Unchain my Heart

and my stomach.

Maybe I'm spoiled because I grew up in North Carolina where BBQ is an obsession but...

It all started a few months ago when Brick and I went into our favorite BBQ place and were handed menus with a different name on them. The name of the new Polynesian restaraunt that was replacing it. The things that had made it our place to go were all gone; the rosemary and other herbs in the breading of the Onion Rings and Fried Green Tomatoes, the unique green pepper taste of the BBQ Beans, the spicy BBQ sauce. All gone. Could the Smokey Bones, a chain BBQ place up the road, have anything to do with that? Surely it couldn't. People have enough sense to eat BBQ at local independents not mass-produced franchise stuff passing itself off as BBQ.

Then today I noticed another local place was gone, soon to be replaced by a Mexican Cafe. Oh well, it wasn't our favorite. It was a Must have BBQ on a Sunday and it's open place but the food was decent, just not memorable.

Noticing that it was gone, I wanted to eat some BBQ at our remaining 'favorite place' and the weekend is coming when all authentic BBQ joints shut don for a few days so it was a good day to go so off Zelda and I went for some Chopped Pork, Brunswick Stew, Cracklin Bread, slaw, handcut fries, iced tea, and, if we were very good, peach cobbler. It was gone. The doors were shut. The parking lot was empty. There was a For Sale sign out front.

NO!!!!!!!!!

Now desperate, we went to a new place, 'Shane's Rib Shack', hoping for a new place to go, and walked into BBQ Fast Food. Lord, take me now. Mass produced, generic, served with plastic and styrofoam, and tea from a soda dispenser.

It was a Pitty Pat Moment where I desperately wanted Uncle Peter and my smelling salts (my fragile state is not being helped by the fact this blog is not allowing me to start new paragraphs. This is a story that cries out for separation).

I don't know what I shall do to recover. I'm thinking a road trip to visit what BBQ Meccas remain. I'm feeling so nostalgic I may even eat...beef.