The Occasional Odd Crop

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Where: Bandana's restaurant, Maryland Heights, Missouri (just outside St. Louis)

When: May 8, 2008

Yum: After we got off the plane in St. Louis, Dani asked several people where we could get some good barbecue. They all recommended Bandana's, and they were right. It's a Midwest chain that has a teeny bit of a TGIFriday's vibe to it, but so what - the food was amazing. Except for the hot boiled peanuts. The waitress warned us that those were an acquired taste, but I doubt I'm going to acquire it anytime soon.

A Southern thing, I guess: We flew into St. Louis for my grandmother's funeral, which was about 100 miles south of the city in Grandma's hometown, Cape Girardeau. Marie, my dad's wife, planned the reception with the help of the good folks at the funeral home.

She suggested some food selections that sounded good to her West Coast palate, and they sounded fine to me when she told me this story.

Nope, the funeral home people said. "Down here, we do barbecue." OK then, we did barbecue. It wasn't as good as Bandana's, but it was tasty.

And to drink? Punch, Marie suggested. No no. "Down here, we give people a choice: regular iced tea, or sweet tea." The sweet tea tasted just like what Grandma made when I was growing up. I was at least 15 before I knew you could make iced tea without sugar in it, and while I seldom drink anything with sugar in it these days, the sweet tea brought a nostalgic smile to my face.