City Barbecue in Florence

City Barbecue opened in Florence this weekend, and as my friend Tommy had been kind enough to find out if they use MSG in their food, when his parents arrived at the market today, we (my parents, Tommy, his parents, and myself) decided to give the place a try. As we entered, the first impression was crowded and noisy. Next, it turns out it is one of those semi-fast food places, you know, the ones where you go up to the counter, they give you cups to get your own drinks, then you wait for a tray and take it to your table. This was not promising, as we were exhausted, overheated, and those sorts of places aren't much fun when you have someone in a wheelchair.

But we placed our order, and I waited for the food while Mum and Daddy went to get tea. The aisle by the drinks was too narrow, and several employees were filling the tea urns using five-gallon buckets, and managed to splash the people waiting in line. I got the food, and was chagrined to discover Dad's and my sandwiches were served on paper sheets, not even paper plates. Mum's ribs were on plates, and the sides were in individual dishes, which were placed on tin trays. I got them to the only table I could find large enough, which happened to be by the garbage can. I got everyone settled, discovered they didn't give you silverware, and went in search of utensils, which were up by the drink stand.

Tom, Roberta, and Tommy finally joined us, and we sat down to eat. Mum got a half slab of ribs, which I have to say were truly awful. They were full of gristle and had very little meat, and what meat there was was totally dried out and barely edible. Daddy and I had pulled-pork barbecue sandwiches, which were edible, but I found the crust on my meat horribly salty. For sides, all three of us had corn pudding, Mum and I had gumbo, and Daddy had slaw. The corn pudding was edible, but was not a corn pudding, but just a corn casserole. The gumbo was way over-cooked and extremely over-salted. The only positive thing I heard at the table (and no one openly slammed the food, we did that in the car after we left!) was that the slaw was good.

All in all, I would give this restaurant an F. The food was horrible, the music too loud, and I don't like having the manager decide to change garbage cans in the middle of my meal and slam the can and container door into my chair while I'm trying to eat. Not an experience I'm likely to repeat.

A Well-Stocked Larder

All my life we have canned and preserved food. I've helped, but for some reason, this year things have changed for me--for some reason, I now am taking personal pleasure in stocking my larder for the coming year with glass jars of tomato juice, crushed tomatoes, green beans, etc. Yesterday I found myself chucking a dozen bags of chopped okra in the freezer for use in stews and soups this winter. I've spent the past two days bottling 28 quarts and approximately 60 pints of tomato juice. This is beyond all the relish and jams I've been making to sell.

I even found myself sitting at the market Sunday breaking green beans (Blue Lake, of course) willingly--and I've always hated breaking beans!!!