Potlikkery

smitty's in the bbq capital of Texas

Thank Heaven for Laura and all the tv watching she does. Somehow, on our drive from Austin to Victoria, Texas, we went right through Lockhart, the BBQ capital of Texas. She saw a show about Lockhart on FoodNetwork. I think I saw the same show a few years ago when a BBQ special feature comparing Carolina, Memphis, and Texas style BBQ featured Lockhart. It rang bells.

It wasn't until our return trip though, back from Victoria after helping a friend celebrate her wedding, that we stopped and ate at Smitty's Market. It was on the main road and thanks to Laura's fabulous recall, she identified Smitty's as the place to be/to dine.  She pointed to the parking lot and said something akin to "If it's full, it's gotta be good." We parked and walked inside and lined up. It was super hot. There's an open fire just inside the building where the cook the meat and sell it. Once you're up to the register, you tell the meatman how much of this and that you want. You pay, and then go inside to order and purchase sides and drinks. 

We split 1/2 pound of brisket and 1/2 pound of pork ribs. They slap a sheet of newspaper down, then place your order atop it. The meat is accompanied by white bread and/or crackers. We tried both. The brisket was moist and flavorful. The ribs were simply divine. Their BBQ sauce is reminiscent of the sweet tomato kind I can find in BBQ joints in East Tennessee. Laura is spoiled now. No other BBQ compares to Texas. She turns up her nose at everything else. It turns out that BBQ is bigger and better in Texas.

I forget what all kinds of sides they offered. That's slaw on the far left, potato salad in the middle, and beans on the far right. The slaw was okay. The mustard-based sweet potatoes were yummy. But the beans were mostly disappointing. We both expected cowboy or baked/bbq beans. Laura--who should write her own blog as much as she's featured on mine--thought they'd be perfect for a soup bean and cornbread supper, but that was not what we had in mind.

Here's a glimpse of Laura, you can see a bit of the inside of Smitty's. The "cafeteria" style dining room has 4-6 long wooden tables that bbq lovers find spots to park their rears while they eat. Laura picked an older gentleman to sit by. He looked harmless, she said. And he was. He snuck in a trip to Smitty's while his son finished up a Boy Scout backpacking trip at a nearby state park. He mentioned a bit about a feud that split the original BBQ joint in two and thus Smitty's was formed. Seems like BBQ wars occur in every state. I shared a bit about the one in SC with Maurice. Naturally he thought we were from there. I corrected him, said we hailed from Tennessee.

Here's the damage. We ate it all, folks. All but the beans. The amazing thing was that for under $12 the two of us ate our fill of meat, sides, beans, and then left with a scoop of ice cream each. I'd love to return to Lockhart, not just to eat at Smitty's again, but to try the other BBQ restaurants vying for the title of Best BBQ in Texas.

a smidge of Austin

On the airplane from Asheville to Atlanta--the first leg of my trip to Texas two weeks ago-- the flight attendant asked if I'd like some crickets. It was well after the last round of cleaning up and she said "Is there anything else I can get you? Some crickets, maybe?" I was ready with my automatic "No, thank you" and answered before the cricket part registered. But then I revised and added, "Well, if they're on the menu..."

That Laura. She was seated near the flight attendant and they chatted a bit. Somehow eating unusual food items came up, maybe a vending machine in a large international airport, and Laura told her that "my friend up there"--because somehow we were separated despite having booked and selected our seats simultaneously via phone and Internet--eats crickets.

When our flight attendant passed by again, I stopped and asked her what the most unusual food she'd eaten was. Eventually she answered alligator. She wasn't so adventurous when it came to eating different food. Once she was in rural Japan and could not eat what was for dinner because it was still alive.

After a two or three hour delay we finally left Atlanta and arrived in Austin. The first order of business was finding food. I'd asked Pamela what to do in Austin, and she recommended the yarn store, which has the cupcake truck next door. That was about all I knew for food.

The Delta InFlight magazine featured a photo of the Magnolia Cafe's "Sorry, we're open," sign. After seeing that, Laura remembered seeing something about it on a show on the food network. She watches way more TV than I.

It was graduation day in Austin so we spotted a few ladies in linen sheaths and heels leaving this decidedly alternative cafe; we ate at the Congress Ave. location. Most of the waitstaff were tattooed. A fellow eater bobbed his purple mohawk. Magnolia Cafe serves breakfast 24 hours, and is open 24 hours, too. While waiting for a table I spotted their tea & dessert board: Peanut Butter Pie. I was off the diet while in Texas, just so you know.

We were seated within 20 minutes and got down to ordering. Laura's shrimp quesadillas are above. The photo I took of my fish tacos is not so good. We shared bites of each other's food. I loved her guacamole and she tucked into my salsa. The peanut butter pie there was unreal. Its consistency was unlike anything I'd ever had. The flavor was robust. But the filling was more peanut buttery than cream cheese, if that makes sense. 

 

Seriously, a portable Airstream cupcake truck? It's the best. And a darling idea, really. I told Laura that we should buy an Airstream and take up cupcake making in East Tennessee; we could travel all over the southeast appearing at festivals and the like.

Yummy cupcakes, Hey Cupcake!  had red velvet, and after paying the guy--no sales tax on food in Austin or Texas or what?-- he asked if I was gonna take his picture. So I did. It's the cupcake guy. He was foxy, too. Could give Johnny Knoxville a run for his money. Their T-shirts were fabulous, too. The back read "Who you callin cupcake?"

i ate jiminy & his five friends--a confession

If you haven't tried crickets, then how do you know you won't like them? Sure, people are opposed to eating animals on ethical grounds, but I'm not one of them. Did vegetarianism. Wasn't for me. It's just too difficult, or was, when last I tried it.

Ironically, I usually order salads or the meat-substitute item on menus: The portabella sandwich, the eggplant, the tofu dish. So it's not that I'm a rabid meat-eater. I'm just an omnivore, as I was biologically determined to be. It's beef I crave; a rare steak or juicy hamburger. And then there's pork. Yum. I leave chicken alone. It's ubiquitious, boring, and usually poorly prepared/seasoned.

Last week we drove to Gatlinburg to take Elsa to Ripley's Aquarium because the Weeki Wachee mermaids were performing in one of the tanks there. I whipped up a mermaid tail for her. We went light on the trypical Gatlinburg fare by splitting a Fannie Farkle corn dog. No funnel cakes. No fudge or candy of any kind. Oh, but wait, they have a Ben & Jerry's there. How random is that? We each had a scoop. Bypassing the Donut Friar was a big deal for us.

There's a new-to-us shop there on the main drag called All Sauced Up. They sell kitchen tools, dips, salsa, gourmet peanut butters, etc. It used to be a knife shop, like of the cutting and gutting type, not the mise en place ilk. We bought utensils, peanut butters, cupcake decorations, etc.

Along the counter "novetly" food items were displayed. I call them novelty because I cannot see that the demographic touring Gatlinburg would actually eat mealworms, crickets, and other insects. I asked the lady at the counter if she'd tasted any. She said the crickets were like potato chips, but went down the throat a bit tough.

I bought a package of salt n vinegar crickets. Ate 'em when we got home. Not so much to speak about, really. They were crunchy and would have been flavorless but for the salt n vinegar. So there. I ate crickets. I'd likely try anything once, because how do you know you don't like it if you've never eaten it? You can get around the idea of eating things. We, as meat-eaters, get around those ideas everytime we devour our mammalian friends.

mustard making 101

While I was pregnant--and at some point, I realize, I will stop making references to that point in my life, but I really wonder when that might be, years from now?--and waiting in doctor's offices I discovered lots of magazines I had not been exposed to before. Most of them were parenting in nature, but one was a recently launched regional women's magazine called Verve. It's Western North Carolina's "smartest magazine for women."

Verve featured a story about a woman who makes mustard. That issue also featured women who BBQ, too, but that's not what this is about.  I read all about Lusty Monk mustard at my OB's office. Kelly Davis is the woman who makes Lusty Monk. She's an historian and bartender who translated a medieval recipe for mustard and started a cottage industry. With Lusty Monk rattling around my brain pan I opened the February Savuer "Home Cook" edition and found Stout Companion and told Ian how easy it would be to make our own mustard.

He was all for it. The trouble was finding enough mustard seed. I had a small bottle in our spice cabinet, but that was not nearly enough. The recipe called for 10 oz. Happenstance, pure luck, it was that I found at least that much at Earthfare. But it was yellow mustard seed, and not the brown. Oh well. We tried it with yellow mustard seed, since that was all that was available.

The fabulous thing was that we used the food processor. I've wanted one for years. Ian bought it for me last year at Christmas. And I used it for the first time just before Christmas this year. I know. I couldn't get it to work. I can't explain it. Really, it was silly. User error. I'm great with computers, terrible with appliances. I christened it with cheese straw dough, and then we made mustard in it a few weeks ago.

Actually, first, you let the Guinness stout, mustard seed, red wine vinegar, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice sit at room temperature for 1-2 days. This lets everything percolate and lets the mustard seeds soften. Then you process everything and transfer it to a jar. You can keep it refrigerated for up to 6 months. Its flavor mellows as it ages.

When Ian first tasted it, he said it made him feel a little Funky. Or Loopy. Or a little bit high. Like maybe there was still some alcohol content in there. But then that went away. 

I returned to Earthfare for more mustard seeds in the intervening weeks to no avail. And even spoke to one of their people about when they might get more in, but they seemed rather clueless about the whole stocking of mustard seed in bulk problem. Luckily, we stopped in at our locally owned Natural Foods Market for a special medicinal item that Earthfare doesn't stock either, and they have both brown and yellow mustard seeds and so we scored there. Yay!

Ian likes our home brewed mustard it, and eats it regularly. I don't love it, nor do I hate it. I might like it on a nice hot dog. But we've only eaten those nasty fat free hot dogs of late, per our diet. Yuck. So maybe on a real porker of a hot dog it would taste swell. Our next batch, that we bought the last pound of seeds for, we plan to add about a cup, or half cup of honey.

seven shrimp

Since the baby, who we named Elsa Marie (and you can read more about here or just see photos), came Ian and I are eating healthy to lose the baby weight I gained and the sympathetic pounds the put on as well. Mine totaled 55 pounds and his was around 40. I've lost 39 and have around 16 to go. So that means, of course, no yummy eating or cooking the the style that we've grown accustomed to.

Sure, I took being pregnant as a once in a lifetime "free pass" to chow down. Be a hawg, so to speak, and have dessert at every meal, almost. I did not turn down cheesecake. We stopped by Dairy Queen almost every evening for a soft serve cone and an occasional Blizzard.

Queerly enough, my favorite dessert snack was sugar free banana pops from Kroger. Their regular banana pops tasted weird, but the sugar free just hit the spot. So I ate healthy with my nightly/daily indulgences.

And ice cream wasn't my only drive thru indulgence. I was mad for quarter pounder value meals and the every other week original chicken sandwich from Burger King, too. It was this simple: I was so tired. I was so hungry. Those were the facts. What other alternatives were there? But the fetus thrived, nonetheless. Surely, I felt guilty that I didn't feed her (and we didn't know what we were having until she was born) an organic purley wholesome diet, but I don't have the patience for that kind of nonesence, really, truly, honestly. Now that I've confessed...

At this point I'm mostly food averse. Nothing I can have tastes good. I crave butter. Or macaroni and cheese. And the influx of good old southern cookbooks does nothing to help my cravings. Early on I was steaming a lot of food and that helped. I don't know why I stopped. Must return to that.

And to the fish counter. Fish are really low points on Weight Watchers. That's what we do. It works for us. We don't go to meetings. Those don't work. Frankly, the counter folks, who take your money and calculate your weight loss, are incompetent. At least, in our city, they are. We do better doing it at home.

But shrimp, prepared with Old Bay seasoning with salt, vinegar and water is one point, for about seven shrimp. I can eat about a pound of shrimp for about 6 or 7 points, and that ain't bad at all, when you get between 24-20-something points a day depending on your weight.

We also bake a lot of chicken to then slice and eat atop salads. Or we did. Until that grew really boring, too.

Ian has a serious aversion to most vegetables, the ones that are good for you. The ones that are free, points-wise in weight watchers. All the green ones like broccoli, asparagus, brussel sprouts. I love them, especially steamed, though I dash a bit of salt, or better yet, garlic salt on them. They don't stay with you long, i.e., keep your tummy full, but they are free, which then keeps your points tally high throughout the day.

The worst part is that I cannot have Chinese food. Throughout my pregnancy developed the habit of going for Chinese food at least once a week. My favorite is orange pork, which essentially is orange chicken, but I have 'em make it with pork, since I was raised in the mountain south and pork is just better, y'all.

dreaming of breakfast

Over dinner the other night I told Ian that if I opened a restaurant it would be called Over Easy, maybe the Over Easy Cafe,  and it would serve breakfast all day long. We talked about menus and he thought a waffle sandwich would go over great. Me, not so much.

Biscuits are definitely on the menu. A steak biscuit. At least one salmon and lox dish. A daily quiche or two. Homemade pastries, including scones, yum. And lots of items from the grill. Sort of a combination of old time diner and new-fangled ingredients.

Breakfast food is my favorite. Rarely can it be cooked incorrectly. I've had one or two of those breakfasts gone wrong.

Here's a breakfast blog I recently came across Simply Breakfast: The Art of Breakfast. All breakfast photos, all the time. Yum.

fair food

Anymore I go to our county fair for the food. Who doesn't love deep fried everything?

The concessionaires had too much fun dipping their corndogs. Look closely. It was a vulgar display, for sure. But who can blame them? Everyone should play with their food.

The soft serve was my first stop. I got a cone of chocolate-vanilla swirl. Can't get it anywhere in town anymore, so that was a real treat.

Next up, Ian bought one or two 25 cent bags of gumdrops from the old general store display inside the museum. I could have stayed in there awhile, but it was small and others wanted in.

Then what? On to get my funnel cake. Betty said I should stop by the Kiwanis club booth, that they had a new funnel cake recipe that was great; I visited with her the previous day. And then returned on Wednesday for my funnel cake. But I wasn't in love with it. It was stringy. And pale. And once we finished and left out seat a guy took  our table and I saw his funnel cake. It looked like swollen worms all golden brown, and THAT was the funnel cake I wanted, but didn't get.

Ian indulged in a corn dog from Kiwanis. Didn't offer me a bite.

Once we indulged or sweet and greasy tooths, we left the fair. I admire the entrepreneurial spirit of the folks who live adjacent to the fairgrounds. They offer folks parking spots in their yards for a few dollars, sell water to the thirsty, and also try their hand at deep-fried novelties.

We were deep-fried Oreo virgins. Not anymore. I can't recall how much Ian paid for such a delicacy, but it was high. Maybe $5 for 6 deep fried oreos. They weren't that hot once they were removed from the deep fryer. They were messy. We had confectioner's sugar spotting our clothes. Innards were slightly warmed. So, as a curiosity, I'd say try 'em. But don't make a habit of eating them, because there's no telling just how bad they are for you on many levels.

wraps, oh my

I'm not feeling generous today and so this restaurant review may be not so kind. But chains rarely deserve kindness. We (not the royal we, but me and Ian) went to Tropical Smoothie Cafe for lunch. It opened about two weeks ago.  We wondered if it ever would because work on the storefront took months and months.

Situated between the hospital and the university, our city's two major employers, its location is good, and yet the second Salsarita's, adjacent to the new TSC, (another mediocre chain we're  blessed with) recently closed their doors due to lack of business. A high point for this TSC is the drive thru for quick fixes.

The store's interior is fresh, lively, and ample. Bathrooms were clean. Flat-paneled television sets are tucked into each corner; an immediate turn off for me. The patio features between six and eight tables, about half festooned with umbrellas. There is no trash can outside. While dining outside, probably inside, too, the cafe's speakers serenade one with steel drum music, which is lovely, but doesn't put a dent in the sound of four-five lanes of traffic just 15 yards yon. The view is not so glamorous either: Another strip mall; although once Earth Fare arrives, it may be worth watching.

Since the cafe is new, the counter staff have yet to get their act together. There were problems ordering. There were problems paying. There were problems receiving the correct food. Once it was corrected and received, it was okay. I ate the Thai Chicken wrap. Ian had the Buffalo chicken wrap. Choices of sides included pretzels, chips, banana, or an orange. They also have breakfast menu items. It being lunch, we did not try them.

What I liked most about my wrap was that it was hot. Otherwise, I don't like wraps. We have a Roly-Poly,  and while its novelty and variety had a lot going for it, I don't eat there anymore because the thought of a cold wrap is less than appealing to me. I prefer a sandwich. That's just me.

The smoothie was okay; Mango Magic, though they wrote Mango Moxie on the cup. The Keva juice nearby closed some months back, and though there's one over on the north, congested side of town, I dread going there. Same with the Smoothie King. So, it is nice, then, to have a smoothie shop again in the central part of our city.

I chose to go there because I thought the food might be healthy. Smoothies. Wraps. Sounds healthy, no? Ian's wrap was 566 calories. 187 were fat. There were 60.6 grams of carbs in said wrap, too. His smoothie, the Hawaiian Breeze, had 360 calories, 160 with Splenda, as seen on their website, but he wasn't offered that option in the store. All that, plus a bag of pretzels equaled 23 points (weight watchers). He gets 24 for the DAY. Needless to say, he'll be eating one of those zero points Progresso soups for dinner this evening.

Another curious thing is that the cafe's menu boasts that all their sandwiches and wraps are made with Boar's Head meats. Ian noticed a small sign at the counter that read that Boar's Head meats were not available in the Tri-Cities.

What does it all mean? We get a half-assed link that isn't up to the same standards as the others in the chain? Like THAT's never happened here before...

What seems to happen in the Tri-Cities is that some would be entrepreneur finds his or herself in a larger city, spies a chain, and decides to bring it to our neck of the woods. Banks are more likely to bankroll a generic chain rather than take a chance on someone who would open an eatery with some real creativity. And then we're stuck with particularly bland and processed menus.

Sorry Tropical Smootie Cafe. You're not so bad. You just bore the brunt of my increasing dissatisfaction with the state of food in my region. We've a plethora of boring chains with uninspiring menus. And thus, there is still NOWHERE to eat.

tomato type

After discussing my tomato's lack of girth with my ag science connection I learned something new: There are determinate and indeterminate types of tomatoes.  Who knew? Not I. Last time I planted about six tomato plants in my front yard, they were so close together, that I guess they never thrived enough to grow taller than a foot or two. Didn't have this problem with them not getting as big as I thought they should.

But, it seems, that my Beefmaster is an  indeterminate type. This means, that they'll grow ten feet tall if you let them. That also means that when they put all their energy into growing taller, they put less energy into bearing fruit. Determinate types are  Roma, Celebrity, etc.

If I'd known any better, I should have removed the suckers. What else I learned is this: Indeterminate types are not recommended for containers; that's how we're growing ours.

Live. And Learn. To grow tomatoes another year!

total tomato confusion

Happened to glance at the plastic identity marker in one of my tomato containers only to learn that all this time I thought we planted Beefsteak. But no, we planted Beefmaster. Think Beastmaster (1982). With a name like Beefmaster, I dunno, I assumed they were similar to Beefsteak.

No. These tomatoes are more like grape or Roma varieties and that makes me wonder what went wrong. Ian badgered me into picking the ripe ones. I kept hoping the longer they remained on the vine, the larger they'd grow. But, he was right, when he said they grow big and THEN ripen.

Reimer's site  describes the Beefmaster variety like so:  "Plant produces enormous yields of large meaty 2 lb beefsteak tomatoes."

Where's an ag science graduate when you need one? Or just an old time farmer? Should we have fertilized? The plant got lots of water this summer.

At this point, all my hopes for homegrown tomatoes are pinned to Mr. Stripy. Long may he prosper.