High Tides at Snack Jack

If you haven't been reading this blog for very long, I would like to share with you how it got started. It would be an understatement to say that I am high maintenance when it comes to eating out. Not high maintenance in that I need someone to fawn over me while I am in a restaurant, but I do have very high expectations when spending money on food out of the house. It is my belief that if you own a restaurant and want to be successful, you need to serve a good product and provide a nice atmosphere for me to enjoy that product. For far too long, my com padres from work would just laugh and watch me squirm and get upset when my soup was delivered too cold, ketchup was served in squeeze packs in a nice restaurant and panini sandwiches delivered without the cheese even being melted. They all said, "You need to start a food blog."

I resisted for the longest time until my coworker, Nick Begley, designed and set the blog up and told me I had no excuse. It has been a great experience and I am glad that he pushed me into it. This post is not so much about the food at High Tides at Snack Jack as it is about the experience I had that evening. I think you will find it entertaining.

My buddy Gary was in town with his son Vuk from NYC, so it was expected that we would all get together. The group included Gary, Vuk, Gary's parents, Kelly, Julynn, Kennedy and myself. Bratch and Kato Potato were supposed to show up, but never made it. I am sure we'll get up with them soon.

We get to High Tides and it is packed. Gary forgot that it is spring break and if you know anything about High Tides and Snack Jack, it is not the kind of place locals want to visit during high tourist time. People visit this restaurant while on vacation and then make it one of their stops every time they come back to town. We actually got lucky in that Gary told them we would take the first available table and got seated quickly. However, it was outside. If you know me, I am not big on al fresco dining. Mainly due to temperature cooling down my meal, flies buzzing around my food, or as is the case in Florida most of the time, me trying to eat while sweating bullets. This night the problem was the cool wind blowing off the ocean. I was sitting right at the point where the wind hit me first and was wearing me out. Given that it was 87 degrees the other day, I thought I would be find in my short sleeved shirt. While I was cool, my biggest concern was what was going to happen to the wings I had ordered? Surely, they were going to get too cold for me to eat and enjoy.

Our food shows up and amazingly the wind calmed down after the sun went down. Gary and I had ordered the hottest wings they serve and dug right in. They were very tasty, but Gary and I both commented that the heat from the sauce didn't affect us this time the way it has in the past. That is what happens when you eat a lot of hot and spicy foods. You build up a tolerance and need to go to the next level (Keep this statement in mind as you read further). Still, the wings were great!

We all finish our meals and beers and head our separate ways. I get home and get ready for bed by washing my hands thoroughly to take out my contacts. This is part of my contact ritual daily and I am not even thinking about the hot sauce that was all over my fingers a half hour earlier. Did I mention the hot sauce was made from habaneros? Anyway, I reach into my eye to grab the first lens and my head starts to explode. There is still traces of hot sauce on my fingers. After standing there for about five minutes with my head on the sink and complaining about the heat in my eyes, I wash my hands good again. Going into my second eye is not any better. Once again, my head is blowing up. I cannot believe I have been so stupid, but I really thought my hands were clean this time. A couple of more beers and I take it to bed.

After my shower the next morning, I go to put my contacts back in my eyes and guess what? I had forgotten about the episode the night before, so there was no rinsing off the lenses before they went back in my eyes. Everything was all right at first, but as I started to shave my eyes started burning, tearing up and my nose started running uncontrollably. Tears and mucus(I refuse to call it snot), are now running down into the shaving cream on my face. Julynn is laughing at me and cannot understand why I don't pull the lenses back out.

If you are not a person that enjoys hot peppers and spicy food, you can never understand what I am about to tell you. The burning in my eyes is actually starting to deliver the endorphin rush that Gary and I were complaining we didn't get from eating the wings the night before. I decide to try to ride out the storm and finish my shave. I get that done and still my nose is running and tears are streaming down my cheeks, but I cannot bring myself to remove the lenses. A couple of eye drops seems to bring a little relief and around 10:30, which is about two hours after this adventure began, I am back to normal. While I do not recommend this method of getting a hot pepper fix, it was quite an experience for me.

Eat, drink, be merry and always wash your hands after eating hot wings!

Harry