Yummy

I. Am. Miserable. I don’t want to get up, much less pack. And my feet hurt. Yup, yesterday was a day of overindulgence. Much walking. Much tasting. Okay, whining over. I have to get going. Zack and I have a field trial today, when I get home!!

I am in Houston. Yesterday, I attended our quarterly National Association of Drilling Engineers Board Meeting at the Humble Civic Center. Immediately afterwards, we were shuttled via golf carts to the Civic Center Barn for the AADE 5F.

What is the AADE 5F? It is the AADE National Fin Fur Feather Food Fest. All of the oil companies and service companies had their cooking teams out working and serving the public. The fare was highly varied and simply amazing.

I had my first crab beignet – awesome. I had lobster on noodles. I had catfish/shrimp gumbo. Gumbo abounded – elk gumbo, deer gumbo, you name it. If you were an etouffee lover, you could get it here - etouffee of all flavors – crawfish, shrimp, the works. Duck burger (I just couldn't.) There were alligator legs – frog legs – squirrel legs. Clam and shrimp chowders. One of the oil companies cooked a “Tsunami Roll”, which was full of sushi and all sorts of good things.

Liquor was flowing freely, fine wines abounded, and I even saw my first jello shot (saw, didn’t imbibe!). I had to work hard to find water, my preferred beverage.

All of the booths were beautifully decorated. One of the vendors did a salute to the troops, with girls dressed in USO uniforms. When the booth judges came around, the USO girls did a “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B” dance – it was so cute! Another vendor had an old-time saloon theme, with cowboys dressed in old-time western garb, complete with saloon girls.

Several Houston chefs of note actually judged the food, and a good time was had by all.

Ah, the perks of my job. Gotta love it!