Travels in Clinton Country

August 25, 2011

Little Rock, Arkansas

To get us in a southern mood, we have switched the car satellite radio station to one of the county music stations (Outlaw Country)… Emmylou Harris is singing us “Two more bottles of wine.” The announcer just made a station ID….."You are in Outlaw Country, playing music made when wearing a seat belt was a good idea, but not the law.” That little phrase does a nice job of capturing the era and attitude of the music on this station.

I got my soaking-wet rainstorm in Little Rock yesterday.  The rain came down hard. At various points along the way, we had very little visibility because the wipers couldn’t keep up with the pounding rain. Nice.

Rain!

While in Little Rock, we stopped at the Clinton Presidential Library.  We could have spent the whole day there, but we rushed it and made it out in 3 hours.  The library was dense---lots of detail about the accomplishments of Clinton’s two terms in office. For me, however, the memorable image was this collection of books inside a glass case within the ‘Education Reform’ section of the library. “Encyclopedia of Southern Culture” …not just a book, but an entire encyclopedia full of everything that makes the South southern!

I knew for sure that one of the sections in the “Southern Culture” book would be about food, specifically barbeque and all the sides. Our good friend Tiffany, who grew up in Little Rock (correction, North Little Rock), told us the best BBQ in town was at Sims.  Even with navigation, we had a hard time finding the restaurant. Sims was tucked at the end of a tired old shopping strip.  Like many great things, the BBQ joint was humble and unassuming.  But Wowza!  I broke my “no red meat” policy and ate this entire dinner entree.

Sliced Beef Bar-B-Que Dinner--$8.00

Let me describe (with delight) what we have here.  Starting at 12:00 we have Arkansas style BBQ which means that the sauce and meat live and commune together.  As Tiffany says, in Texas, the BBQ is about the meat; the sauce is an after-thought (the ‘separate but equal’ nonsense). But now here in Arkansas, the sauce gets equal billing with the meat.  At 4:00 we have green beans.  At 7:00, we have fabulous “greens”  (that’s collard greens fixed southern style with bacon and onion). Yes, that’s a cornbread muffin in the middle.

A picture captures Clinton's visit to Sims

A local favorite