Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Yuck

It is with some sadness that I must report that I had a very disappointing lunch. Now, you have to realize that here in Oklahoma City good barbecue is widely available. In fact, in all my years I've never had anything I could remotely call "bad" barbecue.

Until today.

Lately, I have had a major craving for chopped beef sandwiches at lunchtime. Late last week I had one at a neighborhood BBQ place that was everything I've come to expect.

Today, however, when the craving struck again I decided to drive down to the Rib Crib and go through the drive-thru. I don't know why -- it's a false sense that I'll get my food faster and be able to drive directly home with it. Well, yeah, not so much after all.

It truly is a myth -- drive-thru service is NOT fast. You might as well turn the car off until they get good and ready to hand over the food.

But worse today was the dismal quality of the food. I was SO disappointed! I ordered my beloved chopped beef sammich. When I got home with it (less than a 5-minute drive) the first thing I noticed was how greasy the outside of the foil wrapper was. Then there was a piece of PLASTIC WRAP inside one flap of the foil wrapper. Clearly, this was a serious mistake on someone's part, but since it was not IN the food, I discarded it.

Then, finally, I got to the sandwich. Yuck. The bun was so soaked with grease that it was falling apart to the touch. I'm telling you, if I had pinched it, it would have squeezed grease out of it.
I tried to lift the top bun to put sauce on the meat. More yuck. The beef was shredded, dried out and obviously was not today's batch. I'd be generous if I guessed it was from yesterday's leftovers. The grease-filled bun was so heavy it separated into pieces as I tried to pick it up.

Well, the best I can say is they've done me a favor. I won't feel drawn to drive out of my way to park at the drive-thru window any more.

Life is too short to settle for bad Q.

6 comments:

Sarabeth said...

I nearly wretched just reading your description of the sandwich.

My husband and I love good barbeque, but the North Carolina pulled pork, vinegar based sauce kind. There are just two places here with sandwiches of any value. One is a total hole in the wall that makes me shudder when I open the door. It's about the size of a walk in closet, and I'm not exaggerating. The other is a mom and pop place with weird hours and high prices.

On the way home on Sunday from wherever we roamed, we noticed a new place opening up just down the road from us. We are hopeful that the name "Duke's Smokehouse" means it will be a barbeque place. My fingers are crossed.

Trixie said...

From now on, I'll stick with the neighborhood place -- Banta's BBQ -- "Where the Women Are Tough and the Ribs Are Tender."

Trixie said...

Amen!

We took WaWa for dinner at BBQ place that was new to us but well respected. The side dishes were amazing but the meat was just "good" not great. We decided this weekend that it needed a second try - - this time with the ribs and then we would make our final decision. The ribs looked mighty good so I am holding out hope. So far we love the chain "Smoky Bones" and the local place called "Swallow in the Hollow." We plan to try our on Ribs Etc in the coming weeks too.

Trixie said...

And I have to admit a bias for a hometown barbecue place that will always be tops in my book -- Dougan's Barbecue in Ponca City, OK. The world's BEST ribs, hands down. I've spent much time there people watching, reminiscing and outlining scenes for a book I'll write eventually. Maybe there's a road trip in my future -- it's 100 miles from here to there. If I can round up a hungry gang I'll take them on a tour of the historical sites in the area and then dinner!

Genevieve Netz said...

If I can round up a hungry gang I'll take them on a tour of the historical sites in the area and then dinner!

That sounds like a wonderful plan for a spring day. :)

Trixie said...

Here's a follow-up...we tried a second "new" place out in the sticks of developing Alpharetta GA and it was AWFUL! Well more accurately the side dishes were amazing (best potato salad ever) but they served us meat leftover from lunch rather than anything fresh. You could have roofed a house with my sliced pork and WaWa's St. Louis style ribs were fresh but missing both sauce and spice rub. They were just grilled meat - ick. $25 not well spent!