The Well-Fed Bong

Most airports have boring food; at best, a range of fast food choices or minimal cheesygreasy food to go with beer. International airports generally fare better - London or Amsterdam in particular, and also see my raves about Milan - but some domestic ones are catching on too. Jetblue is a pioneer of a kind here. Along with their much advertised mantra of not serving food (though the food they do serve - Terra chips and real almonds - is miles better than the hated airplane staple of mini pretzels) Jetblue terminals tend to have a nice (though pricey) range of salads and take-away sandwiches. At JFK, however, they go further - a full food court provides options like sushi too - which even at its average is quite a change from fastfood hamburgers. Los Angeles airport used to have nice choices, like outlets of Wolfgang Puck's ever expanding chain, but I haven't been there for a while. Interesting airport food popped up, of all places, at Denver airport. The last time I was here...

Texas is barbecue land, so of course I had to go chasing down some of the real stuff. My first experience of Texas barbecue started with Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse in Dallas, which I was told was famous. One of the eight branches of Sonny Bryan wasn't too far from the office, so I headed there on a hot summer's day. It turned out to be inside a strip mall, looking all the world like takeaway Chinese. The stories on the wall were entertaining but, unfortunately, the barbecue was not much better than ... well ... takeaway Chinese. In short, a washout. I went a few weeks later to Tioga, TX where a Sonny Bryant prodigal started Clark's; the resut is much the same. I discover later that Sonny Bryant is no small operation - its a franchise chain with a CEO. First a bit about Texas barbecue. It's not the regular backyard stuff - here things are very slowly cooked over woodsmoke heat in massive pits. The traditional way is to start with raw meat that's dry-rubbed wi...