What Goes Down, Must Come Up.

A birthday for a college student is typically an excuse to have yet another "raging" house party--The only difference between a college birthday party and other parties, is that instead of having a bunch of guests you don't know come over to party; it's a bunch of guests you don't know coming over to party--for a birthday that they don't even know exsists.

So when my birthday came along on April 25, I decided that instead of celebrating a personal holiday with a bunch of strangers who wouldn't appreciate the value of it, I would just spend it with the guys, go out to eat, and hang out.

After me and my co-blogger hit a baseball game,we met up with a couple of the boys to figure out what we would eat. We were hungry; and we didn't want any pizza, dorm food, chinese, frat meals, salads, or hot pockets...we wanted something with some soul--and there is only one place in this triflin' ass city to get yo' soul on...Papa's soul food.

Ahh Papa's....the Eugene/Springflield area's flavorful blast from the "souf". I had never been there or had its food, but everybody in town told me it was "incredible..."

Now, bluntly put, I am from a black family where my grandma whips up yams, greens, mac and cheese like a pro; I know how it's supposed to taste. So when I had a bunch of white college kids, who probably grew up off of pasta and chicken nuggets, tell me that the CORNbread (for the last time people, it's pronounced CONEbread--the "R" is silent) is "wonderful" or the yams were "spectacular....it made me a bit skeptical to say the least.

I mean, how could I not have been? I had people telling me the food is "wonderful," "incredible," and "superb"--any brotha who eats soulfood professionally, knows damn well that those big ass words aint supposed to be coming to mind when you thinkin' 'bout catfish nuggets, ribs, and 'tato salad! Why you think black people describe soul food as "bomb" "the shit" or "hella good?" It's because it tastes so great, that you ain't got time to think of sensible adjectives when you attempt to explain it. The fact that proper english was used to describe their food made me uncomfortable...

But I figured it wouldn't kill me to try it, so the six of us loaded into the truck, and headed to Papa's Soulfood Kitchen.

15 minutes later we arrived...and my skeptisim rose. It was surrounded by redneck mobiles and trailer trash apartments. They said it was southern...but is it the blues and saxaphones type of southern? Or the banjo's and confederate flag type of southern? But before I tasted the food or even saw the menu my every skeptisism was cleared...

I saw old school tables with plaid tablecloths, old school show posters of many blues legends, and, most importantly, a picture of the owner...who was fat as hell!

[Sidenote: If the owner of a soul food restaurant is morbidly obese, most likely, their restaurant is the shit. The fatter the owner, the more "firsthand" experience he has with taste and the more irresistable his restaurants food is.]

I was officially excited to eat there.

We sat down, and the waiter brought us the menu, which was so innovative I cant really describe it, and offered us drinks...sweet tea or Kool-Aid.

Could it get any better?

I ordered pork ribs, yams, mac and cheese and purple Kool-Aid.

In summary, it was the shit. It was bomb. It was hella good.

We ordered boxes, made jokes about how Papa is black taxing us all because it was so damn expensive, and left.

As we got in the car, my co-blogger had stated how he felt like he was gonna throw up from eating so much. We all laughed it off, but as soon as we hit the parking lot of the house, he hopped out of the truck and hurled up one of the most epic and lengthy vomits of all time.

He didn't have enough soul for soul food.

just as I was making fun of him, for throwing up, I realized that I had to throw up too!

So there I was: on my knees and vomiting my eyes out, like many other people do on their birthday....except I didn't have a lick of alcohol.

What the hell happened? I understand one person throwing up from a meal--but two? Did we pick up the Swine Flu from the pork ribs?

Nah. We were just fat asses.

We came to the conclusion that we over ate. Him and I got so adapt to hella college cuisine, that when it came to good food--the type of meals that had entrees AND side dishes--our bellies panicked and didn't know how to react. We're pretty upset that we didnt get to digest all those fats, empty calories, carbs and oils that we call soul food. we would have loved to get that much closer to obesity and heart failure.

But we look on the brightside...not only was Papa's good going down, but, we can both attest, it was just as good coming up.

We got two meals for the price of one...whats more thrifty than that?

Hellacollege.