I have gone to quite a few (though not all) of the BBQ joints that are within a short distance of my home. Save for one location – called the Roadhouse – that is nearly 2 hours away, I try not to make a big deal outta it. My son and I generally just go to a place when we are thinking ‘q’ for lunch or dinner and don’t have any in the house.

Here are a couple of spots in the immediate area:

• Pecos BBQ Pit: open for lunch Mon-Fri with decently good pulled pork, hot links and brisket. But the only wood used is alder and I kinda think that can be a bit sour. Also the meat is over sauced.
• Texas Style BBQ: open Mon-Sat for lunch and dinner. You smell smoke when you walk in the door and it’s good smoke. The pulled pork and brisket are good, chicken very good – and I order them without sauce cause I like to taste the meat to determine what I’m really eating. Good smoke ring and nice folks, husband & wife, who run the place.
• Casper’s: Mostly fried gator, catfish, shrimp and it’s darn good. Nobody up here knows how to fry food like you find near the gulf coast. The pulled pork is OUTSTANDING. It’s been too long since I enjoyed authentic tasty red beans & rice, so my tasty-buds may be off a bit – but there’s is some Really good stuff. And the guy who runs the place is all that you can ask for in a bbq shack. visits, tells stories, jokes with the pretty girls and grandpa style with the kids.
• 3 Pigs BBQ: I was one of their first customers when they opened the doors in 1987. Good pulled pork and brisket. The brothers who run the place have pretty much turned over the kitchen to hired help and the gals behind the counter have the personality of a napkin — so don’t expect to be treated exceptionally well with a smile and hospitality. But the food is good – if not just a little less than it was more than 20 years ago when they started and were winning contests. Like too many places, in my opinion at least, they may as well cook the meat in an oven instead of smoke – cause they over sauce.
• Ro-Ro BBQ: Can’t smell smoke at all – even when they are smoking. Meat is OK but not outstanding. Cornbread is good. And the beans are decent. But the meat – it’s always about the meat – is just OK.

more to come…..

Medieval Treasures and Hidden Horrors in Historic Nuernberg
By Chris Riveland

At the conclusion of the city hall torture chambers guided tour I treated myself to a proper English Tea.

That city hides a dark, medieval secret. Simply enumerating Nuernberg’s superlatives would only tell a partial story, but to acknowledge her architecture and her world-famous ginger bread known as Lebkuchen is a start. Add to that the renowned Nuernberg sausages; the home of well-known painter Albrecht Duerer [The Praying Hands], the site of the well-known toy museum, and the stage for the WW II Nazi War Crimes Trials at the Palace of Justice on November 20, 1945, as well as the unique 11th century hilltop castle. Include the city’s ancient St. Sebaldus Cathedral, and one more superlative: Peter Heinlein invented the first pocket watch in Nuernberg.

Nuernberg’s lesser-known attraction is a place of shame – the infamous Lochgefaengnisse, the medieval dungeons also known as “The Hole.” They are located only a few steps from the main Market Square, on the way toward the castle. Installed in the 14th century, these vaulted cellars beneath the Old Town Hall that served as the courthouse were used as a “detention facility” for prisoners awaiting trial and punishment. Twelve small cells, 6 feet by six feet each, usually used for 2 inmates and a torture chamber reflect the grisly aspects of medieval criminal justice. Since the City Hall also served as a law court, cellar rooms were turned into the Nuremberg dungeons (Lochgefängnisse).

Visitors can view twelve cells, each an area of 6 feet by 6 feet and six feet high, often having housed two prisoners. Certain cells were reserved for particular crimes: number 11 shows a red cockerel, the symbol for arson; the black cat on number 12 would indicate slander and swindlers. The two stock cells were punishment cells. A higher room, called “The Chapel” because of its size, housed the torture chamber, indispensable for jurisdiction in those days. On its walls are replicas of gruesome torture instruments used in those days.

The dungeons were not a permanent prison, but a holding facility for people awaiting trial. Only in exceptional cases would prisoners who had been found guilty serve their sentence there. But place had a few other cells, actually only cylinders, hewn into the bedrock, barely wide enough to hold a person, with arms down on both sides of the body. I can only imagine what that must have been like – no room to do anything but barely stand.

But I needed to get my mind off ancient punishment. Savoring my high tea and thinking over what I had observed on my city tour made me wonder why I had never thought of visiting this site on my several previous trips to the city. I also wondered how many other cities known for their various acumens hide similar horror stories. Punishment during the medieval era was barbaric, gruesome, often swift, and a mighty deterrent for possible repeat offenders.

Next time I visit a world heritage site I shall make sure to inquire about the under belly, but before I do that, ferret out a pleasant café to sit and contemplate what history revealed, to the accompaniment of proper afternoon fare and a fragrant pot of tea.

~CR

The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

And the winners are:

1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

3. Abdicate, v To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade, v, To attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.

6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.

7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavoured mouthwash.

9. Flatulence, n.. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who’s been run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle n. A humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

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Thanks and a tip o’the hat to Lisa for passing this along. ~ blm