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hotlanta
We headed south this weekend for my sister-in-law’s law school graduation and Atlanta, I’m blaming you for the standoff I’m going to be in with the bathroom scale this week. My god, you people eat big down there. A three-egg omelet with a side of a toasted bagel, cream cheese, and hash browns? Combo platters with quarter slabs of ribs and half chickens, coleslaw and beans? I don’t know whether to love or hate you, but I’m going to go with love even though I’m struggling to readjust my distended stomach to skim yogurt and green salads.
One of my favorite things about flying, besides all of it, is the way it throws off your sense of above and below. Georgia O’Keefe once said that for the longest time she’d been terrified of riding in an airplane, yet when she finally had no choice but to fly somewhere, she was overwhelmed to see a whole other sky above the clouds. It was like that on Friday when we left in the evening: four-plus days of dismal weather in New York had left a thick blanket of sludge-like grey across the sky but when the plane passed through it, we were met all the squinty sunlight we’d missed. I tried to align my face with the warmest spot, and fell into a peaceful catnap.
Returning last night, I stared at the endless yellow and orange specks over Philadelphia, marveling that even at 37,000 feet in the air and you can still register something as tiny as a light bulb – glass, filament, spark – and see demarcations of things as imprecise as a halo. If only I could convince my husband next to me, white-knuckling his armrests through the turbulence, of how cool it is.
I missed a lot of pictures this weekend, but the only one I really regret is from dinner on Saturday. Fat Matt’s Rib Shack is everything I’d always imagined awesome Southern BBQ to be: picnic tables, baskets of freshly-roasted peanuts, humble prices, dim lights, a sense of being overdressed in flip flops and a denim skirt while listening to a string band and watching the sun set behind a steeple church across the street through dirty windows with neon signs, licking the BBQ sauce that got lodged in my ring.
comments (11)
There is something very wonderful about eating BBQ off of picnic tables and not even caring when your hands are covered in sauce. It sounds like you had a great weekend away.
1 | clearlykels | May 16, 2006 04:02 PM
Welcome home! It's been a lonely weekend with no new posts...
2 | Jess | May 16, 2006 04:08 PM
Deb, this is my first time commenting, but I've read all your archives, including the comments (I have a very boring job) and now that I'm through with them I really NEED you to post every day. Please don't leave me hanging like that again! But I'm glad you had fun in Atlanta.
3 | Mara | May 16, 2006 04:33 PM
I'm Soo glad you got to try Fat Matt's, it is one of our best BBQ joints. If you ever come to Atlanta again, you've got to try Rita's Bluebird Cafe for the best eclectic southern food. Their fried cheese grits could make you "smack your mama", not to mention their garlic grilled cheese. Yummy! I'm going to have to go there this weekend.
4 | Carrie | May 17, 2006 08:50 AM
I'm glad you made it to Fat Matt's! It's our favorite here.
5 | mingaling | May 17, 2006 09:05 AM
Sounds like the Georgia BBQ equivalent of a Maryland Crab shack where they cover the table with brown wrapping paper and dump a bucket of soft shell crabs on the table. The shells find their way to the floor. Then you just have to find a place to shower.
6 | SantaDad | May 17, 2006 09:56 AM
Too funny, reading that made me u yearn for southern barbque, and I live in the south :) but have been a vegan for over 13 years. Let me share my recipe for barbque tofu with ya haha. Right on the grill. One thing, why did you say nothing about the ice cold draft you washed it down with? thats the kicker right :) Don't even talk to me about sangria. Bud. Draft. is the only thing that will do.
7 | jezzie | May 17, 2006 02:46 PM
Did you make it to the park in the center of the city? It is such a lovely place. I was in Atlanta a few years ago for work and ended up taking daily walks/runs to that park to balance out the sheer vastness of southern food I was consuming. And the public transport there is pretty good too, right? I think it's called the Marta?
8 | Kelli | May 17, 2006 08:17 PM
I lived in Atlanta for 26 years before moving up to New York. I've been here an year now, and my cloths no longer fit I've lost so much weight. And it's not just the food down there that makes you faat. It's also the unfriendly outdoor environment that keeps you that way. Never in my life would I have considered taking public transportaion and walking everywhere in Atlanta like I do now in New York. (Sorry Kelli, I have to disagree with you about the MARTA, and I lived there before there was a MARTA!)
However, I will say, you're hard pressed to come up with good Bar-b-que around here.
9 | smiln.n.ny | May 18, 2006 04:38 PM
I love Atlanta, but, yes, the MARTA sucks.
10 | Maura | May 19, 2006 11:41 AM
the rib shack will do in a pinch, but no self-respecting bbq joint is open more than 4 days a week.
11 | redclay | May 21, 2006 04:04 AM