Happy Birthday Dave!!

For Dave's birthday on Saturday, we went to the 66 Russell Smokehouse and Raw Bar. It was delicious! The birthday boy himself got up at 5:30, or 5:00, or 4:30, maybe even 4:00AM to start the pork shoulders smoking. After many hours, it was falling apart:

Before we could have shredded pork, however, we needed to start with some items from the raw bar. Ellie and Dave's friend Mark set up the old kitchen sink outdoors with running water and took care of all the shucking. We had oysters and clams, both really cold and fresh and tasting of the ocean.
The shucked product. With a little daikon/soy sauce (Mark's creation) and a dash of Celtic Sea Salt, they were absolutely the best I've ever had.

And finally, dinner! The carrot salad was supposed to be coleslaw with cumin lime vinaigrette (Bobby Flay), but I got a little carried away shredding carrots and the bowl wasn't big enough for the second cabbage. It was very good nonetheless. The beans are from the Dinosaur BBQ cookbook, which Ellie and Dave enjoy making, and the big secret of those is how easy they are (I'm not telling, it's a SECRET), and in the foreground is the delicious delicious pork with some onions on top. You can also see the cheap buns--the secret to a good pulled pork sandwich, apparently.

My regret is not having taken a picture of Ellie's delicious and beautiful Dr. Pepper chocolate cake. It was a great dessert and an even better breakfast!