Recently my husband and I made a road trip from our home in Colorado to the central part of the great San Joaquin Valley in California. The drive took us thru the southern part of Wyoming, central Utah, northern Nevada and California. Since this is a food/cooking blog that's what I'm writing about the trip...the food!
Our trip wasn't exactly planned, we packed a suitcase each, a sack lunch and hit the road. We spent our first night in Elko, NV where fresh ingredients weren't exactly plentiful. I had a hankering for chicken and the restaurant we went to (it was the special that night) was completely out. No chicken for me, not baked, roasted or fried. ;-( Of course this made me want chicken even more. So the next evening when we finally made it to our destination, we went to a local brew pub we enjoy and I ordered the special that evening, sweet & sour, barbecue chicken! I was so looking forward to this meal.
And so my rant begins...
What do you envision when you think "barbecue chicken"? I'll tell you what I envision and it's this: Chicken pieces still on the bone, crisp skin glazed with a slightly set sauce, tender juicy meat that pulls off the bone so easily your toothless Granny could do it and another piece on the plate to relive the experience. Then after savoring these succulent barbecue beauties, licking my fingers to get every drip of goodness!
The anticipation of my envisioned chicken was almost to much to bear. Then we spotted our server, bringing forth my much anticipated meal. And there before me lay two dry chicken breasts, no bone, no skin and sauce squirted from a bottle all over them. To say I was disappointed would be a gross understatement. I was actually mad! I wanted to have the place cited for false advertising. Barbecue chicken is not chicken breasts swimming in sauce. Adding insult to injury (remember this was a beer pub) I ordered a specialty apple beer on tap and I didn't even like it!
I'm happy to report I've had good chicken since both unfortunate evenings but the horrible memory remains. If you're going to take anything away from this post, remember this: It's OK to be creative with food descriptions but please don't misrepresent! If you do, I'll call the food police on you!
Our trip wasn't exactly planned, we packed a suitcase each, a sack lunch and hit the road. We spent our first night in Elko, NV where fresh ingredients weren't exactly plentiful. I had a hankering for chicken and the restaurant we went to (it was the special that night) was completely out. No chicken for me, not baked, roasted or fried. ;-( Of course this made me want chicken even more. So the next evening when we finally made it to our destination, we went to a local brew pub we enjoy and I ordered the special that evening, sweet & sour, barbecue chicken! I was so looking forward to this meal.
And so my rant begins...
What do you envision when you think "barbecue chicken"? I'll tell you what I envision and it's this: Chicken pieces still on the bone, crisp skin glazed with a slightly set sauce, tender juicy meat that pulls off the bone so easily your toothless Granny could do it and another piece on the plate to relive the experience. Then after savoring these succulent barbecue beauties, licking my fingers to get every drip of goodness!
The anticipation of my envisioned chicken was almost to much to bear. Then we spotted our server, bringing forth my much anticipated meal. And there before me lay two dry chicken breasts, no bone, no skin and sauce squirted from a bottle all over them. To say I was disappointed would be a gross understatement. I was actually mad! I wanted to have the place cited for false advertising. Barbecue chicken is not chicken breasts swimming in sauce. Adding insult to injury (remember this was a beer pub) I ordered a specialty apple beer on tap and I didn't even like it!
I'm happy to report I've had good chicken since both unfortunate evenings but the horrible memory remains. If you're going to take anything away from this post, remember this: It's OK to be creative with food descriptions but please don't misrepresent! If you do, I'll call the food police on you!
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