It’s just Shatner, isn’t it? Except even he doesn’t really speak it even though he was in a movie that was entirely Esperanto.

Charro beans? They were around, but when we had pinto beans my granny always refried them.

You must be from out east. Y’all have some tasty pork out that way! I’ve lived all over, and a buddy of mine who is also into cooking outdoors has also lived everywhere (partly military, partly just wanting a change of scenery). We brought back recipes and techniques from all over the US plus Kenya and Korea and have shared that with each other so that we can both enjoy the best from everywhere and mix and match whatever we want.

I love both the variation and the similarities that tie it all together. I also love the comradery that seems to be a part of all the barbecue cultures. It’s not just cooking. It’s an event where friends, family, neighbors, and communities can get together.

Bubba, you ain’t alone in both that particular hate and that particular respect.

I don’t really eat them (texture issues), but they were everywhere when we’d cook outdoors. Grilling or barbecuing.

Usually the menu was brisket (burgers or steaks if we were grilling), sausages, greens, tater salad, mac and cheese, and beans. Sometimes we’d have chicken or ribs because I grew up kind of between the Central Texas and East Texas barbecuing traditions. But there was always at least one bean side unless someone decided to do black eyed peas instead. And more often than not it was refried beans because my granny always had a mess of pinto beans running around.

Texan here. There’s always either baked beans, black beans, or refried beans at the cookout depending on who is around.

A lot of TexMex and Mexican food is accompanied by rice and refried beans.

Cajun food is big on red beans and rice.

I have no solid info because I’m terrible, but I love it.

https://xkcd.com/37/

Or an ice pick.

I’ve got a mouth like a sailor who stubbed his toe, mostly because I used to be a sailor who stubbed his toe a lot. Between my foul mouth and my either overuse or utter absence of fucking commas depending on how drunk I am I don’t think I’ll ever be mistaken for an LLM.

I just replaced mine as they were abscessed or impacted and I didn’t notice a change, but that was over several years. I would have died in the middle ages.

If you can afford it I recommend getting the worst of them replaced with implants. If you can’t then get some partial dentures to replace whatever you’ve lost. It will help both your confidence and quality of life.

Fluoride in water can help if you’re not taught proper care and feeding of teeth, but you are right. The fluoride in toothpaste is what should be doing the heavy lifting.

I feel you. I grew up on well water (no fluoride), have a genetic predisposition for terribly crooked teeth, and wasn’t taught basic oral hygiene until I was legally an adult.

I’ve had several extractions but every time it has been either an abscess or an impacted tooth, so just the relief from that pain was almost like a drug itself. About half my teeth are fake at this point and the ones that are left are in pretty good shape because they weren’t too far gone when I actually learned how to properly take care of them.

I’ve got two related to my military service, and one related to my grandfather.

1. A guy I vaguely knew because I competed against his brother in sports in school ended up being stationed at every base I was stationed at. We even ended up being deployed together and are still good friends to this day. I’ve told stories about him on here. The way our lives have gone it looks like I’m his crazy stalker because after school I was just behind him doing almost the exact same things as him for both hobbies and careers. I promise I’m not, it just turned out that way. I did beat him moving to Houston, though.

2. After I was discharged I was on a road trip with my (at the time) fiance. We stopped at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere a thousand miles from home and 600 miles from the last place I saw him a little over 6 years after the last time we saw each other. We were seated at a table next to a guy I went to boot camp with.

3. In the spirit of the last one, I was on a road trip with my grandparents when I was young. We ran into my grandfather’s cousin. This shouldn’t be weird, but my grandparents lived down the road from me in Texas, his cousin lived in Alabama, we saw him at a rest stop in Tennessee, and neither had any idea that the other was on a road trip.

I didn’t even know I was dating anyone!!!

Seriously, if he’ll let you share it I’d love to give it a whirl.

It’s so strange, around here there’s no real difference between a bloody Mary and a bloody Caesar. I know what the difference really is but no one seems to give a shit at brunch.

However, folks around here are super proud of their micheladas. Everyone does the clamato juice with vodka, beer, and Tajin. But they all try to outdo each other with the other spices and presentation.

Other than my friend’s pitcher that I loved, the place that does the best micheladas in my opinion is Captain Tom’s. It’s the most mediocre seafood joint that is amazing when you’re getting over being fucked up. If I hadn’t been to Taqueria Ruby tonight to fix myself I’d definitely be there tomorrow morning trying to feel normal.

People who go into cooking generally enjoy getting to be creative. I love those insane creations that require load bearing anything (although I don’t think I’ve seen straws, usually it’s toothpicks, skewers, or pickle spears).

My absolute favorite wasn’t the tastiest but it was definitely the coolest. The guy made a pretty standard bacon jalapeno burger, added some house made barbecue sauce, cut it into pieces, skewered it, and served it as the garnish for a pitcher of micheladas.

Note: A michelada is kind of what you’d get if a bloody Mary went to Mexico on vacation and added beer and spices.

I remember this comment. Best advice I’ve seen on this sub.

There’s a bar here with that aesthetic. They do serve ok burgers at slightly reasonable prices, but the secret is to become friends with the cooks. Then tell them that you don’t care what the upcharge is, but you want them to make you the burger they’d want and to have fun with it.

Now I can go in and say “Tell them TexasDrunk wants whatever burger they want to send out” and 9 out of 10 times I get a burger that’s delicious (and sometimes insane). Usually they just charge me the regular burger price.

I don’t do it often, but I got good friends and good burgers out of it.

It’s hard out here. The Dems are a trashcan fire. The Republicans are the Springfield tire fire. One is better, and could become actually good given time and proper incentive (your comment on FPTP is spot the fuck on). The other one should be shot into space before it causes anymore environmental damage.

Right now tensions are high because of the upcoming election, extreme polarization, one party doing its damnedest to erase ~7% of the population, and a bunch of concern-trolls (from every authoritarian direction) talking shit. So criticisms of the only party that there’s a hope of salvaging have to be worded carefully because we don’t all know each other or the intentions of the comments.

Don’t take that as a criticism of you. That’s just the way I see things right now.

Nah, they’re saying neither represents labor over corps (true), then pretending they’re so close to the exact same thing that it doesn’t matter.

At least this one admits Dems do the bare minimum. They’re in favor of burning it all down immediately and starting over.