Above: On our way out to Orange, Texas yesterday evening, Tracie P and I stopped for a pork loin sandwich, with sliced pickles and barbecue sauce and all the fixin’s at the Lost Pines BBQ (“dine in or take out”) in Giddings, Texas (along highway 290, on the way to Houston from Austin). Highly recommended.

Seems that every travel corridor in Texas — whether it be Houston-Austin, Dallas-Austin, or San Antonio-Austin — has its own community of barbecue joints, each with its own signature expressed within the paradigm of the Texas barbecue lexicon. One of the things that has really impressed me about living in Texas (even as compared to other parts of the south where I’ve traveled) is its idiosyncratic nature of the culinary arts: whether professional or intimate, whether public or familiar, food and recipes always have a very personalized and individualistic mark to them. Even though smoked, dry-rub brisket is the pièce de résistance of any Texas bbq, gently smoked dry-rub pork loin is the way to go at Lost Pines.

Above: Lost Pines BBQ along Hwy 290 doesn’t have a website but you can’t miss it from the road. The folks there are so nice and the décor so homey… You can’t help but want to linger even after you’ve finished your meal.

Lost Pines BBQ in Giddings is named after the Lost Pines area in Bastrop in the Texas Hill Country, just south of Giddings. I’ve only driven through the enchanting Lost Pines once but I hope to make it out there one day this summer. One of the most beautiful areas in the Texas Hill Country.

In other news…

Tracie P and I are spending the weekend with her folks and family in Orange, Texas. We’re about to head out to the Texas Cajun Heritage Festival. I am so geeked! Stay tuned…