Finding The Good Life
Posted on March 29, 2016 by bob in OffTheBeatenPath
“Thursday night?” I asked.
“Thursday night,” the voice on the phone confirmed. “We’re going to fry some quail, sit around and talk about the good life. Hope you can come.”
Like any gracious guest, I asked how I might contribute, and was given a fairly simple assignment: show up at 6 with enough salad to feed 15 to 20 hungry men. While quail was to be the main event, there would be a cadre of other wild game entrees and sides.
At the appointed date and time, my salad and I arrived with fellow invitees my father-in-law and brother-in-law, each with their own dishes, along with a dozen-and-a-half other men and their respective culinary contributions. While it is entirely possible to fry quail in the city, clean country air seems to improve the taste, something our host knew well as the venue for our gathering was his own rural getaway, a rustic chalet tucked deep in the planted pines.
As we pulled up, I could see a crowd out back gathered around a bonfire. When I opened the truck door, the unmistakable smell of hot cooking grease on the breeze started my stomach to growling and after dropping off the salad in the kitchen and saying hellos I made my way to the firepit in search of our host and the promised quail.
I found him by the cooker, carefully examining the first morsels to emerge from the bubbling peanut oil. As is customary at such gatherings, the small leg portions were fried first as an appetizer while the breasts were battered and prepared. The pan of hot fried quail legs – well-breaded and crispy – was passed around and we took turns pitching our clean-picked bones into the fire.
I informed our host that not far from where we’d pulled off the blacktop, turned through the green gate and onto the hard-packed red dirt road as directed, we had roosted three gobblers. His eyes grew large. He pushed his forefinger into the chest of another member of the group – one known to slip into the office a little late during turkey -season – and asked whether he’d heard my report.
“Somebody needs to kill those birds,” he said, with a bit of a twinkle in his eye, “tomorrow!”
As the pile of quail legs grew smaller, we talked about the previous deer season; how hot it had been and how few good bucks had been taken. All agreed the weather was to blame.
When several dozen quail breasts had been cooked, we were corralled inside where a king’s feast awaited. Besides the mountain of birds, there was cube steak, summer sausage, Conecuh sausage, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, Mexican cheese grits, hoecakes, deer burgers, fried cheese balls, grilled venison wrapped in bacon and one very big salad. Our host introduced the benefactor of all our quail and informed us we’d not find a bit of lead in the birds as they “were all headshot.”
“Only on the wing, of course … he’d never take one on the ground,” he added wryly.
After we’d all had a good laugh the bounty was blessed and we each piled our plates high. A dozen bodies sat in so many chairs around the main table while others found seats in the den by the fire or perched on kitchen stools. While the fried quail stole the show, compliments on multiple dishes were traded with more than a few requests that recipes be swapped. As plates were cleared, I made it a point to drift slowly between the various groups, just a fly on the wall, quietly listening to the conversations.
Topics ran the gamut, from preferred frog gigging techniques to stock investment strategies to snapper limits, along with a fair amount of bemoaning days gone by. Surveying the room, everywhere there was laughter, back slapping and good spirits, some likely improved by spirits themselves. In the corner, a guitar player strummed a pleasant tune.
When our host had called to invite me, he’d said we’d fry some quail, sit around and talk about the good life. Looking around the room – with a belly full of quail and surrounded by friends, some old, some new – there was really no need to talk about it. This was the good life.
Niko Corley is a USCG-licensed charter boat captain and spends his free time on the water or in the woods. Contact him at niko.corley@gmail.com.
