yummy. Adam ended up finishing it off lol.

This was the most expensive dinner of the trip but it was well worth it. I would certainly go back to Pineapple Willy’s and recommend it to anyone taking a trip to PCB.

We decided to try Harpoon Harrys for lunch Saturday. They were located within walking distance of our hotel and had a nice beach front patio dining area.

After trying the Pina Colada at the poolside bar and not being pleased with it, I gave the one at Harpoon Harrys a try. The waitress didn’t card me when I ordered it, and sure enough, after tasting it, there was no alcohol in it. We asked her to take it back and bring one with alcohol. No sense in paying a lot of money for a non-alcoholic beverage. The second one was right on the money and tasted fantastic; so much so that I had two!

I had been craving shrimp for a while… not fried or grilled shrimp, just the plain kind you dip in cocktail sauce. The only kind like that on the menu were appetizers, so I just ordered two of those.

These shrimp were huge and definitely hit the spot. Harpoon Harrys had just what I was wanting. The service was good, food was good and drinks were even better!

Friday night we went out to dinner at Hammerhead Freds. We had intended to go to Pineapple Willys but they were already closed by the time we got there. Hammerhead Freds was a few buildings down so we decided to give them a try.

The restaurant, like most in Panama City Beach, specializes in seafood… perfect! I couldn’t decide exactly what seafood I wanted, so I opted for the huge seafood sampler.

The platter included several different types of seafood. My favorites were the Mahi Mahi and shrimp. I’ve never been too fond of crab and these weren’t that great either. Overall, I don’t think the meal was worth the money… not for me anyway.

Too bad they didn’t serve Blue Moon on tap; that would have made things better

When one thinks of Southern food, fried dishes often come to mind. Well last weekend, that stereotype was 100% true!

On Saturday, Adam, Kiwi, Sarah and I went out to eat at Seafood Junction Too in Byhalia, MS. Byhalia is about 15 minutes south of Memphis. Kiwi used to work at this place about two years ago and since I love seafood, I was looking forward to it.

It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, however. Granted I do live in the South, there are very few times that I actually find myself saying “wow, this is VERY southern”. Saturday was one of those rare occasions

Adam and I decided on the buffet, which was filled with all kinds of seafood and other fried foods, some I had never tried before.

Adam is demonstrating the proper way to eat fried frog legs. I tried frog legs too, but only ate one leg… wasn’t too thrilled with the taste. And no, it really didn’t taste much like chicken lol.

Overall the food was really good, especially the shrimp and fried catfish. Oh, and the chocolate brownie dessert was absolutely delicious! I would definitely go back to Seafood Junction Too just for the shrimp and catfish

MMMmmm, BBQ heaven!

On Sunday, I got a chance to try another new fried food: fried broccoli. Kiwi works at a fast food place called Abbays. Their slogan says it all; “How the South does fast food”.

I have heard Kiwi talk about the fried broccoli before but hadn’t had a chance to try it for myself. So, that is exactly what I did…

The broccoli was alright, but a little too spicy for my liking. Ranch dressing helped this, but I am not sure I would order it again.

I just got word of this over at Leo Chiang’s Blog - 12 of the 7-Eleven stores across the U.S and Canada have been converted to Kwik-E-Marts to help promote the upcoming Simpsons Movie! How cool is that?!

Unfortunately, there aren’t any 7-Eleven stores left in my area or I would be there racking up on some goodies! Head over to Leo Blog to check out all of his pics from a recent visit.

“NEW YORK — In a gut-busting showdown that combined drama, daring and indigestion, Joey Chestnut emerged Wednesday as the world’s hot dog eating champion, knocking off six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi in a rousing yet repulsive triumph.

The two gustatory gladiators quickly distanced themselves from the rest of the 17 competitors, processing more beef than a slaughterhouse within the first few minutes. The two had each downed 60 hot dogs with 60 seconds to go when Chestnut, the veins on his forehead extended, put away the final franks to end Kobayashi’s reign.”

Courtesy ESPN

My friend Molly brought over some leftover fish from their fish fry today. The fish is called crappie (pronounced “croppie”) and is very tasty. I had never had any other fish besides catfish until trying the crappie last year during our fishing trip out at Sardis Lake.

We made it out to the lake very early, around 8 a.m. if I remember correctly. The weather was looking a bit gloomy but the sun eventually made its debut and the clouds disappeared.

Molly’s dad, “Captain Rick” took us out on their pontoon boat. We brought plenty of snacks and even more fishing poles for the long day ahead.

The fish we caught were not overly large, but in the end we came out with more than enough to make for a great fish fry.

It was a little chilly in the morning but by midday, it was just a bit on the warm side.

If you look closely, this fish actually has a smaller fish inside of its mouth!

We were actually planning on having more people come out, but not everyone could make it.

A good time had by all. We will certainly have to do it again this year!

Yesterday I went to the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Contest at Tom Lee Park on the banks of the Mississippi River.

We (Kiwi, Adam, Sarah and I) arrived around 7 p.m. and I was sad to learn that the taste-testing segment ended at 6 p.m.

This is the first time I have been to this event and it wasn’t exactly what I expected.

I was thinking there would be a few booths here and there, maybe some tents cooking and showing how they season their food. Nope - it was more like something you would see here in the Grove on gameday. And with that, I mean partying, loud music, great food and plenty of alcohol to go around!

And much like the Grove, you really won’t have much fun unless you know someone with a tent - and that is where we were in luck! Kiwi’s sister just happens to be dating someone that was sponsoring a few tents, so we got access to one of the tents for the evening.

The tent had a couches, a full bar with free drinks and food… can’t beat that!

Mmmm, talk about some good barbecue! This stuff was outstanding - I tore through my sandwich in record time. The baked beans were delicious as well!

There was even barbecued samon - a first for me, but it actually tasted really good. BTW, why feed yourself when you can have a female do it for you! LOL

There were plenty of drinks to go around. I had a few Sex on the Beach mixed drinks, some blue drink with the name Smurf in it and some Jell-O shots - good stuff! Somehow both Sarah and Adam managed to spill food / drinks on me… not surprising heh.

After a few drinks, Adam was confident that he had located our coordinates on the map lol.

We left around 11 p.m. to beat the crowd that would be leaving when the event closed at midnight. All in all, a fun night with some great friends, food and drinks - What more could you ask for!