We got up at 6 in the morning to head out to Lexington and get in
line for the place that Texas Monthly, the New Yorker, and others
characterize as the best BBQ in Texas (and therefore the world).
It's an hour pretty much straight east, so it's just as well we
were traveling before dawn. When we got there, the street was
pretty parked up, and we had to trudge back from a block away to
get in line - we were #33 and 34, and by opening time there were
well over the 40 that the articles say. People in line spent the
time comparing barbecue notes, lots of fun.

There's no booze license, so they have a cooler full of Lone Star
to amuse the crowd, freewill offering. Lone Star is terrible beer.
I had two, one before and one after while waiting for Lilli to
negotiate the massive ladies' room line.

Prices are competitive. We got a whole bunch pf brisket (moist)
plus tastes of sausage and pork shoulder and a rib. Take it from me,
stick with the beef, which had a beautiful texture and was beefy and
well fatted, smoked to the limit of deliciousness, but way salty, the
better to give away more beer. The sausage was of a good standard,
the rib likewise but very salty, and the shoulder, well, I prefer
Dale's. The sauce is your tomato stuff, a little thinner and tangier
than commercial, with a distinct A-1 aroma. We sat with a couple
students from A&M who had driven from College Station just for this.
They got like 4 lb of food for a medium-size guy and a medium-small
girl, eating half and taking half back. Oh, yes, pretty good but very
salty chili beans, all you can eat, free.

While Lilli was waiting for the ladies' room after breakfast, I sat
with a mother and daughter, the mother Kelly working for Foodways,
the daughter Lilli having looked at UT to go to next semester. They
were pleasant and entertaining.

Back to the hotel, where they were just closing up breakfast when we
arrived. Darn.

--

Micklethwait Craft Meats is a trailer between the airport and downtown
that serves as a secondary mecca or overflow for disappointed would-be Franklin customers, We actually went past Franklin and saw it was 1. still open and 2. without a massive line but decided to stick with our original
plan, and I've been to Franklin a couple times and find it excellent but
not worth waiting in line in the sun for. At the trailer, there was a
smallish relaxed crowd, and there was still brisket. We'd brought the
remains of a bottle of Rodney Merlot, but Lilli had forgotten to steal a
glass from the hotel, and at the window the girl said there might be some
by the water cooler (there weren't), so Lilli emptied a bottle of water
and used that; I doubted that that was classier than just swilling from
the original bottle, I still had a Ziegenbock from my six-pack. To go
with, I got a half pound each of moist and ribs. The ribs were salty
and peppery, very tender, not sweet at all, a little on the lean side,
sort of B+. The brisket was odd - one end was a bit too trimmed and so
a little hard, but the other end, which I tasted first, was exceedingly luscions and probably the best couple bites of the trip - average,
maybe an A-. The credit card machine has three choices for tip - 20%,
25%, 30%. I left a custom tip of somewhat less.
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Quoting Michael Loo to All <=-

OK, I plan on being in Round Rock round Halloween. I'll be there for one day, at least I hope only one day, so which BBQ place should I hit? Keep in mind that I've never really found brisket that I liked, probably it was OK...it's just never what I've tasted in my mind, and you know how I feel about "sweet" things, i.e. if I want sweet...I'll order a dessert.

I'll drink almost any beer, I do draw the line at Michelob and Lone Star though. Give me a while and I can add...Pabst pops to the top quickly. Some beers are to sweet. :-)

Whipping up some of Simone/Louisette/Julia/Ian's Leek & Potato soup today. Chile verde tomorrow, next up is chicken in mushroom/wine, and probably some beef stew after that. Not sure when I can work in some chicken soup, I still have a couple of pork roasts along with a couple of beef roasts to use also (these are to lean to use as stew beef). Surprise! I bought a 5cuft chestfreezer to sit on the deck and I've figured out a way to save all that yummy sauce created after crockpotting things, allowing me to put a dab in with
slices of crockpotted beef/pork in suckie bags. Been here almost 2 years and haven't turned on the oven yet. Gonna make me some biscuits sometime for biscuits'n'gravy, then I'll use the oven.

Went down to the Kenai, brought back 2 Reds, Cohoe for the rest of the world, nicely filleted and suckie bagged, half a fillet to a bag. Didn't catch them, didn't fillet them, and didn't bag them. Sat in the sun along side the Kenai River yakking to a friend who'd caught, filleted, bagged them, while he caught somemore and I enjoyed a couple of beers. What more can I ask for? Gonna give
it all away, which he knows.

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