My Pleasure
Published by Oh. It's Kristen Again. *sigh* on Saturday, June 23, 2007 at 11:53 PMI was at a BBQ recently and they were serving sausages. Not hot dogs, sausages. No hamburgers. Just all kind of sausages. I don't really like sausages. Maybe breakfast sausage once in a while but for the most part, a resounding meh. So there I was - not a hamburger in site and yet, and yet, they SAID it was a BBQ!!
I dunno, BBQ to me denotes the presence of hot dogs and hamburgers. Maybe chicken breasts and veggie burgers or portabello mushrooms for our vegetarian friends. But that's not why I'm writing this.
The real reason I am writing this is because, at said BBQ, I resorted to something that is a massive guilty pleasure for me, and I thought I would put it out there and see if I get a yum or ew from you.
A slice of white bread, or a roll, slathered with butter and topped with baked beans. It's really a baked beans sandwich with butter as your condiment.
"What kind of baked beans?" You might be asking right now... (or you might be vomiting in the trashcan next to your desk) Why, I'm glad you asked, because any kind will do! Bacon and Brown sugar - Vegetarian, bbq baked beans - any of the baked bean variety, as long as they are warm enough to melt the butter just a bit.
God, I love this...creation. I think I got it from my dad. He puts butter on everything.
Does anyone else have something like this that they eat - some magical combination they've stumbled upon that is so wrong that it's oh so right? Or so wrong that it's just wrong?
For instance, my husband introduced me to the wonder of potato chips and whipped cream cheese. Is it hot in hell where he reigns? I wonder sometimes, because I am not a *salty* person, but boy howdy I'll eat that. Turns out it's a family thing - I was horrified the first time I had my in-laws over, and he put that out with the other nibbly bits - but not only did they consume it, but were non-plussed at it's presence. It clearly BELONGED there.
Do I hear a PB&J with potato chips in the center? Biscuits with chocolate gravy? I know you're out there.... frying up oreos and mixing up doritos with M&M's....
Also, in high school I would consume a pint of cookies and cream ice cream with Dorittos (original style). Not in the ice cream, but consumed right along side. I may have actually lived on this my freshman year of high school.
Also, in my family we eat red beans & rice like chili - with rice, sour cream and cheddar cheese. We make it hot, so the extras are needed to cool it down. Now sure if that's odd or not.
Of course, the one thing that makes me go eewww - ketchup with eggs. Yuck.
Anything else, like hamburgers and hot dogs, is grilling out.
What you are talking about is grilling. Not BBQ. Hamburgers are not BBQed. BBQ means long, slow, low heat, and moist. I think we can all agree those are good additives to combine.
That said, I am the king of combining unrelated foods - and in fact it all began with something similar to the thing you discovered.
In Florida where I grew up there ws a chain of counter-service resturants called Grandma’s. Basically a more low-country version of KFC, we would eat there after visiting my actual, but not biological, but closer than the trademarked titular grandma’s house. Eventually I got bored of the same sides and began to make mash-ups. (I love it when a euphemism becomes so ingrained in the culture it’s literal meaning becomes ironic.) Baked beans surrounded by mashed potatoes inside a yeast roll became my friend - and god bless my mother for adapting the “don’t play with your food” rule to “if you make it you have to eat it.” Without her the world would never know the joy of Creamed Corn Gelato, or StudyCakes.
BBQ, yes, in the south means slow cooked meat. Pulled pork, ribs, maybe chicken but more likely brisket and pork.
To GO to A barbeque does NOT denote, to me at least, that someone will be slow roasting pork or brisket in a bbq pit. To GO GET or HAVE some bbq means that i am about to get some ribs or pulled pork with corn bread and greens - maybe some slaw.
...and fyi I've lived in the south too, so I'm not a rube when it comes to such things. I currently reside in Los Angeles. Let me rephrase this - but I currenly reside in SOUTH CENTRAL LOS ANGELES, where we got some of the most mighty fine barbeque joints. So when someone invites me to A BARBEQUE, I assume that we are going to be grilling various meats on a Weber. If someone invited me FOR BARBEQUE, I would assume, again, there was a pit involved and life was going to be good.
The wiki backs me up:
"Barbecue or Barbeque (abbreviated BBQ or Bar-B-Que or diminuted, chiefly in Australia and New Zealand to barbie, and braai in South Africa) is a method and apparatus for cooking food, often meat, with the heat and hot gases of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of charcoal and may include application of a marinade or basting sauce to the meat. The term as a noun can refer to foods cooked by this method, to the cooker itself, or to a party that includes such food. The term is also used as a verb for the act of cooking food in this manner. Barbecue is usually cooked in an outdoor environment heated by the smoke of wood or charcoal, or with propane and similar gases. Restaurant barbecue may be cooked in large brick or metal ovens specially designed for that purpose."
but all of this is semantics. The issue at hand: whether you are GRILLING or BARBECUING - there is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ONLY SAUSAGES!!!
My personal favorite icky food is sweet pickles (Mount Olive if available) dipped in Hershey's syrup. I discovered it when I was in college. Pickles and chocolate syrup were the only two things left in the mini fridge so that's what I had for dinner. YUM!!
My mom eats mustard on her waffles instead of syrup. I find that repulsive.
My friend Chrissy used to eat peanut butter and bologna sanwiches. She is now a vegetarian. No wonder...
Bon Appetite!
And that is in the central coastal area of California. Santa Maria, to be precise.
That isn't to say that there might not be some people who bring their burgers and dogs and sliced zukes and kebabbed tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, and onions. But really, who even talks to those people?
I am seriously going to hurl.
I like salt on my watermelon. My mom salts peaches, nectarines, and plums too, which I think is carrying a bit far.
Ketchup on eggs sounds gross, but I guess it's not that far a cry from salsa on a western omelette, which: yum.
Favorite afternoon snack when I'm pregnant: fried chicken livers washed down with Dr. Pepper. Heck, I'm NOT pregnant and I could go for that right this minute.