Road trip.

Me and the wife and kids went to Florida to go on a cruise with her Dad. Was a first for all of us. We had a good time. Food was both better than I expected and worse than I expected. I had a cold butternut squash soup that was the best soup I have ever tasted. I also had some very greasy duck, that a chef should have been embarrassed to serve. The important part of the trip was the road food we chased from the days we lived there.

A Cuban with black beans and yellow rice at the Ybor Cuban Restaurant in Plant City, FL. The ham was crappy polish deli ham, but even so it tasted great. Fresh Cuban bread, slow cooked pork and ham with white Cuban cheese pressed into molten perfection. Aaaaaaaaahhh! The beans had been cooked in the pork drippings and then mix in the saffron cooked yellow rice. You eat a spoonfull and then take a bite of the buttered Cuban bread, Wow! One of the best things in my memory of Florida food. I have got to go to Vincente's downtown.
4 out of 5 only because of the crappy ham.

BBQ. If you know me, you know after burgers(I was called Wimpy by one of my uncles as a child) I love me some BBQ. I always test a joint by their pulled pork. I figure that if you can't do a decent pulled pork, you have no business calling yourself a BBQ place. We tried a new joint in Valrico, FL named (I will fill in blank later when my memory comes back in from sunning herself). The pulled was good, even though I couldn't find the pile of wood stacked outside. This place had a lot of good ideas, though. They had 7 different sauces, also a touchstone of good 'Q'. Each better than the last. They had names like tractor grease and pine tar and veried from sweet to hot and were quite enjoyable. They restaurant had pickup tailgates fashioned into benches to sit on and also used big 'ol coolers as benches too. Very clever, these fellers. My son had a Motherclucker sandwich. Did I mention he just turned 14? Anyway, it was a chicken breast marinated in BBQ sauce covered with bacon and an onion ring. Did I mention he started band camp and football conditioning?
4 out of 5 for no big pile of wood.

P.S. The Sun Goddess has returned. The BBQ place was called Bubba Q's, I think I will add half a napkin for the name.