|
navigation
current
archives
links page
profile
|
|
bar-b-q review
February 18, 2008
Smoque, 3800 N Pulaski, Chicago�
Small, crowded, noisy. Stood in line 45 minutes�the first fifteen, outside on the street. Good thing it was sunny and not too windy.
First you order your food, then you are seated by the �host�. So don�t expect to let your elderly mother or injured friend sit while you tend to the ordering. Seating is at long communal tables, where you have to put up with strange elbows, constant chair bumps, and women who bathe in their perfume invading your personal space. I�m serious about the perfume thing�and for once, it wasn�t me who had the meal ruined! It was P who was almost physically ill from fumes rolling off the woman seated next to him.
Food was mediocre. The pulled pork was cooked to mush, not smoky at all, and served with a runny vinegar sauce that was kind of bland. The beans were in a thin liquid that pretty much tasted like the sauce they used for the pulled pork. And they had way too much onion in them. Spouse had brisket, and he noted that he�s had far better in his day. Overdone, yet strangely--not smoky enough.
E and I had the peach cobbler for dessert, and I have to say it was nothing to write home about. First of all, if you top it with a batter or dough, it�s a cobbler. If you top it with brown sugar and oats, as they do there, it is a crisp. And it wasn�t even a good peach crisp. It tasted like cheap canned peaches, and they weren�t even thickened�just swimming in the packing liquid.
One exception to the mediocrity: the slaw was fabulous. Coarsely shredded cabbage with a bit of sweet red onion, in a bright and snappy light vinegar-based dressing. The thing that made it outstanding, though, was less the dressing and more the fact that this was the freshest, crispest, most delicious cabbage I�ve had in years.
But, slaw notwithstanding, I was disappointed. And Spouse, P, and E all agreed with me. But that�s the way it goes in the Foodie biz�you can�t come up a winner every time.
Still, I was prepared to give them 6 out of 10. Until I got suddenly, violently ill in the middle of JC Penney�s, an hour after I ate. (And twice more on the way home. Thank heavens for strategically placed public restrooms.)
Maybe I should cut Smoque some slack, there, though�I�m not certain that the food was what set me off. I was stressing out over trying to find something to wear to this wedding, and I was coming up empty-handed. Honestly, I can�t find a thing. I was really hoping Penney�s would come through, because every other place has let me down. But they had next to nothing, and what they did have was A) at least one size two small, and B) seasonally inappropriate. Easter suits and dresses galore, but nothing I could actually wear this week.
Desperate as I am, I gave my black suit one more try-on this morning. I hadn�t tried it on in a while, and while I knew I�d lost a (very) few pounds lately, I assumed I was just hoping for a miracle. I didn�t expect it to fit. Well, it did.
And it didn�t.
That is, I can stand up in it�but sitting down is problematic. So this week is going to have to be one of those weeks where I really engage in some disordered eating and push myself to drop another 7 or so pounds, so I can sit down in the damn thing without worrying about poppage.
Small price to pay, I guess, for getting to wear something I actually like and feel reasonably comfortable in. And wear with flats!
Oh, and Spouse? Walked into Penney�s Menswear, pulled a shirt, a tie, and a pair of slacks of the shelf, paid, and he�s done. Because men are allowed to have a 50 inch waist.
Since I was sick as a dog, Saturday ended rather abruptly for me. After P & E dropped us off at our car, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things, and headed home. I managed to get the groceries put away and drink a glass of Sprite before crawling, fully clothed, into bed. I passed out shortly before seven, and came to at 11:30, just long enough to shuck out of my clothes and re-deposit myself in the sheets. Otherwise, I pretty much slept the clock around, from 7:00 to 7:00.
Since the weather was supposed to be shitty, we had already decided that Sunday was going to be a go-nowhere day, dedicated to domesticities and vegging out. And although the weather was nowhere near as shitty as was forecast, it was plenty be-shitted nonetheless. Instead of yet another snowstorm, we got rain to turn all of our snow-clogged sidewalks and driveways into skating rinks. (The snow that was promised didn�t really show up till today.) Spouse worked his hinder off trying to get the front walk chipped out, and only gained about eight feet of ground for a couple of hours work.
I, on the other hand, played the sicky card and stayed in, doing laundry and dishes and making cinnamon rolls for breakfast and pot roast for dinner. And playing computer games, doing crossword puzzles, and watching a bunch of episodes of �The Investigators�. My kind of Sunday, really--just productive enough to keep me from guilting out, and lazy enough to actually be enjoyable.
Today has been kind of an odd one�Just when I�m getting a boatload of shit done, Phht! Power outage at work and dismissal at 2:20 or so.
After fighting the battle of getting several hundred cars out of the parking lot at the same time (usually start/end times are staggered over 2 and a half hours), I was able to really savor a non-peak commute. I missed Spouse�s departure by about five minutes, and had one seriously joyous dog when I got home. A mere 5 minutes of crate-time? Definitely a great day, in Mr. B�s book.
Reading: An article in the Chicago Reader, called �How Shy Became Sick�, by Deanna Isaacs. Also, Lisa Gardner�s �Alone�. Just finishing up.
Surfing: Surfing: Gallery of Graphic Design. If you are a fan of old ads, like I am, this is a great place to while away the hours.
Listening: Steely Dan on YouTube-- a live cut of �Don�t Take Me Alive�, doing �Cousin Dupree� on Letterman, and the American Masters cut of �Kid Charlemagne� is there as in the car�yes there�s gas in the car� Damn, I love that band.
At Random: click here
|
|
|