Dear readers,
The second day of feasting was located at Blue Smoke. I've been to Blue Smoke before, so I was familiar with the restaurant. Unfortunately, we didn't have a tour guide like Scott for barbeque, so our information was greatly limited compared to our pizza tour, therefore forcing us to depend only on our observations and senses.
A brick place filled with the smell of smoke and rich, barbequed meat, Blue Smoke basically symbolizes all meanings of a barbeque restaurants. Inside the restaurants, you can see metallic stars that hang down by string, bouncy red booths, and windows that allow sunlight to stream in. Outside, a neon sign that displays "Blue Smoke" resembles that of diners you find near a highway.
The first dish I had was the Warm Barbeque Potato Chips, accompanied by a cheese dip. The cheese dip I can remember: it was salty and tasted like cheese. Sounds simple, but quite tasty. The potato chips, according to Josh, probably had "cayan pepper," and Sunny said it was "crunchy." (I disagree. I think it was quite soft compared to most potato chips, and had paprika.) The chips seemed attractive to the others, so unfortunately, my greed for chips was not satisfied.
Luckily, my main course of Applewood Smoked All-Natural Chicken was not stolen by the others. It had a sweet taste, which was probably due to the applewood, and the inside was pink. The chicken did taste like chicken, and I tasted some of the chicken with the sauces, and the chicken only by itself to sense the flavor. (Blue Smoke has a pleasant range of sauces/condiments: Magic Dust, Texas Pete Hot Sauce, Sweet+Spicy Kansas City Barbeque Sauce, Carolina Kick Barbeque Sauce, and a few more. I highly suggest you should try all of them).
By the end, I wasn't exactly completely full, and I wanted to eat something for dessert. However, my visit prior to this visit was quite unpleasant. I had gotten so full I was almost about to throw up. Literally. My lesson was well learned, so I looked at the dessert beverages. I suddenly had an urge to drink tea. Never before, I must say, have I had an urge for tea, but today seemed to be an exception. I came across the words of "Peppermint Tea," and immediately I ordered it. Some urge I had. The tea tasted like unsweet toothpaste. I added sugar, and the final result was the taste of sweet toothpaste. (Ugh).
After we ate, we were given a tour of the kitchen. A great surprise for me, because I always imagined it as big as a massive room, but it wasn't that bigger than a classroom at my school. We were allowed to see the ovens, which were like 12 times the size of the oven at my home. From the inside came a thick smell of smoke, rich with aromas from wood, unlike the stink from cigarettes you find on a NYC street. The number of dead animals used to fill these ovens were definitely above many.
From this experience, I not only got a great meal, but I also got to look at the kitchen and taste a tea that tasted like toothpaste.
