Restaurant Brief: Hickory River

We used to have the Longhorn Smokehouse. Awesome Texas barbecue. Good ribs. Solid pork loin. Best brisket within at least 50 miles. Then they changed their name to Hickory River, and expanded, opening up places in Springfield, IL and somewhere out in Ohio. And now, they're downgraded to just so-so, because they lost the touch when it comes to brisket.

Good brisket (and really, and smoked meat) should have the red "ring" around the outside of the meat so that you see that it's smoked. And the brisket still does. The other thing that makes a brisket good is that you get the accordion effect when you pull on the ends of a slice. You can feel that the meat is juicy and tender, but not mushy and falls apart. If the beat just breaks apart, then the brisket is overcooked. You want there to be enough connective tissue left in tact so that the brisket still feels like you're eating a chunk of meat, and not ground meat. But, if you're into chopped brisket, you'll be in luck. Because even when you order the sliced brisket, it sort of becomes chopped brisket anyway.

Happily, everything else is still solid out there. Decent sides. Good pork loin and turkey. Good ribs. But man. That brisket used to be so good. Now, I would have to say that the best brisket in town is found at Famous Dave's, much to CJ's chagrin. Oh well. At least it's not that monstrosity that they serve over at Smokey Bones, which has a ton of fat on it and is sliced the wrong way.

-foodgeek

Hodgepodge

It's sort of sad. I only had 9 posts last year, and this is my first post this year. The funny part is that back when I first started blogging in Xanga, I actually had a lot more hits from random folks on my food blog. And it's not like I've been eating less. But for some reason, I've fallen away from the goal of posting once a month here. But, hopefully, I can change that around. So, to catch up, we'll do a few short briefs of places that I've been meaning to talk about, as well as some stuff on what's going on in my kitchen. I'll still do the full blown reviews, but only for places that deserve the full review (either good, bad, or indifferent).

I do hear from a friend in my program that we've got a Turkish restaurant that's opened up here in SW Champaign. I'll need to go try that out. I just saw that Pasha's, a Greek/Turkish place opened up in downtown. We've also got a sorta fancy Korean place, as well that opened up, B-Won. So, there are places to try. And there are some newer places that I have already tried. I've had a couple nights at Radio Maria's new tapas bar, with some good results. And I've also eaten at Escobar's, a place that's self-described as "Nuevo Latino Cuisine." More on these places later, as they'll get a full writeup. It's been busy. But, hopefully, I can still get back to the mission of documenting the things that I experience when I eat.

-foodgeek