Another First

My coworker wanted to take me to an authentic BBQ joint and I think it was purely for their own entertainment. The fun started with ordering drinks, everyone at the table ordered sweet tea, I ordered hot tea (it was cold out!). Then came the menu, of course it took me the longest to make up my mind because there were so many thing I had never tried before. I didn't know you could cook beef in so many different ways! There were wooden beams on the wall that had all these strange markings on them, like code, and the there would be either a family or farm name under each set of markings. I learned that those are the marks they brand the cows with before they are killed and served here at this restaurant. I'm not a vegetarian but seeing the brands just made the whole eating a live animal thing a little to real for me. One of the things I had never tried was okra so we ordered a basket of fried okra for the table an it was tasty! Kind of like small bites of deep fried zucchini. I ended up settling on the 'sloppy pork' recommended by one of my coworkers, which was basically just a pulled pork sandwich with a side of baked beans. It was very tasty, but more than anything I loved the BBQ sauce they had at the table; regular was in a clear bottle, spicy was in a recycled mustard bottle, and honey was in a recycled honey bottle. While I was enjoying my meal the Sheriff came in to the restaurant, THE sheriff. It was like something out of a movie, everyone knew him. He made me nervous, so I just tried to keep out of his line of sight. All in all it was a great experience and the food was good, I can't say that I'll go back because the restaurant was a little out of the way and it just wasn't my type of environment. I'm glad I tried it and I thank my coworkers for helping me through it and not laughing too hard at my BBQ naivety.