Sometimes I feel like we are eating our way around the country, but seriously... how can you not! The food in this country is so good and so diverse. For some reason Taylor decided, on her own, that she wanted to eat the food that each place is known for, or what is the best to eat in every state or area. This has lead to trying alligator, snails (you should of seen her face on that one), duck fat french fries, lobster (BTW - steamed is the best), crab, and of course BBQ. We spent two nights in Biloxi, MS visiting cousin Sean. Thanks for a great stay Sean! Sean works at a huge casino and one night gave me a tour of the back rooms... it was really interesting. My favorite part was walking into the main security room with a drink in hand and getting yelled at to get out, opps.. I shoulda put that cocktail down before the tour. The devastation from Katrina is still everywhere, much of the city is still not rebuilt.
Back to the BBQ, I don't want to start a huge battle here but both Mississippi and Texas both have extraordinarily good BBQ. Cousin Sean took us to The Shed, a very famous BBQ joint that is literally a shed. We sat outside under a roof made of corrugated plastic and exposed insulation. Everyone writes their names on dollar bills and sticks them in the ceiling with the fine plastic utensils you use to shovel the tender meat into your gullet. Paris Hilton and other famous celebs frequent the place. The meat was amazingly tender and full of flavor, the best BBQ I've every had... until.....
Hanging out around the shrimp boats in Biloxi, a point of history on USA shrimping, after the Vietnam War many of the refugees from Vietnam were sent to Mississippi. They had shrimping skills from back home and during the 70's took over the shrimping industry, the men shrimp all night, come back park the boat, and their wives sell all the shrimp during the day. Repeat. That is a tough thing to compete against. Today all shrimping is done by Vietnamese immigrants... oh and back to food... we has some exceptionally good Pho during our stay, yummy.
We Yelped our way to another BBQ place in San Antonio, TX called Rudy's... and wow, wow, wow. Again, basically a shed like structure, it was actually a gas station and BBQ place. You order the meat by the pound, we got several pounds;-) This meat has no sauce on it, all sauces are on the table. They want the meat to be exceptional without a sauce. Jen preferred The Shed, but I loved, loved Rudy's.
