June 22nd After a earlier than planned wakeup call by the baby in the next room we headed out for a day of sighting seeing. First up lunch. Midwood Smokehouse. Rayed as a top BBQ location in Charlotte, one ahs to try it to find out for themselves. Old shack look outside to a modern building construction. We chose to eat on parch as it was a pretty nice morning. Looking over the menu there were several options I would have liked to try. However the one I really would have liked to try was a multiple BBQ sampling of your choice of 4 of the following - pulled pork, chicken, brisket, sausage, St Louis Ribs, smoked turkey. Valor overtook me as I chose to lessen the “waist” load and go with a appetizer of smoked wings and Burnt Ends as my main meal. Smoked wings – we ordered dry, with their spicy sauce on the side. EX- C- LANT. The sauce was a mix between sweet, Carolina and a bit of spice. I should have just told waitress bring me another and cancel my main meal. Not so spicy that Mary did not enjoy as well. So very good choice. Main meal came – Mary had brisket lean (offered lean with no fat cap or fatty which has a fat cap on it. ) Sides she got were macaroni and cheese and hush puppies. Brisket a tad dry. Macaroni even dryer. She liked the taste of the brisket. I got the burnt ends. Mine came with macaroni as well but I added jalapeño bites as another side. Jalapenos not bad. Had better but still good. The cream cheese had melted out for most part but bacon was good and pepper grilled well. My macaroni same as Marys and dry. As for burnt ends – some I could not cut through without a knife. They should be tender. Some of these were bordering on petrified. Can’t pass up dessert at a bbq joint so we tried the pecan cobbler. Basically a pecan pie made into a cobbler instead of pie shell. Served with ice cream. If you close your eyes you tasted pecan pie. With the food from last night and then lunch, we needed to walk some of this off as we have still a long way to go. Off to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. Developed over 400 acres this has several water displays, a indoor orchid display, and a well laid out similar plant displays were one can see varying types of same type items – azaleas together, cedars, roses etc. Some gardens spread their out over many areas. In this case it was different to see them all grouped together. They also have what could be called a recycled area use – old tires used as pots, wine bottles used to add differing looks on tree limbs. And a very nice vegetable garden display – tomatoes, squash, onions, garlic, zucchini, and numerous herb plants. A bowl a fork and some salad dressing and one had a lunch on the grounds waiting to occur. If you like bumblebees, honey bees and or hummingbirds flying around you this is the place. Did not see many butterflies though. This garden is undergoing a large addition for the future for kids area. Their plans looked pretty good. Back to hotel for a short nap before dinner At Cajun Queen Restaurant. Cajun Queen is in a very unique neighborhood. For those in Richmond area, think of Cary Town, but older more rustic homes. All are restaurants, or lawyers, or dentists, or hair stylist, Both sides of the road. For blocks on end. As the name implies – Cajun fare. By the steady stream of walkups I am glad we had reservations. Walked in, checked in and seated in 30 seconds. That was the highlight of speed for the evening. Water was fast in coming as well. Past that, like molasses at the North Pole. As for food – tried their version of BBQ Shrimp. Having had Emerils version night before we felt it should be critiqued. But prepared totally different. This one was more of a shrimp boil sauce. Still very good, just different then Emerils. Mary got Shrimp Scampi. Several large shrimp sautéed in a wine, butter and garlic sauce served over white rice. I ordered the Etouffe with 3 meats – shrimp, chicken and crawfish tails. But waiter advises there is a 4th meat not listed on menu I can add for the grand slam – sausage. So I gotta have it all. Nice heat, not over bearing. Good flavors all around. But the one thing I did not expect was two beaten flat chicken breasts. A little much for the size of the meal. Included was a cup of gumbo,. That I could have done without. Not sure why but its smell was 10 times better then the taste. It did not equate to each other. One issue is some of the items in it were not cooked in with it – green onions, celery were both hard or crunchy which should never be the case with gumbo. Then it was a waiting game again to pay. But while we waited we discussed various things about the house itself. We ate in what I would consider was once the front room of the house. When waiter finally reappeared we discussed layout of house. The kitchen is in fact the kitchen. He described it as something about half the size of the living room. That explains a lot about delivery of food. Several others in our room also seemed upset about delivery time of food and or AWOL waiter for long period of times. But food overall was not bad for a Charlotte rendition of some New Orleans staples. Tomorrow is going to be a tossup between another BBQ place or something along the street in front of our hotel. I may let Mary choose that one. Then tomorrow night the big event.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 00:45:18 +0000
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