In Search of Q, Perfection Edition

My Christmas gift to my tastebuds: a trip to my most favorite barbecue joint. It's down the hill from my parents' house in a strip mall in Little Rock. I don't have much other commentary....this place is pretty much perfect. Yum.

Photo Essay: Food in San Francisco

Flavor:


Tartine Eclair:


Street Wok:


Plums in a Bag:


Happy Donut:

In Search of Q, Inside the Beltway

We've been told not to bother with the Q in the District. The good stuff is in deep far-away Virginia. However, necessity (an empty tummy after a day of moving) is the mother of invention (taking advantage of what's at hand), so this past Monday we tried Kenny's. It's around 8th and Maryland NE in Capitol Hill, so within walking distance of our new abode. We went with chopped pork sandwiches per usual, the standard against which I tend to measure a purveyor of Q. After a little wait and some super-sweet Nestea from the cold drink dispenser, we got massive sandwiches with sauce and slaw on the side. I could have used only about half as much meat, since the bun was so full it couldn't accommodate any slaw.



The meat was decent, not the best quality, but sufficient. (I think it isn't cooked in-house, since there isn't an overwhelming smell of it outside and it was served from a steam table. So it has that warmed-up-leftover taste that not-the-very-best meat gets.) The medium sauce had a little kick and was thin and runny, so it could get down in all the little runnels and rivulets in the meat. The bun was yellow and sweetish, like an egg or kaiser roll (weird). In all, a good place to scratch a sudden and ineffable itch, but perhaps not the place to go for serious, contemplative Q. I wonder how the beef is.....

postscript: Kenny's serves up a full compliment of meat-and-three sides, like greens, red beans and rice, macaroni and cheese, black eyed peas, etc. I noticed on the way out with our porky load that you can get a plate of three sides with cornbread for $7. Since I have recently been lamenting the lack of a good cafeteria around here, this will be m choice next time....

In Search of Q, Dallas Edition

It’s my last day in Dallas, so I finally got around to eating some local barbecue. I’ve heard and read unkind things said about the local fair here in DFW, but I felt that I needed to give it a shot. Texas style barbecue is different from what I grew up eating, more beef focused and smoky mesquite flavored. But, you know, when in Rome…

In my neighborhood is a little place called Mac’s. Every time I have driven by it, I have made a mental note to try it later….which promptly gets tossed into my mental trash can. It doesn’t help that Mac’s is a workaday lunch-only place (11-2 Mon-Fri, or something like that), at which point I’m usually finishing up my coffee.

But today was the day! Mac’s décor is straightforward, fake-wood-paneled, cafeteria chairs, sit-down-and-eat style. I felt like I had stepped back into the employee lounge at my dad’s office circa 1985. I got a sliced beef sandwich, M got sausage, and we split sides of slaw and beans. The beef was tender and good, like a well-made roast; the sausage came thin-sliced and grilled on a bun, and with the hot-sweet sauce was a rare treat. The sides were straightforward and good also, complimentary but never distracting.

We ordered take out so we could wash it all down with our last two Shiners.

I hear the Frito Pie is good. Next time…

Mac’s Barbecue
3933 Main Street
Dallas, TX 75226
Open weekdays for lunch

Travels and Brief Mentions, Long Overdue

After a year-long exile, I went back home for my birthday at the beginning of this month. I’m a little ashamed to say that my memories had faded a bit. As soon as I woke up from the long, dark plane ride, I was gobsmacked by the green and the wet, like my eyeballs had been painted with chlorophyll. I marveled at the crazy, figure shaped oak leaves, the heavy, moist air, the big, muddy river. I missed out on barbecue, because I’d eaten too much Big Mista the week before (party leftovers!). Catfish, Franke’s, and red beans & rice were on the menu instead.

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I saw a couple of art shows over a month ago at Jancar Gallery in Chinatown that I kept meaning to blog about, but clearly I’ve had other things (food! party!) on the brain. So even though the shows are down, I still want to give a shout out to Jancar for some rockin’ feminist presentations: Ilene Segalove upstairs (hurray for old-skool, patriarchy-skewering photo appropriation!), with Alison Foshee & Katina Huston downstairs (three cheers for obsessive, super crafty, mixed media blitz!). This show made me smile bigger than any has in a long time.

I’m going to check out some more shows this week, so stay tuned…

(photos above are of the Arkansas River, taken by me; and of Alison Foshee's works Basketroid and Supernova, both mixed media and 2009, from the Jancar Gallery website.)

In Search of Q, Part 2

To any regular patrons of the Atwater Village Farmers’ Market on Sundays, this is old news. I, however, tend to be a weekend lay-a-bed, so it was not til a couple weeks ago when I had a craving for tamales that my nose led me to the source of my newest barbecue crush: Bigmista. That weekend I demurred, going instead with the old tamale standby for lunch (pork and sweet corn, obviously). M suggested that, even though my nose was swooning for the heady aroma of wood smoke and melting fat, I didn’t want to get my hopes up to have them dashed by subpar Q. So when we got home, I did some research and discovered other bloggers raving about Bigmista. I resolved to give him a try…

This past Sunday, we did just that. Two Mini Mistas (a sandwich, a side, a cold drink), both with pulled pork, one with beans, one with potato salad (cole slaw was gone by 12:30). I focused on the meat first, after pouring out my little plastic cuplet of sauce and dipping my finger in—sweet and smoky, black-peppery like what I encountered in Illinois. I sampled the meat with my fingers too, since it overflowed the bun. MMMM! Tender juiciness, just the right amount of slick greasiness, it rivaled Whole Hog, my personal back-home favorite, next to McClard’s (which, really, you go to for the atmosphere and maybe the tamales, which are wholely different from tamales as experienced out here, served with ketchup and Saltines).

I took home a catering menu, from which I can order meat and sides by the pound. I think Bigmista is going to be making an appearance at the upcoming Team M 30th Birthday Party. Be prepared with your wet naps.

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ps – oh! The potato salad! So good, made with mustard like it ought to be, like my Aunt Inez used to do. I think she would approve.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The day is nearly, or even just now, past, but the weekend rolls along....I made my first solo pan of dressing today (see photo, left). I am used to being the assistant on this type of project, but I muddled through alone and produced something quite tasty, even though I forgot the eggs. And, it was not dry in the least! The dish has come back home about 2/3 empty, so I guess even though my in-laws didn't seem to know what it was or what to call it, somebody at the table took a liking to it.

Even better, I have a third left all for myself. Whee!

ps -- Whooooooo........Pig! Sooie! (see photo, right)

In Search of Q

A couple of weeks ago, on my birthday, I developed a craving for some barbecue. Out here, "barbecue" is a term loosely used, pretty much covering anything cooked outside. Maybe even some things cooked inside, such as Korean barbecue. It can even refer to the event or act of cooking itself. Where I am from, we refer to most of this type of food as "grilled" (and to the event as a "cook-out") because it is cooked directly over the heat source at high temperatures for a short period of time. Barbecue (or BBQ for the spelling-challenged) is an altogether different thing, not so much an event as a particular substance.

It requires a smoker (or other indirect-cooking contraption) and lots of time. Folks often think it is all about the sauce, but here they are wrong—good quality meat should be used (either pork or beef, depending on one’s regional proclivities), and the sauce or marinade should serve to compliment, not mask it. Spicy and sweet, smoky, or vinegar-tangy, again depending on regional preferences, the sauce should work its way under your fingernails and puddle in the corners of your mouth, providing a few hours or days of lingering stain and smell (wet naps are useful here). Its richness and fat are best alleviated by cole slaw (some put it directly on their sandwich) and iced tea.

So, because of the non-specificity of this term "barbecue" in the West, my search was not an easy one. I was not helped along by the birthday-cake malaise that set in, so it wasn't until last weekend that I ventured forth to a spot near the Culver City gallery district called JNJ Burger Shack. Despite the name, this place serves up some mighty 'cue and is one of the few places in town where you can eat on site. M and I both ordered pulled pork sandwiches, with orders of potato salad (which was perfect, made with mustard and sweet pickle like my Aunt Inez does) and beans on the side. Also a slice of sweet potato pie and lemonades (iced tea and cole slaw were not on offer). The sandwiches arrived, meat overflowing buns, dripping thick, black-peppery sauce; we tucked in and cleaned our plates. We did not eat for the rest of the day.

The proprietor of JNJ Burger Shack is from Louisiana. He wants to retire back there one day for some peace and quiet. But I hope he sticks around for a little while longer -- I'll be needing a few more of those sandwiches.

New starter

With a new year always comes new resolve: to be better, to do more, oftener. So here I am, crawling back to the dusty blog. Since I last posted, I have: been home (back to Little Rock) twice, via the bedraggled and unloved American Airlines system; started working as a glorified docent at an art museum (MOCA, in fact); moved out of my studio; had the starter in my car replaced after nearly getting stuck; and rented a new place to live that includes a beautiful little red barn I will convert to a new work space. I feel that these new developments bode well for 2008.

The new year also brings hoped-for victories and meaningful food. Yesterday was not a good day for the teams I shout at on the television (Arkansas, Illinois, and Hawaii all lost, and looked bad doing so). Even so, I cooked up big pots of black eyed peas and collard greens, well seasoned with salt pork and pepper sauce, complimented by a pan of cornbread. These foods are meant to bring me good luck and good fortune for the rest of the year. Remember that next time, tribes and hogs.