In Your Wildest Dreams
I'm posting from Threadgill's in Austin, TX, home of The Reverend Horton Heat. I'm in Texas for the American Library Association's Mid-Winter Meeting in San Antonio. Seeing as the reason for my being here, namely the job placement, is not going so well, I decided on a day trip up to Austin. One of the great things about Austin is, of course, lots of wireless access. Thus, I am able to post while I eat my dinner (don't tell Liz, she probably won't be hot on my using her laptop while I'm eating). For the record, I am eating of Threadgill's Five Vegetable Plate. This particular dish gives you a choice of any five of the many "vegetable" sides on the menu. The definition of vegetable is a bit liberal, to be sure. My choices were: Red Beans and Rice, Macaroni and Cheese ("Considered a vegetable in Oklahoma"), Scalloped Potatoes, Fried Okra (yum), and Broccoli and Rice Casserole (which includes water chestnuts!). I picked up a cheap copy of the Threadgill's cookbook at the Half-Price Book Store down the street, and I'm really hoping it includes a recipe for the Broccoli Rice Casserole.

I ate lunch at Hut's Hamburgers, a cramped little hamburger shack on 6th. It's a dumpy little building with a bar on one side and a ton of tables all crammed together. Sports pennants and all kinds of news clippings and photos cover the walls. The burgers are mostly named after rock stars. I ordered "Arnold's Best" (a burger with bacon, Jack cheese, lettuce and guacamole) and a side of fries. The fries were a little undercooked, but the burger was excellent. I split my time while eating between reading the Austin Chronicle and half paying attention to the second quarter of the Steelers-Broncos game. When I left it was 10-3 Steelers.

Around all of the eating, I participated in my usual "visiting a new place" activities. Namely, driving around, getting lost and visiting as many record and book stores as possible, I have yet to figure out how all of the books I accumulated today are going to fit in my luggage. I'll stuff them in somewhere. I didn't intend on buying anything, but some things are just too hard to pass up ($7 Terry Pratchett hardcovers, a half-priced hardcover of Kitchen Confidential, the aforementioned Threadgill's cookbook, and a few others). The Pratchett books were acquired at Book People, a long-time Austin independent, and the largest independent book shop I've ever seen. I also picked up some music at Cheapo Discs, which is just completely ridiculous. They keep a week's worth of recent arrivals out of the main bins, arranged by day. Today Monday was empty, but the rest were pretty full. The new arrivals section alone is the size of the pop/rock used section in the Sound Garden. At the very least. I did the short look through all of the discs and I was in there for two hours. I also visited (for a shorter time), Waterloo, which is a mile or so down the street (and across from Book Peopls). Waterloo is more reasonably sized, and interestingly arranged. All of the new non-classical, non-international (aka "World Music") discs are arranged alphabetically. Pop, rock, jazz, reggae, heavy metal, country, etc. are all mixed together. I picked up the ever-elusive Aluminum Tunes by Stereolab, as well as a used copy of Flip Your Wig and a couple of other things. I also passed up a bunch of things I would really like to get some day, in the interests of saving money.

I've been eating in a lot of local landmark-type places here, and I'm seeing in person what exactly it is that the Dinosaur BBQ is going for. I know they're basing their food and atmosphere on New Orleans mostly, but Texas isn't all that far away, I still haven't been to a barbecue place yet, Hopefully, I'll be able to grab lunch at one tomorrow. But, the atmosphere of many of these places is similar. As is the copious list of Threadgill's sides. I must say that on the atmosphere front, the Syracuse Dino does a pretty good job. The Rochester Dino has a bit of a different atmos, but the original has it down pretty well. I hope to be able to compare the barbecue soon.

The bill just came and it turns out my waitress' name is Mercedes. Does it get more Southern than that? Anyway, she rocks. I'm off back to San Antonio with my piece of Pecan Pie to go.
- posted by John @ 7:47 PM