Text 35726, 107 rader
Skriven 2010-03-11 17:43:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 911
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Quite a lavish reception at the Sheraton. Wholly holy moley.

Herb-crusted tenderloin of various levels of doneness,
impeccable meat, and they gave me rare slices as requested.
Not that I'm a great fan of tenderloin, but this was good
Texas beef, and it actually had quite a bit of flavor for the
cut. A real carved turkey - the guy at the station was amused
or horrified, I'm not sure which, when I ordered a plate of
skin and fat, with just a shred of dark meat. He did give
it to me, though.

Decent booze. As I'm still fluid-restricted, I stayed
with Sauza.

Chocolate truffles, fruit flavored, in vast profusion and
some variety, apparently dipped in house. And a bunch of high
Starwood officials to answer all of our impertinent questions.
I concentrated on the food and bev, which were most satisfactory,
better than your run of the hotel stuff by a long shot.

The party lasted a couple hours with promise of more, but
I had an editorial assignment that was due. Went back to
the room and settled down for an unpleasant several hours.

I worked mostly through the night and eventually went down
to the lobby (free internet in the lobby; $13 or so a day
for in the room) to e-deliver my manuscript and surf and
stuff like that. This took an hour, and I was feeling muzzy
and satisfied. So happily enough I went to the elevator to
go home and catch a few hours' Zs. The door opened, and my
heart leapt when out stepped Lilli. Breakfast, she asked, and
so it was. As Q was theme for the weekend, I decided to go
with maximal porky goodness (I think echo folks, especially
Cleaner Dave, used this term long before Bourdain made it
famous on whatever TV show) - peculiar sausages, which tasted
scrapply, sort of like grease-soaked pigskin and sage; and a
most resilient and also greasy bacon. I enjoyed them both.
We pulled our notebooks out to do the morning e-mail; then
Lilli, having connections in high places (I gave her some
guff about being quoted in the Wall Street Journal numerous
recent times) was scheduled to go on a private tour of the
state Capitol, so I decided to tag along. We walked the half
uphill mile to the building (no shortness of breath), feinted
toward the stadium and the university campus, and slid into
the Capitol a few minutes early for our appointment. Our guide
K.C., a longtime legislative aide-type Capitol denizen (how can
one be longtime when he's half my age?), gave a really nice
tour, low-key and probably much more interesting than what the
general public get. And back to the barbecue bus and Lockhart,
supposedly the Q capital of the known universe.

It's a good half or 40 to Lockhart, and I could hear and
almost feel the slavering of the anhungered beasts by the
time we hit Kreuz Market, on the outskirts of town (it's a
new construction, product of a schism between members of the
prime BBQ family of the town). A modern-looking facility,
which is a disappointment. At least they could have made
an interesting building. You stand in this enormous line,
amid the tantalizing (post oak) smoke, gab a bit with
neighbors both known and unknown (as we were a full bus, for
us mostly known), and at the end they sell you meat, meat,
or meat. If you want drinks (Shiner Bock, for example) or
sides, you go next door.

Brisket - pretty decent, too lean, not cooked enough.

Burnt ends - way burnt, way salty. Not exceptionally edible.
In fact, exceptionally not edible. Downrated because of this.

Sausage - I liked this, especially as it wasn't too salty.
Others disagreed, finding it simplistic and bland.

I got a quarter pound of the day's special, pit ham, to
try, as Lilli and I had sometime in years past gone on a
(nonromantic) tour of pig heavens and beer halls in Germany.
Do NOT NOT NOT get the pit ham. It's like supermarket ham,
only saltier and not so good, thrown into the pit for a
while to dry it out. Nasty. I'd envisioned pig leg lovingly
smoked like the brisket, tender and shreddingly succulent.
It wasn't. What it was was reason never to come here again.
The burnt ends were also a reason never to come here again.

Black's downtown was our second stop. It's 77 years old and
is somewhat established as a competitor to Kreuz's and its
bastard offspring.

The brisket was juicy and excellent - best on the trip, I
would say; the ribs and sausage pretty good though salty.

We got a tour of the pit from the 3rd generation Black
running the place. Fun; and Billybob had a surprise for us
at the end, when we left out the back door - sausage from
the Luling Market, a bit oomphier than at Kreuz, not quite
so salty as the Black's - quite good, better than that from
the Luling Market in Houston.

Billybob announced that there would be no shame in staying on
the bus for the next stop. I believe nobody took him up on this.

Aside: Billybob is not his real name. His birth certificate
name, and I am not kidding, is Billy Bob. As he worked his way
up the ladder in the business world, though, he took on the
peculiar nom de plume of William R.

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