Hello Everyone!
It’s been another week of wet weather here in California. Thankfully it hasn’t been steady rain, but more on and off and I’ve been able to get out and see some things and even take a few photos. I enjoyed a fun St. Patrick’s Day in Santa Barbara and caught up with an old friend yesterday here in Oxnard. I have definitely moved strongly into Southern California this week and I’ve been having a great time. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the laid-back vibes and relaxed atmosphere of SoCal. I’m also looking forward to heading out to the island of Santa Cruz in Channel Islands National Park tomorrow if the weather allows me, so I’m going to get this post out a day early this week.
I wrote this post last week from the small but mighty town of Pismo Beach. Once I was finished putting it together, I headed out to check out the town and really fell in love with it. Pismo Beach is a quintessential California beach town full of neon and surfboards. If you grew up listening to the Beach Boys and are looking for that kind of vibe, Pismo definitely has it. I really enjoyed just wandering around and taking photos and soaking up some much needed rays. I stayed in town long enough to watch the sun set and then headed just down the road to Santa Maria.
I was very excited to have a taste of Santa Maria-style barbecue, but was also somewhat reserved in my expectations. I’ve experienced so many culinary treats around the country that I’ve learned to enjoy them in their place and then hold them in my memory until I return. Barbecue is most definitely a southern thing, and I don’t usually go for it west of Texas or north of the Mason-Dixon Line. However, since Santa Maria claims their own unique style I had to try it. I chose Shaw’s, because they’ve been around for a long time and because they had tri-tip on their menu and tri-tip (sometimes called a “California cut”) is also unique to Southern California. Tri-tip is also called “poor man’s brisket”, so I thought it would be great to try it smoked low and slow. What I didn’t look at closely enough is that Santa Maria Style is a way of barbecuing, the verb, not barbecue, the noun. It’s simply their way of seasoning and grilling meat and has nothing to do with the slow-smoked deliciousness of our southeastern region. Because of that, tri-tip was not a good choice because, while flavorful, it’s also super tough. I should’ve gone with a ribeye or a strip. My steak had good flavor and I could taste where it was going, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would. It did come with a delicious soup, amazing homemade salsa, a relish tray, garlic bread and baked beans making for quite a feast, but my tri-tip was a disappointment. I will return to Santa Maria again with a different idea of what to look for though as I think it definitely has potential. The people of Santa Maria were kind and welcoming though and that would be reason enough to return.
On Thursday I continued south to La Purisma Mission, another of the 21 historic Spanish missions in California. This one had fallen into serious disrepair when it was taken over by California State Parks and was reconstructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The CCC rebuilt it to capture the historic context of the mission during its heyday so it is a fascinating place to visit and get a feel for what the missions were really like…
Moonlite Bar-B-Cue is an institution in Owensboro, and in Kentucky for that matter. Family run from the time it opened in the 1940s, Moonlite is currently run by the third generation of the Bosley Family. Their grandfather, Hugh “Pappy” Bosley and his wife Catherine bought the small 30 seat restaurant in 1963, and there’s been a Bosley there running the place ever since. Today, the restaurant seats 350 people and they have a catering business which can serve up to 15,000. 350,000 people eat at Moonlite each year, and they have even had a few celebrities pop in over the years. William Shatner, Reba McIntyre, Kevin Costner, Bill Clinton and Al Gore have all eaten at Moonlite Bar-B-Q. Quite frankly, anywhere that has served both Shatner and Clinton must have good food.
I saw a great meme this week. It said the temperature went from 90 to 35 like it saw a state trooper on the highway. Isn’t that the truth? I don’t know about where you are, but in northern Kentucky I was sweating in shorts and a T-shirt last week, and this week nighttime temperatures are hovering just above freezing. It’s nice to be able to sleep with my blankets pulled up and my windows closed, but I sure was hoping for a little “in between” weather before winter set in. It’s been a good week out here as usual. I have moved into Western Kentucky and also into Central Time Zone. That makes my mornings easier and my evenings harder, but it’s also pretty cool. I used to blast through time zones like they were nothing when I was guiding cross-country tours. Now it’s more like a special occasion.
My week started where my last week ended (imagine that!), in Bardstown. Bardstown is a really lovely place. It has some really great historic buildings in the small downtown area and just has an overall pleasant feel to it. It’s also the center of the universe when it comes to bourbon, with several large distilleries and a lot of barrel houses in the area. They like to tell you that there are more barrels of bourbon aging in Kentucky than there are people living in the state…
If you are a fan of pork ribs like I am a fan of pork ribs, then Tennessee is one of the places you really have to go. Good Tennessee ribs get a dry rub of spices and are then slow smoked over a wood fire. Back in the 1950s in Memphis, Charlie Vergos combined his father's Greek spices with some New Orleans style cajun seasoning and turned scrap-meat into something altogether magical. Charlie Vergo's Rendezvous still sets the standard for ribs in Tennessee and is definitely one of my favorites. In my travels around Tennessee, I stopped into a few different rib-joint though and found some great spots around the state. While Rendezvous ribs still tops my list, some of these places gave them a run for their money…
It's been another great week on the road, this one spent in wonderful West Tennessee. It's been a hot week, as summer is moving in fast here in the south, but with it come the festivals and fun of the season. My week has been full of barbecue and music and really good people. West Tennessee is very distinct from the eastern part of the state, more resembling the Mississippi Delta which it is intimately connected to, than the rest of Tennessee. This region is flatter and poorer than the east of the state, but it is still full of wonderful stops and cool things to see.
When I finally left Nashville, I headed down the Natchez Trace Parkway. The parkway roughly follows the old Natchez Trace, an ancient trail which leads from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville. In the days before the great paddle wheelers plied the Mississippi River, boats carrying cotton, hides and other goods made a one-way trip down to the major port of Natchez. The boatmen would then sell their boats, whole or for scrap and walk back up the Natchez Trace 400 miles or so back to Nashville and start all over again. It was interesting to duck off the Parkway and walk some of the historic trail and imagine myself back in those days doing the same.
I ate out a lot during my stay in South Carolina. South Carolina is definitely a wonderful food destination. With tons of seafood coming off the coast and wonderful farm-fresh meat and produce coming from the Piedmont, it's hard to go wrong. Unfortunately I didn't plan my meals out as well as I could have, nor did I do my due diligence by really researching the places I ate. These long days have kept me busy and I usually ended up eating wherever was open and grabbing a quick burger or a salad. This is something I hope to correct in Tennessee as I eat in a little more often and save my money and my appetite for some well planned out meals. I did, however, find a few cool places around the state so before I move on, I thought I would share some with you today.
I had some really great seafood up and down the coast. When I was out on Daufuskie Island, I had a plate of fresh fried grouper over jasmine rice with green beans and slaw at Lucy Bell's Cafe. When I tell you it was to die for, I really mean it…
In any discussion of barbecue, North Carolina likes to describe itself as the "Capital of 'Cue". And when you're talking barbecue in North Carolina, you are talking about one thing and one thing only: pork. Forget the brisket, the chicken, even ribs for that matter, it's all about the hog here in NC.
There are two different schools of thought within the state, and the topic of which is better probably depends on where you are from. In the east, purists focus on cooking the whole hog, whereas western North Carolina 'cue, often called "Lexington Style" is just the shoulder. Eastern barbecue joints also give you a liquidy pepper-vinegar sauce whereas in the west you are more likely to find what most would consider a more traditional barbecue sauce, but still heavy on the vinegar...
During my five weeks in North Carolina, I have had some really wonderful food. It is always great to be back in the south where food is often simple, hearty and delicious. In this post I want to highlight some of the unique, iconic and delicious meals I've had here in North Carolina.
This culinary journey began at Skylight Inn in Ayden, North Carolina. I'll start by saying that North Carolina barbecue is not my favorite. As much as I love pork, it is the beginning and the end in classic North Carolina barbecue joints. There isn't a brisket or a rack of ribs to be found. Then there's the sauce - a sweet liquid pepper-vinegar concoction in the east and the same with some ketchup in it in the west - generally it just doesn't really do it for me. I did find some decent barbecue places in North Carolina, but none even held a candle to Skylight Inn. Skylight Inn was a whole different experience...
