This is Helen's place. It's about a mile from Brownsville's centre but it's worth the drive whether you're coming from Mississauga or Memphis. Helen makes pulled pork and smoked bologna. I'm told the bologna is great but we didn't try it this time.
Here's Helen's. If you are ever near Memphis or even just in Tennessee, you really need to take the time to drive out and visit.
The back of the building is the smoker. There are fires where oak and hickory are turned into coals that slowly cook the meat to perfection. I don't think I could work in that much smoke and heat but Helen and her crew do it every day!
And here is the final product. Helen does the best pulled pork we've had in our travels. It was very moist and flavourful. There are mild and hot sauces that you can use, but you don't need to add anything to Helen's pork.
Here I am with Helen. For me, it was like meeting a rock star!
While we were in the area, we noticed that the town of Nutbush was only about 8 miles away. That happens to be the home town of Tina Turner and the highway to the town is actually named after her. She has a song called Nutbush City Limits. Of course we decided to drive over and see what kind of sign or monument was there. Well, there wasn't much there. The town was a few run down buildings and the commemorative sign was pretty sad. I guess we know why Tina left!
Memphis was a short hour drive from Helen's so we arrived in the early afternoon and checked in. Our reservation was for one night but when we saw the hotel and the room, we quickly decided to go for two nights. This will allow us to spend more time exploring and we've already booked a river boat tour for tomorrow. The room is almost like an apartment with a kitchenette and a type of loft bedroom. There's also a sitting area and a small dining table. As Marilyn said, We could live here!
Our first walk was down to the banks of the Mississippi where there is a park that runs to Beale St.
Beale Street itself was not that big, but we've come to expect that. It was also not too busy but everyone was saying that it is much busier at night. We still managed to visit BB King's Blues Club and a few of the stores that were open. One place has some very interesting art work and toilet seats!
After wandering around a bit, we found an odd restaurant called Kookie Canuck. It's a Canadian themed restaurant owned by a guy from Montreal and Toronto. It has the basic beers and poutine along with other themed foods. It's famous for its giant burgers that run 4 or 6 pounds. If you eat them, you don't pay. Everything is large, including the beers. Might go back for lunch as the owner came out and talked to us for a while and gave us some advice about the city.
Before heading back to our hotel to get ready for dinner, we ended up at the famous Peabody Hotel to watch some ducks. Yes, ducks. It's a long story, but there are some ducks in a fountain in the hotel and they are paraded in every morning at 11:00 and back out at 5:00. There is a Duck Master and the ducks have an apartment on the roof of the hotel. Somewhat bizarre but people flock to see them. I hesitate to admit this, but we waited 45 minutes for the procession to start! The ducks even have a red carpet that leads them to the elevator!
Dinner tonight was at a Memphis institution called Charles Vergos' Rendezvous. It's a bbq place that has been on numerous tv shows. I believe the downstairs part we were in holds over 250 people. They serve excellent brisket and dry seasoned ribs that are cooked over charcoal, which is different than the other bbq places.
Marilyn says that we didn't really walk far enough to balance all the food we ate today. We did just under 8 km but it was very hot out and we did spend quite a bit of time driving!
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