BBQ Nerd’s Meat-tastic B-Day Bash

After a week of Godzilla posts (more to come), I remembered- This is a BBQ blog! So I had planned on putting this up much earlier, but as noted previously, my dog, Jasper, fell ill soon after this trip. My wife and I are doing much better, and now I feel well enough to let you cats know how the trip went!

I started out on my lonesome, and I hit Snow’s BBQ in Lexington for the second time in my life. This place is just consistently great!

The turkey is the only meat I sampled on this round that I didn’t try the last time. It was very tender, smokey, and moist, and some of the best turkey you will have in this state. Much like my last visit, the sliced pork shoulder was the best option from the joint (my wife LOVED her slice I brought home and was disappointed I didn’t have more). I got my meat, got into my car, and drove to Louie Mueller’s in Taylor, TX to check a legendary joint off my list.

For this joint, I picked the LEGENDARY beef rib, the ICONIC brisket, and the pulled pork. The beef rib lived up to the reputation, and had enough meat to use as leftovers for three or four days. Salt and peppery, with a tremendous bark, this was a rich, smokey cut of beef that set me back a pretty penny, but as a treat was really worth the price. The brisket was great too, with the lean cut blowing me away in terms of what brisket at its best can be. I’m a fatty brisket guy usually, as lean tends to be a bit drier, but that’s just not the case here. This is easily the most “beef forward” slice of brisket I’ve ever eaten. The pulled pork was quite good, plenty moist with lots of fat, skin and leaner parts all mixed in with a traditional Texas rub. At this point, my friend Aaron had joined up with me, and he grabbed their awesome sliders deal and their amazing hatch green chile sausage.

The chicken from the slider was incredibly moist, but the sausage here is the highlight of the joint in terms of unique flavor. Not too spicy, but enough to give you the necessary kick, the spices mix perfectly with the REAL hatch green chiles used. The level of smoke is pleasant, and the texture is perfect, with enough fat to make these links decadent. They are a bit heavy, but worth checking out.

The potato salad was an odd duck. The first bite, we decided, was alright. But the second bite was phenomenal. The more we ate it, the more the mustard flavor mixed with the other spices, many of which we couldn’t put our finger on. The beans were good, nothing too special, with a bit of heat added for good measure. The two sauces couldn’t be anymore different. The thin gravy like sauce didn’t really add much flavor to the meat, so I rarely used it. The sweet sauce that I received tasted like apricot preserves went very well with the pulled pork, and we both remarked how unique it was. Finally the service from the cutters was fantastic and friendly. Louie Mueller more than lived up to the legend. We left Taylor after walking around a bit and went to Pflugerville to hit Brotherton’s Black Iron Eats to grab a sandwich.

By the time we got here, I was pretty full, so I went with a veggie filled brisket bahn mi for my choice. The brisket was not an afterthought here, and great care was taken to ensure it adhered to the Texas standard. The house-made kimchi and sauce mixes perfectly with the brisket and buttery bread. The fresh jalapeno added some crunch and heat to the mix, and the sandwich really makes you rethink the standard bread, sauce, meat, pickles and onions sandwiches joints typically offer. We hit a comic shop, and went to Southside Market in Elgin.

I simply got the Southside Combo sandwich and Aaron got a three meat plate with a pork rib, chicken, and brisket. The brisket was good, although nothing earth shattering. The pork rib was HUGE with plenty of meat on the bone. The skin and char on the chicken was pleasant as well. The real highlight though, was the traditional Texas hot gut that was on my sandwich. Not only did it pair well with my brisket, but all of the sauces as well. The standard sauce was very tomatoey, and not my favorite. The bold sauce was deeply smokey, and a bit sweet. It was probably the best sauce of the trip, and went well with pretty much everything. The Texas hot sauce on the other hand brought us to the highlight of the entire day- eating the hot gut with crackers and hot sauce. The hot sauce in question is closer to Texas Pete rather than a BBQ sauce. The hot sauce has more flavor though, and the slightly garlicky punch mixes well with the cayenne pepper. The juiciness of the hot gut tempers the vinegary flavor a bit, and the salty cracker just creates a perfect bite. Aaron and I were pretty floored. And to top off our experience, we grabbed desert, and I was treated to house-made banana pudding that ranks in the top 3 banana pudding that I’ve ever eaten. A lot of banana puddings aren’t made from scratch so be sure to grab some when you go to Elgin.

After chatting a bit, Aaron and I decided that Southside was our favorite experience. Even thought the meat at Louie Mueller was certainly better, Southside Market has a great history and atmosphere and value. I can’t recommend all 4 places enough though, and we had a great trip!