Rudy's, Michael Pollan, & Me

A week or so ago, because of some collective boredom with the Common's food a couple of guys and I went to Rudy's Barbeque. For some reason I was expecting it to be akin to Goode Company Barbeque in Houston, which is kind of dark, with a cafeteria style line and a massive stuffed buffalo. Not so much. Rudy's, I discovered, is attached to a gas station and has a convenience store off to the side, but the restaurant portion wasn't quite what I'm used to-no dingy tables, no old wood paneling, and no fried chicken and biscuits. Then again, it was more of restaurant with an attached gas station; it was all about the feeling that you were eating at a truly American establishment-after all, you could by gas and barbecue and be back on the road in no time. For lack of anything better to do while waiting in line (I had already decided that a quarter pound of brisket, some jalapeño sausage, and potatoes were in order), I picked up the house brand barbeque sauce and started reading. 1st on the list of ingredients was high fructose corn syrup, followed by several other corn byproducts, all of which got me thinking. The brisket came from a cow that was probably fed on pretty much only corn and the sausage from a pig which was probably also fed on corn. That being said, the only thing I tasted was some dang good barbeque.