Just wanted to wish everyone a happy Independence Day.
Hope you're enjoying a good backyard barbecue with friends and family or something of the like. If you're having a slow 4th of July, there's still plenty of time to get downtown for a late dinner followed by the fireworks presentation by the river.
The second half of this BBQ Week has been an education.
At the beginning of the week, I perhaps planned to start with Tony DeMaria's and work my way through barbecue joints I had already tested and approved. From Tony D's to Vitek's to Uncle Dan's to Michna's and perhaps finish with Rudy's.
But somewhere along the way, I ventured off my beaten path and, to my benefit, experienced a slice of Waco barbecue I had missed until now.
In case anyone was wondering, eating barbecue for lunch every day isn't taking a toll on me. My stomach is made of steel (even if my belly is considerably softer than that).
However, I'm reminded that I've eaten barbecue ribs the last two days every time I scratch my nose. Every time I touch my upper lip, whatever I was pondering is replaced by the memory of barbecue.
With the celebration of Independence Day this weekend, I'm assuming the smell of all things barbecue and barbecued will be with me for the foreseeable future.
I'm going to admit something here despite some hesitation. Part of the reason I declared this week barbecue week is because I'm experimenting with a low-carb diet.
My logic is as follows: if I eat barbecue I can get plenty of meat and vegetables and just leave out the bread. Easy enough. That logic was confirmed at the Jasper's counter today.
Here's something I find kind of strange, or at least counterintuitive: vegetarians love barbecue.
I know I wrote yesterday about barbecue in Texas mainly consisting of brisket and sausage. And I realize eating those things makes a person about as carnivorous as he or she can get.
t's barbecue week.
Why? Because I decided so. Just like a couple of weeks ago when it was Mexican food week. It's a precise scientific process. I look at my weekly agenda and notice that I'm going to be eating a certain type of food on a certain day and I reckon whether or not I can eat that kind of food all week. And then it's done.
It's hot outside today. There's no doubting that.
But from where I'm sitting, it's not too difficult to forget the heat. I'm not inside a building with air conditioning either. I'm sitting outside on the porch at Oso's Oh So Good Yogurt.
I thought I'd share a few location ideas for the "WacoFork It" contest, to help get your creative juices flowing:
Outside of Waco... Empire State Building, Sears Tower, Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Neuschwanstein Castle, The Taj Mahal, under water somewhere tropical like Hawaii (probably need to laminate it first to make it waterproof), on a beach, the Golden Gate Bridge
In or near Waco... Cameron Park, Cameron Park Zoo, on top of the Alico (is that even possible?), with the Baylor bears, one of our many museums/halls of fame, the Lake Waco wetlands, your favorite restaurant, the Suspension Bridge, in the air while skydiving, on a roller coaster at Six Flags
I could probably keep going, but you get the idea. Be creative! Here's a link to the PDF file to get you started.
Everyone is wondering what our next contest will be. People are talking about it. Many have asked me.
Okay, at least one person for sure asked me about it. And we mentioned it on Facebook and it received "likes" so we assume you're chomping at the bit.
A few weeks ago on this blog, I mentioned how the 50 Yard Line restaurant in Lubbock doubled as sort of a shrine to Texas Tech sports and the old Southwest Conference.
At the time, I offered a few suggestions for similar restaurants in Waco, all of which involved Baylor.
I didn't remember at the time that Kim's on Waco Drive has a bit of a shrine to the Dallas Cowboys. Ok, it's not the entire restaurant like the 50 Yard Line. Though there's something nostalgia-provoking about the whole scene at Kim's. It's an authentic good old-fashioned diner all the way through, which is a refreshing change from cheesy chain restaurants that attempt to evoke an old-fashioned diner atmosphere by hanging, say, old rusted bicycles on the wall.
