Leslie and I are still fighting to get back to the kids after being stranded in New Orleans after all flights were cancelled. We are safe but had a wild night trying to find a way home.
Despite the fact that the weather was mild on Sunday and Monday morning in Washington, US Airways cancelled our flights. It was very frustrating to speak to friends in Washington and hear how the weather was fine. The cancellations appeared to be decisions based on the location of equipment, but thousands of passengers could have made it home. The main problem however at US Airways was the virtual collapse of any customer assistance that continued to Monday. We had to wait literally hours on the telephone to get through and then had to wait over an hour on hold to reach anyone. US Airways then told us that we would have to buy a separate ticket to go to closer airports like Charlotte (it didn’t matter since those were cancelled as well.) I remain furious with US Airways which (despite plenty of forewarning) did not appear to set up sufficient personnel or resources to assist passengers. We literally spent 24 hours from Sunday to Monday trying to reach someone at the airline, which has a message that repeatedly cut off calls and told them to call back.
With four kids with our sitter in Virginia, we could not wait any longer so I rented a four-wheel drive jeep and set out Sunday morning from New Orleans. We made it 700 miles when we were hit last night with a blinding blizzard storm in the mountains of Virginia. Visibility dropped quickly to virtually zero and we barely got off the highway. We found a motel in a tiny town called Marion, Virginia and bunkered down.
We are going to set out again shortly to try to get to the kids. A lot of roads are cut off with debris and winds remain high in McLean at 37 miles per hour. However, there are signs of it winding down. The kids are fine and still remarkably have electricity. We are prepared however. In Alabama, we bought boxes of water and Moon Pies (which we can’t get around us in McLean). If anything goes wrong, we can survive on Moon Pies for days in the mountains!
I hope all of our regulars on the East Coast are safe and sound today.
Good Texas BBQ serves the sauce on the side.
Mike,
Asian style BBQ is a totally different discussion. 😀
Equally deserving of respect though from any serious BBQ aficionado.
You mention overly sauced though and that’s a big issue with me too. Part and parcel of why most southern BBQ fails next to KC style. KC finishes with a sauce but never too much. It’s more to provide a method to add extra sugar to form a good bark at the end of cooking with just enough moisture to keep the meat from drying out. But there is nothing quite as disappointing as to get a plate of BBQ and it’s just swimming in sauce. To me that just tells me one of two things: either you don’t know how to cook the meat or your meat quality is low.
Gene, I have been to Jacks, Gates, and Bryants. Sides are very important to me. I am not a big meat eater but not a vegetarian either. The BBQ salmon was very good at Jack’s.
Mike S, Texans smoke the brisket for 24 hours. You don’t have to put sauce on it.
SwM….
mentioned cooperation, singularly lacking from the Red side the last four years.
I will maybe move to Australia—they do have internet too.
“space dog Z” sold us on co-op in their parliament.
And the girl from Perth told me could leave your wallet safely on the table. And they do have barbeque too.
So, big question–why are they so solidarity minded.
Simple! It’s them against the roos and all the other odd things. Now if we had kept the Amerindians functioning then we too would not steal wallets and would cooperate.
Smom,
I don’t know if NO BBQ shrimp is really technically BBQ but it is pretty damn good.
As to Firorella’s Jack’s Stack BBQ? They are pretty good, I’d put them in the top five, but they are kind of an interesting local success story. They started out years ago (late 50’s I think) with a shop on Prospect and expanded to four locations including the one I was most familiar with in Martin City (south of KC) as The Smoke Stack and they were great back then. I’ve been eating at The Smoke Stack since I was nine or ten. Maybe younger. If people from KC will drive thirty minutes out of town to get your BBQ, it must have something going for it. Then again, the area of Prospect the original shop was on wasn’t exactly the safest place after dark and Martin City was (back then) just a lazy little country town. But they were a medium size, single family kind of thing, midscale operation like a lot of BBQ places. Solid grub, but nothing fancy. I think they still have the old shop on Prospect and in Martin City open with the old menu, but I’m not certain of that. Then someone (Jack, who with his wife ran the Martin City operation) in the family got restaurant business savvy. They hired a chef, expanded their offering of sides and their mains from the standards (beef, pork, chicken) to included things like lamb and salmon. After a couple of false starts, they opened some more upscale shops in KC proper, started doing mail order and have been going gangbusters ever since. In the last 20 years, they are probably the only shop to “open” (although it’s really expansion) to challenge the primacy of Arthur Bryant’s and Gates & Sons. Those two are without questions the big dogs of KC BBQ. If you go to KC and don’t make it to Bryant’s or Gates, Jack’s Stack is the one I’d say you need to hit. One of their signature sides that is still with them from the old days and worth a try is the cheesy corn, but the BBQ itself is of course the main draw. If you’re in the mood for something a little different, I suggest the lamb ribs, but it’s all good.
Well I hate to add a disparate note to all this praise of BBQ from various regions, but for me BBQ speaks of Pork Spare Ribs, rather than brisket. I love brisket, but only prepared Kosher style, where you can fully taste the meat, not overpowered by the sauce. Pulled Pork is good tasting, but I find it too filling in a non-satisfying way.
Pork Spare Ribs, however, are a passion of mine. I don’t like beef Spare Ribs at all. Now where I differ, is that I think NY style Barbeque Spare Ribs from many a Chinese Restaurant are better tasting than the common variety, overly sauced ribs with Southern roots. Spare Ribs are meant to be eaten by hand and I don’t like the messiness of the sauced ribs, or having to clean my whiskers afterwards. While there are hand rubbed varieties that are less messy, I don’t find them as tasty. If we are talking saucy ribs than I prefer the vinegar-based to the tomato based. Nevertheless, for my palate I prefer the
Chinese-American style. This summer I was fortunate to find such at a “hole in the wall” Chinese Takeout Restaurant, near Monticello, NY, in the Catskills, called Ming Moon. They also made excellent “Hot and Sour” soup from scratch each time one ordered it. Give me a rack of those ribs and “hot and sour” soup and I’m in heaven.
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Rather than campaigning, which he finds draining, the president was in the Oval calling a Republican to work things out. But this time, unlike with John Boehner at a fateful moment, a flattered Christie took Obama’s calls. While Romney campaigns in Florida Wednesday, Christie and Obama plan to tour storm damage in New Jersey, a picture of bipartisanship, putting distressed people above dirt-slinging politics.” Maureen Dowd
One of my favorites BBQ places is in Memphis but don’t recall the name. They served the slaw on it like NC. Only had NC BBQ once. I do like the vinegar slaw. The only thing I eat BBQed in Nola is the shrimp. How about Fiorell Jack’s BBQ in KC, Gene? Eat Italian sandwiches in Pa. forget the BBQ.
http://franklinbarbecue.com/about-franklin/ Only open for lunch, organic non corporate beef, sold out everyday since they have been open, 28 on zagat, Austin.
pete,
That’s some good advice.
All,
Having eaten BBQ all over the country, I have two words for you: Kansas City. And two more words: ‘Nuff said. The whole pulled pork/vinegar/coleslaw thing from the central east and southeast is pretty damn good though. But that’s their niche: whole hog. If it walks, flies or swims, they BBQ it in KC and someone is doing it to perfection if you prefer the dry rub/wet sauce finish style of American BBQ. I find all the southern states to be a weak imitation of KC style although both TX and LA have spotty points of excellence, especially around Austin. Still, there is no place like KC. Anthony Bourdain once said something along these lines and I agree with him (mostly): “If I had just one BBQ meal to choose from before I died, it would be Carolinas style whole hog. If I had one day to eat BBQ before I died, I would spend that day in Kansas City. You can get it all in Kansas City.” Where we differ is my last meal choice would be either ribs or a beef brisket sandwich from Arthur Bryant’s. Not even a competition.
Jo,
I feel the same way about California BBQ as you do about PA BBQ. I laughed and laughed all the way to a great taco joint where I got carnitas that melted in your mouth instead. CA is a big state and maybe someone somewhere is getting it close to right, but I’ve sampled BBQ from San Diego to LA to Napa and I’ve found it to be universally lacking.
And Here’s a review of McCall’s which also has an even more textensive meny at their Clayton branch, than in Goldsboro. Walk in and waddle out satisfied.
”
39 friends
155 reviews
Paula A.
Fuquay-Varina, NC
3/13/2012
Oh, McCall’s, how I’ve missed you so…Growing up in Wayne County, I used to visit the Goldsboro location on a weekly basis with my family from childhood to adulthood & I like the Clayton location just as much. Met up with the ‘rents in JoCo (our halfway point) to celebrate my daughter’s 8th bday. McCall’s was her choice (what 8 year old doesn’t want buffet on their birthday?). And the variety on their buffet is extensive. Of course they have a salad bar, but they also have a soup bar, which they don’t offer at the Goldsboro location. I love their chopped pork bbq, but their bbq beef is even better, it’s sweeter and less tangy. They’ve also added beef brisket which delicious when you drizzle some of the bbq sauce from the bbq chicken on it! So needless say, I love their bbq chicken, too. And fried chicken. And chicken pastry. And fried shrimp. Not to mention the hushpuppies and biscuits…I swear, I’m gaining weight just thinking about it! Good thing I don’t still visit weekly, my waistline couldn’t take it!! Oh, and last but not least, the dessert bar is awesome!! Tons of choices, but you have to try the “chewbread”…if only I could make that at home…:) Service is always friendly & attentive too! My tea glass is never empty!!
Barbecue, Wilber’s Barbecue Home
http://www.wilbersbarbecue.com/
Wilber’s Barbecue has been opened since 1962 and has been serving Eastern North Carolina style barbecue for over 47 years. Great barbecue, great family …
Score: 18 / 30 – 25 Google reviews
4172 U.S. 70 Goldsboro, NC 27534, United States
(919) 778-5218
Jo,
“Where I am from there are two competing BBQ places across the street from one another and I think Wilburs is a little bit better than McCalls but McCalls does have that drive thru window….”
Do you think they are still there? What town?
Did you ever fry Coles pure pork sausage (patty style) on a Sunday and eat’em with fluffy scrambled eggs and a bit of a good jam.
Jo,
Don’t you have black pepper on yours in SE NC. And where is that: Fayetteville? Wilmington? lil Washington? My niece who visit the beaches there often might like to sample some of yours.
Being open-ninded is wise. Close to the office beside the motorway which passes Plano in Dallas, is a wonderful homestyle cooking place with great barbecue, including sliced beef also. Ther vegetables cooked from fresh from the garden are also great.
Speaking of new (?) ideas, why not treat th grilliing pig to the lamb preparation of sticking in garlic cloves into the meat strategically placed.
What say Nick S.?
OS,
Re eating in small shacks beside the highway. Truer words were never spoken.
never eat at a place named “moms” or a bar-b-que that doesn’t have a woodpile.
They used to have one of the very best wooden rollercoasters too, It used the terrain to make it feel as if you were about be be flung into the river. I have’nt been there in 30 years so I dunno If its still there
OS the Vinrgar fries at Kennywood amusment park in West Mifflin, Pa are the very best
All this talk of southern treats left me just a bit nostalgic for the Mississippi delta country tonight. There is nothing there in the landscape where you can see across the cotton and soybean fields clear to the horizon, but the people, the food, and the music make it a magical place. About to turn in so will leave with this blues version of I Shall Not Be Moved by Mississippi John Hurt.
OS, I’ve never had that BBQ but the music is bliss. I think the most wonderful thing about BBQ is that every region and sometimes every neighborhood has ITS VERY OWN and its always the best. I watch BBQ cook offs on the travel channel sometimes and at times the BBQ masters stick very much to their tried and true recipes and at times they will add a tablespoon of a new spice or lower the temp 2 degrees and tremble till the decisions are handed down.
Where I am from there are two competing BBQ places across the street from one another and I think Wilburs is a little bit better than McCalls but McCalls does have that drive thru window….