Orlando, Idiocracy and BBQ

I'm very lucky to have a job that includes a fair amount of travel. I have been blessed to fly on the companies dime over the past few years to Tokyo, Kyoto, London, Paris, Indonesia, Sydney, Munich etc. June of this yearI seem to be getting my comeupance as on the docket in one month are Ft Wayne Indiana and Orlando Florida. This week was Orlando for some meetings and a bit of time at the infocomm show.

There is little doubt in my mind that central Florida and Orlando in particular are on the cusp of becoming Idiocracy incarnate. The 2 leading news stories on the local evening news were:

1 House in Gated Community burns down as fire department didn't have the gate code.

2 Woman after getting in argument with boyfriend becomes upset and sets fire to 4 month old puppy.

It was incredibly difficult to find both non-chain restaurants as well as a place to get a haircut. There were however a tattoo joint and discount disney outlet store on every block.

I was however blessed with the company of Greg Addington. A gentleman and barbecue aficianado from the greater Detroit area. Fresh off the defeat from the mighty Pittsburgh Penguins, the man was eager to bury his sorrows in a plate of pulled pork. He hit chow hound, and we decided on Bubbalou's Bodacious Barbecue. Lockhart has taught me to be wary of bbq joints that brag about there sauce, as it usually means they can't cook their meat for shit. As soon as we walked into Bubbalou's I could smell that the place held promise. They used actual smoke to cook their meats and not liquid smoke as I had feared before arrival. Like all fine dining establishments in Florida, BBB is located in a strip mall. They did go to the effort of fixing a tin roof ontop of the tarred roof, and the seating inside was all picnic benches.

After asking what the cashiers favorite was, I settled on a 2 meat combo plate with the house specialty pulled pork, and lamb. All plates are served with slaw, beans, fries and 2 pieces of texas toast.

The meat was succulent and tasty and stood up nicely on its own. There were 3 house sauces on the table 'Secret Sweet BBQ'. 'Mild' and 'Killer'. The killer mixed with the sweet was the ticket for me, and we quickly dug. Little was spoken and we felt lucky to find something that wasn't crap.

After leaving we saw a specimen sat at the Starbucks, that let us know quickly that we were in fact in the land of idiocracy.

On the way to find a record store, Greg turned me on to the rating system that he has implemented in Michigan. It is a simple yet effective system that I plan on stealing and using on this blog and my greater life in general. It's a 3 point system as follows:

* Worthless, don't go back

** Worth eating at if you're in the area

*** Worth the drive or any excuse to return

BBB was a ** by the way.