Epic Portions

Category: Food Reviews

  • A Delicious Heart Attack at Allen and Son Pit BBQ

    Chest pains. Slowed, labored breathing. A giant smile on your face and a bit of BBQ sauce stuck to some part of your face. Not that much lighter a wallet…

    These are the results of a trip to Allen and Son, one of my favorite NC BBQ joints. Living in NC for 2.5 years has led me to a few places now, and A&S is still my favorite. My friends Dave (you have seen a couple of his posts) and Amy swun through NC and I decided to take them to taste some delicious NC BBQ – Eastern Style!  Perhaps I should explain:

    In North Carolina, Barbeque is first and foremost a noun. BBQ is pulled pork.  There is no brisket or steak or chicken or anything else.  You can, of course, GET those things – but they ain’t BBQ.  There are two primary types, East and West.  This civil war of sauces pits (BBQ pun intended) vinegar-based sauce, the eastern style, against tomato based sauce, the western (or Lexington) style.  Although I live in central NC, I live in an area surrounded by eastern stye BBQ houses, and A&S is one of the best.  The BBQ is sumptuous, with an incredibly soft texture. The sauce balances the fatty pork with a beautiful tangy acidity that only eastern vinegar sauce can bring to the scene. Plus…the ambience is…hilarious.

    When I eat BBQ, I want checkered table clothes, porcelain pigs everywhere, and waitresses that bring you literally, a HALF A GALLON of ice tea when you order it. Oh yeah – no such thing as unsweetened ice tea here. Did I mention the diabetes along with all those heart attack symptoms above?

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    The BBQ Plate with slaw and hushpuppies. The classic never loses its character.

    Dave got the BBQ plate, Amy had the burger…and I…well, I had the Ribs.  With a capital R.

    The heart starts beating faster…

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    Pork Ribs – with slaw and the best potato salad ever.

    To be honest..I rarely get the BBQ at A&S anymore.  Someone said that I’ve ‘learned my lesson’ about eating A&S BBQ, which isn’t really true.  That’s a little like saying a whiskey drinker ‘learned his lesson’ from all that beer he used to drink.  I haven’t learned anything..I’ve just moved on to what I consider to be bigger and better things.  Like ribs.  Why?  Question answered:

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    These things are delicious. Absolutely delicious. And they fall apart. Amy tried to eat the bone. I warned her that I didn't know what would happen to her digestive system on the remaining 5 hour car ride ahead of her…

    In summary – if you’re in the area…go here.  Trust me.  I’ve been here enough that I’ve moved on to the ribs.

    Allen and Son Pit Cooked BBQ
    919.942.7576
    6203 Millhouse Rd
    Chapel Hill, NC 27516

  • Bomber Breakfast. FTW.

    On February 21st, 2009 I attempted the Bomber Breakfast for the first time and failed miserably.  It was an embarrassing moment for me.  The waitresses laughed at me, and the bus boy made me bus my own table.  As I was pulling out of the parking lot, customers began throwing eggs at my car.  I required many hours of intense therapy to get over the pain, and three car washes to clean the eggs off.

    After my rehabilitation period, I began training for the moment when I was ready to go back and prove to these people that I am not the “skinny little bitch” that they claimed I was.  That breakfast could fit in my stomach, I just went about it wrong!  I should have eaten the hash browns first!  With this in mind, I decided to go full Rocky 4 style and travel to Russia for some old school training.  This included jumping rope, running through the snow, doing sit-ups in a barn, and other activities that don’t involve performance enhancing drugs or running on a treadmill on a ridiculous incline.

    With my mind, body and spirit in the right place I returned to the Bomber to reclaim my self respect.  I ordered my breakfast and the waitress brought it to me with a giant smirk on her face.  Little did she know, I was about to blow her mind.

    If you’re not familiar with the bomber breakfast, it is one pound of hash browns, ten strips of bacon, four eggs, and two slices of toast.  Observe:

    My plan going in was to smother the hash browns with ketchup and Red Hot so they would go down easier.  The first time I attempted this I ate the bacon first then moved onto the hash browns.  This ended up being a terrible idea.  The real challenge of getting through this breakfast is the hash browns.  The taste gets old real fast and your stomach becomes full if you don’t get them down fast enough.  My plan worked beautifully, and the potatoes were gone from the plate within five minutes.  It was a moral victory me just to get those things down.

    After getting through the hash browns, it was all down hill from there.  Bacon and over easy eggs are two of my favorite things in the entire world, so this wasn’t even much of a challenge anymore.  The bacon was a little crispy, but it went down fast.  No problems here.  I did see the waitress walk by a few times with a worried look on here face.  Boom.

    With the bacon and hash browns gone, victory was in sight.  All I had to do was smash through four eggs and a couple pieces of toast.  I considered this more of a victory lap than a final stretch.  I broke the yolks with my first two pieces of toast and used the dip method, ate the whites with my fork, then cleaned the plate with my final two pieces of toast.  Victory was mine.

    If you will notice, I decided to devour that stupid orange garnish just to prove a point.  After finishing, I threw my plate across the restaurant and walked out without paying my bill.  Who’s laughing now?

    I would like to point out that everything written above is false.  No one made any ill comments towards me, threw eggs at my car, or made any faces at me.  I also did not travel to Russia.  I did, however, destroy the Bomber Breakfast and the orange that came with it.  Boo yah, bitches.

    Bomber on Urbanspoon

  • Steak ‘n’ Shake!!!

    I looked through the archives of this site and was shocked to see that Steak n Shake has never been reviewed on this site!  Of course, it may have something to do with the fact that the one in Ypsilanti is one of the worst in the nation and I have no clue how close Todd is to the ones in his area.  I know there are NONE in VA, which really pisses me off.  So I knew when I went back to Springfield, MO for leave, I would definitely have to make a trip to Steak n Shake.  Why?

    Maybe it’s because the five best S n S’s in the country are here due to the fact that the owner of the company lives in Branson, MO.

    Maybe it’s because I’m a former employee and I know the standard of service to expect from the place.

    Maybe it’s just that I love burgers made from grade A steak cuts rather than ground beef.

    Maybe it’s the shoestring french fries or the hand-dipped, home-made Milkshakes.

    Maybe it’s…

    BEAN CROCK!

    Anyway, for a brief history of the place go here, I’m not making this any longer than I have to…

    So for our little culinary jaunt to our oldtime haunt, Amy Went with a classic fave…

    The Mid-westernly famous Frisco Melt!!!

    In case you have trouble reading image captions, that’s a Frisco Melt.  Two Steakburger patties with swiss and cheddar cheese, 1000 Island dressing, and lettuce on sourdough bread.  She also got cheese fries.  In fact, this is pretty much all she ever orders from Steak n Shake.  For her drink, she went with a Vanilla Dr. Pepper (that’s right, you can add cherry or vanilla flavor to your drink at no charge!).

    So what did your bespectacled and currently enbearded author order?  Well, usually I go with a Mushroom n Swiss Steakburger with Fries and a cup of chili and have a chocolate shake, but I was feeling a bit adventurous and saw a new menu item that caught my fancy!

    The Western BBQ Bacon Steakburger!!!

    Yes, once again, I’m doing a review where I ordered a BBQ Bacon Burger.  What can I say?  I love them.  This one wasn’t outstanding but it was pretty good.  It had french fried onions on it, which was pretty tasty.   I used to eat entire cans of that stuff like they were potato sticks.  Anyway, digressing. I also got a cup of chili with cheese and crackers.

    Oh yeah, I got this with my meal too…

    For my beverage, I got…

    A Hershey's Syrup Special Dark ChocolateMilkshake

    Oh yum…  Seriously, that was an amazing shake!  I don’t know if it’s worth $5, but it’s a damn good shake (100 pop culture cool points to the first person other than John or Todd to name that quote).

    On the subject of their shakes, they have over 20 different varieties of milkshakes.  I mean, it’s half their name, so one would expect some quality and variety, am I right?

    Here’s a few pics I took of their selection…

    These ones are candy inspired…
    Some classic shakes: Chocolate, OrangeFreeze, Strawnana side-by side, Root Beer Float, and Turtle sippable Sundae

    They have your regular shakes in Chocolate, Vanilla, Mocha, Strawberry, Spec Dark, and an

    Orange Freeze which is made by mixing vanilla ice cream with water and orange flavor instead of milk.

    Then they have the specialty shakes such as Butterfinger, Cookies n Cream, Cookie Dough, T urtle Nut Supreme, Mint Cookies and Creme, Double Fudge, Peanut Butter Cup and Banana Split.  These are called Sippable Sundaes.  They also have strawberry and raspberry smoothies.  My favorite thing they do with their shakes though, is the Side-by-Side.  You can take two flavors of shakes and have them side by side in the same glass.  Create flavors such as Banocolate, Strawnana, Chocnilla, or MochaChocolate.

    Another thing I like about the location I went to today is the fact that if you sit at the counter, you can see the food being made on the line.

    View from the side

    ORDER UP!

    So if you’re ever in any of the states from Texas to Pennsylvania (excluding LA, VA, NJ, and MD), check this place out for a fun, nostalgic, good food served fast experience.  And if you want the best service from Steak n Shake, come to Springfield, MO.  Seriously, I scarcely had time to think “where’s the food?” when it was in front of me.  Excellent service. I leave you with some pics of my kids playing with the fold up cars  they gave us.

    Amelie's car

    Steak n Shake
    Various locations throughout the Mid-West to East Coast
    http://www.steaknshake.com/