Whilst Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring was awaiting his train to Chicago near Washington D.C.’s Union Station, he decided that he was going to seek out a fine cigar lounge and have for himself a good cigar. He promptly got into a cab and told the driver, “Fetch me to Shelly’s Back Room on F Street and make it snappy!”

There was a wooden indian in front of the cigar lounge. Being the Good Ag, the Texas Aggie Ring promptly introduced himself to the indian, “Howdy Redskin, I’m Aggie Ring. Can you get me a seat in the cigar lounge at the bar? I’m afraid I don’t have a ‘reservation.’” On the way out, Aggie Ring told the indian, “By the way, you shouldn’t say ‘How…” You should say ‘How-dy!’”

Once Aggie Ring was inside at the bar, he ordered an expensive bourbon and a nice Nat Sherman cigar to enjoy while waiting for his train to depart to Chicago. Aggie Ring sat back while enjoying his cigar and adult beverage and said, to no one in particular, “It’s not easy being Aggie Ring. There’s a lot of stress in my life and I deserve this. What with having to keep my dumbass owner from eating and drinking everything in sight and having to resize me, I sometimes wonder how I can keep going on.” After making a dent in his expensive adult beverage, Aggie Ring said to the incredibly beautiful Asian girl behind the bar, “Honey, I’m a thirsty Aggie Ring. Can you please fetch me another drink to help cool me down?”

Aggie Ring says, “It’s a kind of Magic!”

#aggiering #texasaggie #aggieseverywhere

When Fightin’ Texas A&M Ring ’84 goes on a vacation, he’s been known to get “wild and crazy.” After finishing some excellent BBQ in the Historic Westport District of Kansas City, Aggie Ring ’84 jumped up on top of the bottle of Seared Jalapeño Kick Hot Sauce and before I could reset the camera, he dove into the cold deep glass of Knob Creek Bourbon.

After Aggie Ring came up from the bottom of the glass of bourbon he said, “Who doesn’t love a good Aggie Ring Dunking? I know I do!”

#aggiering #texasaggie #AggiesEverywhere

Aggie Ring ’84 and I have been together a long time—undergrad and grad school at A&M, three wars while on active duty in the Army, and now, “the golden years.” Over time, I’ve told Aggie Ring that besides the piano, my favorite instrument was always the trumpet. Unfortunately, I was forced to give up playing it at the end of high school freshman year.

A few months ago, Aggie Ring convinced me to buy the two of us a trumpet. Aggie Ring said, “You don’t have to spend a fortune at first, just go on eBay and get one that plays.” I followed Aggie Ring’s suggestion and found an old Holton trumpet that is around 50 years old and cost next to nothing. Other than the lacquer flaking a bit from age, it’s in excellent condition: the valves work perfectly, the valve and tuning slides are air tight, and the water keys are “water tight.”

When the trumpet arrived, Aggie Ring unboxed it and had me try it out. I had totally forgotten the smell of valve oil which brought back great memories. I will admit that since I had no embouchure my lips were bleeding like a stuck pig after just one session. However, Aggie Ring was nice enough to drive up to the drug store and buy me a jar of Carmex to soothe my bloody lips. I was amazed that after almost 40 years of not touching a trumpet, my fingers still remembered some of the scales. Sight reading is going to take a bit longer to come back.

To a lot of folks it may not look as fancy as a $2K silver trumpet, but to Aggie Ring and me, it’s the most beautiful instrument we’ve ever had—more beautiful than any piano, set of bagpipes, Irish whistles, or string instruments we’ve ever owned over the years.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

When Fightin’ Texas A&M Ring ’84 goes on a vacation, he’s been known to get “wild and crazy.” After finishing some excellent BBQ in the Historic Westport District of Kansas City, Aggie Ring ’84 jumped up on top of the bottle of Seared Jalapeño Kick Hot Sauce and before I could reset the camera, he dove into the cold deep glass of Knob Creek Bourbon.

After Aggie Ring came up from the bottom of the glass of bourbon he said, “Who doesn’t love a good Aggie Ring Dunking? I know I do!”

#aggiering #texasaggie #AggiesEverywhere

When Fightin’ Texas A&M Ring ’84 goes on a vacation, he’s been known to get “wild and crazy.” After finishing some excellent BBQ in the Historic Westport District of Kansas City, Aggie Ring ’84 jumped up on top of the bottle of Seared Jalapeño Kick Hot Sauce and before I could reset the camera, he dove into the cold deep glass of Knob Creek Bourbon.

After Aggie Ring came up from the bottom of the glass of bourbon he said, “Who doesn’t love a good Aggie Ring Dunking? I know I do!”

#aggiering #texasaggie #AggiesEverywhere

Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring ’84 had me pull into an old house which is now “Ralph’s Italian Ice” in the Village of Lincroft, New Jersey last week. Aggie Ring wanted to have his first Italian Ice of the season. He opted for the butter pecan flavor.

Before I could warn him, Aggie Ring let out a large “Whoop!” and then said, “Quick, take a picture so I can send it back to the Aggie Ring Factory in Austin, Texas and let them know how it’s oh so much better than Blue Bell!” Then, Aggie Ring jumped up onto the cup of butter pecan Italian Ice.

In what I can best describe as a thermodynamics “misadventure,” Aggie Ring started to immediately sink down into the delicious butter pecan Italian Ice. Now, I could understand this sort of misfortune happening to one of those “big ass” VMI rings that also double as door-knockers, or even a West Point ring that has one of those overlarge artificial stones that covers the entire top on it, but this sort of thing happening to little Aggie Ring was something I had not foreseen.

Aggie Ring began to plaintively call out, “Help me. I’m melting, I’m melting!” I snapped a couple of photos for Aggie Ring to put into his scrapbook and told him, “You’ll be just fine. You’re sounding like the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz.”

After I ‘fished’ Aggie Ring out of the delicious Italian Ice, he said, “I guess this Aggie Ring was just too ‘hot’ to sit up on that delicious icy goodness.” Then, Aggie Ring added, “When I say ‘hot’ I mean that in a ’sexy hot’ way. Everyone knows how sexy Aggie Rings are. Why do you think they line up for hours at A&M to get their rings? It’s because Aggie Rings are so damn sexy.”

#aggiering #texasaggie #aggieseverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 loves good BBQ. In fact, he’s positive most Texas Aggie Rings do. “I’m sure that there’s a vegetarian Aggie Ring or two out there, but that leaves more for the rest of the Aggie Rings, doesn’t it?” is what Aggie Ring ’84 always says.

Now Aggie Ring ’84 likes the BBQ in New Jersey where he lives and rules the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore. He loved the BBQ in Central and South Texas when he used to live there and he found the BBQ up around Monterey, California where he was once stationed identical to Texas BBQ which was all good for Aggie Ring.

All of that aside, Aggie Ring ’84 has found the BBQ in Kansas City to be the “gold standard” for BBQ. “It just doesn’t get any better than KC BBQ.” said Aggie Ring. (Note: Aggie Ring ’84 has never lived in Kansas City, so he is a truly impartial Aggie Ring!) Now, every state has some special features. Aggie Ring ’84 especially loves some of the hot peppers and apple empanadas, not to mention the greens, that Texas offers. California BBQ had some damn good fresh sliced artichoke served along with it. New Jersey BBQ has, well, the Jersey Shore, according to Aggie Ring ’84.

Aggie Ring ’84 has had some extremely excellent BBQ on his many Aggie Ring vacations to Kansas City of the brisket and rib variety. Aggie Ring ’84 still thinks Texas rules on the BBQ chicken and German/Polish sausage. However, Kansas City has the best brisket and ribs (steaks too) in the United States in Aggie Ring’s simple Aggie Ring opinion.

When Aggie Ring ’84 is gracing Kansas City with his Aggie Ringliness, he especially likes visiting Historic Westport Kansas City for a variety of reasons: best doughnuts in KC, best cigar lounge in KC, and bar in the oldest building in KC. This year, Aggie Ring ’84 ran into three locals in Westport and asked them where the best BBQ in Kansas City was. All three of them replied. “Go to the Char Bar in Westport. It’s the best!”

Aggie Ring decided that local recommendations about food are the best. “Screw Yelp!” said Aggie Ring. So, Aggie Ring went to this “Char Bar” that came highly recommended by the locals. Upon entering the “Char Bar,” Aggie Ring ’84 was in awe. First of all, the place was huge. Aggie Ring could have line danced in the inside and outside portions of the “joint.” Secondly, they had a full top-shelf bar. In Texas Aggie Ring’s humble opinion, BBQ just isn’t BBQ without “adult beverage.” However, Aggie Ring ’84 decided to reserve his Aggie Ring opinion until he tried the “goods.”

Texas Aggie Ring promptly took a seat at the bar and, after ordering a fine bourbon, began to peruse the menu. There were so many choices that a simple Texas Aggie Ring couldn’t even guess at what to order. For “starters” they had: Lobster Deviled Eggs (charred lobster and pea shoots), Grit Hushpuppies, Fried Green Tomatoes (Aggie Ring fell in love with these in Alabama), Jumbo Smoked Chicken Wings (bbq drizzle and buttermilk-chive dressing), amongst many others.

Fixin’s included: BBQ Pit Beans, Potato Salad, Cabbage Slaw, Carrot-Rasin Slaw and Smoked Corn Succotash, BBQ Pork Rinds, Beer-Battered Pickles, and too many other things to mention in this short summary.

The smoked meats included: Naked Burnt Brisket Ends (Kansas City is known for these), Ribs, Pulled Pork Butt, Black Angus Brisket, Hand-Cranked Sausage, Pulled Smoked Chicken, Smoked Turkey Breast, and something unknown to a simple Texas Aggie Ring called “Smoked Jackfruit.”

The dessert menu consisted of “Burnt Puddin’” (butterscotch custard and fresh blackberries), Bourbon Peach Crisp (almond crust, sticky male glaze and vanilla bean ice cream) and the “Velvet Elvis” (banana bread-peanut butter ice cream sandwich, spiced walnuts, bananas, cracker jacks, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a bourbon-soaked cherry.

There were a number of non-meat items on the menu with a skull and crossbones symbol next to them as a warning to real men and women who eat meat but I’ll not enumerate on them because Aggie Ring ’84 says, “Who cares about that stuff?”

Now Aggie Ring ’84 watches my weight because he doesn’t want me to become a “Fat AG” and have to get him resized. So I let him do the ordering. After much cogitation on Aggie Ring 84’s part. He allowed me to order the BBQ Tray with Naked Burnt Brisket Ends and Smoked Corn Succotash served with pickles and toast. Also, an appetizer of lobster deviled eggs. I asked Aggie Ring ’84 “What about dessert?” Aggie Ring replied, “You can have another glass of bourbon for dessert. It’s got much less calories.”

The service at Char Bar was quick. I mean really, really quick. Before Aggie Ring had a chance to put a dent into his bourbon, our order was served. First, I have to say that the presentation was incredible. Our meal was served on butcher paper on a tray with the sides in hand thrown pottery bowls. Even the ramekin with a side sauce was steel and not plastic like something you’d get at Arby’s.

Aggie Ring looked at his meal and almost wept. The tray, the brown butcher paper, the freshly toasted bread, the ceramic bowl. It was almost too much for Aggie Ring. “This,” said Texas Aggie Ring, “Is how they roll in Kansas City!” Aggie Ring ’84 says that BBQ served on a plate or in a red plastic basket is for “lady boys” and not really BBQ. The “burnt ends” were “pure delight” said Aggie Ring. The lobster deviled eggs and smoked corn brought tears to Aggie Ring’s eye.

Aggie Ring ’84 ate his entire lunch and said, “This is the best BBQ in any state I’ve lived in!”

As Texas Aggie Ring ’84 and I were leaving the “Char Bar,” he said to me, “Did you see their Sunday only Fried Chicken special with a whole chicken southern fried with whipped potatoes, pan gravy, “big-ass” buttermilk biscuits, and Tabasco honey?” I told Aggie Ring, “Hell, I’d come back just for the Tabasco honey!”

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

As I was taking a shortcut home yesterday through the Township of Ocean, I noticed that a local Greek Orthodox Church was having their annual “Greek Festival.” I told Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring ’84 that we were going to go to the festival.

Aggie Ring said, “Greek Festival? Will there be sorority girls?” I laughed and told Aggie Ring, “No, that was way back when you were an Aggie Ring in a Greek fraternity at Texas A&M in the Greek system and we wore a pledge pin on our Aggie Corps uniform. These are real Greeks.” Aggie Ring said, “That fraternity stuff was all fine until those two Waggie gals dimed us out at that Corps dining in for wearing the fraternity pin on our dress uniform.” I replied, “Oh? You didn’t seem to mind going to the grog bowl.”

Aggie Ring sighed and said, “Oh, I remember all of the socials at the bars in College Station that we had with the Aggie sorority girls and the BBQs with our fraternity brothers from the University of Texas.”

“Well,” I told Aggie Ring, “Where there are real Greeks, there’s going to be something good to eat.” Aggie Ring didn’t seem to have a problem with that. Aggie Ring started with the grilled octopus (xταπόδι-σχάρας) and then moved on to a couple of skewers of pork souvlaki and a Greek salad.

After Aggie Ring ’84 and I finished, we had a Turkish coffee. As we were enjoying the incredibly wonderful weather and low humidity, Aggie Ring said to me, “You know, sometimes I think that I’m the luckiest Aggie Ring in the world because I live on the Jersey Shore.”

Who am I to argue with an Aggie Ring? Living on the Jersey Shore sure as hell beats running over armadillos or tipping cows back in Texas.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 loves good BBQ. In fact, he’s positive most Texas Aggie Rings do. “I’m sure that there’s a vegetarian Aggie Ring or two out there, but that leaves more for the rest of the Aggie Rings, doesn’t it?” is what Aggie Ring ’84 always says.

Now Aggie Ring ’84 likes the BBQ in New Jersey where he lives and rules the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore. He loved the BBQ in Central and South Texas when he used to live there and he found the BBQ up around Monterey, California where he was once stationed identical to Texas BBQ which was all good for Aggie Ring.

All of that aside, Aggie Ring ’84 has found the BBQ in Kansas City to be the “gold standard” for BBQ. “It just doesn’t get any better than KC BBQ.” said Aggie Ring. (Note: Aggie Ring ’84 has never lived in Kansas City, so he is a truly impartial Aggie Ring!) Now, every state has some special features. Aggie Ring ’84 especially loves some of the hot peppers and apple empanadas, not to mention the greens, that Texas offers. California BBQ had some damn good fresh sliced artichoke served along with it. New Jersey BBQ has, well, the Jersey Shore, according to Aggie Ring ’84.

Aggie Ring ’84 has had some extremely excellent BBQ on his many Aggie Ring vacations to Kansas City of the brisket and rib variety. Aggie Ring ’84 still thinks Texas rules on the BBQ chicken and German/Polish sausage. However, Kansas City has the best brisket and ribs (steaks too) in the United States in Aggie Ring’s simple Aggie Ring opinion.

When Aggie Ring ’84 is gracing Kansas City with his Aggie Ringliness, he especially likes visiting Historic Westport Kansas City for a variety of reasons: best doughnuts in KC, best cigar lounge in KC, and bar in the oldest building in KC. This year, Aggie Ring ’84 ran into three locals in Westport and asked them where the best BBQ in Kansas City was. All three of them replied. “Go to the Char Bar in Westport. It’s the best!”

Aggie Ring decided that local recommendations about food are the best. “Screw Yelp!” said Aggie Ring. So, Aggie Ring went to this “Char Bar” that came highly recommended by the locals. Upon entering the “Char Bar,” Aggie Ring ’84 was in awe. First of all, the place was huge. Aggie Ring could have line danced in the inside and outside portions of the “joint.” Secondly, they had a full top-shelf bar. In Texas Aggie Ring’s humble opinion, BBQ just isn’t BBQ without “adult beverage.” However, Aggie Ring ’84 decided to reserve his Aggie Ring opinion until he tried the “goods.”

Texas Aggie Ring promptly took a seat at the bar and, after ordering a fine bourbon, began to peruse the menu. There were so many choices that a simple Texas Aggie Ring couldn’t even guess at what to order. For “starters” they had: Lobster Deviled Eggs (charred lobster and pea shoots), Grit Hushpuppies, Fried Green Tomatoes (Aggie Ring fell in love with these in Alabama), Jumbo Smoked Chicken Wings (bbq drizzle and buttermilk-chive dressing), amongst many others.

Fixin’s included: BBQ Pit Beans, Potato Salad, Cabbage Slaw, Carrot-Rasin Slaw and Smoked Corn Succotash, BBQ Pork Rinds, Beer-Battered Pickles, and too many other things to mention in this short summary.

The smoked meats included: Naked Burnt Brisket Ends (Kansas City is known for these), Ribs, Pulled Pork Butt, Black Angus Brisket, Hand-Cranked Sausage, Pulled Smoked Chicken, Smoked Turkey Breast, and something unknown to a simple Texas Aggie Ring called “Smoked Jackfruit.”

The dessert menu consisted of “Burnt Puddin’” (butterscotch custard and fresh blackberries), Bourbon Peach Crisp (almond crust, sticky male glaze and vanilla bean ice cream) and the “Velvet Elvis” (banana bread-peanut butter ice cream sandwich, spiced walnuts, bananas, cracker jacks, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a bourbon-soaked cherry.

There were a number of non-meat items on the menu with a skull and crossbones symbol next to them as a warning to real men and women who eat meat but I’ll not enumerate on them because Aggie Ring ’84 says, “Who cares about that stuff?”

Now Aggie Ring ’84 watches my weight because he doesn’t want me to become a “Fat AG” and have to get him resized. So I let him do the ordering. After much cogitation on Aggie Ring 84’s part. He allowed me to order the BBQ Tray with Naked Burnt Brisket Ends and Smoked Corn Succotash served with pickles and toast. Also, an appetizer of lobster deviled eggs. I asked Aggie Ring ’84 “What about dessert?” Aggie Ring replied, “You can have another glass of bourbon for dessert. It’s got much less calories.”

The service at Char Bar was quick. I mean really, really quick. Before Aggie Ring had a chance to put a dent into his bourbon, our order was served. First, I have to say that the presentation was incredible. Our meal was served on butcher paper on a tray with the sides in hand thrown pottery bowls. Even the ramekin with a side sauce was steel and not plastic like something you’d get at Arby’s.

Aggie Ring looked at his meal and almost wept. The tray, the brown butcher paper, the freshly toasted bread, the ceramic bowl. It was almost too much for Aggie Ring. “This,” said Texas Aggie Ring, “Is how they roll in Kansas City!” Aggie Ring ’84 says that BBQ served on a plate or in a red plastic basket is for “lady boys” and not really BBQ. The “burnt ends” were “pure delight” said Aggie Ring. The lobster deviled eggs and smoked corn brought tears to Aggie Ring’s eye.

Aggie Ring ’84 ate his entire lunch and said, “This is the best BBQ in any state I’ve lived in!”

As Texas Aggie Ring ’84 and I were leaving the “Char Bar,” he said to me, “Did you see their Sunday only Fried Chicken special with a whole chicken southern fried with whipped potatoes, pan gravy, “big-ass” buttermilk biscuits, and Tabasco honey?” I told Aggie Ring, “Hell, I’d come back just for the Tabasco honey!”

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring decided he wanted real Chinese food for lunch today. So, Aggie Ring drove us up to the Chinese bowling alley. “Why the Chinese bowling alley?” you might ask. “Well,” says Aggie Ring, “Every Aggie Ring knows that to get authentic Chinese food, you have to go to a Chinese bowling alley.”

This particular Chinese bowling alley that Aggie Ring goes to is well under the radar. The owners want to pretty much keep it “Asian Only” so there is not one single sign on the building. You just have to know where it is. When Aggie Ring had parked the car, we walked into the restaurant portion of the bowling alley. All of the Asians in the place looked at Aggie Ring with suspicion. You could have heard a pin drop. Momentarily, an old Asian woman came up to Aggie Ring and asked “What you want?”

Aggie Ring told the old Asian woman, “Ma’am, we’d like to eat lunch.” The old Asian woman nodded her head and replied, “Ok, but you eat soup.” Aggie Ring and I understood a bit later when the old Asian woman brought the menu. For lunch, real Chinese only eat soup. Granted, they had at least 40 different kinds of soup on the menu, but if you want real Chinese, you’re going to eat soup for lunch. Aggie Ring stepped into the men’s room to wash himself off. It was the cleanest restroom in a Chinese restaurant that Aggie Ring had ever seen. “Apparently,” Aggie Ring told me. “In the Chinese culture, only the Asian-only restaurants have clean restrooms.”

All of the soup is made to order so Aggie Ring ordered himself some seafood soup with noodles and looked around the room a bit. It turned out that Aggie Ring and I were the only “round-eye devils” in the restaurant and all of the Asians were looking at Aggie Ring with suspicion. This is apparently common. Every time Aggie Ring has been to the Chinese bowling alley he has been the only “round eye devil” in the place. Aggie Ring decided to “break the ice” a bit and jumped up on an empty teacup next to the pot the old Asian woman brought to the table. Aggie Ring broke into song in his best Al Jolson impression:

I’m a little teapot

Short and stout

Here is my handle

Here is my spout

When I get all steamed up

I just shout,

“Tip me over and pour me out!”

Well, all of the Asian men (there were only Asian men in the restaurant) were very impressed with Aggie Ring’s little performance of the “Teapot Song.”

There was an old, bald Asian man at the table next to us. He smiled and told us “Ohhhhh…. Aggie Wing do very good at Teapot Song.” I told him thanks and then I told Aggie Ring to get his shiny gold ass off of the teacup so I could pour the tea. By the way, there were none of those crispy fried noodles with mustard dipping sauce at this place because, apparently, that’s food that only the “round eye devil” eats and no real respectable Chinese person would eat something like that.

To pass the time while the soup was being made, Aggie Ring spun around like a top on the table several times and tried to see how long he could go without falling over. I told Aggie Ring about the time when I was a “fish” at A&M and one of the upperclassmen had us stand up a baseball bat and spin around with our forehead on the handle I until we started to wobble. Then, we had to run down the hall hitting ourselves against the walls as we stumbled from one side of the hallway to the other as we ran down to the far end of the dorm. Aggie Ring asked me if I thought that they still did that at A&M. I told him, “I certainly hope so. That was good clean fun. If they don’t do that to fish anymore, then they’ve all become a bunch of “Nancy Boys” at A&M.”

Then, Aggie Ring’s order of seafood soup with Asian noodles came out. The bowl was huge and steaming. Aggie Ring decided to perform his very dangerous “Aggie Ring Tightrope Walker” act and put himself, at great peril, over the deep bowl of steamy seafood soup without any sort of safety net. This performance could have gone very badly for Aggie Ring. In fact, it usually does. Luckily, the Aggie Ring Gods atop Mount Olympus were smiling down upon Jersey Shore Aggie Ring today as he executed his performance over the dangerous bowl of hot soup flawlessly.

It took a few minutes for the soup to cool down enough for Aggie Ring to start eating. It was quite spicy. It probably took Aggie Ring a good 20 minutes to finish his soup and when he did, Aggie Ring was (as they used to say in Texas) “Sweating like a whore in church.”

Aggie Ring paid the bill for once and he noticed that all of the Asian men in the restaurant were looking at us as we left. Aggie Ring half expected the old Asian woman to tell him, “You no tell your round eye friends about this place.” but she didn’t.

As we were pulling out of the parking lot onto the King’s Highway, Aggie Ring told me, “Mission accomplished. We infiltrated the Asian-only bowling alley with great Aggie Ring success.”

Aggie Ring say, “The road goes on forever and the party never ends.”

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

One of Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring’s favorite “Texas Treats” is a “Big Ass” kolache. Aggie Ring has enjoyed them since the old days when Aggie Ring and I would drive over from Bryan, Texas (where we lived) to the “Waggie” dorm on the Quad on the A&M campus, grab us the “Waggie” we knew well and then drive to Snook, Texas early on Sunday mornings. Snook, by the way, was a Czech town famous for their annual Kolache Festival and Kolache Queen.

Now, the closest place to get a good kolache on the Jersey Shore is up in Brooklyn, New York. Aggie Ring will get some there if he happens to be in Brooklyn, but it’s not an option for Aggie Ring to obtain his kolache “fix” on a regular basis. Luckily, Aggie Ring likes to cook and bake and kolaches are incredibly easy to make. There are basically two different kinds of kolaches — sweet or savory. Aggie Ring appreciates a sweet kolache now and then, but he doesn’t think that an Aggie Ring can make a meal out of them.

Aggie Ring’s favorite kolaches are obviously of the savory variety because he can eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. He’s made them using a variety of meats and cheeses. Aggie Ring once even made a batch using pickled vegetables. “Not my proudest Aggie Ring moment.” said Aggie Ring about that misadventure. When Aggie Ring started baking kolaches, he was using sausage or Polish kielbasa from a nearby kielbasa factory here on the shore that makes them fresh.

Recently, however, Aggie Ring has taken to making kolaches with high-quality sliced meats and cheese. He’s quite fond of using smoked or spiced ham varieties and even Cajun turkey or chicken. Aggie Ring has been using either really hot pepper jack cheese or a nice Swiss. He does have plans to try a cheddar or smoked cheese in the near future.

In his Aggie Ring quest for the perfect kolache, Aggie Ring has come up with a recipe for his own dough. It’s a slight variation from a traditional kolache dough, but Aggie Ring finds it better suited for freezing and re-heating and everyone knows that Aggie Rings are all about convenance.

The photos attached with this text document Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring’s most recent batch of kolaches. Aggie Ring mixes his special kolache dough then lets it rise for 90 minutes then punches it down and lets it rise again for an hour or so.

For this batch, Aggie Ring used a little bit too much yeast because the jar was almost empty and Aggie Ring just threw it all into the mix. Normally, the dough will double in size. In this case, the dough easily tripled in size during the first proofing. You can’t tell from the photo, but the dough was in a two gallon bowl and towered over the edge by at least half a foot. When Aggie Ring went into the kitchen and looked at the dough after the first 90 minutes, he said, “Holy crap!” However, Aggie Ring always being the optimist, decided we could “Beat the Hell Outta’ the Dough” and everything would be just fine. Aggie Ring punched and beat down the dough to close to its original volume while singing the theme song from the movie “Rocky.”

After the dough had been “Beaten the Hell Out of,” and going through its second rise, Aggie Ring started working on the filling for the kolaches. Aggie Ring likes jalapeños. Aggie Ring likes them hot! Most of the jalapeños you find at he grocery store or in restaurants are of the mild variety. Aggie Ring isn’t having any of that. He wants them hot. He wants the juice from the peppers to burn skin on contact. Therefore, Aggie Ring goes to the local Mexican market and buys pickled jalapeños in cans. For some reason, there are sliced carrots in the can with the hot jalapeños. This doesn’t bother Aggie Ring, he uses them as well. Aggie Ring slices the stems off of the peppers and throws them into the mini food processor along with some sweet and hot red Italian peppers.

Aggie Ring rolled out the dough with his rolling pin (he’s looking for a better one) and then took a slice of smoked ham, a slice of delicious Swiss cheese and placed a spoonful of the jalapeño and Italian pepper mix on them. He then folded the meat, cheese and peppers up into a small roll and then wrapped it with kolache dough an put it on the baking tray. After the tray was full, Aggie Ring mixed up an egg and milk wash and used a pastry brush to wet down all of the kolaches. Then, Aggie Ring “dusted” them with sesame seeds.

The egg wash turns the kolaches a nice golden brown while they are baking. Afterwards, Aggie Ring enjoyed a few with some hot sauce and a cup of his favorite Aggie Ring beverage (bourbon).

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Aggie Ring finally got around to going to see his accountant yesterday to do his taxes. Yes, Aggie Ring was late, but the Government doesn’t seem to mind when Aggie Ring is the one owed money back.

Jersey Shore Aggie Ring’s accountant didn’t want any payment for doing the Ring’s taxes, but he did mention that it had been a while since he’d enjoyed any of Aggie Ring’s New Orleans style tamales.

“Consider it done.” said Aggie Ring.

Earlier today, Aggie Ring went to the market and bought about 6 pounds of ground beef. Depending on how he’s feeling, sometimes Aggie Ring buys ground beef and pork or even ground lamb and beef and mixes them together. However today, Aggie Ring went with just the ground beef.

Aggie Ring’s introduction to New Orleans style tamales started back in our non-reg fraternity days when Aggie Ring and I had some Corps of Cadets buddies in Squadron 8. We’d go on road trips to New Orleans on breaks and after a full day and night of “power drinking” Aggie Ring would buy the delicious red hot New Orleans style tamales from street vendors in the French Quarter.

Over the years, Aggie Ring has come up with his own “Texas A&M Aggie Ring” special way of making these New Orleans style tamales. Normally, this type of tamal is wrapped in tamal paper and boiled in a tomato water mix. However, Jersey Shore Aggie Ring, being a legitimate Aggie Ring (i.e. an engineer/agriculture ring) is all about efficiency and determined that if he added tomatoes to the meat filling, and wrapped the tamals in foil instead of paper, and steamed them, it made them much, much easier to freeze and to heat up in the toaster oven. Aggie Rings rule!

Normally, Aggie Ring uses white onions but the yellow ones were on sale so Aggie Ring bought a bag of them. Usually, Aggie Ring chops them up with a knife, but today Aggie Ring said, “Screw it, fire up the food processor!” After he liquified the onions, Aggie Ring added a little bit of cumin and chili powder. Normally, Aggie Ring would add all kinds of hot peppers and spices, but his accountant’s wife is Irish and she and his kids don’t eat anything spicy. It almost killed Aggie Ring to make these non-spicy tamales, but enough of that…

Aggie Ring took the ground beef, added the six liquified onions, a couple of drained cans of chopped Italian tomatoes, a couple of cans of sweet Mexican corn as well as a cup of white corn meal per pound of meat for a binder to keep the meat together when they were cooked. Aggie Ring mixed up everything “real good.”

Then, Aggie Ring took several cups of Indian Head stone ground yellow corn meal and added several tablespoons of Amarillo powdered coloring he picked up in the Mexican isle at the store because Aggie Ring knows my dad was from Amarillo, Texas and lived there until he went to Rice University. Also, Aggie Ring says, “A little coloring ads flair, and all Aggie Rings like to have a couple of pieces of flair.”

Aggie Ring formed about a tablespoon and a half or so of the meat filling into a stubby cigar shape and rolled it in the Indian Head yellow corn meal. Then he wrapped each one of them in aluminum foil until he had dozens, dozens and dozens of tamales.

After all of the meat mixture was used, Aggie Ring got out his “big ass” tamale steamer, filled the section under the internal tray with water and cried out with his best Aggie War Cry, “Let’s steam these bitches!"

Approximately an hour and a half later, Aggie Ring was enjoying his tamales with a large “Aggie Ring” sized glass of tequila.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 wanted to shout out a special “Howdy!” to not only all his brother and sister Aggie Rings, but especially to all of the Aggie Rings out there who are lucky enough to be worn by Texas A&M graduates of Filipino ethnic origin. Aggie Ring ’84 doesn’t want to boast, but on this day of our Lord 11 June, 2016, Aggie Ring ’84 has set what might possibly be a first for all Texas A&M Aggie Rings — An Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking!!!!”

You see, there’s a little Filipino buffet that Aggie Ring has been frequenting near where we live. Today, we went in and Aggie Ring spotted the duck eggs in a tray next to the cash register. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of one of them and shouted out for the entire store to hear, “This one belongs to this Aggie Ring, I’m calling it now!”

I asked Aggie Ring what it was (I could tell it was a duck egg by the size) and Aggie Ring explained to me, “There’s a delicious, traditional Filipino delicacy called “Balut” that is made from an 18-day old fertilized duck egg which is then cooked. Anyone lucky enough to be served one eats the compressed bird body, beak, feet, veins, and wings. It’s a real treat!” Aggie Ring has always said that anyone afraid to try the food of another culture is nothing but an old-school racist so how could I refuse? When I was in Asia, I ate the dog, if I were in the proper parts of Canada or Alaska, I’d eat the baby seal or whale.

“Are you sure you want to try it?” I asked Aggie Ring. He replied, “Damn right I’m sure, I will not walk out of this place without having Balut because that would make me a “Nancy Ring” and this Aggie Ring ain’t having none of that!”

Aggie Ring gave the egg to the clerk for her to take it to the kitchen and boil. As she was leaving she said, “It might help if you close your eyes when you eat it.” She obviously didn’t know Aggie Ring.

As Aggie Ring was finishing his meal, the clerk brought out the freshly boiled egg in a little tray. It was warm and quite heavy. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of the warm egg and said, “It’s so warm and hot, I can feel the heat from it throughout my shank and crest. This is going to be a treat. I’m not just having this Balut for myself, but for All Aggie Rings all over the world who might not ever have the chance.”

Selfless Aggie Ring volunteered the use of his very own ring crest to crack the shell of the egg without hesitation. Once the shell was removed, Aggie Ring jumped back on the good egg and cried out, “It smells so good… It smells like “victory!”” Aggie Ring was fascinated at the inside of the egg. There was the delicious yoke, of course, but there was also all of the veins and the little bird embryo. Aggie Ring pointed out its eyes, feet, head and wings. “It’s going to be delicious!” said Aggie Ring.

Aggie Ring put the insides of the egg into a little ramekin with plenty of vinegar and salt for the sacred Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking.” Finally, it was time. I decided to ignore the clerk’s advice and shut my eyes while eating it so Aggie Ring and I proudly looked at the entire thing before I shoved it into my mouth. Aggie Ring and I can best describe the sensation as a variety of pleasures. The yoke was pretty much like a regular chicken egg yoke. The embryo had a variety of textures. Aggie Ring liked how the skin on the embryo was smooth and salty while the little bones in it were a bit crunchy.

After we finished, Aggie Ring said, “Oh, that was delicious. Narrow minded Americans don’t know what they’re missing out on.” “This is true.” I explained to Aggie Ring. “I’m fortunate to have been raised quite a bit by my grandmother whose family lost everything in the Great Depression. When her father and brothers were out working the fields, she’d hunt squirrels and possums to put meat on the table. She taught me at a young age to eat anything that the Lord blessed by giving to you. To turn your nose up at food is to spit into the eye of the Lord.

“Amen.” said Aggie Ring.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 loves good BBQ. In fact, he’s positive most Texas Aggie Rings do. “I’m sure that there’s a vegetarian Aggie Ring or two out there, but that leaves more for the rest of the Aggie Rings, doesn’t it?” is what Aggie Ring ’84 always says.

Now Aggie Ring ’84 likes the BBQ in New Jersey where he lives and rules the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore. He loved the BBQ in Central and South Texas when he used to live there and he found the BBQ up around Monterey, California where he was once stationed identical to Texas BBQ which was all good for Aggie Ring.

All of that aside, Aggie Ring ’84 has found the BBQ in Kansas City to be the “gold standard” for BBQ. “It just doesn’t get any better than KC BBQ.” said Aggie Ring. (Note: Aggie Ring ’84 has never lived in Kansas City, so he is a truly impartial Aggie Ring!) Now, every state has some special features. Aggie Ring ’84 especially loves some of the hot peppers and apple empanadas, not to mention the greens, that Texas offers. California BBQ had some damn good fresh sliced artichoke served along with it. New Jersey BBQ has, well, the Jersey Shore, according to Aggie Ring ’84.

Aggie Ring ’84 has had some extremely excellent BBQ on his many Aggie Ring vacations to Kansas City of the brisket and rib variety. Aggie Ring ’84 still thinks Texas rules on the BBQ chicken and German/Polish sausage. However, Kansas City has the best brisket and ribs (steaks too) in the United States in Aggie Ring’s simple Aggie Ring opinion.

When Aggie Ring ’84 is gracing Kansas City with his Aggie Ringliness, he especially likes visiting Historic Westport Kansas City for a variety of reasons: best doughnuts in KC, best cigar lounge in KC, and bar in the oldest building in KC. This year, Aggie Ring ’84 ran into three locals in Westport and asked them where the best BBQ in Kansas City was. All three of them replied. “Go to the Char Bar in Westport. It’s the best!”

Aggie Ring decided that local recommendations about food are the best. “Screw Yelp!” said Aggie Ring. So, Aggie Ring went to this “Char Bar” that came highly recommended by the locals. Upon entering the “Char Bar,” Aggie Ring ’84 was in awe. First of all, the place was huge. Aggie Ring could have line danced in the inside and outside portions of the “joint.” Secondly, they had a full top-shelf bar. In Texas Aggie Ring’s humble opinion, BBQ just isn’t BBQ without “adult beverage.” However, Aggie Ring ’84 decided to reserve his Aggie Ring opinion until he tried the “goods.”

Texas Aggie Ring promptly took a seat at the bar and, after ordering a fine bourbon, began to peruse the menu. There were so many choices that a simple Texas Aggie Ring couldn’t even guess at what to order. For “starters” they had: Lobster Deviled Eggs (charred lobster and pea shoots), Grit Hushpuppies, Fried Green Tomatoes (Aggie Ring fell in love with these in Alabama), Jumbo Smoked Chicken Wings (bbq drizzle and buttermilk-chive dressing), amongst many others.

Fixin’s included: BBQ Pit Beans, Potato Salad, Cabbage Slaw, Carrot-Rasin Slaw and Smoked Corn Succotash, BBQ Pork Rinds, Beer-Battered Pickles, and too many other things to mention in this short summary.

The smoked meats included: Naked Burnt Brisket Ends (Kansas City is known for these), Ribs, Pulled Pork Butt, Black Angus Brisket, Hand-Cranked Sausage, Pulled Smoked Chicken, Smoked Turkey Breast, and something unknown to a simple Texas Aggie Ring called “Smoked Jackfruit.”

The dessert menu consisted of “Burnt Puddin’” (butterscotch custard and fresh blackberries), Bourbon Peach Crisp (almond crust, sticky male glaze and vanilla bean ice cream) and the “Velvet Elvis” (banana bread-peanut butter ice cream sandwich, spiced walnuts, bananas, cracker jacks, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a bourbon-soaked cherry.

There were a number of non-meat items on the menu with a skull and crossbones symbol next to them as a warning to real men and women who eat meat but I’ll not enumerate on them because Aggie Ring ’84 says, “Who cares about that stuff?”

Now Aggie Ring ’84 watches my weight because he doesn’t want me to become a “Fat AG” and have to get him resized. So I let him do the ordering. After much cogitation on Aggie Ring 84’s part. He allowed me to order the BBQ Tray with Naked Burnt Brisket Ends and Smoked Corn Succotash served with pickles and toast. Also, an appetizer of lobster deviled eggs. I asked Aggie Ring ’84 “What about dessert?” Aggie Ring replied, “You can have another glass of bourbon for dessert. It’s got much less calories.”

The service at Char Bar was quick. I mean really, really quick. Before Aggie Ring had a chance to put a dent into his bourbon, our order was served. First, I have to say that the presentation was incredible. Our meal was served on butcher paper on a tray with the sides in hand thrown pottery bowls. Even the ramekin with a side sauce was steel and not plastic like something you’d get at Arby’s.

Aggie Ring looked at his meal and almost wept. The tray, the brown butcher paper, the freshly toasted bread, the ceramic bowl. It was almost too much for Aggie Ring. “This,” said Texas Aggie Ring, “Is how they roll in Kansas City!” Aggie Ring ’84 says that BBQ served on a plate or in a red plastic basket is for “lady boys” and not really BBQ. The “burnt ends” were “pure delight” said Aggie Ring. The lobster deviled eggs and smoked corn brought tears to Aggie Ring’s eye.

Aggie Ring ’84 ate his entire lunch and said, “This is the best BBQ in any state I’ve lived in!”

As Texas Aggie Ring ’84 and I were leaving the “Char Bar,” he said to me, “Did you see their Sunday only Fried Chicken special with a whole chicken southern fried with whipped potatoes, pan gravy, “big-ass” buttermilk biscuits, and Tabasco honey?” I told Aggie Ring, “Hell, I’d come back just for the Tabasco honey!”

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Aggie Ring finally got around to going to see his accountant yesterday to do his taxes. Yes, Aggie Ring was late, but the Government doesn’t seem to mind when Aggie Ring is the one owed money back.

Jersey Shore Aggie Ring’s accountant didn’t want any payment for doing the Ring’s taxes, but he did mention that it had been a while since he’d enjoyed any of Aggie Ring’s New Orleans style tamales.

“Consider it done.” said Aggie Ring.

Earlier today, Aggie Ring went to the market and bought about 6 pounds of ground beef. Depending on how he’s feeling, sometimes Aggie Ring buys ground beef and pork or even ground lamb and beef and mixes them together. However today, Aggie Ring went with just the ground beef.

Aggie Ring’s introduction to New Orleans style tamales started back in our non-reg fraternity days when Aggie Ring and I had some Corps of Cadets buddies in Squadron 8. We’d go on road trips to New Orleans on breaks and after a full day and night of “power drinking” Aggie Ring would buy the delicious red hot New Orleans style tamales from street vendors in the French Quarter.

Over the years, Aggie Ring has come up with his own “Texas A&M Aggie Ring” special way of making these New Orleans style tamales. Normally, this type of tamal is wrapped in tamal paper and boiled in a tomato water mix. However, Jersey Shore Aggie Ring, being a legitimate Aggie Ring (i.e. an engineer/agriculture ring) is all about efficiency and determined that if he added tomatoes to the meat filling, and wrapped the tamals in foil instead of paper, and steamed them, it made them much, much easier to freeze and to heat up in the toaster oven. Aggie Rings rule!

Normally, Aggie Ring uses white onions but the yellow ones were on sale so Aggie Ring bought a bag of them. Usually, Aggie Ring chops them up with a knife, but today Aggie Ring said, “Screw it, fire up the food processor!” After he liquified the onions, Aggie Ring added a little bit of cumin and chili powder. Normally, Aggie Ring would add all kinds of hot peppers and spices, but his accountant’s wife is Irish and she and his kids don’t eat anything spicy. It almost killed Aggie Ring to make these non-spicy tamales, but enough of that…

Aggie Ring took the ground beef, added the six liquified onions, a couple of drained cans of chopped Italian tomatoes, a couple of cans of sweet Mexican corn as well as a cup of white corn meal per pound of meat for a binder to keep the meat together when they were cooked. Aggie Ring mixed up everything “real good.”

Then, Aggie Ring took several cups of Indian Head stone ground yellow corn meal and added several tablespoons of Amarillo powdered coloring he picked up in the Mexican isle at the store because Aggie Ring knows my dad was from Amarillo, Texas and lived there until he went to Rice University. Also, Aggie Ring says, “A little coloring ads flair, and all Aggie Rings like to have a couple of pieces of flair.”

Aggie Ring formed about a tablespoon and a half or so of the meat filling into a stubby cigar shape and rolled it in the Indian Head yellow corn meal. Then he wrapped each one of them in aluminum foil until he had dozens, dozens and dozens of tamales.

After all of the meat mixture was used, Aggie Ring got out his “big ass” tamale steamer, filled the section under the internal tray with water and cried out with his best Aggie War Cry, “Let’s steam these bitches!"

Approximately an hour and a half later, Aggie Ring was enjoying his tamales with a large “Aggie Ring” sized glass of tequila.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Aggie Ring finally got around to going to see his accountant yesterday to do his taxes. Yes, Aggie Ring was late, but the Government doesn’t seem to mind when Aggie Ring is the one owed money back.

Jersey Shore Aggie Ring’s accountant didn’t want any payment for doing the Ring’s taxes, but he did mention that it had been a while since he’d enjoyed any of Aggie Ring’s New Orleans style tamales.

“Consider it done.” said Aggie Ring.

Earlier today, Aggie Ring went to the market and bought about 6 pounds of ground beef. Depending on how he’s feeling, sometimes Aggie Ring buys ground beef and pork or even ground lamb and beef and mixes them together. However today, Aggie Ring went with just the ground beef.

Aggie Ring’s introduction to New Orleans style tamales started back in our non-reg fraternity days when Aggie Ring and I had some Corps of Cadets buddies in Squadron 8. We’d go on road trips to New Orleans on breaks and after a full day and night of “power drinking” Aggie Ring would buy the delicious red hot New Orleans style tamales from street vendors in the French Quarter.

Over the years, Aggie Ring has come up with his own “Texas A&M Aggie Ring” special way of making these New Orleans style tamales. Normally, this type of tamal is wrapped in tamal paper and boiled in a tomato water mix. However, Jersey Shore Aggie Ring, being a legitimate Aggie Ring (i.e. an engineer/agriculture ring) is all about efficiency and determined that if he added tomatoes to the meat filling, and wrapped the tamals in foil instead of paper, and steamed them, it made them much, much easier to freeze and to heat up in the toaster oven. Aggie Rings rule!

Normally, Aggie Ring uses white onions but the yellow ones were on sale so Aggie Ring bought a bag of them. Usually, Aggie Ring chops them up with a knife, but today Aggie Ring said, “Screw it, fire up the food processor!” After he liquified the onions, Aggie Ring added a little bit of cumin and chili powder. Normally, Aggie Ring would add all kinds of hot peppers and spices, but his accountant’s wife is Irish and she and his kids don’t eat anything spicy. It almost killed Aggie Ring to make these non-spicy tamales, but enough of that…

Aggie Ring took the ground beef, added the six liquified onions, a couple of drained cans of chopped Italian tomatoes, a couple of cans of sweet Mexican corn as well as a cup of white corn meal per pound of meat for a binder to keep the meat together when they were cooked. Aggie Ring mixed up everything “real good.”

Then, Aggie Ring took several cups of Indian Head stone ground yellow corn meal and added several tablespoons of Amarillo powdered coloring he picked up in the Mexican isle at the store because Aggie Ring knows my dad was from Amarillo, Texas and lived there until he went to Rice University. Also, Aggie Ring says, “A little coloring ads flair, and all Aggie Rings like to have a couple of pieces of flair.”

Aggie Ring formed about a tablespoon and a half or so of the meat filling into a stubby cigar shape and rolled it in the Indian Head yellow corn meal. Then he wrapped each one of them in aluminum foil until he had dozens, dozens and dozens of tamales.

After all of the meat mixture was used, Aggie Ring got out his “big ass” tamale steamer, filled the section under the internal tray with water and cried out with his best Aggie War Cry, “Let’s steam these bitches!"

Approximately an hour and a half later, Aggie Ring was enjoying his tamales with a large “Aggie Ring” sized glass of tequila.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 loves good BBQ. In fact, he’s positive most Texas Aggie Rings do. “I’m sure that there’s a vegetarian Aggie Ring or two out there, but that leaves more for the rest of the Aggie Rings, doesn’t it?” is what Aggie Ring ’84 always says.

Now Aggie Ring ’84 likes the BBQ in New Jersey where he lives and rules the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore. He loved the BBQ in Central and South Texas when he used to live there and he found the BBQ up around Monterey, California where he was once stationed identical to Texas BBQ which was all good for Aggie Ring.

All of that aside, Aggie Ring ’84 has found the BBQ in Kansas City to be the “gold standard” for BBQ. “It just doesn’t get any better than KC BBQ.” said Aggie Ring. (Note: Aggie Ring ’84 has never lived in Kansas City, so he is a truly impartial Aggie Ring!) Now, every state has some special features. Aggie Ring ’84 especially loves some of the hot peppers and apple empanadas, not to mention the greens, that Texas offers. California BBQ had some damn good fresh sliced artichoke served along with it. New Jersey BBQ has, well, the Jersey Shore, according to Aggie Ring ’84.

Aggie Ring ’84 has had some extremely excellent BBQ on his many Aggie Ring vacations to Kansas City of the brisket and rib variety. Aggie Ring ’84 still thinks Texas rules on the BBQ chicken and German/Polish sausage. However, Kansas City has the best brisket and ribs (steaks too) in the United States in Aggie Ring’s simple Aggie Ring opinion.

When Aggie Ring ’84 is gracing Kansas City with his Aggie Ringliness, he especially likes visiting Historic Westport Kansas City for a variety of reasons: best doughnuts in KC, best cigar lounge in KC, and bar in the oldest building in KC. This year, Aggie Ring ’84 ran into three locals in Westport and asked them where the best BBQ in Kansas City was. All three of them replied. “Go to the Char Bar in Westport. It’s the best!”

Aggie Ring decided that local recommendations about food are the best. “Screw Yelp!” said Aggie Ring. So, Aggie Ring went to this “Char Bar” that came highly recommended by the locals. Upon entering the “Char Bar,” Aggie Ring ’84 was in awe. First of all, the place was huge. Aggie Ring could have line danced in the inside and outside portions of the “joint.” Secondly, they had a full top-shelf bar. In Texas Aggie Ring’s humble opinion, BBQ just isn’t BBQ without “adult beverage.” However, Aggie Ring ’84 decided to reserve his Aggie Ring opinion until he tried the “goods.”

Texas Aggie Ring promptly took a seat at the bar and, after ordering a fine bourbon, began to peruse the menu. There were so many choices that a simple Texas Aggie Ring couldn’t even guess at what to order. For “starters” they had: Lobster Deviled Eggs (charred lobster and pea shoots), Grit Hushpuppies, Fried Green Tomatoes (Aggie Ring fell in love with these in Alabama), Jumbo Smoked Chicken Wings (bbq drizzle and buttermilk-chive dressing), amongst many others.

Fixin’s included: BBQ Pit Beans, Potato Salad, Cabbage Slaw, Carrot-Rasin Slaw and Smoked Corn Succotash, BBQ Pork Rinds, Beer-Battered Pickles, and too many other things to mention in this short summary.

The smoked meats included: Naked Burnt Brisket Ends (Kansas City is known for these), Ribs, Pulled Pork Butt, Black Angus Brisket, Hand-Cranked Sausage, Pulled Smoked Chicken, Smoked Turkey Breast, and something unknown to a simple Texas Aggie Ring called “Smoked Jackfruit.”

The dessert menu consisted of “Burnt Puddin’” (butterscotch custard and fresh blackberries), Bourbon Peach Crisp (almond crust, sticky male glaze and vanilla bean ice cream) and the “Velvet Elvis” (banana bread-peanut butter ice cream sandwich, spiced walnuts, bananas, cracker jacks, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a bourbon-soaked cherry.

There were a number of non-meat items on the menu with a skull and crossbones symbol next to them as a warning to real men and women who eat meat but I’ll not enumerate on them because Aggie Ring ’84 says, “Who cares about that stuff?”

Now Aggie Ring ’84 watches my weight because he doesn’t want me to become a “Fat AG” and have to get him resized. So I let him do the ordering. After much cogitation on Aggie Ring 84’s part. He allowed me to order the BBQ Tray with Naked Burnt Brisket Ends and Smoked Corn Succotash served with pickles and toast. Also, an appetizer of lobster deviled eggs. I asked Aggie Ring ’84 “What about dessert?” Aggie Ring replied, “You can have another glass of bourbon for dessert. It’s got much less calories.”

The service at Char Bar was quick. I mean really, really quick. Before Aggie Ring had a chance to put a dent into his bourbon, our order was served. First, I have to say that the presentation was incredible. Our meal was served on butcher paper on a tray with the sides in hand thrown pottery bowls. Even the ramekin with a side sauce was steel and not plastic like something you’d get at Arby’s.

Aggie Ring looked at his meal and almost wept. The tray, the brown butcher paper, the freshly toasted bread, the ceramic bowl. It was almost too much for Aggie Ring. “This,” said Texas Aggie Ring, “Is how they roll in Kansas City!” Aggie Ring ’84 says that BBQ served on a plate or in a red plastic basket is for “lady boys” and not really BBQ. The “burnt ends” were “pure delight” said Aggie Ring. The lobster deviled eggs and smoked corn brought tears to Aggie Ring’s eye.

Aggie Ring ’84 ate his entire lunch and said, “This is the best BBQ in any state I’ve lived in!”

As Texas Aggie Ring ’84 and I were leaving the “Char Bar,” he said to me, “Did you see their Sunday only Fried Chicken special with a whole chicken southern fried with whipped potatoes, pan gravy, “big-ass” buttermilk biscuits, and Tabasco honey?” I told Aggie Ring, “Hell, I’d come back just for the Tabasco honey!”

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 wanted to shout out a special “Howdy!” to not only all his brother and sister Aggie Rings, but especially to all of the Aggie Rings out there who are lucky enough to be worn by Texas A&M graduates of Filipino ethnic origin. Aggie Ring ’84 doesn’t want to boast, but on this day of our Lord 11 June, 2016, Aggie Ring ’84 has set what might possibly be a first for all Texas A&M Aggie Rings — An Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking!!!!”

You see, there’s a little Filipino buffet that Aggie Ring has been frequenting near where we live. Today, we went in and Aggie Ring spotted the duck eggs in a tray next to the cash register. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of one of them and shouted out for the entire store to hear, “This one belongs to this Aggie Ring, I’m calling it now!”

I asked Aggie Ring what it was (I could tell it was a duck egg by the size) and Aggie Ring explained to me, “There’s a delicious, traditional Filipino delicacy called “Balut” that is made from an 18-day old fertilized duck egg which is then cooked. Anyone lucky enough to be served one eats the compressed bird body, beak, feet, veins, and wings. It’s a real treat!” Aggie Ring has always said that anyone afraid to try the food of another culture is nothing but an old-school racist so how could I refuse? When I was in Asia, I ate the dog, if I were in the proper parts of Canada or Alaska, I’d eat the baby seal or whale.

“Are you sure you want to try it?” I asked Aggie Ring. He replied, “Damn right I’m sure, I will not walk out of this place without having Balut because that would make me a “Nancy Ring” and this Aggie Ring ain’t having none of that!”

Aggie Ring gave the egg to the clerk for her to take it to the kitchen and boil. As she was leaving she said, “It might help if you close your eyes when you eat it.” She obviously didn’t know Aggie Ring.

As Aggie Ring was finishing his meal, the clerk brought out the freshly boiled egg in a little tray. It was warm and quite heavy. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of the warm egg and said, “It’s so warm and hot, I can feel the heat from it throughout my shank and crest. This is going to be a treat. I’m not just having this Balut for myself, but for All Aggie Rings all over the world who might not ever have the chance.”

Selfless Aggie Ring volunteered the use of his very own ring crest to crack the shell of the egg without hesitation. Once the shell was removed, Aggie Ring jumped back on the good egg and cried out, “It smells so good… It smells like “victory!”” Aggie Ring was fascinated at the inside of the egg. There was the delicious yoke, of course, but there was also all of the veins and the little bird embryo. Aggie Ring pointed out its eyes, feet, head and wings. “It’s going to be delicious!” said Aggie Ring.

Aggie Ring put the insides of the egg into a little ramekin with plenty of vinegar and salt for the sacred Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking.” Finally, it was time. I decided to ignore the clerk’s advice and shut my eyes while eating it so Aggie Ring and I proudly looked at the entire thing before I shoved it into my mouth. Aggie Ring and I can best describe the sensation as a variety of pleasures. The yoke was pretty much like a regular chicken egg yoke. The embryo had a variety of textures. Aggie Ring liked how the skin on the embryo was smooth and salty while the little bones in it were a bit crunchy.

After we finished, Aggie Ring said, “Oh, that was delicious. Narrow minded Americans don’t know what they’re missing out on.” “This is true.” I explained to Aggie Ring. “I’m fortunate to have been raised quite a bit by my grandmother whose family lost everything in the Great Depression. When her father and brothers were out working the fields, she’d hunt squirrels and possums to put meat on the table. She taught me at a young age to eat anything that the Lord blessed by giving to you. To turn your nose up at food is to spit into the eye of the Lord.

“Amen.” said Aggie Ring.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

One of Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring’s favorite “Texas Treats” is a “Big Ass” kolache. Aggie Ring has enjoyed them since the old days when Aggie Ring and I would drive over from Bryan, Texas (where we lived) to the “Waggie” dorm on the Quad on the A&M campus, grab us the “Waggie” we knew well and then drive to Snook, Texas early on Sunday mornings. Snook, by the way, was a Czech town famous for their annual Kolache Festival and Kolache Queen.

Now, the closest place to get a good kolache on the Jersey Shore is up in Brooklyn, New York. Aggie Ring will get some there if he happens to be in Brooklyn, but it’s not an option for Aggie Ring to obtain his kolache “fix” on a regular basis. Luckily, Aggie Ring likes to cook and bake and kolaches are incredibly easy to make. There are basically two different kinds of kolaches — sweet or savory. Aggie Ring appreciates a sweet kolache now and then, but he doesn’t think that an Aggie Ring can make a meal out of them.

Aggie Ring’s favorite kolaches are obviously of the savory variety because he can eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. He’s made them using a variety of meats and cheeses. Aggie Ring once even made a batch using pickled vegetables. “Not my proudest Aggie Ring moment.” said Aggie Ring about that misadventure. When Aggie Ring started baking kolaches, he was using sausage or Polish kielbasa from a nearby kielbasa factory here on the shore that makes them fresh.

Recently, however, Aggie Ring has taken to making kolaches with high-quality sliced meats and cheese. He’s quite fond of using smoked or spiced ham varieties and even Cajun turkey or chicken. Aggie Ring has been using either really hot pepper jack cheese or a nice Swiss. He does have plans to try a cheddar or smoked cheese in the near future.

In his Aggie Ring quest for the perfect kolache, Aggie Ring has come up with a recipe for his own dough. It’s a slight variation from a traditional kolache dough, but Aggie Ring finds it better suited for freezing and re-heating and everyone knows that Aggie Rings are all about convenance.

The photos attached with this text document Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring’s most recent batch of kolaches. Aggie Ring mixes his special kolache dough then lets it rise for 90 minutes then punches it down and lets it rise again for an hour or so.

For this batch, Aggie Ring used a little bit too much yeast because the jar was almost empty and Aggie Ring just threw it all into the mix. Normally, the dough will double in size. In this case, the dough easily tripled in size during the first proofing. You can’t tell from the photo, but the dough was in a two gallon bowl and towered over the edge by at least half a foot. When Aggie Ring went into the kitchen and looked at the dough after the first 90 minutes, he said, “Holy crap!” However, Aggie Ring always being the optimist, decided we could “Beat the Hell Outta’ the Dough” and everything would be just fine. Aggie Ring punched and beat down the dough to close to its original volume while singing the theme song from the movie “Rocky.”

After the dough had been “Beaten the Hell Out of,” and going through its second rise, Aggie Ring started working on the filling for the kolaches. Aggie Ring likes jalapeños. Aggie Ring likes them hot! Most of the jalapeños you find at he grocery store or in restaurants are of the mild variety. Aggie Ring isn’t having any of that. He wants them hot. He wants the juice from the peppers to burn skin on contact. Therefore, Aggie Ring goes to the local Mexican market and buys pickled jalapeños in cans. For some reason, there are sliced carrots in the can with the hot jalapeños. This doesn’t bother Aggie Ring, he uses them as well. Aggie Ring slices the stems off of the peppers and throws them into the mini food processor along with some sweet and hot red Italian peppers.

Aggie Ring rolled out the dough with his rolling pin (he’s looking for a better one) and then took a slice of smoked ham, a slice of delicious Swiss cheese and placed a spoonful of the jalapeño and Italian pepper mix on them. He then folded the meat, cheese and peppers up into a small roll and then wrapped it with kolache dough an put it on the baking tray. After the tray was full, Aggie Ring mixed up an egg and milk wash and used a pastry brush to wet down all of the kolaches. Then, Aggie Ring “dusted” them with sesame seeds.

The egg wash turns the kolaches a nice golden brown while they are baking. Afterwards, Aggie Ring enjoyed a few with some hot sauce and a cup of his favorite Aggie Ring beverage (bourbon).

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Aggie Ring finally got around to going to see his accountant yesterday to do his taxes. Yes, Aggie Ring was late, but the Government doesn’t seem to mind when Aggie Ring is the one owed money back.

Jersey Shore Aggie Ring’s accountant didn’t want any payment for doing the Ring’s taxes, but he did mention that it had been a while since he’d enjoyed any of Aggie Ring’s New Orleans style tamales.

“Consider it done.” said Aggie Ring.

Earlier today, Aggie Ring went to the market and bought about 6 pounds of ground beef. Depending on how he’s feeling, sometimes Aggie Ring buys ground beef and pork or even ground lamb and beef and mixes them together. However today, Aggie Ring went with just the ground beef.

Aggie Ring’s introduction to New Orleans style tamales started back in our non-reg fraternity days when Aggie Ring and I had some Corps of Cadets buddies in Squadron 8. We’d go on road trips to New Orleans on breaks and after a full day and night of “power drinking” Aggie Ring would buy the delicious red hot New Orleans style tamales from street vendors in the French Quarter.

Over the years, Aggie Ring has come up with his own “Texas A&M Aggie Ring” special way of making these New Orleans style tamales. Normally, this type of tamal is wrapped in tamal paper and boiled in a tomato water mix. However, Jersey Shore Aggie Ring, being a legitimate Aggie Ring (i.e. an engineer/agriculture ring) is all about efficiency and determined that if he added tomatoes to the meat filling, and wrapped the tamals in foil instead of paper, and steamed them, it made them much, much easier to freeze and to heat up in the toaster oven. Aggie Rings rule!

Normally, Aggie Ring uses white onions but the yellow ones were on sale so Aggie Ring bought a bag of them. Usually, Aggie Ring chops them up with a knife, but today Aggie Ring said, “Screw it, fire up the food processor!” After he liquified the onions, Aggie Ring added a little bit of cumin and chili powder. Normally, Aggie Ring would add all kinds of hot peppers and spices, but his accountant’s wife is Irish and she and his kids don’t eat anything spicy. It almost killed Aggie Ring to make these non-spicy tamales, but enough of that…

Aggie Ring took the ground beef, added the six liquified onions, a couple of drained cans of chopped Italian tomatoes, a couple of cans of sweet Mexican corn as well as a cup of white corn meal per pound of meat for a binder to keep the meat together when they were cooked. Aggie Ring mixed up everything “real good.”

Then, Aggie Ring took several cups of Indian Head stone ground yellow corn meal and added several tablespoons of Amarillo powdered coloring he picked up in the Mexican isle at the store because Aggie Ring knows my dad was from Amarillo, Texas and lived there until he went to Rice University. Also, Aggie Ring says, “A little coloring ads flair, and all Aggie Rings like to have a couple of pieces of flair.”

Aggie Ring formed about a tablespoon and a half or so of the meat filling into a stubby cigar shape and rolled it in the Indian Head yellow corn meal. Then he wrapped each one of them in aluminum foil until he had dozens, dozens and dozens of tamales.

After all of the meat mixture was used, Aggie Ring got out his “big ass” tamale steamer, filled the section under the internal tray with water and cried out with his best Aggie War Cry, “Let’s steam these bitches!"

Approximately an hour and a half later, Aggie Ring was enjoying his tamales with a large “Aggie Ring” sized glass of tequila.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

One of Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring’s favorite “Texas Treats” is a “Big Ass” kolache. Aggie Ring has enjoyed them since the old days when Aggie Ring and I would drive over from Bryan, Texas (where we lived) to the “Waggie” dorm on the Quad on the A&M campus, grab us the “Waggie” we knew well and then drive to Snook, Texas early on Sunday mornings. Snook, by the way, was a Czech town famous for their annual Kolache Festival and Kolache Queen.

Now, the closest place to get a good kolache on the Jersey Shore is up in Brooklyn, New York. Aggie Ring will get some there if he happens to be in Brooklyn, but it’s not an option for Aggie Ring to obtain his kolache “fix” on a regular basis. Luckily, Aggie Ring likes to cook and bake and kolaches are incredibly easy to make. There are basically two different kinds of kolaches — sweet or savory. Aggie Ring appreciates a sweet kolache now and then, but he doesn’t think that an Aggie Ring can make a meal out of them.

Aggie Ring’s favorite kolaches are obviously of the savory variety because he can eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. He’s made them using a variety of meats and cheeses. Aggie Ring once even made a batch using pickled vegetables. “Not my proudest Aggie Ring moment.” said Aggie Ring about that misadventure. When Aggie Ring started baking kolaches, he was using sausage or Polish kielbasa from a nearby kielbasa factory here on the shore that makes them fresh.

Recently, however, Aggie Ring has taken to making kolaches with high-quality sliced meats and cheese. He’s quite fond of using smoked or spiced ham varieties and even Cajun turkey or chicken. Aggie Ring has been using either really hot pepper jack cheese or a nice Swiss. He does have plans to try a cheddar or smoked cheese in the near future.

In his Aggie Ring quest for the perfect kolache, Aggie Ring has come up with a recipe for his own dough. It’s a slight variation from a traditional kolache dough, but Aggie Ring finds it better suited for freezing and re-heating and everyone knows that Aggie Rings are all about convenance.

The photos attached with this text document Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring’s most recent batch of kolaches. Aggie Ring mixes his special kolache dough then lets it rise for 90 minutes then punches it down and lets it rise again for an hour or so.

For this batch, Aggie Ring used a little bit too much yeast because the jar was almost empty and Aggie Ring just threw it all into the mix. Normally, the dough will double in size. In this case, the dough easily tripled in size during the first proofing. You can’t tell from the photo, but the dough was in a two gallon bowl and towered over the edge by at least half a foot. When Aggie Ring went into the kitchen and looked at the dough after the first 90 minutes, he said, “Holy crap!” However, Aggie Ring always being the optimist, decided we could “Beat the Hell Outta’ the Dough” and everything would be just fine. Aggie Ring punched and beat down the dough to close to its original volume while singing the theme song from the movie “Rocky.”

After the dough had been “Beaten the Hell Out of,” and going through its second rise, Aggie Ring started working on the filling for the kolaches. Aggie Ring likes jalapeños. Aggie Ring likes them hot! Most of the jalapeños you find at he grocery store or in restaurants are of the mild variety. Aggie Ring isn’t having any of that. He wants them hot. He wants the juice from the peppers to burn skin on contact. Therefore, Aggie Ring goes to the local Mexican market and buys pickled jalapeños in cans. For some reason, there are sliced carrots in the can with the hot jalapeños. This doesn’t bother Aggie Ring, he uses them as well. Aggie Ring slices the stems off of the peppers and throws them into the mini food processor along with some sweet and hot red Italian peppers.

Aggie Ring rolled out the dough with his rolling pin (he’s looking for a better one) and then took a slice of smoked ham, a slice of delicious Swiss cheese and placed a spoonful of the jalapeño and Italian pepper mix on them. He then folded the meat, cheese and peppers up into a small roll and then wrapped it with kolache dough an put it on the baking tray. After the tray was full, Aggie Ring mixed up an egg and milk wash and used a pastry brush to wet down all of the kolaches. Then, Aggie Ring “dusted” them with sesame seeds.

The egg wash turns the kolaches a nice golden brown while they are baking. Afterwards, Aggie Ring enjoyed a few with some hot sauce and a cup of his favorite Aggie Ring beverage (bourbon).

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ A&M College of Texas Aggie Ring ’42 decided he needed a “cold one” so he asked me to drive him up to the new brewery that recently opened near us here on the Jersey Shore. I asked Aggie Ring ’42 what he wanted and he replied, “I’ll have the stout.”

Just before Aggie Ring ’42 started to drink his stout, I asked him if he wanted to go for one of those crazy Aggie “Ring Dunkings.” He looked at me as if I was mad and replied, “Are you kidding me? A&M College of Texas Rings from my generation have way too much class for that sort of tomfoolery. I’ll leave those sort of shenanigans to Balfour manufactured Aggie Rings.”

“But, why not?” I implored Aggie Ring ’42. He laughed and said, “My generation of Aggie Rings from 1940-1948 were made in Minnesota where the men were handsome and the women were strong. That’s why the detailing on us is so much better. Also, we know to stay out of cold liquids unless one falls through the ice while fishing.”

“Besides,” Aggie Ring ’42 then said. “I don’t want to get my leather neck strap all sticky and smelly.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 loves good BBQ. In fact, he’s positive most Texas Aggie Rings do. “I’m sure that there’s a vegetarian Aggie Ring or two out there, but that leaves more for the rest of the Aggie Rings, doesn’t it?” is what Aggie Ring ’84 always says.

Now Aggie Ring ’84 likes the BBQ in New Jersey where he lives and rules the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore. He loved the BBQ in Central and South Texas when he used to live there and he found the BBQ up around Monterey, California where he was once stationed identical to Texas BBQ which was all good for Aggie Ring.

All of that aside, Aggie Ring ’84 has found the BBQ in Kansas City to be the “gold standard” for BBQ. “It just doesn’t get any better than KC BBQ.” said Aggie Ring. (Note: Aggie Ring ’84 has never lived in Kansas City, so he is a truly impartial Aggie Ring!) Now, every state has some special features. Aggie Ring ’84 especially loves some of the hot peppers and apple empanadas, not to mention the greens, that Texas offers. California BBQ had some damn good fresh sliced artichoke served along with it. New Jersey BBQ has, well, the Jersey Shore, according to Aggie Ring ’84.

Aggie Ring ’84 has had some extremely excellent BBQ on his many Aggie Ring vacations to Kansas City of the brisket and rib variety. Aggie Ring ’84 still thinks Texas rules on the BBQ chicken and German/Polish sausage. However, Kansas City has the best brisket and ribs (steaks too) in the United States in Aggie Ring’s simple Aggie Ring opinion.

When Aggie Ring ’84 is gracing Kansas City with his Aggie Ringliness, he especially likes visiting Historic Westport Kansas City for a variety of reasons: best doughnuts in KC, best cigar lounge in KC, and bar in the oldest building in KC. This year, Aggie Ring ’84 ran into three locals in Westport and asked them where the best BBQ in Kansas City was. All three of them replied. “Go to the Char Bar in Westport. It’s the best!”

Aggie Ring decided that local recommendations about food are the best. “Screw Yelp!” said Aggie Ring. So, Aggie Ring went to this “Char Bar” that came highly recommended by the locals. Upon entering the “Char Bar,” Aggie Ring ’84 was in awe. First of all, the place was huge. Aggie Ring could have line danced in the inside and outside portions of the “joint.” Secondly, they had a full top-shelf bar. In Texas Aggie Ring’s humble opinion, BBQ just isn’t BBQ without “adult beverage.” However, Aggie Ring ’84 decided to reserve his Aggie Ring opinion until he tried the “goods.”

Texas Aggie Ring promptly took a seat at the bar and, after ordering a fine bourbon, began to peruse the menu. There were so many choices that a simple Texas Aggie Ring couldn’t even guess at what to order. For “starters” they had: Lobster Deviled Eggs (charred lobster and pea shoots), Grit Hushpuppies, Fried Green Tomatoes (Aggie Ring fell in love with these in Alabama), Jumbo Smoked Chicken Wings (bbq drizzle and buttermilk-chive dressing), amongst many others.

Fixin’s included: BBQ Pit Beans, Potato Salad, Cabbage Slaw, Carrot-Rasin Slaw and Smoked Corn Succotash, BBQ Pork Rinds, Beer-Battered Pickles, and too many other things to mention in this short summary.

The smoked meats included: Naked Burnt Brisket Ends (Kansas City is known for these), Ribs, Pulled Pork Butt, Black Angus Brisket, Hand-Cranked Sausage, Pulled Smoked Chicken, Smoked Turkey Breast, and something unknown to a simple Texas Aggie Ring called “Smoked Jackfruit.”

The dessert menu consisted of “Burnt Puddin’” (butterscotch custard and fresh blackberries), Bourbon Peach Crisp (almond crust, sticky male glaze and vanilla bean ice cream) and the “Velvet Elvis” (banana bread-peanut butter ice cream sandwich, spiced walnuts, bananas, cracker jacks, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a bourbon-soaked cherry.

There were a number of non-meat items on the menu with a skull and crossbones symbol next to them as a warning to real men and women who eat meat but I’ll not enumerate on them because Aggie Ring ’84 says, “Who cares about that stuff?”

Now Aggie Ring ’84 watches my weight because he doesn’t want me to become a “Fat AG” and have to get him resized. So I let him do the ordering. After much cogitation on Aggie Ring 84’s part. He allowed me to order the BBQ Tray with Naked Burnt Brisket Ends and Smoked Corn Succotash served with pickles and toast. Also, an appetizer of lobster deviled eggs. I asked Aggie Ring ’84 “What about dessert?” Aggie Ring replied, “You can have another glass of bourbon for dessert. It’s got much less calories.”

The service at Char Bar was quick. I mean really, really quick. Before Aggie Ring had a chance to put a dent into his bourbon, our order was served. First, I have to say that the presentation was incredible. Our meal was served on butcher paper on a tray with the sides in hand thrown pottery bowls. Even the ramekin with a side sauce was steel and not plastic like something you’d get at Arby’s.

Aggie Ring looked at his meal and almost wept. The tray, the brown butcher paper, the freshly toasted bread, the ceramic bowl. It was almost too much for Aggie Ring. “This,” said Texas Aggie Ring, “Is how they roll in Kansas City!” Aggie Ring ’84 says that BBQ served on a plate or in a red plastic basket is for “lady boys” and not really BBQ. The “burnt ends” were “pure delight” said Aggie Ring. The lobster deviled eggs and smoked corn brought tears to Aggie Ring’s eye.

Aggie Ring ’84 ate his entire lunch and said, “This is the best BBQ in any state I’ve lived in!”

As Texas Aggie Ring ’84 and I were leaving the “Char Bar,” he said to me, “Did you see their Sunday only Fried Chicken special with a whole chicken southern fried with whipped potatoes, pan gravy, “big-ass” buttermilk biscuits, and Tabasco honey?” I told Aggie Ring, “Hell, I’d come back just for the Tabasco honey!”

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 wanted to shout out a special “Howdy!” to not only all his brother and sister Aggie Rings, but especially to all of the Aggie Rings out there who are lucky enough to be worn by Texas A&M graduates of Filipino ethnic origin. Aggie Ring ’84 doesn’t want to boast, but on this day of our Lord 11 June, 2016, Aggie Ring ’84 has set what might possibly be a first for all Texas A&M Aggie Rings — An Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking!!!!”

You see, there’s a little Filipino buffet that Aggie Ring has been frequenting near where we live. Today, we went in and Aggie Ring spotted the duck eggs in a tray next to the cash register. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of one of them and shouted out for the entire store to hear, “This one belongs to this Aggie Ring, I’m calling it now!”

I asked Aggie Ring what it was (I could tell it was a duck egg by the size) and Aggie Ring explained to me, “There’s a delicious, traditional Filipino delicacy called “Balut” that is made from an 18-day old fertilized duck egg which is then cooked. Anyone lucky enough to be served one eats the compressed bird body, beak, feet, veins, and wings. It’s a real treat!” Aggie Ring has always said that anyone afraid to try the food of another culture is nothing but an old-school racist so how could I refuse? When I was in Asia, I ate the dog, if I were in the proper parts of Canada or Alaska, I’d eat the baby seal or whale.

“Are you sure you want to try it?” I asked Aggie Ring. He replied, “Damn right I’m sure, I will not walk out of this place without having Balut because that would make me a “Nancy Ring” and this Aggie Ring ain’t having none of that!”

Aggie Ring gave the egg to the clerk for her to take it to the kitchen and boil. As she was leaving she said, “It might help if you close your eyes when you eat it.” She obviously didn’t know Aggie Ring.

As Aggie Ring was finishing his meal, the clerk brought out the freshly boiled egg in a little tray. It was warm and quite heavy. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of the warm egg and said, “It’s so warm and hot, I can feel the heat from it throughout my shank and crest. This is going to be a treat. I’m not just having this Balut for myself, but for All Aggie Rings all over the world who might not ever have the chance.”

Selfless Aggie Ring volunteered the use of his very own ring crest to crack the shell of the egg without hesitation. Once the shell was removed, Aggie Ring jumped back on the good egg and cried out, “It smells so good… It smells like “victory!”” Aggie Ring was fascinated at the inside of the egg. There was the delicious yoke, of course, but there was also all of the veins and the little bird embryo. Aggie Ring pointed out its eyes, feet, head and wings. “It’s going to be delicious!” said Aggie Ring.

Aggie Ring put the insides of the egg into a little ramekin with plenty of vinegar and salt for the sacred Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking.” Finally, it was time. I decided to ignore the clerk’s advice and shut my eyes while eating it so Aggie Ring and I proudly looked at the entire thing before I shoved it into my mouth. Aggie Ring and I can best describe the sensation as a variety of pleasures. The yoke was pretty much like a regular chicken egg yoke. The embryo had a variety of textures. Aggie Ring liked how the skin on the embryo was smooth and salty while the little bones in it were a bit crunchy.

After we finished, Aggie Ring said, “Oh, that was delicious. Narrow minded Americans don’t know what they’re missing out on.” “This is true.” I explained to Aggie Ring. “I’m fortunate to have been raised quite a bit by my grandmother whose family lost everything in the Great Depression. When her father and brothers were out working the fields, she’d hunt squirrels and possums to put meat on the table. She taught me at a young age to eat anything that the Lord blessed by giving to you. To turn your nose up at food is to spit into the eye of the Lord.

“Amen.” said Aggie Ring.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 wanted to shout out a special “Howdy!” to not only all his brother and sister Aggie Rings, but especially to all of the Aggie Rings out there who are lucky enough to be worn by Texas A&M graduates of Filipino ethnic origin. Aggie Ring ’84 doesn’t want to boast, but on this day of our Lord 11 June, 2016, Aggie Ring ’84 has set what might possibly be a first for all Texas A&M Aggie Rings — An Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking!!!!”

You see, there’s a little Filipino buffet that Aggie Ring has been frequenting near where we live. Today, we went in and Aggie Ring spotted the duck eggs in a tray next to the cash register. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of one of them and shouted out for the entire store to hear, “This one belongs to this Aggie Ring, I’m calling it now!”

I asked Aggie Ring what it was (I could tell it was a duck egg by the size) and Aggie Ring explained to me, “There’s a delicious, traditional Filipino delicacy called “Balut” that is made from an 18-day old fertilized duck egg which is then cooked. Anyone lucky enough to be served one eats the compressed bird body, beak, feet, veins, and wings. It’s a real treat!” Aggie Ring has always said that anyone afraid to try the food of another culture is nothing but an old-school racist so how could I refuse? When I was in Asia, I ate the dog, if I were in the proper parts of Canada or Alaska, I’d eat the baby seal or whale.

“Are you sure you want to try it?” I asked Aggie Ring. He replied, “Damn right I’m sure, I will not walk out of this place without having Balut because that would make me a “Nancy Ring” and this Aggie Ring ain’t having none of that!”

Aggie Ring gave the egg to the clerk for her to take it to the kitchen and boil. As she was leaving she said, “It might help if you close your eyes when you eat it.” She obviously didn’t know Aggie Ring.

As Aggie Ring was finishing his meal, the clerk brought out the freshly boiled egg in a little tray. It was warm and quite heavy. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of the warm egg and said, “It’s so warm and hot, I can feel the heat from it throughout my shank and crest. This is going to be a treat. I’m not just having this Balut for myself, but for All Aggie Rings all over the world who might not ever have the chance.”

Selfless Aggie Ring volunteered the use of his very own ring crest to crack the shell of the egg without hesitation. Once the shell was removed, Aggie Ring jumped back on the good egg and cried out, “It smells so good… It smells like “victory!”” Aggie Ring was fascinated at the inside of the egg. There was the delicious yoke, of course, but there was also all of the veins and the little bird embryo. Aggie Ring pointed out its eyes, feet, head and wings. “It’s going to be delicious!” said Aggie Ring.

Aggie Ring put the insides of the egg into a little ramekin with plenty of vinegar and salt for the sacred Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking.” Finally, it was time. I decided to ignore the clerk’s advice and shut my eyes while eating it so Aggie Ring and I proudly looked at the entire thing before I shoved it into my mouth. Aggie Ring and I can best describe the sensation as a variety of pleasures. The yoke was pretty much like a regular chicken egg yoke. The embryo had a variety of textures. Aggie Ring liked how the skin on the embryo was smooth and salty while the little bones in it were a bit crunchy.

After we finished, Aggie Ring said, “Oh, that was delicious. Narrow minded Americans don’t know what they’re missing out on.” “This is true.” I explained to Aggie Ring. “I’m fortunate to have been raised quite a bit by my grandmother whose family lost everything in the Great Depression. When her father and brothers were out working the fields, she’d hunt squirrels and possums to put meat on the table. She taught me at a young age to eat anything that the Lord blessed by giving to you. To turn your nose up at food is to spit into the eye of the Lord.

“Amen.” said Aggie Ring.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

To show his community spirit, Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring drove over to a local community college for their food truck event this evening. Aggie Ring had seen most of the trucks that were there before at the many other local food truck events.

There was one particular food truck that caught Aggie Ring’s attention. It was called “1 Potato Two.” Their three main items were “Spudwiches,” “Spudnachos” and fries. Apparently, the “Spudwich” is an oversized potato (over a pound) which is baked, scooped out and deep fried until dark, crispy, and crunchy shells. The shells are then filled with a selection of items (cheesesteak, bacon cheeseburger, pulled pork with coleslaw on top, turkey and cranberry, or BLT.

Texas Aggie Ring doesn’t eat much bread and quite liked the idea of a crispy sandwich made from two halves of a fried potato instead of bread so we decided that we’d order the cheesesteak “Spudwich.” Aggie Ring and I were the first in line at the truck and while we waited for them to open, Aggie Ring kept saying, “This “Spudwich” thing is going to be so damn good…”

After a few minutes, the 1 Potato Two truck opened for business and as we were about to order the cheesesteak “Spudwich,” a miracle happened. The boss lady of the truck put down a static display tray of the three items that they were selling today to show everyone what they were about. The three items on the tray were fries (covered with all kinds of toppings), a bacon cheeseburger “Spudwich” (which looked awesome!) and the most elusive of all potato products, the coveted “Spudnachos.”

Texas Aggie Ring shined just a little bit brighter in the late afternoon sun when he saw the last of the three items on the display and cried out loudly, “Spudnachos!” It seems that they take pieces of crispy fried potato skins and they top them with chopped bacon burger, and heap on the lettuce, tomato, cheese, a special house sauce, and plenty of chopped jalapeños. Well, I knew that there was absolutely no way to win this argument with Aggie Ring. Anyone who has an Aggie Ring can tell you that there’s nothing any Aggie Ring loves more than Shiner Bock or nachos. Let alone, the miracle of the “Spudnacho.”

“We’ll have the “Spudnachos.” I told the lady at the window. Minutes later, Aggie Ring and I had our “Spudnachos” and headed over to a table with our freshly squeezed lemonade. Before I could pick up a fork and napkin, Aggie Ring in the most selfless and heroic act that I’ve ever seen an Aggie Ring perform, leapt off of my finger and onto one of the crispy fried potato skins in the “Spudnachos.” Then, Aggie Ring cried out “I’m King of the Spudnachos!”

(Editor’s note: As I was putting Aggie Ring into the container of jewelry cleaner later in the evening to get the cheese sauce out of his crest, Aggie Ring said, “I did that because I love you and I wanted to make sure that those potatoes had enough toppings and were safe for you to share with me.”)

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 wanted to shout out a special “Howdy!” to not only all his brother and sister Aggie Rings, but especially to all of the Aggie Rings out there who are lucky enough to be worn by Texas A&M graduates of Filipino ethnic origin. Aggie Ring ’84 doesn’t want to boast, but on this day of our Lord 11 June, 2016, Aggie Ring ’84 has set what might possibly be a first for all Texas A&M Aggie Rings — An Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking!!!!”

You see, there’s a little Filipino buffet that Aggie Ring has been frequenting near where we live. Today, we went in and Aggie Ring spotted the duck eggs in a tray next to the cash register. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of one of them and shouted out for the entire store to hear, “This one belongs to this Aggie Ring, I’m calling it now!”

I asked Aggie Ring what it was (I could tell it was a duck egg by the size) and Aggie Ring explained to me, “There’s a delicious, traditional Filipino delicacy called “Balut” that is made from an 18-day old fertilized duck egg which is then cooked. Anyone lucky enough to be served one eats the compressed bird body, beak, feet, veins, and wings. It’s a real treat!” Aggie Ring has always said that anyone afraid to try the food of another culture is nothing but an old-school racist so how could I refuse? When I was in Asia, I ate the dog, if I were in the proper parts of Canada or Alaska, I’d eat the baby seal or whale.

“Are you sure you want to try it?” I asked Aggie Ring. He replied, “Damn right I’m sure, I will not walk out of this place without having Balut because that would make me a “Nancy Ring” and this Aggie Ring ain’t having none of that!”

Aggie Ring gave the egg to the clerk for her to take it to the kitchen and boil. As she was leaving she said, “It might help if you close your eyes when you eat it.” She obviously didn’t know Aggie Ring.

As Aggie Ring was finishing his meal, the clerk brought out the freshly boiled egg in a little tray. It was warm and quite heavy. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of the warm egg and said, “It’s so warm and hot, I can feel the heat from it throughout my shank and crest. This is going to be a treat. I’m not just having this Balut for myself, but for All Aggie Rings all over the world who might not ever have the chance.”

Selfless Aggie Ring volunteered the use of his very own ring crest to crack the shell of the egg without hesitation. Once the shell was removed, Aggie Ring jumped back on the good egg and cried out, “It smells so good… It smells like “victory!”” Aggie Ring was fascinated at the inside of the egg. There was the delicious yoke, of course, but there was also all of the veins and the little bird embryo. Aggie Ring pointed out its eyes, feet, head and wings. “It’s going to be delicious!” said Aggie Ring.

Aggie Ring put the insides of the egg into a little ramekin with plenty of vinegar and salt for the sacred Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking.” Finally, it was time. I decided to ignore the clerk’s advice and shut my eyes while eating it so Aggie Ring and I proudly looked at the entire thing before I shoved it into my mouth. Aggie Ring and I can best describe the sensation as a variety of pleasures. The yoke was pretty much like a regular chicken egg yoke. The embryo had a variety of textures. Aggie Ring liked how the skin on the embryo was smooth and salty while the little bones in it were a bit crunchy.

After we finished, Aggie Ring said, “Oh, that was delicious. Narrow minded Americans don’t know what they’re missing out on.” “This is true.” I explained to Aggie Ring. “I’m fortunate to have been raised quite a bit by my grandmother whose family lost everything in the Great Depression. When her father and brothers were out working the fields, she’d hunt squirrels and possums to put meat on the table. She taught me at a young age to eat anything that the Lord blessed by giving to you. To turn your nose up at food is to spit into the eye of the Lord.

“Amen.” said Aggie Ring.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Aggie Ring finally got around to going to see his accountant yesterday to do his taxes. Yes, Aggie Ring was late, but the Government doesn’t seem to mind when Aggie Ring is the one owed money back.

Jersey Shore Aggie Ring’s accountant didn’t want any payment for doing the Ring’s taxes, but he did mention that it had been a while since he’d enjoyed any of Aggie Ring’s New Orleans style tamales.

“Consider it done.” said Aggie Ring.

Earlier today, Aggie Ring went to the market and bought about 6 pounds of ground beef. Depending on how he’s feeling, sometimes Aggie Ring buys ground beef and pork or even ground lamb and beef and mixes them together. However today, Aggie Ring went with just the ground beef.

Aggie Ring’s introduction to New Orleans style tamales started back in our non-reg fraternity days when Aggie Ring and I had some Corps of Cadets buddies in Squadron 8. We’d go on road trips to New Orleans on breaks and after a full day and night of “power drinking” Aggie Ring would buy the delicious red hot New Orleans style tamales from street vendors in the French Quarter.

Over the years, Aggie Ring has come up with his own “Texas A&M Aggie Ring” special way of making these New Orleans style tamales. Normally, this type of tamal is wrapped in tamal paper and boiled in a tomato water mix. However, Jersey Shore Aggie Ring, being a legitimate Aggie Ring (i.e. an engineer/agriculture ring) is all about efficiency and determined that if he added tomatoes to the meat filling, and wrapped the tamals in foil instead of paper, and steamed them, it made them much, much easier to freeze and to heat up in the toaster oven. Aggie Rings rule!

Normally, Aggie Ring uses white onions but the yellow ones were on sale so Aggie Ring bought a bag of them. Usually, Aggie Ring chops them up with a knife, but today Aggie Ring said, “Screw it, fire up the food processor!” After he liquified the onions, Aggie Ring added a little bit of cumin and chili powder. Normally, Aggie Ring would add all kinds of hot peppers and spices, but his accountant’s wife is Irish and she and his kids don’t eat anything spicy. It almost killed Aggie Ring to make these non-spicy tamales, but enough of that…

Aggie Ring took the ground beef, added the six liquified onions, a couple of drained cans of chopped Italian tomatoes, a couple of cans of sweet Mexican corn as well as a cup of white corn meal per pound of meat for a binder to keep the meat together when they were cooked. Aggie Ring mixed up everything “real good.”

Then, Aggie Ring took several cups of Indian Head stone ground yellow corn meal and added several tablespoons of Amarillo powdered coloring he picked up in the Mexican isle at the store because Aggie Ring knows my dad was from Amarillo, Texas and lived there until he went to Rice University. Also, Aggie Ring says, “A little coloring ads flair, and all Aggie Rings like to have a couple of pieces of flair.”

Aggie Ring formed about a tablespoon and a half or so of the meat filling into a stubby cigar shape and rolled it in the Indian Head yellow corn meal. Then he wrapped each one of them in aluminum foil until he had dozens, dozens and dozens of tamales.

After all of the meat mixture was used, Aggie Ring got out his “big ass” tamale steamer, filled the section under the internal tray with water and cried out with his best Aggie War Cry, “Let’s steam these bitches!"

Approximately an hour and a half later, Aggie Ring was enjoying his tamales with a large “Aggie Ring” sized glass of tequila.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring and I had just stepped off of the brand new Kansas City Streetcar line which had only opened a couple of days earlier and were walking through the River Market District of KC heading to a coffee shop/bar in the old Kansas City Opera House when Aggie Ring spotted this sculpture titled “The Vision.” The statue is of a young man with an adorable collie dog pointing off in the distance thinking about the future of Kansas City.

Before I could stop him, Aggie Ring jumped off of my left ring finger and onto the statue’s hand. After I retrieved Aggie Ring from the statue, I asked him what the heck he thought he was doing. “Sorry,” Aggie Ring blurted out. “No Aggie Ring can resist a statue with an adorable little Reveille dog like that.” I could tell from the emotion in Aggie Ring’s reply that there was more to the story that this so I asked him, “Do you want to elaborate on that?”

“Well,” said Aggie Ring as he choked back a few sobs, “I thought I could use my special Aggie Ring powers and turn him into a real boy with a real Reveille dog but it didn’t work. I failed.” I thought about this for a moment and said, “Oh, Aggie Ring. You’re thinking about Pinocchio. Everyone knows that story. The magic only works on puppets. You’re more likely to figure out where the 5th slide position on a trombone is before you can bring a statue to life.”

Aggie Ring and I walked over to the coffee house, the only sound was the gentle sobbing of Aggie Ring as he thought about that adorable Reveille dog and what fun it would be to have one around to play with.

#aggiering #texasaggie #aggieseverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 has taken a “shine” to a number of local delicacies since he moved to the Jersey Shore some years ago. One of those things is the delicious, tender and sweet locally harvested Littleneck Clam (also known as the hard clam.)

Aggie Ring says, “Technically, they can be found all the way down the Eastern Seaboard as far as Florida, but they are most abundant between Cape Cod and New Jersey.” The Littlenecks are quite inexpensive (around $10.00 for a bag of 50) and are quite popular at many of the local pubs where they are served as an appetizer. The local Mexican and Italian restaurants make good use of them.

Fightin’ Aggie Ring grew up in College Station, Texas eating raw oysters at an “oyster boat” bar in Bryan, TX where one of his Waggie buddies worked slinging out trays of raw oysters and beers. Until Aggie Ring ’84 was stationed in New Jersey, he was unaware that people ate clams raw on the half shell. He’d only seen them fried or in chowder.

Once Aggie Ring started frequenting “raw bars” on the Jersey Shore, he fell in love with the raw Littleneck clams. He consumes them with lemon, horseradish, cocktail sauce and sometimes with a jalapeño relish. “They’re all good.” says Aggie Ring.

Sadly, Aggie Ring isn’t very skilled at shucking a clam like he is at shucking an oyster. “The shells are too thin and brittle.” says Aggie Ring. “I wind up breaking the shell and getting the tiny little pieces into the clam.

Aggie Ring finds it easiest to grab a bag of 50 clams and just throw them into a steamer with some garlic or other spice. When they open up wide enough for an Aggie Ring to fit inside, they are done and ready to eat. Aggie Ring found this special extra, extra hot horseradish and just eats the clam with that for a simple snack before dinner. “One of these days,” says Aggie Ring, “I’m going to steam some in Shiner Bock!"

(Editor’s Note: I’ve included photos of Aggie Ring with 50 of the sweet little Littleneck clams while we were soaking them before steaming them and one of Aggie Ring demonstrating how to eat one. I asked Aggie Ring if he minded posing in the water with the Littlenecks and he politely replied, “I’d be as ‘happy as a clam’ to be in a picture.”)

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 wanted to shout out a special “Howdy!” to not only all his brother and sister Aggie Rings, but especially to all of the Aggie Rings out there who are lucky enough to be worn by Texas A&M graduates of Filipino ethnic origin. Aggie Ring ’84 doesn’t want to boast, but on this day of our Lord 11 June, 2016, Aggie Ring ’84 has set what might possibly be a first for all Texas A&M Aggie Rings — An Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking!!!!”

You see, there’s a little Filipino buffet that Aggie Ring has been frequenting near where we live. Today, we went in and Aggie Ring spotted the duck eggs in a tray next to the cash register. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of one of them and shouted out for the entire store to hear, “This one belongs to this Aggie Ring, I’m calling it now!”

I asked Aggie Ring what it was (I could tell it was a duck egg by the size) and Aggie Ring explained to me, “There’s a delicious, traditional Filipino delicacy called “Balut” that is made from an 18-day old fertilized duck egg which is then cooked. Anyone lucky enough to be served one eats the compressed bird body, beak, feet, veins, and wings. It’s a real treat!” Aggie Ring has always said that anyone afraid to try the food of another culture is nothing but an old-school racist so how could I refuse? When I was in Asia, I ate the dog, if I were in the proper parts of Canada or Alaska, I’d eat the baby seal or whale.

“Are you sure you want to try it?” I asked Aggie Ring. He replied, “Damn right I’m sure, I will not walk out of this place without having Balut because that would make me a “Nancy Ring” and this Aggie Ring ain’t having none of that!”

Aggie Ring gave the egg to the clerk for her to take it to the kitchen and boil. As she was leaving she said, “It might help if you close your eyes when you eat it.” She obviously didn’t know Aggie Ring.

As Aggie Ring was finishing his meal, the clerk brought out the freshly boiled egg in a little tray. It was warm and quite heavy. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of the warm egg and said, “It’s so warm and hot, I can feel the heat from it throughout my shank and crest. This is going to be a treat. I’m not just having this Balut for myself, but for All Aggie Rings all over the world who might not ever have the chance.”

Selfless Aggie Ring volunteered the use of his very own ring crest to crack the shell of the egg without hesitation. Once the shell was removed, Aggie Ring jumped back on the good egg and cried out, “It smells so good… It smells like “victory!”” Aggie Ring was fascinated at the inside of the egg. There was the delicious yoke, of course, but there was also all of the veins and the little bird embryo. Aggie Ring pointed out its eyes, feet, head and wings. “It’s going to be delicious!” said Aggie Ring.

Aggie Ring put the insides of the egg into a little ramekin with plenty of vinegar and salt for the sacred Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking.” Finally, it was time. I decided to ignore the clerk’s advice and shut my eyes while eating it so Aggie Ring and I proudly looked at the entire thing before I shoved it into my mouth. Aggie Ring and I can best describe the sensation as a variety of pleasures. The yoke was pretty much like a regular chicken egg yoke. The embryo had a variety of textures. Aggie Ring liked how the skin on the embryo was smooth and salty while the little bones in it were a bit crunchy.

After we finished, Aggie Ring said, “Oh, that was delicious. Narrow minded Americans don’t know what they’re missing out on.” “This is true.” I explained to Aggie Ring. “I’m fortunate to have been raised quite a bit by my grandmother whose family lost everything in the Great Depression. When her father and brothers were out working the fields, she’d hunt squirrels and possums to put meat on the table. She taught me at a young age to eat anything that the Lord blessed by giving to you. To turn your nose up at food is to spit into the eye of the Lord.

“Amen.” said Aggie Ring.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

One of Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring’s favorite “Texas Treats” is a “Big Ass” kolache. Aggie Ring has enjoyed them since the old days when Aggie Ring and I would drive over from Bryan, Texas (where we lived) to the “Waggie” dorm on the Quad on the A&M campus, grab us the “Waggie” we knew well and then drive to Snook, Texas early on Sunday mornings. Snook, by the way, was a Czech town famous for their annual Kolache Festival and Kolache Queen.

Now, the closest place to get a good kolache on the Jersey Shore is up in Brooklyn, New York. Aggie Ring will get some there if he happens to be in Brooklyn, but it’s not an option for Aggie Ring to obtain his kolache “fix” on a regular basis. Luckily, Aggie Ring likes to cook and bake and kolaches are incredibly easy to make. There are basically two different kinds of kolaches — sweet or savory. Aggie Ring appreciates a sweet kolache now and then, but he doesn’t think that an Aggie Ring can make a meal out of them.

Aggie Ring’s favorite kolaches are obviously of the savory variety because he can eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. He’s made them using a variety of meats and cheeses. Aggie Ring once even made a batch using pickled vegetables. “Not my proudest Aggie Ring moment.” said Aggie Ring about that misadventure. When Aggie Ring started baking kolaches, he was using sausage or Polish kielbasa from a nearby kielbasa factory here on the shore that makes them fresh.

Recently, however, Aggie Ring has taken to making kolaches with high-quality sliced meats and cheese. He’s quite fond of using smoked or spiced ham varieties and even Cajun turkey or chicken. Aggie Ring has been using either really hot pepper jack cheese or a nice Swiss. He does have plans to try a cheddar or smoked cheese in the near future.

In his Aggie Ring quest for the perfect kolache, Aggie Ring has come up with a recipe for his own dough. It’s a slight variation from a traditional kolache dough, but Aggie Ring finds it better suited for freezing and re-heating and everyone knows that Aggie Rings are all about convenance.

The photos attached with this text document Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring’s most recent batch of kolaches. Aggie Ring mixes his special kolache dough then lets it rise for 90 minutes then punches it down and lets it rise again for an hour or so.

For this batch, Aggie Ring used a little bit too much yeast because the jar was almost empty and Aggie Ring just threw it all into the mix. Normally, the dough will double in size. In this case, the dough easily tripled in size during the first proofing. You can’t tell from the photo, but the dough was in a two gallon bowl and towered over the edge by at least half a foot. When Aggie Ring went into the kitchen and looked at the dough after the first 90 minutes, he said, “Holy crap!” However, Aggie Ring always being the optimist, decided we could “Beat the Hell Outta’ the Dough” and everything would be just fine. Aggie Ring punched and beat down the dough to close to its original volume while singing the theme song from the movie “Rocky.”

After the dough had been “Beaten the Hell Out of,” and going through its second rise, Aggie Ring started working on the filling for the kolaches. Aggie Ring likes jalapeños. Aggie Ring likes them hot! Most of the jalapeños you find at he grocery store or in restaurants are of the mild variety. Aggie Ring isn’t having any of that. He wants them hot. He wants the juice from the peppers to burn skin on contact. Therefore, Aggie Ring goes to the local Mexican market and buys pickled jalapeños in cans. For some reason, there are sliced carrots in the can with the hot jalapeños. This doesn’t bother Aggie Ring, he uses them as well. Aggie Ring slices the stems off of the peppers and throws them into the mini food processor along with some sweet and hot red Italian peppers.

Aggie Ring rolled out the dough with his rolling pin (he’s looking for a better one) and then took a slice of smoked ham, a slice of delicious Swiss cheese and placed a spoonful of the jalapeño and Italian pepper mix on them. He then folded the meat, cheese and peppers up into a small roll and then wrapped it with kolache dough an put it on the baking tray. After the tray was full, Aggie Ring mixed up an egg and milk wash and used a pastry brush to wet down all of the kolaches. Then, Aggie Ring “dusted” them with sesame seeds.

The egg wash turns the kolaches a nice golden brown while they are baking. Afterwards, Aggie Ring enjoyed a few with some hot sauce and a cup of his favorite Aggie Ring beverage (bourbon).

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

When Fightin’ Texas A&M Ring ’84 goes on a vacation, he’s been known to get “wild and crazy.” After finishing some excellent BBQ in the Historic Westport District of Kansas City, Aggie Ring ’84 jumped up on top of the bottle of Seared Jalapeño Kick Hot Sauce and before I could reset the camera, he dove into the cold deep glass of Knob Creek Bourbon.

After Aggie Ring came up from the bottom of the glass of bourbon he said, “Who doesn’t love a good Aggie Ring Dunking? I know I do!”

#aggiering #texasaggie #AggiesEverywhere

Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring decided he wanted real Chinese food for lunch today. So, Aggie Ring drove us up to the Chinese bowling alley. “Why the Chinese bowling alley?” you might ask. “Well,” says Aggie Ring, “Every Aggie Ring knows that to get authentic Chinese food, you have to go to a Chinese bowling alley.”

This particular Chinese bowling alley that Aggie Ring goes to is well under the radar. The owners want to pretty much keep it “Asian Only” so there is not one single sign on the building. You just have to know where it is. When Aggie Ring had parked the car, we walked into the restaurant portion of the bowling alley. All of the Asians in the place looked at Aggie Ring with suspicion. You could have heard a pin drop. Momentarily, an old Asian woman came up to Aggie Ring and asked “What you want?”

Aggie Ring told the old Asian woman, “Ma’am, we’d like to eat lunch.” The old Asian woman nodded her head and replied, “Ok, but you eat soup.” Aggie Ring and I understood a bit later when the old Asian woman brought the menu. For lunch, real Chinese only eat soup. Granted, they had at least 40 different kinds of soup on the menu, but if you want real Chinese, you’re going to eat soup for lunch. Aggie Ring stepped into the men’s room to wash himself off. It was the cleanest restroom in a Chinese restaurant that Aggie Ring had ever seen. “Apparently,” Aggie Ring told me. “In the Chinese culture, only the Asian-only restaurants have clean restrooms.”

All of the soup is made to order so Aggie Ring ordered himself some seafood soup with noodles and looked around the room a bit. It turned out that Aggie Ring and I were the only “round-eye devils” in the restaurant and all of the Asians were looking at Aggie Ring with suspicion. This is apparently common. Every time Aggie Ring has been to the Chinese bowling alley he has been the only “round eye devil” in the place. Aggie Ring decided to “break the ice” a bit and jumped up on an empty teacup next to the pot the old Asian woman brought to the table. Aggie Ring broke into song in his best Al Jolson impression:

I’m a little teapot

Short and stout

Here is my handle

Here is my spout

When I get all steamed up

I just shout,

“Tip me over and pour me out!”

Well, all of the Asian men (there were only Asian men in the restaurant) were very impressed with Aggie Ring’s little performance of the “Teapot Song.”

There was an old, bald Asian man at the table next to us. He smiled and told us “Ohhhhh…. Aggie Wing do very good at Teapot Song.” I told him thanks and then I told Aggie Ring to get his shiny gold ass off of the teacup so I could pour the tea. By the way, there were none of those crispy fried noodles with mustard dipping sauce at this place because, apparently, that’s food that only the “round eye devil” eats and no real respectable Chinese person would eat something like that.

To pass the time while the soup was being made, Aggie Ring spun around like a top on the table several times and tried to see how long he could go without falling over. I told Aggie Ring about the time when I was a “fish” at A&M and one of the upperclassmen had us stand up a baseball bat and spin around with our forehead on the handle I until we started to wobble. Then, we had to run down the hall hitting ourselves against the walls as we stumbled from one side of the hallway to the other as we ran down to the far end of the dorm. Aggie Ring asked me if I thought that they still did that at A&M. I told him, “I certainly hope so. That was good clean fun. If they don’t do that to fish anymore, then they’ve all become a bunch of “Nancy Boys” at A&M.”

Then, Aggie Ring’s order of seafood soup with Asian noodles came out. The bowl was huge and steaming. Aggie Ring decided to perform his very dangerous “Aggie Ring Tightrope Walker” act and put himself, at great peril, over the deep bowl of steamy seafood soup without any sort of safety net. This performance could have gone very badly for Aggie Ring. In fact, it usually does. Luckily, the Aggie Ring Gods atop Mount Olympus were smiling down upon Jersey Shore Aggie Ring today as he executed his performance over the dangerous bowl of hot soup flawlessly.

It took a few minutes for the soup to cool down enough for Aggie Ring to start eating. It was quite spicy. It probably took Aggie Ring a good 20 minutes to finish his soup and when he did, Aggie Ring was (as they used to say in Texas) “Sweating like a whore in church.”

Aggie Ring paid the bill for once and he noticed that all of the Asian men in the restaurant were looking at us as we left. Aggie Ring half expected the old Asian woman to tell him, “You no tell your round eye friends about this place.” but she didn’t.

As we were pulling out of the parking lot onto the King’s Highway, Aggie Ring told me, “Mission accomplished. We infiltrated the Asian-only bowling alley with great Aggie Ring success.”

Aggie Ring say, “The road goes on forever and the party never ends.”

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 wanted to shout out a special “Howdy!” to not only all his brother and sister Aggie Rings, but especially to all of the Aggie Rings out there who are lucky enough to be worn by Texas A&M graduates of Filipino ethnic origin. Aggie Ring ’84 doesn’t want to boast, but on this day of our Lord 11 June, 2016, Aggie Ring ’84 has set what might possibly be a first for all Texas A&M Aggie Rings — An Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking!!!!”

You see, there’s a little Filipino buffet that Aggie Ring has been frequenting near where we live. Today, we went in and Aggie Ring spotted the duck eggs in a tray next to the cash register. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of one of them and shouted out for the entire store to hear, “This one belongs to this Aggie Ring, I’m calling it now!”

I asked Aggie Ring what it was (I could tell it was a duck egg by the size) and Aggie Ring explained to me, “There’s a delicious, traditional Filipino delicacy called “Balut” that is made from an 18-day old fertilized duck egg which is then cooked. Anyone lucky enough to be served one eats the compressed bird body, beak, feet, veins, and wings. It’s a real treat!” Aggie Ring has always said that anyone afraid to try the food of another culture is nothing but an old-school racist so how could I refuse? When I was in Asia, I ate the dog, if I were in the proper parts of Canada or Alaska, I’d eat the baby seal or whale.

“Are you sure you want to try it?” I asked Aggie Ring. He replied, “Damn right I’m sure, I will not walk out of this place without having Balut because that would make me a “Nancy Ring” and this Aggie Ring ain’t having none of that!”

Aggie Ring gave the egg to the clerk for her to take it to the kitchen and boil. As she was leaving she said, “It might help if you close your eyes when you eat it.” She obviously didn’t know Aggie Ring.

As Aggie Ring was finishing his meal, the clerk brought out the freshly boiled egg in a little tray. It was warm and quite heavy. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of the warm egg and said, “It’s so warm and hot, I can feel the heat from it throughout my shank and crest. This is going to be a treat. I’m not just having this Balut for myself, but for All Aggie Rings all over the world who might not ever have the chance.”

Selfless Aggie Ring volunteered the use of his very own ring crest to crack the shell of the egg without hesitation. Once the shell was removed, Aggie Ring jumped back on the good egg and cried out, “It smells so good… It smells like “victory!”” Aggie Ring was fascinated at the inside of the egg. There was the delicious yoke, of course, but there was also all of the veins and the little bird embryo. Aggie Ring pointed out its eyes, feet, head and wings. “It’s going to be delicious!” said Aggie Ring.

Aggie Ring put the insides of the egg into a little ramekin with plenty of vinegar and salt for the sacred Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking.” Finally, it was time. I decided to ignore the clerk’s advice and shut my eyes while eating it so Aggie Ring and I proudly looked at the entire thing before I shoved it into my mouth. Aggie Ring and I can best describe the sensation as a variety of pleasures. The yoke was pretty much like a regular chicken egg yoke. The embryo had a variety of textures. Aggie Ring liked how the skin on the embryo was smooth and salty while the little bones in it were a bit crunchy.

After we finished, Aggie Ring said, “Oh, that was delicious. Narrow minded Americans don’t know what they’re missing out on.” “This is true.” I explained to Aggie Ring. “I’m fortunate to have been raised quite a bit by my grandmother whose family lost everything in the Great Depression. When her father and brothers were out working the fields, she’d hunt squirrels and possums to put meat on the table. She taught me at a young age to eat anything that the Lord blessed by giving to you. To turn your nose up at food is to spit into the eye of the Lord.

“Amen.” said Aggie Ring.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 wanted to shout out a special “Howdy!” to not only all his brother and sister Aggie Rings, but especially to all of the Aggie Rings out there who are lucky enough to be worn by Texas A&M graduates of Filipino ethnic origin. Aggie Ring ’84 doesn’t want to boast, but on this day of our Lord 11 June, 2016, Aggie Ring ’84 has set what might possibly be a first for all Texas A&M Aggie Rings — An Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking!!!!”

You see, there’s a little Filipino buffet that Aggie Ring has been frequenting near where we live. Today, we went in and Aggie Ring spotted the duck eggs in a tray next to the cash register. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of one of them and shouted out for the entire store to hear, “This one belongs to this Aggie Ring, I’m calling it now!”

I asked Aggie Ring what it was (I could tell it was a duck egg by the size) and Aggie Ring explained to me, “There’s a delicious, traditional Filipino delicacy called “Balut” that is made from an 18-day old fertilized duck egg which is then cooked. Anyone lucky enough to be served one eats the compressed bird body, beak, feet, veins, and wings. It’s a real treat!” Aggie Ring has always said that anyone afraid to try the food of another culture is nothing but an old-school racist so how could I refuse? When I was in Asia, I ate the dog, if I were in the proper parts of Canada or Alaska, I’d eat the baby seal or whale.

“Are you sure you want to try it?” I asked Aggie Ring. He replied, “Damn right I’m sure, I will not walk out of this place without having Balut because that would make me a “Nancy Ring” and this Aggie Ring ain’t having none of that!”

Aggie Ring gave the egg to the clerk for her to take it to the kitchen and boil. As she was leaving she said, “It might help if you close your eyes when you eat it.” She obviously didn’t know Aggie Ring.

As Aggie Ring was finishing his meal, the clerk brought out the freshly boiled egg in a little tray. It was warm and quite heavy. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of the warm egg and said, “It’s so warm and hot, I can feel the heat from it throughout my shank and crest. This is going to be a treat. I’m not just having this Balut for myself, but for All Aggie Rings all over the world who might not ever have the chance.”

Selfless Aggie Ring volunteered the use of his very own ring crest to crack the shell of the egg without hesitation. Once the shell was removed, Aggie Ring jumped back on the good egg and cried out, “It smells so good… It smells like “victory!”” Aggie Ring was fascinated at the inside of the egg. There was the delicious yoke, of course, but there was also all of the veins and the little bird embryo. Aggie Ring pointed out its eyes, feet, head and wings. “It’s going to be delicious!” said Aggie Ring.

Aggie Ring put the insides of the egg into a little ramekin with plenty of vinegar and salt for the sacred Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking.” Finally, it was time. I decided to ignore the clerk’s advice and shut my eyes while eating it so Aggie Ring and I proudly looked at the entire thing before I shoved it into my mouth. Aggie Ring and I can best describe the sensation as a variety of pleasures. The yoke was pretty much like a regular chicken egg yoke. The embryo had a variety of textures. Aggie Ring liked how the skin on the embryo was smooth and salty while the little bones in it were a bit crunchy.

After we finished, Aggie Ring said, “Oh, that was delicious. Narrow minded Americans don’t know what they’re missing out on.” “This is true.” I explained to Aggie Ring. “I’m fortunate to have been raised quite a bit by my grandmother whose family lost everything in the Great Depression. When her father and brothers were out working the fields, she’d hunt squirrels and possums to put meat on the table. She taught me at a young age to eat anything that the Lord blessed by giving to you. To turn your nose up at food is to spit into the eye of the Lord.

“Amen.” said Aggie Ring.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

To show his community spirit, Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring drove over to a local community college for their food truck event this evening. Aggie Ring had seen most of the trucks that were there before at the many other local food truck events.

There was one particular food truck that caught Aggie Ring’s attention. It was called “1 Potato Two.” Their three main items were “Spudwiches,” “Spudnachos” and fries. Apparently, the “Spudwich” is an oversized potato (over a pound) which is baked, scooped out and deep fried until dark, crispy, and crunchy shells. The shells are then filled with a selection of items (cheesesteak, bacon cheeseburger, pulled pork with coleslaw on top, turkey and cranberry, or BLT.

Texas Aggie Ring doesn’t eat much bread and quite liked the idea of a crispy sandwich made from two halves of a fried potato instead of bread so we decided that we’d order the cheesesteak “Spudwich.” Aggie Ring and I were the first in line at the truck and while we waited for them to open, Aggie Ring kept saying, “This “Spudwich” thing is going to be so damn good…”

After a few minutes, the 1 Potato Two truck opened for business and as we were about to order the cheesesteak “Spudwich,” a miracle happened. The boss lady of the truck put down a static display tray of the three items that they were selling today to show everyone what they were about. The three items on the tray were fries (covered with all kinds of toppings), a bacon cheeseburger “Spudwich” (which looked awesome!) and the most elusive of all potato products, the coveted “Spudnachos.”

Texas Aggie Ring shined just a little bit brighter in the late afternoon sun when he saw the last of the three items on the display and cried out loudly, “Spudnachos!” It seems that they take pieces of crispy fried potato skins and they top them with chopped bacon burger, and heap on the lettuce, tomato, cheese, a special house sauce, and plenty of chopped jalapeños. Well, I knew that there was absolutely no way to win this argument with Aggie Ring. Anyone who has an Aggie Ring can tell you that there’s nothing any Aggie Ring loves more than Shiner Bock or nachos. Let alone, the miracle of the “Spudnacho.”

“We’ll have the “Spudnachos.” I told the lady at the window. Minutes later, Aggie Ring and I had our “Spudnachos” and headed over to a table with our freshly squeezed lemonade. Before I could pick up a fork and napkin, Aggie Ring in the most selfless and heroic act that I’ve ever seen an Aggie Ring perform, leapt off of my finger and onto one of the crispy fried potato skins in the “Spudnachos.” Then, Aggie Ring cried out “I’m King of the Spudnachos!”

(Editor’s note: As I was putting Aggie Ring into the container of jewelry cleaner later in the evening to get the cheese sauce out of his crest, Aggie Ring said, “I did that because I love you and I wanted to make sure that those potatoes had enough toppings and were safe for you to share with me.”)

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 wanted to shout out a special “Howdy!” to not only all his brother and sister Aggie Rings, but especially to all of the Aggie Rings out there who are lucky enough to be worn by Texas A&M graduates of Filipino ethnic origin. Aggie Ring ’84 doesn’t want to boast, but on this day of our Lord 11 June, 2016, Aggie Ring ’84 has set what might possibly be a first for all Texas A&M Aggie Rings — An Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking!!!!”

You see, there’s a little Filipino buffet that Aggie Ring has been frequenting near where we live. Today, we went in and Aggie Ring spotted the duck eggs in a tray next to the cash register. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of one of them and shouted out for the entire store to hear, “This one belongs to this Aggie Ring, I’m calling it now!”

I asked Aggie Ring what it was (I could tell it was a duck egg by the size) and Aggie Ring explained to me, “There’s a delicious, traditional Filipino delicacy called “Balut” that is made from an 18-day old fertilized duck egg which is then cooked. Anyone lucky enough to be served one eats the compressed bird body, beak, feet, veins, and wings. It’s a real treat!” Aggie Ring has always said that anyone afraid to try the food of another culture is nothing but an old-school racist so how could I refuse? When I was in Asia, I ate the dog, if I were in the proper parts of Canada or Alaska, I’d eat the baby seal or whale.

“Are you sure you want to try it?” I asked Aggie Ring. He replied, “Damn right I’m sure, I will not walk out of this place without having Balut because that would make me a “Nancy Ring” and this Aggie Ring ain’t having none of that!”

Aggie Ring gave the egg to the clerk for her to take it to the kitchen and boil. As she was leaving she said, “It might help if you close your eyes when you eat it.” She obviously didn’t know Aggie Ring.

As Aggie Ring was finishing his meal, the clerk brought out the freshly boiled egg in a little tray. It was warm and quite heavy. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of the warm egg and said, “It’s so warm and hot, I can feel the heat from it throughout my shank and crest. This is going to be a treat. I’m not just having this Balut for myself, but for All Aggie Rings all over the world who might not ever have the chance.”

Selfless Aggie Ring volunteered the use of his very own ring crest to crack the shell of the egg without hesitation. Once the shell was removed, Aggie Ring jumped back on the good egg and cried out, “It smells so good… It smells like “victory!”” Aggie Ring was fascinated at the inside of the egg. There was the delicious yoke, of course, but there was also all of the veins and the little bird embryo. Aggie Ring pointed out its eyes, feet, head and wings. “It’s going to be delicious!” said Aggie Ring.

Aggie Ring put the insides of the egg into a little ramekin with plenty of vinegar and salt for the sacred Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking.” Finally, it was time. I decided to ignore the clerk’s advice and shut my eyes while eating it so Aggie Ring and I proudly looked at the entire thing before I shoved it into my mouth. Aggie Ring and I can best describe the sensation as a variety of pleasures. The yoke was pretty much like a regular chicken egg yoke. The embryo had a variety of textures. Aggie Ring liked how the skin on the embryo was smooth and salty while the little bones in it were a bit crunchy.

After we finished, Aggie Ring said, “Oh, that was delicious. Narrow minded Americans don’t know what they’re missing out on.” “This is true.” I explained to Aggie Ring. “I’m fortunate to have been raised quite a bit by my grandmother whose family lost everything in the Great Depression. When her father and brothers were out working the fields, she’d hunt squirrels and possums to put meat on the table. She taught me at a young age to eat anything that the Lord blessed by giving to you. To turn your nose up at food is to spit into the eye of the Lord.

“Amen.” said Aggie Ring.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

As I was taking a shortcut home yesterday through the Township of Ocean, I noticed that a local Greek Orthodox Church was having their annual “Greek Festival.” I told Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring ’84 that we were going to go to the festival.

Aggie Ring said, “Greek Festival? Will there be sorority girls?” I laughed and told Aggie Ring, “No, that was way back when you were an Aggie Ring in a Greek fraternity at Texas A&M in the Greek system and we wore a pledge pin on our Aggie Corps uniform. These are real Greeks.” Aggie Ring said, “That fraternity stuff was all fine until those two Waggie gals dimed us out at that Corps dining in for wearing the fraternity pin on our dress uniform.” I replied, “Oh? You didn’t seem to mind going to the grog bowl.”

Aggie Ring sighed and said, “Oh, I remember all of the socials at the bars in College Station that we had with the Aggie sorority girls and the BBQs with our fraternity brothers from the University of Texas.”

“Well,” I told Aggie Ring, “Where there are real Greeks, there’s going to be something good to eat.” Aggie Ring didn’t seem to have a problem with that. Aggie Ring started with the grilled octopus (xταπόδι-σχάρας) and then moved on to a couple of skewers of pork souvlaki and a Greek salad.

After Aggie Ring ’84 and I finished, we had a Turkish coffee. As we were enjoying the incredibly wonderful weather and low humidity, Aggie Ring said to me, “You know, sometimes I think that I’m the luckiest Aggie Ring in the world because I live on the Jersey Shore.”

Who am I to argue with an Aggie Ring? Living on the Jersey Shore sure as hell beats running over armadillos or tipping cows back in Texas.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

To show his community spirit, Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring drove over to a local community college for their food truck event this evening. Aggie Ring had seen most of the trucks that were there before at the many other local food truck events.

There was one particular food truck that caught Aggie Ring’s attention. It was called “1 Potato Two.” Their three main items were “Spudwiches,” “Spudnachos” and fries. Apparently, the “Spudwich” is an oversized potato (over a pound) which is baked, scooped out and deep fried until dark, crispy, and crunchy shells. The shells are then filled with a selection of items (cheesesteak, bacon cheeseburger, pulled pork with coleslaw on top, turkey and cranberry, or BLT.

Texas Aggie Ring doesn’t eat much bread and quite liked the idea of a crispy sandwich made from two halves of a fried potato instead of bread so we decided that we’d order the cheesesteak “Spudwich.” Aggie Ring and I were the first in line at the truck and while we waited for them to open, Aggie Ring kept saying, “This “Spudwich” thing is going to be so damn good…”

After a few minutes, the 1 Potato Two truck opened for business and as we were about to order the cheesesteak “Spudwich,” a miracle happened. The boss lady of the truck put down a static display tray of the three items that they were selling today to show everyone what they were about. The three items on the tray were fries (covered with all kinds of toppings), a bacon cheeseburger “Spudwich” (which looked awesome!) and the most elusive of all potato products, the coveted “Spudnachos.”

Texas Aggie Ring shined just a little bit brighter in the late afternoon sun when he saw the last of the three items on the display and cried out loudly, “Spudnachos!” It seems that they take pieces of crispy fried potato skins and they top them with chopped bacon burger, and heap on the lettuce, tomato, cheese, a special house sauce, and plenty of chopped jalapeños. Well, I knew that there was absolutely no way to win this argument with Aggie Ring. Anyone who has an Aggie Ring can tell you that there’s nothing any Aggie Ring loves more than Shiner Bock or nachos. Let alone, the miracle of the “Spudnacho.”

“We’ll have the “Spudnachos.” I told the lady at the window. Minutes later, Aggie Ring and I had our “Spudnachos” and headed over to a table with our freshly squeezed lemonade. Before I could pick up a fork and napkin, Aggie Ring in the most selfless and heroic act that I’ve ever seen an Aggie Ring perform, leapt off of my finger and onto one of the crispy fried potato skins in the “Spudnachos.” Then, Aggie Ring cried out “I’m King of the Spudnachos!”

(Editor’s note: As I was putting Aggie Ring into the container of jewelry cleaner later in the evening to get the cheese sauce out of his crest, Aggie Ring said, “I did that because I love you and I wanted to make sure that those potatoes had enough toppings and were safe for you to share with me.”)

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

As I was taking a shortcut home yesterday through the Township of Ocean, I noticed that a local Greek Orthodox Church was having their annual “Greek Festival.” I told Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring ’84 that we were going to go to the festival.

Aggie Ring said, “Greek Festival? Will there be sorority girls?” I laughed and told Aggie Ring, “No, that was way back when you were an Aggie Ring in a Greek fraternity at Texas A&M in the Greek system and we wore a pledge pin on our Aggie Corps uniform. These are real Greeks.” Aggie Ring said, “That fraternity stuff was all fine until those two Waggie gals dimed us out at that Corps dining in for wearing the fraternity pin on our dress uniform.” I replied, “Oh? You didn’t seem to mind going to the grog bowl.”

Aggie Ring sighed and said, “Oh, I remember all of the socials at the bars in College Station that we had with the Aggie sorority girls and the BBQs with our fraternity brothers from the University of Texas.”

“Well,” I told Aggie Ring, “Where there are real Greeks, there’s going to be something good to eat.” Aggie Ring didn’t seem to have a problem with that. Aggie Ring started with the grilled octopus (xταπόδι-σχάρας) and then moved on to a couple of skewers of pork souvlaki and a Greek salad.

After Aggie Ring ’84 and I finished, we had a Turkish coffee. As we were enjoying the incredibly wonderful weather and low humidity, Aggie Ring said to me, “You know, sometimes I think that I’m the luckiest Aggie Ring in the world because I live on the Jersey Shore.”

Who am I to argue with an Aggie Ring? Living on the Jersey Shore sure as hell beats running over armadillos or tipping cows back in Texas.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 wanted to shout out a special “Howdy!” to not only all his brother and sister Aggie Rings, but especially to all of the Aggie Rings out there who are lucky enough to be worn by Texas A&M graduates of Filipino ethnic origin. Aggie Ring ’84 doesn’t want to boast, but on this day of our Lord 11 June, 2016, Aggie Ring ’84 has set what might possibly be a first for all Texas A&M Aggie Rings — An Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking!!!!”

You see, there’s a little Filipino buffet that Aggie Ring has been frequenting near where we live. Today, we went in and Aggie Ring spotted the duck eggs in a tray next to the cash register. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of one of them and shouted out for the entire store to hear, “This one belongs to this Aggie Ring, I’m calling it now!”

I asked Aggie Ring what it was (I could tell it was a duck egg by the size) and Aggie Ring explained to me, “There’s a delicious, traditional Filipino delicacy called “Balut” that is made from an 18-day old fertilized duck egg which is then cooked. Anyone lucky enough to be served one eats the compressed bird body, beak, feet, veins, and wings. It’s a real treat!” Aggie Ring has always said that anyone afraid to try the food of another culture is nothing but an old-school racist so how could I refuse? When I was in Asia, I ate the dog, if I were in the proper parts of Canada or Alaska, I’d eat the baby seal or whale.

“Are you sure you want to try it?” I asked Aggie Ring. He replied, “Damn right I’m sure, I will not walk out of this place without having Balut because that would make me a “Nancy Ring” and this Aggie Ring ain’t having none of that!”

Aggie Ring gave the egg to the clerk for her to take it to the kitchen and boil. As she was leaving she said, “It might help if you close your eyes when you eat it.” She obviously didn’t know Aggie Ring.

As Aggie Ring was finishing his meal, the clerk brought out the freshly boiled egg in a little tray. It was warm and quite heavy. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of the warm egg and said, “It’s so warm and hot, I can feel the heat from it throughout my shank and crest. This is going to be a treat. I’m not just having this Balut for myself, but for All Aggie Rings all over the world who might not ever have the chance.”

Selfless Aggie Ring volunteered the use of his very own ring crest to crack the shell of the egg without hesitation. Once the shell was removed, Aggie Ring jumped back on the good egg and cried out, “It smells so good… It smells like “victory!”” Aggie Ring was fascinated at the inside of the egg. There was the delicious yoke, of course, but there was also all of the veins and the little bird embryo. Aggie Ring pointed out its eyes, feet, head and wings. “It’s going to be delicious!” said Aggie Ring.

Aggie Ring put the insides of the egg into a little ramekin with plenty of vinegar and salt for the sacred Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking.” Finally, it was time. I decided to ignore the clerk’s advice and shut my eyes while eating it so Aggie Ring and I proudly looked at the entire thing before I shoved it into my mouth. Aggie Ring and I can best describe the sensation as a variety of pleasures. The yoke was pretty much like a regular chicken egg yoke. The embryo had a variety of textures. Aggie Ring liked how the skin on the embryo was smooth and salty while the little bones in it were a bit crunchy.

After we finished, Aggie Ring said, “Oh, that was delicious. Narrow minded Americans don’t know what they’re missing out on.” “This is true.” I explained to Aggie Ring. “I’m fortunate to have been raised quite a bit by my grandmother whose family lost everything in the Great Depression. When her father and brothers were out working the fields, she’d hunt squirrels and possums to put meat on the table. She taught me at a young age to eat anything that the Lord blessed by giving to you. To turn your nose up at food is to spit into the eye of the Lord.

“Amen.” said Aggie Ring.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

To show his community spirit, Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring drove over to a local community college for their food truck event this evening. Aggie Ring had seen most of the trucks that were there before at the many other local food truck events.

There was one particular food truck that caught Aggie Ring’s attention. It was called “1 Potato Two.” Their three main items were “Spudwiches,” “Spudnachos” and fries. Apparently, the “Spudwich” is an oversized potato (over a pound) which is baked, scooped out and deep fried until dark, crispy, and crunchy shells. The shells are then filled with a selection of items (cheesesteak, bacon cheeseburger, pulled pork with coleslaw on top, turkey and cranberry, or BLT.

Texas Aggie Ring doesn’t eat much bread and quite liked the idea of a crispy sandwich made from two halves of a fried potato instead of bread so we decided that we’d order the cheesesteak “Spudwich.” Aggie Ring and I were the first in line at the truck and while we waited for them to open, Aggie Ring kept saying, “This “Spudwich” thing is going to be so damn good…”

After a few minutes, the 1 Potato Two truck opened for business and as we were about to order the cheesesteak “Spudwich,” a miracle happened. The boss lady of the truck put down a static display tray of the three items that they were selling today to show everyone what they were about. The three items on the tray were fries (covered with all kinds of toppings), a bacon cheeseburger “Spudwich” (which looked awesome!) and the most elusive of all potato products, the coveted “Spudnachos.”

Texas Aggie Ring shined just a little bit brighter in the late afternoon sun when he saw the last of the three items on the display and cried out loudly, “Spudnachos!” It seems that they take pieces of crispy fried potato skins and they top them with chopped bacon burger, and heap on the lettuce, tomato, cheese, a special house sauce, and plenty of chopped jalapeños. Well, I knew that there was absolutely no way to win this argument with Aggie Ring. Anyone who has an Aggie Ring can tell you that there’s nothing any Aggie Ring loves more than Shiner Bock or nachos. Let alone, the miracle of the “Spudnacho.”

“We’ll have the “Spudnachos.” I told the lady at the window. Minutes later, Aggie Ring and I had our “Spudnachos” and headed over to a table with our freshly squeezed lemonade. Before I could pick up a fork and napkin, Aggie Ring in the most selfless and heroic act that I’ve ever seen an Aggie Ring perform, leapt off of my finger and onto one of the crispy fried potato skins in the “Spudnachos.” Then, Aggie Ring cried out “I’m King of the Spudnachos!”

(Editor’s note: As I was putting Aggie Ring into the container of jewelry cleaner later in the evening to get the cheese sauce out of his crest, Aggie Ring said, “I did that because I love you and I wanted to make sure that those potatoes had enough toppings and were safe for you to share with me.”)

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Aggie Ring finally got around to going to see his accountant yesterday to do his taxes. Yes, Aggie Ring was late, but the Government doesn’t seem to mind when Aggie Ring is the one owed money back.

Jersey Shore Aggie Ring’s accountant didn’t want any payment for doing the Ring’s taxes, but he did mention that it had been a while since he’d enjoyed any of Aggie Ring’s New Orleans style tamales.

“Consider it done.” said Aggie Ring.

Earlier today, Aggie Ring went to the market and bought about 6 pounds of ground beef. Depending on how he’s feeling, sometimes Aggie Ring buys ground beef and pork or even ground lamb and beef and mixes them together. However today, Aggie Ring went with just the ground beef.

Aggie Ring’s introduction to New Orleans style tamales started back in our non-reg fraternity days when Aggie Ring and I had some Corps of Cadets buddies in Squadron 8. We’d go on road trips to New Orleans on breaks and after a full day and night of “power drinking” Aggie Ring would buy the delicious red hot New Orleans style tamales from street vendors in the French Quarter.

Over the years, Aggie Ring has come up with his own “Texas A&M Aggie Ring” special way of making these New Orleans style tamales. Normally, this type of tamal is wrapped in tamal paper and boiled in a tomato water mix. However, Jersey Shore Aggie Ring, being a legitimate Aggie Ring (i.e. an engineer/agriculture ring) is all about efficiency and determined that if he added tomatoes to the meat filling, and wrapped the tamals in foil instead of paper, and steamed them, it made them much, much easier to freeze and to heat up in the toaster oven. Aggie Rings rule!

Normally, Aggie Ring uses white onions but the yellow ones were on sale so Aggie Ring bought a bag of them. Usually, Aggie Ring chops them up with a knife, but today Aggie Ring said, “Screw it, fire up the food processor!” After he liquified the onions, Aggie Ring added a little bit of cumin and chili powder. Normally, Aggie Ring would add all kinds of hot peppers and spices, but his accountant’s wife is Irish and she and his kids don’t eat anything spicy. It almost killed Aggie Ring to make these non-spicy tamales, but enough of that…

Aggie Ring took the ground beef, added the six liquified onions, a couple of drained cans of chopped Italian tomatoes, a couple of cans of sweet Mexican corn as well as a cup of white corn meal per pound of meat for a binder to keep the meat together when they were cooked. Aggie Ring mixed up everything “real good.”

Then, Aggie Ring took several cups of Indian Head stone ground yellow corn meal and added several tablespoons of Amarillo powdered coloring he picked up in the Mexican isle at the store because Aggie Ring knows my dad was from Amarillo, Texas and lived there until he went to Rice University. Also, Aggie Ring says, “A little coloring ads flair, and all Aggie Rings like to have a couple of pieces of flair.”

Aggie Ring formed about a tablespoon and a half or so of the meat filling into a stubby cigar shape and rolled it in the Indian Head yellow corn meal. Then he wrapped each one of them in aluminum foil until he had dozens, dozens and dozens of tamales.

After all of the meat mixture was used, Aggie Ring got out his “big ass” tamale steamer, filled the section under the internal tray with water and cried out with his best Aggie War Cry, “Let’s steam these bitches!"

Approximately an hour and a half later, Aggie Ring was enjoying his tamales with a large “Aggie Ring” sized glass of tequila.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Can you find the Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring in this photo?

You see, Texas Aggie Ring went to the grand opening of a new brewery today which is walking distance from Aggie Ring’s house. I had thought Aggie Ring would have been better behaved, but a glass of great beer is like a jacuzzi to an Aggie Ring and he had to jump right in. Some of you know what I’m talking about. Other’s never will.

After selflessly performing an “Aggie Ring Dunk” with a flight of four beers (Hefeweizen, IPA, Rye and Saison), Aggie Ring told me, “Time to move up to ‘Big Boy Aggie Ring’ pint glasses.”

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

"It smells so good!" said the Aggie Ring.

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 wanted to shout out a special “Howdy!” to not only all his brother and sister Aggie Rings, but especially to all of the Aggie Rings out there who are lucky enough to be worn by Texas A&M graduates of Filipino ethnic origin. Aggie Ring ’84 doesn’t want to boast, but on this day of our Lord 11 June, 2016, Aggie Ring ’84 has set what might possibly be a first for all Texas A&M Aggie Rings — An Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking!!!!”

You see, there’s a little Filipino buffet that Aggie Ring has been frequenting near where we live. Today, we went in and Aggie Ring spotted the duck eggs in a tray next to the cash register. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of one of them and shouted out for the entire store to hear, “This one belongs to this Aggie Ring, I’m calling it now!”

I asked Aggie Ring what it was (I could tell it was a duck egg by the size) and Aggie Ring explained to me, “There’s a delicious, traditional Filipino delicacy called “Balut” that is made from an 18-day old fertilized duck egg which is then cooked. Anyone lucky enough to be served one eats the compressed bird body, beak, feet, veins, and wings. It’s a real treat!” Aggie Ring has always said that anyone afraid to try the food of another culture is nothing but an old-school racist so how could I refuse? When I was in Asia, I ate the dog, if I were in the proper parts of Canada or Alaska, I’d eat the baby seal or whale.

“Are you sure you want to try it?” I asked Aggie Ring. He replied, “Damn right I’m sure, I will not walk out of this place without having Balut because that would make me a “Nancy Ring” and this Aggie Ring ain’t having none of that!”

Aggie Ring gave the egg to the clerk for her to take it to the kitchen and boil. As she was leaving she said, “It might help if you close your eyes when you eat it.” She obviously didn’t know Aggie Ring.

As Aggie Ring was finishing his meal, the clerk brought out the freshly boiled egg in a little tray. It was warm and quite heavy. Aggie Ring jumped right on top of the warm egg and said, “It’s so warm and hot, I can feel the heat from it throughout my shank and crest. This is going to be a treat. I’m not just having this Balut for myself, but for All Aggie Rings all over the world who might not ever have the chance.”

Selfless Aggie Ring volunteered the use of his very own ring crest to crack the shell of the egg without hesitation. Once the shell was removed, Aggie Ring jumped back on the good egg and cried out, “It smells so good… It smells like “victory!”” Aggie Ring was fascinated at the inside of the egg. There was the delicious yoke, of course, but there was also all of the veins and the little bird embryo. Aggie Ring pointed out its eyes, feet, head and wings. “It’s going to be delicious!” said Aggie Ring.

Aggie Ring put the insides of the egg into a little ramekin with plenty of vinegar and salt for the sacred Aggie Ring “Balut Ring Dunking.” Finally, it was time. I decided to ignore the clerk’s advice and shut my eyes while eating it so Aggie Ring and I proudly looked at the entire thing before I shoved it into my mouth. Aggie Ring and I can best describe the sensation as a variety of pleasures. The yoke was pretty much like a regular chicken egg yoke. The embryo had a variety of textures. Aggie Ring liked how the skin on the embryo was smooth and salty while the little bones in it were a bit crunchy.

After we finished, Aggie Ring said, “Oh, that was delicious. Narrow minded Americans don’t know what they’re missing out on.” “This is true.” I explained to Aggie Ring. “I’m fortunate to have been raised quite a bit by my grandmother whose family lost everything in the Great Depression. When her father and brothers were out working the fields, she’d hunt squirrels and possums to put meat on the table. She taught me at a young age to eat anything that the Lord blessed by giving to you. To turn your nose up at food is to spit into the eye of the Lord.

“Amen.” said Aggie Ring.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

To show his community spirit, Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring drove over to a local community college for their food truck event this evening. Aggie Ring had seen most of the trucks that were there before at the many other local food truck events.

There was one particular food truck that caught Aggie Ring’s attention. It was called “1 Potato Two.” Their three main items were “Spudwiches,” “Spudnachos” and fries. Apparently, the “Spudwich” is an oversized potato (over a pound) which is baked, scooped out and deep fried until dark, crispy, and crunchy shells. The shells are then filled with a selection of items (cheesesteak, bacon cheeseburger, pulled pork with coleslaw on top, turkey and cranberry, or BLT.

Texas Aggie Ring doesn’t eat much bread and quite liked the idea of a crispy sandwich made from two halves of a fried potato instead of bread so we decided that we’d order the cheesesteak “Spudwich.” Aggie Ring and I were the first in line at the truck and while we waited for them to open, Aggie Ring kept saying, “This “Spudwich” thing is going to be so damn good…”

After a few minutes, the 1 Potato Two truck opened for business and as we were about to order the cheesesteak “Spudwich,” a miracle happened. The boss lady of the truck put down a static display tray of the three items that they were selling today to show everyone what they were about. The three items on the tray were fries (covered with all kinds of toppings), a bacon cheeseburger “Spudwich” (which looked awesome!) and the most elusive of all potato products, the coveted “Spudnachos.”

Texas Aggie Ring shined just a little bit brighter in the late afternoon sun when he saw the last of the three items on the display and cried out loudly, “Spudnachos!” It seems that they take pieces of crispy fried potato skins and they top them with chopped bacon burger, and heap on the lettuce, tomato, cheese, a special house sauce, and plenty of chopped jalapeños. Well, I knew that there was absolutely no way to win this argument with Aggie Ring. Anyone who has an Aggie Ring can tell you that there’s nothing any Aggie Ring loves more than Shiner Bock or nachos. Let alone, the miracle of the “Spudnacho.”

“We’ll have the “Spudnachos.” I told the lady at the window. Minutes later, Aggie Ring and I had our “Spudnachos” and headed over to a table with our freshly squeezed lemonade. Before I could pick up a fork and napkin, Aggie Ring in the most selfless and heroic act that I’ve ever seen an Aggie Ring perform, leapt off of my finger and onto one of the crispy fried potato skins in the “Spudnachos.” Then, Aggie Ring cried out “I’m King of the Spudnachos!”

(Editor’s note: As I was putting Aggie Ring into the container of jewelry cleaner later in the evening to get the cheese sauce out of his crest, Aggie Ring said, “I did that because I love you and I wanted to make sure that those potatoes had enough toppings and were safe for you to share with me.”)

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

As I was taking a shortcut home yesterday through the Township of Ocean, I noticed that a local Greek Orthodox Church was having their annual “Greek Festival.” I told Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring ’84 that we were going to go to the festival.

Aggie Ring said, “Greek Festival? Will there be sorority girls?” I laughed and told Aggie Ring, “No, that was way back when you were an Aggie Ring in a Greek fraternity at Texas A&M in the Greek system and we wore a pledge pin on our Aggie Corps uniform. These are real Greeks.” Aggie Ring said, “That fraternity stuff was all fine until those two Waggie gals dimed us out at that Corps dining in for wearing the fraternity pin on our dress uniform.” I replied, “Oh? You didn’t seem to mind going to the grog bowl.”

Aggie Ring sighed and said, “Oh, I remember all of the socials at the bars in College Station that we had with the Aggie sorority girls and the BBQs with our fraternity brothers from the University of Texas.”

“Well,” I told Aggie Ring, “Where there are real Greeks, there’s going to be something good to eat.” Aggie Ring didn’t seem to have a problem with that. Aggie Ring started with the grilled octopus (xταπόδι-σχάρας) and then moved on to a couple of skewers of pork souvlaki and a Greek salad.

After Aggie Ring ’84 and I finished, we had a Turkish coffee. As we were enjoying the incredibly wonderful weather and low humidity, Aggie Ring said to me, “You know, sometimes I think that I’m the luckiest Aggie Ring in the world because I live on the Jersey Shore.”

Who am I to argue with an Aggie Ring? Living on the Jersey Shore sure as hell beats running over armadillos or tipping cows back in Texas.

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 loves good BBQ. In fact, he’s positive most Texas Aggie Rings do. “I’m sure that there’s a vegetarian Aggie Ring or two out there, but that leaves more for the rest of the Aggie Rings, doesn’t it?” is what Aggie Ring ’84 always says.

Now Aggie Ring ’84 likes the BBQ in New Jersey where he lives and rules the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore. He loved the BBQ in Central and South Texas when he used to live there and he found the BBQ up around Monterey, California where he was once stationed identical to Texas BBQ which was all good for Aggie Ring.

All of that aside, Aggie Ring ’84 has found the BBQ in Kansas City to be the “gold standard” for BBQ. “It just doesn’t get any better than KC BBQ.” said Aggie Ring. (Note: Aggie Ring ’84 has never lived in Kansas City, so he is a truly impartial Aggie Ring!) Now, every state has some special features. Aggie Ring ’84 especially loves some of the hot peppers and apple empanadas, not to mention the greens, that Texas offers. California BBQ had some damn good fresh sliced artichoke served along with it. New Jersey BBQ has, well, the Jersey Shore, according to Aggie Ring ’84.

Aggie Ring ’84 has had some extremely excellent BBQ on his many Aggie Ring vacations to Kansas City of the brisket and rib variety. Aggie Ring ’84 still thinks Texas rules on the BBQ chicken and German/Polish sausage. However, Kansas City has the best brisket and ribs (steaks too) in the United States in Aggie Ring’s simple Aggie Ring opinion.

When Aggie Ring ’84 is gracing Kansas City with his Aggie Ringliness, he especially likes visiting Historic Westport Kansas City for a variety of reasons: best doughnuts in KC, best cigar lounge in KC, and bar in the oldest building in KC. This year, Aggie Ring ’84 ran into three locals in Westport and asked them where the best BBQ in Kansas City was. All three of them replied. “Go to the Char Bar in Westport. It’s the best!”

Aggie Ring decided that local recommendations about food are the best. “Screw Yelp!” said Aggie Ring. So, Aggie Ring went to this “Char Bar” that came highly recommended by the locals. Upon entering the “Char Bar,” Aggie Ring ’84 was in awe. First of all, the place was huge. Aggie Ring could have line danced in the inside and outside portions of the “joint.” Secondly, they had a full top-shelf bar. In Texas Aggie Ring’s humble opinion, BBQ just isn’t BBQ without “adult beverage.” However, Aggie Ring ’84 decided to reserve his Aggie Ring opinion until he tried the “goods.”

Texas Aggie Ring promptly took a seat at the bar and, after ordering a fine bourbon, began to peruse the menu. There were so many choices that a simple Texas Aggie Ring couldn’t even guess at what to order. For “starters” they had: Lobster Deviled Eggs (charred lobster and pea shoots), Grit Hushpuppies, Fried Green Tomatoes (Aggie Ring fell in love with these in Alabama), Jumbo Smoked Chicken Wings (bbq drizzle and buttermilk-chive dressing), amongst many others.

Fixin’s included: BBQ Pit Beans, Potato Salad, Cabbage Slaw, Carrot-Rasin Slaw and Smoked Corn Succotash, BBQ Pork Rinds, Beer-Battered Pickles, and too many other things to mention in this short summary.

The smoked meats included: Naked Burnt Brisket Ends (Kansas City is known for these), Ribs, Pulled Pork Butt, Black Angus Brisket, Hand-Cranked Sausage, Pulled Smoked Chicken, Smoked Turkey Breast, and something unknown to a simple Texas Aggie Ring called “Smoked Jackfruit.”

The dessert menu consisted of “Burnt Puddin’” (butterscotch custard and fresh blackberries), Bourbon Peach Crisp (almond crust, sticky male glaze and vanilla bean ice cream) and the “Velvet Elvis” (banana bread-peanut butter ice cream sandwich, spiced walnuts, bananas, cracker jacks, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a bourbon-soaked cherry.

There were a number of non-meat items on the menu with a skull and crossbones symbol next to them as a warning to real men and women who eat meat but I’ll not enumerate on them because Aggie Ring ’84 says, “Who cares about that stuff?”

Now Aggie Ring ’84 watches my weight because he doesn’t want me to become a “Fat AG” and have to get him resized. So I let him do the ordering. After much cogitation on Aggie Ring 84’s part. He allowed me to order the BBQ Tray with Naked Burnt Brisket Ends and Smoked Corn Succotash served with pickles and toast. Also, an appetizer of lobster deviled eggs. I asked Aggie Ring ’84 “What about dessert?” Aggie Ring replied, “You can have another glass of bourbon for dessert. It’s got much less calories.”

The service at Char Bar was quick. I mean really, really quick. Before Aggie Ring had a chance to put a dent into his bourbon, our order was served. First, I have to say that the presentation was incredible. Our meal was served on butcher paper on a tray with the sides in hand thrown pottery bowls. Even the ramekin with a side sauce was steel and not plastic like something you’d get at Arby’s.

Aggie Ring looked at his meal and almost wept. The tray, the brown butcher paper, the freshly toasted bread, the ceramic bowl. It was almost too much for Aggie Ring. “This,” said Texas Aggie Ring, “Is how they roll in Kansas City!” Aggie Ring ’84 says that BBQ served on a plate or in a red plastic basket is for “lady boys” and not really BBQ. The “burnt ends” were “pure delight” said Aggie Ring. The lobster deviled eggs and smoked corn brought tears to Aggie Ring’s eye.

Aggie Ring ’84 ate his entire lunch and said, “This is the best BBQ in any state I’ve lived in!”

As Texas Aggie Ring ’84 and I were leaving the “Char Bar,” he said to me, “Did you see their Sunday only Fried Chicken special with a whole chicken southern fried with whipped potatoes, pan gravy, “big-ass” buttermilk biscuits, and Tabasco honey?” I told Aggie Ring, “Hell, I’d come back just for the Tabasco honey!”

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere

Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 loves good BBQ. In fact, he’s positive most Texas Aggie Rings do. “I’m sure that there’s a vegetarian Aggie Ring or two out there, but that leaves more for the rest of the Aggie Rings, doesn’t it?” is what Aggie Ring ’84 always says.

Now Aggie Ring ’84 likes the BBQ in New Jersey where he lives and rules the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore. He loved the BBQ in Central and South Texas when he used to live there and he found the BBQ up around Monterey, California where he was once stationed identical to Texas BBQ which was all good for Aggie Ring.

All of that aside, Aggie Ring ’84 has found the BBQ in Kansas City to be the “gold standard” for BBQ. “It just doesn’t get any better than KC BBQ.” said Aggie Ring. (Note: Aggie Ring ’84 has never lived in Kansas City, so he is a truly impartial Aggie Ring!) Now, every state has some special features. Aggie Ring ’84 especially loves some of the hot peppers and apple empanadas, not to mention the greens, that Texas offers. California BBQ had some damn good fresh sliced artichoke served along with it. New Jersey BBQ has, well, the Jersey Shore, according to Aggie Ring ’84.

Aggie Ring ’84 has had some extremely excellent BBQ on his many Aggie Ring vacations to Kansas City of the brisket and rib variety. Aggie Ring ’84 still thinks Texas rules on the BBQ chicken and German/Polish sausage. However, Kansas City has the best brisket and ribs (steaks too) in the United States in Aggie Ring’s simple Aggie Ring opinion.

When Aggie Ring ’84 is gracing Kansas City with his Aggie Ringliness, he especially likes visiting Historic Westport Kansas City for a variety of reasons: best doughnuts in KC, best cigar lounge in KC, and bar in the oldest building in KC. This year, Aggie Ring ’84 ran into three locals in Westport and asked them where the best BBQ in Kansas City was. All three of them replied. “Go to the Char Bar in Westport. It’s the best!”

Aggie Ring decided that local recommendations about food are the best. “Screw Yelp!” said Aggie Ring. So, Aggie Ring went to this “Char Bar” that came highly recommended by the locals. Upon entering the “Char Bar,” Aggie Ring ’84 was in awe. First of all, the place was huge. Aggie Ring could have line danced in the inside and outside portions of the “joint.” Secondly, they had a full top-shelf bar. In Texas Aggie Ring’s humble opinion, BBQ just isn’t BBQ without “adult beverage.” However, Aggie Ring ’84 decided to reserve his Aggie Ring opinion until he tried the “goods.”

Texas Aggie Ring promptly took a seat at the bar and, after ordering a fine bourbon, began to peruse the menu. There were so many choices that a simple Texas Aggie Ring couldn’t even guess at what to order. For “starters” they had: Lobster Deviled Eggs (charred lobster and pea shoots), Grit Hushpuppies, Fried Green Tomatoes (Aggie Ring fell in love with these in Alabama), Jumbo Smoked Chicken Wings (bbq drizzle and buttermilk-chive dressing), amongst many others.

Fixin’s included: BBQ Pit Beans, Potato Salad, Cabbage Slaw, Carrot-Rasin Slaw and Smoked Corn Succotash, BBQ Pork Rinds, Beer-Battered Pickles, and too many other things to mention in this short summary.

The smoked meats included: Naked Burnt Brisket Ends (Kansas City is known for these), Ribs, Pulled Pork Butt, Black Angus Brisket, Hand-Cranked Sausage, Pulled Smoked Chicken, Smoked Turkey Breast, and something unknown to a simple Texas Aggie Ring called “Smoked Jackfruit.”

The dessert menu consisted of “Burnt Puddin’” (butterscotch custard and fresh blackberries), Bourbon Peach Crisp (almond crust, sticky male glaze and vanilla bean ice cream) and the “Velvet Elvis” (banana bread-peanut butter ice cream sandwich, spiced walnuts, bananas, cracker jacks, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a bourbon-soaked cherry.

There were a number of non-meat items on the menu with a skull and crossbones symbol next to them as a warning to real men and women who eat meat but I’ll not enumerate on them because Aggie Ring ’84 says, “Who cares about that stuff?”

Now Aggie Ring ’84 watches my weight because he doesn’t want me to become a “Fat AG” and have to get him resized. So I let him do the ordering. After much cogitation on Aggie Ring 84’s part. He allowed me to order the BBQ Tray with Naked Burnt Brisket Ends and Smoked Corn Succotash served with pickles and toast. Also, an appetizer of lobster deviled eggs. I asked Aggie Ring ’84 “What about dessert?” Aggie Ring replied, “You can have another glass of bourbon for dessert. It’s got much less calories.”

The service at Char Bar was quick. I mean really, really quick. Before Aggie Ring had a chance to put a dent into his bourbon, our order was served. First, I have to say that the presentation was incredible. Our meal was served on butcher paper on a tray with the sides in hand thrown pottery bowls. Even the ramekin with a side sauce was steel and not plastic like something you’d get at Arby’s.

Aggie Ring looked at his meal and almost wept. The tray, the brown butcher paper, the freshly toasted bread, the ceramic bowl. It was almost too much for Aggie Ring. “This,” said Texas Aggie Ring, “Is how they roll in Kansas City!” Aggie Ring ’84 says that BBQ served on a plate or in a red plastic basket is for “lady boys” and not really BBQ. The “burnt ends” were “pure delight” said Aggie Ring. The lobster deviled eggs and smoked corn brought tears to Aggie Ring’s eye.

Aggie Ring ’84 ate his entire lunch and said, “This is the best BBQ in any state I’ve lived in!”

As Texas Aggie Ring ’84 and I were leaving the “Char Bar,” he said to me, “Did you see their Sunday only Fried Chicken special with a whole chicken southern fried with whipped potatoes, pan gravy, “big-ass” buttermilk biscuits, and Tabasco honey?” I told Aggie Ring, “Hell, I’d come back just for the Tabasco honey!”

#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere