Nothin' Could be Finer . . .

Charlie Boy's Pit BBQ in Springville advertizes itself as "authentic Carolina BBQ." There are certainly signs that it is authentic. You can see the smoker and smell the rich BBQ smoke everywhere. Also, you can buy meat in bulk. That's always a good sign.

What makes it Carolina? There are several distinct regional barbecue traditions. The Carolinas are rich enough to have several of their own. Charlie Boy's provides an eastern-style Carolina BBQ, which means pulled pork, slaw, and a vinegar/hot pepper sauce. (They also offer a beef sandwich, but it is pulled brisket rather than the sliced brisket more common to Texas style.) I didn't find as many sides as I expected, but they did offer up a pretty good potato salad (a little on the sweet side) and good beans. Carolina usually means "whole hog" barbecue, which apparently CB's sponsors on occasion. I thought the sauce was great, on either the pork or beef. (The pork is more authentic Carolina, but I actually like the beef better.) Next time, I'll check into getting a bottle. I'm a big fan of slaw, and I like theirs a lot. And do you suppose you could just get a dozen of their soft rolls?

Charlie Boy's is on 1400 North Main Street in Springville, on the site of the old Brand X Burger (which I never had a chance to sample). There is no indoor seating, but some nice shaded outdoor seating for when things warm up again. (There is a second Charlie Boy's in Lehi.) I'll definitely be back in the summer.

In-N-Out is Coming to Utah--in a big way

All right, it's true that In-N-Out is already in Utah, but it's in St. George, which always feels a little more like Arizona or Nevada to me than Utah. Now it's coming to northern Utah in a big way. Locations are approved an under construction in Draper, American Fork, and West Jordan, and plans are under way for Orem and Layton. The American Fork location has garnered interest because of Chadder's, an In-N-Out knock off. (It's like In-N-Out, but with fry sauce.) Will In-N-Out but Chadder's out of business? Or does have Chadder's have enough of a local following that it can stand up to the California chain? (By the way, Chadder's has just opened a new location in West Valley. Let the battle begin!) Now we can settle the debate about which is better by doing a side-by-side comparison (something that would have required an airplane before).

The Orem location is also interesting because In-N-Out will compete with two other out-of-town chains: EZ Take Out (another CA product) and Five Guys (which originated in Washington, D.C.). Anyone up for the local legends meets out-of-towner burger throwdown? We can try Chadder's, Parker's, Burger Supreme, Apollo Burgers, and Crown Burgers and compare these to In-N-Out, EZ Take Out, and Five Guys. (Then we can all check into the cardiac unit.)

Parker's Drive-Inn

Somehow Parker's Drive-Inn has managed to survive the proliferation of fast-food places in American Fork. There are other "indie" hamburger places in the north valley (JCW's, Purple Turtle, Chadder's), but Parker's is one of the originals. Lillian Parker has owned and operated Parker's for 55 years, and you can still find her working the grills in the back. As I've said in another entry, "Parker's is what Arctic Circle was 50 years ago." I like the fact that you can get a "stake sandwich" there (it's taste that matters, not spelling) as well as some truly "old school" burger joint extras: lime rickey, foot-long hotdog, brown topper, and some great shakes. The only setting at Parker's is outside (at one of the busiest intersections in American Fork), so plan on carry out. You should also be prepared to stand in line, not because they are slow, but because they are busy. They do a brisk call in business (why don't I ever think of this?), and woe to you if you get caught behind the call-in order from Cabela's or Doug Smith Autoplex. (I've had both experiences.) In an age of mass production of food, I'm not sure how long Parker's will stick around, but given the following it has, Parker's might occupy the corner of 500 East and State Road for a long time. (Check out the Herald Extra story on Parker's.)

Luck + Cash = Girl Scout Cookies

Girl Scouts never come to our door selling cookies, which is too bad, because we buy just about everything that some kid is selling--football, cheerleading, Boy Scouts, and especially band. (But for some reason, I don't buy anything from those kids who are part of some program to "keep them off the streets"--obviously not working.) We're only able to score GS cookies once every few years, and it's usually by chance. I got some several years ago because someone at work was selling on behalf of her daughter. My son and his friend happened upon some in the parking lot at The Canyons ski resort.

Leaving work on Friday, I found a few girls selling boxes at on the corner across from the bottom of the Maeser hill, just off BYU campus. Knowing the city of Provo, this is probably illegal. Let's hope that if they police did show up, they bought some cookies before moving the little girls along.

The other amazing fact was that I actually happened to have some cash in my wallet--enough for two boxes. ($3.50 per is the going rate.) My favorites? Thin Mints and Do-Si-Dos.

A word to moms and other adult leaders who help with the cookie sale--let the girls actually do the selling. When I got to the little card table, I asked the girls if they had Thin Mints. The adult accompanying them took over immediately. Remember, Courage, Confidence,and Character. Girls will learn this by taking the responsibility themselves. The adults should just be kicking back in a lawn chair nearby.

Licorice

What we normally think of as "licorice" flavor is really anise, a plant closely related to the carrot family, which includes dill, fennel, coriander, cumin and caraway. (The leaves, stems, seeds, and bulb of the fennel plant are used in all kinds of cooking, and they all add a licorice flavor.) Only recently did I learn that the true licorice plant is entirely different. It a legume (think peas and beans) used in a lot of European black licorice candies. The common ingredient in anise, fennel, and licorice is anethole, the chemical that gives all three that "licorice" smell and taste. But licorice also contains glycyrrhizin, a sugar 30-50 times sweeter than sugar.


Twizzler's Black Licorice, as an example, has a trace amount of licorice extract, but most of the flavor comes from anise. If you want to try authentic licorice (made from the extract of the plant), I recommend Kookaburra Liquorice (imported from Australia), or RJ's Licorice (imported from New Zealand). Both are available at local grocery stores. (I bought mine at Macey's.) Both companies also make licorice allsorts, but the classic allsorts are Bassett's, made by Cadbury.

On my mission in Denmark, I also discovered salt licorice, or salmiak, truly an acquired taste. (In Denmark, it's called saltlakrids.) Salt licorice doesn't actually have any salt. The salty taste comes from ammonium chloride, or sal ammoniac. The name salmiak derives from this compound. If anyone knows where you can buy this stuff locally, I will be much obliged. (The great thing about developing a taste for salmiak is that you usually don't have to share.)

Red licorice, of course, isn't licorice at all, but it's the most favorite variety of the candy. Black licorice was originally just "licorice," but when red licorice came along, black licorice got its name. This linguistic change is called a "retronym." (For example, some people refer to "Rocky" as "Rocky I" to distinguish it from all the other movies. World War I didn't get that name until World War II.) The red licorice topic raises another important question: Red Vines or Twizzlers?

Applebee's Makes it Up to Us

After my long rant against Applebee's (and an email to corporate), I got a call from the manager of the store in American Fork. She explained that what I experienced is not their normal level of service, and they wanted to make it up to me somehow. So she agreed to send me a voucher for two free meals including entree, dessert, and drinks. (It turned about that it didn't include dessert after all, but that was all right.) She also made a particular point of saying that I should call ahead so that they would know I was coming.

But what is the point of announcing that you're coming? Of course you'll get good service that way. AnneMarie and I stopped by without advanced notice because I wanted to get the same service that regular folks get and also because I didn't want everyone fawning over us to make sure they got everything right. The food and service were fine. When we gave the voucher to the server, the manager came over to make sure that we had had a good experience.

Overall, I feel that they're at least trying harder over at Applebee's (although I still like Chili's better for consistently good food and service).

Sorry about that . . .

I heard this phrase several times at Applebee's tonight. I'm not sure why we keep going to the one in American Fork. I like some of the menu items, but usually it's disappointing, and the service tonight was terrible. You would expect the A team on a Saturday night. If this was it, then I can't imagine what it would be like on a Wednesday night.

1. The Wait. I don't mind waiting 30 minutes on a Saturday night--in fact I have come to expect it. But while we waited, I counted 14 empty tables, just waiting to be cleared and wiped down. And the two hostesses were having a hard time figuring out how to match tables with customers. They kept talking about the need to get people seated, and yet . . . . For some reason, they kept running out of menus too. Obviously, they were short handed.

2. The Wiping. When we were finally seated, they still hadn't wiped down the table, so we had to wait even after we were shown to our table.

3. Napkins and utinsels. We only noticed that we didn't have these when we got our food and had nothing to eat with. We had to flag down our server to get some. I couldn't even swipe any from another table.

4. Bruschetta Burger. AnneMarie and I both like this dish designed by celebrity chef Tyler Florence, but if Tyler could see how they were preparing them lately, he would probably take his name off the menu. These are supposed to come with garlic fries (fries with olive oil, garlic, and shaved parmesan cheese). But they didn't. And every time we order a "broosketa" burger, the server "corrects" our pronunciation to "broosheta." I don't mind if people want to go with the Americanized pronuncation, but it bugs me when they consistently correct the proper pronunciation. At least they get "fajita" right.

5. More water, please? We got one glass of water each and the server kept threatening to bring us more. When she finally realized that she hadn't, it was time for the check. (She probably should have brought some anyway.) The receipt had the manager's cell number on it. I kind of wanted to call right then.

I would like to say that it was just an off night, but I've had similar experiences each of my last visits to Applebees. So if you're in the neighorhood of the Meadows in AF, then check out Chili's.