Bland BBQ and Potato Salad!
About a week ago, Mrs. Denmarkguy and I decided to finally give a relatively new local BBQ restaurant a try.
After all, we do love our BBQ, and I read on their web site that they used to do the rounds of fairs and events in Texas for many years. I lived in Texas for a good number of years, and they generally did do55 good BBQ down there.
Sadly, it turned out to be a bit of a letdown... and a reminder that $60 doesn't really buy you much of anything, anymore.
Cost aside, the disappointment also had its roots in the fact that pretty much everything was remarkably bland... It looked like it should be pretty good, but where was the flavor? And what was with the pathetically small helpings?
I particularly don't like bland potato salad... and I have had my share! The virtually flavorless white kind found at so many BBQs and picnics... which — to my way of thinking — amounts to little more than tasteless, mayo-infused mashed potatoes with a hint of pickle-juice flavoring is not worth eating; much less worth paying for.
In my world, potato salad is supposed to taste of something.
It is supposed to be able to stand alone and hold its own against spicy, tangy, heavy and deliciously flavorful BBQ.
Maybe it offers the perfect compliment to bland BBQ... if you're into that sort of thing!
Because I was reminiscing about my mom earlier today, I got to thinking about growing up with potato salad in Denmark. My mom's was bland as pablum and I didn't like it. However, my Aunt Ulla's was stellar, robustly flavored and based on a substance known in the family as "Dad's Lobster Sauce."
"Dad," in this case, was my grandfather; my aunt's father.
The point being that "Dad's Lobster Sauce" packed an explosion of intense flavor, and I loathe bland potato salad.
As I have now said, multiple times...
Absent "Dad's Lobster Sauce," I spent some 8-10 years coming up with a potato salad dressing that was some reasonable facsimile of what I grew up with. Much of this experimentation took place after I'd left Denmark; especially after I'd moved to Texas.
In spite of occasionally battling performance anxiety, I made my potato salad in front of dozens of people, for dozens of festive occasions. Dozens of aforesaid people were actually zerosomewhat outraged and baffled by the ingredients I used... and have let me known in no uncertain terms that my potato salad was "not what they were used to."
In spite of this, the bowl almost always ended up empty.
I often wondered why the land of spicy Mexican food and jalapenos — meaning Texas here — so often seemed satisfied with remarkably bland BBQ, beans and potato salad. It never made much sense to me.
Regardless, we have now tried the new place and we're — sadly — a bit disappointed. Just goes to show that if you want something done right, you'd best do it yourself!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week ahead!
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Created at 2025.01.27 01:37 PST
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Wow used to be you got huge infact silly helping sizes over there?
Has shrinkflation hit?
And where's your recipe?? :))
For years, I fell into the habit of buying ready-made potato salad in the grocery store. It was so easy. Then I started making my own from scratch, and it's so much better! I don't like to go out to eat very often because I happen to be a very good cook and I am spoiled from eating my own cooking. If I order something I could just as well make at home, I am inevitably disappointed. That may sound like I am bragging, but my husband would corroborate what I have said. So I try to order things I don't prepare myself. I don't do a good job with fish, so that's a good item to order at a restaurant.
I don't know much about BBQ, perhaps because I have never lived in the South.