Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Inspiration

It's somewhere we've been meaning to go for weeks. A new restaurant opened in Mooloolaba called Soul Food Kitchen. Now, when Jon hears the word ribs he starts salivating like Pavlov's dog. Throw some cornbread, crab cakes and jambalaya into the mix and it's a grand old evening.

Jon's All You Can Eat Challenge
Jon at another rib related dinner

It was so good because it was a perk to have food from home, not a necessity. After almost two years here, I have started to miss the things from home less and less. I've learned to go without, developed new favourites (Christ, I just automatically spelled that with a u) or found adequate substitutions. It's funny how that happens. It took me two years to have my Mom stop sending me bras and figure out the sizes here, to be able to make coffee without a coffee maker (which I didn't even know was possible), and I have accepted the fact that my Christmas cookies with always involve a trip to the sex shop bearing the stigma of purchasing gay lubricant to make my cookies the proper way with Crisco.

I digress; our meals were amazing and completely authentic. After our meals, I asked our Kiwi waiter which of the take-home sauces he would recommend for the pulled pork that I've started making for Jon since he missed it from back home. He looked at me like I had ten heads and asked me "Why would you want to pull pork?" and shuffled off to the kitchen to get the chef.

From the kitchen emerges Victor Kimble. I am willing to say after the hour or so I spent talking to him, he is one of the most inspirational human beings I have met.

From what we learned in the short time we spent with him, he grew up in Birmingham, Alabama "before integration" as he put it. A scholarship for playing the trumpet made it possible for him to go to college and he not only went to college, but succeeded in becoming a maxillofacial doctor. That's crazy amounts of school - undergrad, plus med school, plus dentistry school. As a maxfac surgeon, he toured the world with the Navy (I believe) doing intense trauma work. Through a series of twist ans turns, he landed on the Sunshine Coast, cooking for a living because it was the way his mother was - always cooking for the community and being friendly to everyone.

C'mon I know you want to reach out and hug him right now.

July 4th BBQ at Soul Food Kitchen is going to be sooooo good! Be there!

7 comments:

Ash said...

Wow that place looks awesome! Where abouts on the coast do you live?

We have just moved to Caboolture (on the way up to the Sunshine coast) and it is so pretty!

Unknown said...

Do you live near Hamilton island? this is where i'd like to go!! :)

Unknown said...

Hey, I just stumbled upon your blog...I used to live in Brissie, but our family lives on the Sunny Coast. My FIL loves dry ribs like they do in Memphis...did they have any of those at this place?

I will have to have them check this place out.

Oh and saw your post about the movie Kenny. Love that movie. My inlaws gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago. Hysterical. :)

Unknown said...

Oh, should have re-read my post...just to clarify, WE live in the US now, but all my inlaws live on the Sunny coast. We are there for a few weeks every year to visit.

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