Cavender's

I've done a lot of things in my life but driving across the country in a Uhaul with my best friend who was about to have a baby and was moving to the literal other side of the country is one that I will not soon forget.

We ate Hot Fish and Meat-and-Threes in Nashville. Pulled Pork pizza in Memphis. Nu-Mex combo plates in Albuquerque. And nearly threw up after plowing a buffet in Reno.

We stayed at KOA campgrounds, converted witchy-poo hippy barns filled with crickets, Rock and Roll motels and even a hotel-casino inside a military base that was (and still is) the worlds largest munitions dump.

But amid all those stranger things, the thing that sticks out the most to me is the three days we spent with Lon's relations in rural Oklahoma where we rode around in trucks, baled hay and almost died trying to fix an anhydrous ammonia tank that was hooked up to a giant tractor.

Then there were the steaks.

A brief aside here.

I have always thought of steak rub as bullshit. My way of thinking is/was "If it needs steak rub, it is shitty beef!" and I, generally, stand by it. If a steak is of good quality you only need Kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper to make it taste good. Simple.

Where the line gets blurry however, is Cavender's ALL Purpose Greek Seasoning which Lon's great uncle (?) introduced me to during the first night we visited. Rather than, like most rubs, make your steak, chicken or pork chop taste vaguely of chemical residue, Cavender's just makes evrything you put it on taste really good in a way that you cannot put your finger on, even if you know intimately what you are looking for.  My wife has even used it to make quickie trash salad dressing and it was Delicious.

I think what makes it so good, so inscrutable, is that it is completely balanced unlike most rubs and seasonings on the market these days that aim to bomb your palate with one dominant flavor like black pepper, garlic, lemon pepper or bacon. Cavender's is more like just enough garlic, oregano, thyme, pepper, rosemary and onion powder to make what you're eating like itself, only much better. I think here of Cavender's being like a really nice blouse and a hint of Carmody's Smokey Eye vs. getting a Miley Cyrus skank makeover, if that makes sense. Other seasonings are skank makeovers that remove the natural good flavor of the meat and replace it with something terrible and alien.

Yes. That is Snow.

Anyway, I thought of it because I am planning on seasoning up some local pork chops with it and grilling them this evening.