Yes, We Really Did

It's my fault, really. I don't know if I've fostered the foodie deep inside Tim, conditioned him to think like one, or if he just loves me a whoooole lot. (I'm sure some of you have a strong opinion about this one.) I'll get to this in a minute.

We got a lot in today. As we prepared to get started, we couldn't decide if we were going to the cattle drive in Ft. Worth. I hemmed and hawed, knowing it would be the touristy thing to do. Tim had already seen it a couple of times, so we would have been going to humor me. We were already in agreement about going to the Federal Bureau of Engraving, where they print money. About that time, Denise piped up, "Hey, some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are on display at Southwest Seminary. You could do that. I asked a few more questions and was intrigued. The exhibit opened at ten. The original plan was to go to the Bureau of Engraving, then go to the cattle drive at eleven. It didn't take me long to decide that I wanted to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. (Or, as Nathanael heard Denise say, the dead sea squirrels.:)) Denise suggested I watch the cattle drive on You Tube. I did. All forty-five seconds of it. A true Ft. Worth experience.

We left the Jasso's a little before nine. We did have to go through security at the Bureau of Engraving, but it didn't take nearly as long as we anticipated. It was interesting to see how money is printed and monetized, (and I thought that was just a blog word). Needless to say, you could not take pictures, so you will see none. Next we headed to Southwest Seminary. It was fascinating to see early manuscripts of Scripture. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures of that either. After we finished there, we headed to barbeque heaven, Lockhart, Texas. Lockhart is just Southeast of Austin. We decided to go their for dinner, but I'll get to that in a minute. We were warned by the Jasso's that there is only a small window of time when Austin's traffic isn't horrendous, somewhere between 1 and 3. We decided to take I-135 around Austin and see what happened. We were there around 3:45 We. Saw. No. Traffic. None. Period. Zilch. Zero. We got to Lockhart around 4:15 expecting to have to wait sometime to eat. No such thing.And now, to finish the story I started.

There are several barbeque restaurants in Lockhart, Texas. Four that compete to be exact. And of course, if we were planning to be in Lockhart (even Austin) for any period of time, I would want to try all four of the restaurants that compete for business. Alas, there is nothing else to do in Lockhart but eat barbeque. Austin has lots to do, but not much that appeals to this forty-five-year-old woman anymore. Once upon a time, the indie music scene would have done it for me. Once upon a time going to an open mic blues night that starts at 9:30 P.M. would have done it for me, but not anymore, that fairy tale is long over. So the problem remained. How were we going to get the most barbeque bang for our buck? Tim does most of the planning and research for our trip. The only thing he leaves to me is the food. (Imagine that.) I didn't know what to do so I presented the dilemma to him. It went something like this:

(Picture him sitting in that black chair in front of the computer you saw in a previous post).

"So I don't know what to do because there are four barbeque places in Lockhart, Texas, and Lockhart is like the barbeque capital of Texas if not the world, but there is nothing to do in Lockhart but eat barbeque so we really don't want to spend anymore time in Lockhart than we have to, and I've seen at least two of them on the Food Network, so we have to go to two of them, and..."

Really, that's not where this long sentence ended, but I'm sure by this point if not earlier, Tim started hearing the Charlie-Brown-teacher-voice. He did glean what he needed because when he finally did get to speak, he said this. "I know what we'll do. You can narrow it down to two, right?"

I nodded yes.

"Then we'll go to one place, order a plate and split it, then go to the other place, order a plate, and split it. That way, we can try two places in one meal." Brilliant. A foodie solution to a foodie problem. He was willing to go to two different places in one meal. And so we did. Here are the results.

Kreuz Market

They don't give you forks at Kreuz. Just knives and spoons if you get sides. You have to eat with your fingers. They also don't serve any sauce. You order the meat by the pound in one place, then the sides in another. This guy pulls a brisket roast out of the smoker and slices it up for you. This, I believe, is the actual smoker room--the same place you order the meat. It's about a million degrees in here. The brick "boxes" behind him are the smokers. He slaps it on some butcher paper and magic happens.

Black's

Here, you don't have to buy it by the pound, you can buy a slice. We each got one with one side. They serve sauce here, thin, a little sweet with a little (and I do mean little) spice.

The verdict? We both liked Black's better. It was a little smokier and more moist. The "bark" on the both were delicious. If you ever get a chance to go to Lockhart, Texas, will you try the other two places for us? We'd love to know what you think. : )