Superbowl night at Bodeans and a Pint at the Effra

 
An alternative title (if I liked bad puns) might have been 'It was the best of times it was the Wurst of times' but I may save that for a more sausage related post instead of just a porky one.  Either way, this post is about last Sunday, which involved two great plates of pork, a lot of beers and 4 hours of watching a sport I don't understand after watching two matches of one that I do.  Pretty sweet day all in all.  It started in the Effra Inn on just round the corner from the Ritzy and then went on to encompass Superbowl night at Bodeans, somewhere that despite being successful, and a chain still manages to deliver the goods on every visit and what's more, serves you some damn tasty bbq sauce alongside them.


The Effra is one of my favourite pubs.  It has two massive projector screens and shows all the sport you could want without becoming obnoxious, it has managed to remain ungentrified, sticking to being just a nice, well fitted pub, rather than resorting to black-wallpaper and Wasabi peanuts.  It also keeps a mean pint of Harvey's and pours a great Guinness for which there is no doubt a special place in heaven.  Even better than that though is a kitchen that serves about four things - sausage and mash and good West Indian food.  The jerk pork is especially good.  I like it a bit spicier generally, but that's just personal preference.  The rub is full of warming spices like cloves and  gives and intense flavor.  Big pieces of fat are crisp and soft and cooked just enough to leave the meat nice and moist.  Not something to make the trip for on its own, but a great addition to any pub and definitely worthy of mention.  But was it a wise choice to eat a big plate of spicy pork before going to Bodeans.  Answer; probably not.

I'm used to places that have a few outlets skimping on portions and I was worried the £25 the superbowl event cost, wouldn't leave me with enough food to fill me up: wrong.  Bodeans still pulled the kind of blatantly profit-seeking moves that leave you annoyed and vowing to go to smaller places with more generous spirits.  Case in point - you have to order fries seperately, why, why should I order them separately when they charged £25 for a ticket.  But very good fries they were, especially when coated with the 2 kinds of bbq sauces, both of which I would be happy to bathe in.  The rest of the portion wasn't scanty, a quarter chicken (decent but unsurprising), pulled pork (great if a little dry in places, a little more fat would be good), and a baby back ribs (amazing, just amazing).  Before that we'd had some decent wings and nachos.  All this in honour of a sport none of us really new the rules for.  Definitely a fun night, though obviously the price was way higher than they normally charge.  I still really like Bodean's.  I respect that it's managed to keep standards high despite expanding and it will remain my regular place for fixes of American bbq pork.

Definitely worth a trip down next year as well if you have a hankering to watch some very fast and strong men being held back from hitting a man that can throw a ball accurately by some dangerously overweight men that should only be considered athletes in the same way that darts players are.