Month: October 2016

I want to let you know that I almost wrote another angsty, wannabe sassy, life-is-so-hard-because-transfer-apps-are-so-ugh post and then I remembered that I recently had really good fried chicken which led me to think about the awesome fried chicken in the bay area and thus, I couldn’t put this off any longer.

Je vous présente chicken and waffles, chicken, and waffles

(HOHOHO NOT A LISTICLE WSUP)

Bless you for reading this.

As a foreward, chicken and waffles are part of a genre of food known as Soul Food. If you have yet to be acquainted with this gift that the south of north america has contributed to us northerners, get to know each other. I swear, your relationship with food will flourish in ways you didn’t dream were possible.

The greatest of all happens to be Brown Sugar Kitchen. Based in West Oakland, borderline Emeryville, is a quaint , red building on Mandela Parkway. I would often go with my lovely Sugar Blossom(whom I miss dearly). In order to avoid wait times( which I guarantee you will encounter), my parents would go for breakfast and write my name on the waiting list so by the time it was lunch, I would arrive with my lovely Sugar Blossom and together, we would dine after an eight to fifteen minute wait as opposed to the average ninety minute wait. That is not to say that the line isn’t worth it -because it most definitely is- I was given an opportunity and utilized it to its full potential( GRACIAS PARENTALS).

So, why them? Why is it #worththewait? Is it reason enough to go into West-Oakland?

Guys, Oakland is kinda the most rad place in the bay area so #plsbechill and just go ye.

Their chef, Tanya Holland, is a goddess of fried chicken mastery. After training at La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in France, she came back to the US with a fire and reinvented soul food. Her fried chicken is marinated far in advance, giving every bite even and juicy flavor. The waffles are not sweet nor do they resemble the texture of the great, respected Belgian waffle. Rather, it is quite light with a bubbly crunch. The syrup is also not sweet and is apple in flavor. And before I get carried away with talking about the rest of your menu, I’ll move on…

TO-

Honestly, it’s hard to even try to compare to Brown Sugar Kitchen because everything is carried out with distinct and meticulous care.

BUT ANYWAY-

Hard Knox Cafe has locations on both Clement and 3rd. I’ve been to both buhahaha. Lucky you.

Personally, I go for the corn bread, ribs, and other menu items but their hours are significantly less limited as opposed to Brown Sugar Kitchen so if I really want the waffle and chicken, I’ll get it but it won’t be the same. It’s not the same because they do it classic. This is perfectly fine because they execute it well. But if you go, do yourself a favor and order the meats and corn bread as well as the chicken and waffle.

Lastly, because I have to, 900 Grayson. I know, I know, I knooooowwww. Hype. So. Much. Stinkin. Hype. I, too, cry. The lovely Sugar Blossom and I made a single attempt here and while the service was abysmal, the “Demon Lover” as they call it, is pretty great. I think it’s because of the gravy and I’m a complete sucker for gravy.

It’s good gravy.

OK, so, those are my top three chicken avec waffle places.

Let’s move onto F R I E D C H I C K E N straight up list style

1. Bakesale Betty’s- it’s a sandwich and a good sandwich indeed
2. Brenda’s French Soul Food- classic
3. Miss Ollie’s- classic
4. The Bird- competitively good sandwich
5. Little Skillet- classic
6. Portal- GRAVY GOT ME LIKE
7. House of Chicken and Waffles- classic but I recommend the Oakland location seeing as Walnut Creek isn’t as authentic; ya feel me?

I changed my mind. Waffles need their own post entirely. There are too many great waffles and each need to be given justice.

No waffle left behind #vivelaWAFFLE

Ps this list is not comprehensive, definitive, nor is it of expert opinion

The listicles are on pause f y i

This post is a digression perhaps culminated from my current dilemma: APPLICATIONS

K cool

The transfer application is said to be a process rather than transaction of information. My brilliant counselor has put up with listening to me recount my experiences, accolades, and challenges. And with the new statement format, the UC system is requiring that I introduce myself in fewer than 350 words x4 prompts. She, like many, knows that even if I were to produce a bulleted sheet, I could not simply list everything pertinent to my current development in such a limited space.

But we’re gonna make it work. We have to make it work.

JESUS, GIVE ME THE WORDS TO SAY #takethewheel

Anyways, all of this recounting has led to a lot of reminiscing. I enjoy reminiscing especially, all things considered, life is great, God is good, and I’m truly blessed.

But even with that, I don’t believe I’ve ever expressed how much Jr High Girls and HS Girls Sunday School has impacted me so with that…

Let’s begin.

My room is packed with stuff and I can proudly say that after clothing, a plethora of learning materials make up the bulk of the stuff. I have my Bible, novels, poetry collections, notebooks of original work, a burn book, classical english literature, scientific notebooks, medical research notebooks, textbooks that were required to purchase, textbooks that I purchased out of my own volition, encyclopedias, almanacs, dictionaries, binders filled with internship orientation information, illustrated atlas’s of the world, the universe, and the human body, chemistry for dummies, statistics for dummies, and most prized of all, binders with my old Sunday School outlines.

Prized? Ya don’t say.

Sunday School wasn’t simply a part of church. If you feel that way a) I am so sorry for you and b) you did Sunday school wrong. It was an event- totally completely and utterly lit with the level of turnt so high, we’d make any rager look dismal.

We took things to the next level in seventh grade when we, the students, transitioned from being prayer warriors(and spending 20-30 minutes on learning about each other’s lives to better pray for the entire classroom of girls so you better bet that we loved each other) to studying our butts off on doctrine, book studies, and character studies( SO LEGIT). The summer of our transition was our very first soul winning discipleship contest in our youth group and let me tell you, it was legendary.

We memorized around 8-12 verses per week. For testing, we would write them down, word for word, and turn them into our team leader. Each week would have a different theme and I distinctly remember the week on salvation, memorizing most of the Romans Road, and struggling with differentiating the references. After so many hours working with each other, testing each other as iron sharpeneth iron, we did it.

It wasn’t just the memory verses that gave us the opportunity to delve into the meat that is #TheWord but reading through the scripture with the outlines as references gave us such an in depth comprehension of #TheWord. Yes, it was a contest but I think we treated it as a training( like boot camp perhaps). Conveniently, a majority of us volunteered for VBS and took every available moment to study.

II Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth

That’s what we did. Call us crazy but staying at church on Sunday afternoons with our most caring teachers was legitimately fun. We may have used contests as an excuse for our competitive behavior but at the end of the day, we were learning and digesting and applying.

//And during the actual contests

//yo

//hell hath no fury like

//butthurt middle school girls getting whooped by the high school girls

//after gaining a significant lead the first half

//and then suddenly getting really humble really fast

Allow me to introduce you to the powerhouse aka my inspirations

TEAM HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BRIGADE OF POWAAAAAAAAHHH

Gloria, Diana, Lisa, Melanie, Lindy, Shirley

They knew… they knew every single time that they would win. It didn’t matter that at one point, we were 12 ahead. No. No no no no no.

Mrs Vivian wouldn’t ever let them go down.

That isn’t to say we didn’t try. We had our noble efforts and quite frankly, I believe we had them scared for a second.

Allow me to introduce to you our powerhouse: ps we were actually babies with a lot of ambition and tenacity but unfortunately we never made the cut

Tiffany, Amy, Spring, Reba, Hannah, Cole

6×6 maaannnnnnn

Shout out to the guys for existing. Y’all never stood a chance.