AnastasiasMom

I got this book for Christmas, but it’s taken me a while to getting around to reading it. I’ve read the other books in the Septimus Heap series, and I think I like this one the best. Some of the characters are purely good, and some are purely evil, but the characters that are gray areas, like Marcellus Pye, are the most interesting. (I hope I haven’t given too much away here.)

Life has been pretty unsettled on this end for the last month, and this book was the perfect escape. I didn’t read it in one sitting, but read some each evening. I caught myself thinking about it at work a lot- I couldn’t wait to get home and read the next section! I’m still trying to decide how this series compares with Harry Potter. Right now I’d say it was not as good, but Physik is up there with the HP books’ quality. I highly recommend this book, but read the first two books in the series first, or else a lot of it won’t make sense.

Sage, Angie. 2007. Septimus Heap Book Three: Physik. Harper Trophy Books, New York.

This restaurant is located in Mooresville. My co-workers describe it as a “smorgasboard” with excellent buffalo wings. We had this barbecue catered in at work earlier this week. On the menu was barbecue, chicken, hush puppies, baked beans, cole slaw, broccoli-cauliflower salad, banana pudding, and apple crisp.

I had the barbecue, hush puppies, baked beans, cole slaw, and banana pudding.

Barbecue:
For once in my life, I found some barbecue that I didn’t quite like. There were some burnt bits mixed in, which weren’t very appealing. The sauce was Western North Carolina style, thick and orangey-red, with pepper flecks in it.

Hush Puppies:
The hush puppies came in standard hush puppy shape. There was nothing unusual about them.

Baked beans:
Wow. These are my favorite baked beans of any barbecue place I’ve tried. They were not barbecue beans or your usual baked beans with molasses or anything. They had some sort of zip to them, like orange juice, maybe?

Cole slaw:
The cole slaw was regular slaw, not barbecue slaw. I liked it; not much else to say about it.

Banana pudding:
The banana pudding had very large chunks of banana in it. There were about equal parts banana and cookie in it. The pudding part wasn’t very stiff like a normal pudding; it was a slightly thinner banana sauce. Still quite good, though.

I am told by my co-workers that the broccoli-cauliflower salad was excellent.

Would I eat there again? Maybe not if my purpose was to get barbecue. There is better barbecue closer to where I live.

On a whim, I stopped here for lunch. I’ve driven by it before over the last year or so, and wondered if it was good. (It is not on Bob Garner’s list, but this line item has become more about enjoying good ‘cue than just the list.)

I ordered the Pulled Pork dinner with baked beans, coleslaw, sweet tea, and banana pudding. Total cost: $13.06.

The Barbecue:
The barbecue was pulled, in long strings. It was very moist, of medium tenderness. (Not tough, but chewing still required.) I saw visible flecks of red pepper in the meat. The vinegar/pepper sauce permeated the pork. If you wanted, you could eat it straight up without adding the cup of red sauce on the side. The sauce is a red thick sauce, which seems to be ketchup based. It definitely has the sauce used on the meat mixed in, with hints of molasses or brown sugar? I actually liked the pork better without the red sauce on top. I did not go behind the building to see if there was a woodpile behind. I’m guessing that since they are in the city limits, it was probably not smoked on site, if it was smoked.

Sweet Tea:
So fresh that it came out of the carafe warm. Good balance- sweet but not overpoweringly so. Can still taste tea flavor underneath.

Baked beans:
Regular baked beans, not barbecue beans. It was made from large beans- big pintos or red beans. It constituted about 3/4 beans and 1/4 chopped green peppers. Apart from the added green peppers and onions, I couldn’t really tell a whole lot of difference than this and pork and beans from a can. It just lacks some sort of “zip” to it. Maybe a splash of the barbecue sauce would liven it up?

Cole slaw:
Regular coleslaw, not barbecue slaw. The cole slaw was Very sweet. It seemed to have something like sweet relish in it, perhaps. The cabbage was very crisp, not limp at all. Alas, I couldn’t finish it; the taste was just a little too… odd….

Banana pudding:
Very nice presentation- a gigantic serving in a little pie plate completely topped with meringue. There was a high cookie/banana to pudding ratio; essentially vanilla wafers and bananas in a plate with just enough pudding to hold it all together.

Other offerings:
Pulled chicken, brisket, ribs, collard greens, lemon pound cake, cornbread muffin, macaroni and cheese,

Ambience:
The restaurant is located in the storefront of a converted small bay warehouse block. Very bare bones. There are tables to eat at, but all the customers were there as part of the brisk takeout business. I did not see any high chairs, so the place may not be conducive to taking small children.

Staff:
Very friendly to an obvious new customer (other customers were greeted by name). Apart from the younger man working the front counter, the staff were all older gentlemen whose age suggested years of cooking experience and authority in their field.

Would I go back? Yes, but I would skip the sauce, and eat the ‘cue straight up. I’d probably also try the collard greens and cornbread muffin, and maybe just get a pulled pork sandwich. ($13.06 is a lot to spend for lunch, but there was a lot of food, so it was good value.) My lasting impression was just how sweet everything was. I had a terrible urge to brush my teeth afterward.

Website: Bobbee O’s BBQ