Outside Brown

I'm FANCY.

I'm alone in a hotel room right now. There's wireless, cable, a free full breakfast (waffles!), and even a pool. It's amazing what registers as luxury to me.

Maybe I feel so pampered because it's FREE. I have a king sized bed (did I mention cable??), six pillows and a dorm-sized fridge. I don't have to even think about when to get up, because someone is going to call me at 6:30 a.m. Then I'll go to a training for work. I'm going to teach people how to quit smoking, apparently (BUAH HA HA HA HA--almost 8 months, though, people!)

I'm full to the rim*. The training tomorrow is in the BBQ capital of the world, and the hotel is across the street from one of the elder statesmen of 'Q. It happens to be open on Sundays, unlike its more well-known and revered brother, Honey Monk's, AKA Lexington #1, AKA Lexington Barbecue.

NCBBQ is a serious topic, and some people just don't get it. Eastern vs. Western, chopped vs sliced...so many things to consider. And then there's the slaw: red or white (warning: bad midi version of Dixie--and scroll down to the explanation of slaws. I've never had yellow slaw)

Here's a primer. I'm falling asleep I'm so full. I'm super glad I knew to get the outside brown**. My order was a BBQ plate: coarse chopped, outside brown, red slaw, fries and hushpuppies. The hushpuppies were just 'eh'.

Hm, though. Maybe I should have gotten a fried pie, too.The sugar might have woken me up. Except even the sweet tea wasn't even enough for that. Ah...sweet, sweet barbecue.

I hope they cater the training tomorrow with BBQ. And I'm going to get some to go, too.

*Jerry: name that 70s commercial tagline!
**My friend Maria helped me move the rest of the dirt today. When I told her about my imminent trip, she clued me in to the lingo. "Outside brown" is the smokiest part of the pig... crispy, browned skin clinging to chunks of meat.