Text 10453, 102 rader
Skriven 2014-03-02 01:00:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Texas 269
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A tale of two more briskets.

Randy Petersen and milepoint.com sponsored a private dinner
at Franklin BBQ - all you could eat of the most famous BBQ
in Texas and possibly the world, universally lauded in print
and electrons. It takes some kind of pull to get Aaron
Franklin to open up his store in the evening: normally, you
line up starting at 9 or 10 for opening at 11, then the place
closes up when the food's gone, typically 1. On this occasion
we lined up as per procedure, only we were guaranteed all the
brisket we wanted. Despite my having had two brisket meals
already this day, my tum was gurgling by the time I hit the
counter, where I ordered "a couple slices of moist brisket
and one of regular, a few beans, and, uh, a rib." The guy
piled on enough food to make the Chinet plate sag. 

The good news: the food is very, very good.

The better news: you can get about equally good food for
less money and less time investment elsewhere.

The bad news: even though I didn't have to deal with it, I
checked out the price list, and sticker shock city. 25% more
than any other I've seen.

This was the only place I asked for any regular brisket, which
was slightly stringy in a potroasty way but very soft and
tender; it had a slight tang other than smoke and I wondered
how long the meat had been brined and whether there was any
vinegar in the brine. The moist was similar but of course
immeasurably better.

The rib, properly but not over smoked, was tastier than the
regular but not so satisfying as the moist. I was told by
another diner at table that the smoked turkey was best of all.
Her enthusiasm made her almost believable, but I had so much
left on my plate that I didn't try to waddle the 25 feet back
to the counter and ask for some. There was sausage available,
also pulled pork (in Texas???), but I received no reports on
either of these.

Beans were surprisingly good, big kidneys cooked with pork
trimmings and onions and a little cumin, not sweetened at all.

With all this I had a Shiner Bock; later went back on someone's
ardent recommendation to pick up a Bourbon banana mini-pie made
at neighboring enterprise Cake and Spoon; this turned out to be
oversweet and overdairied but nonetheless almost as swoonworthy
as the meat had been.

After I had eaten my fill, I packed my leftovers (remember, I
had asked for just a couple of slices of moist and one of lean)
into a 12-oz drink cup; they just fit.

==
I'd passed Ironworks on several occasions and had hoped to
try it, but it was always closed, even during normal eating
times - I suspect its operating hours are dictated by the
availability of food, just as with the Franklin. This time,
though, I was walking back from a pub crawl on Rainey St.
with Lilli, and it was open, so I told her to hold on while
I grabbed a pound of moist. This was given me in a greasy
brown paper wrap upon the transfer of I believe it was $12
(much less than some of the more famous places, hello, that
means you, Franklin). I don't know about you, but grease
stained paper is one of the most appetizing sights I can
imagine, and as soon as we found an empty stoop to sit on
we tore right into the deliciousness. Pleasantly fatty,
pleasantly smoky, thinnish bark and thinnish fat cap but
meltingly tender, rivalling both the Franklin and the Old
300 for texture (more like the latter) and almost their
equal in taste. In a lesser-blessed part of the country
people would be driving hours to get food this good.

It's hard to do a ranking of the four places, with Ronnie's
just a hair below because of the gassy taste, but if I had
to, I'd say

flavor
Franklin
Old 300
Ironworks
Ronnie's

texture
Old 300
Ironworks
Ronnie's
Franklin

bang for the buck
Ironworks
Old 300
Ronnie's
Franklin

sides
We don't need no steenkin' sides!

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