Over the weekend we spent the day in Asheville while taking our daughter to a summer camp, where she would start a job as a counselor in training. When it came time to eat, I was torn between wanting to go back to Early Girl Eatery , a restaurant I always like to visit when I'm in town, and Rhubarb , the new spot for Blackberry Farm's former chef, John Fleer.
"Wanna do a bang bang?" my kid asked, which caused much guffawing. We have been referencing the bang bang a lot in our family, ever since we first heard of it on "Louie," the FX network kinda-sitcom from Louis C.K. In one episode, Louie and an actor playing his brother decide to have a bang bang, i.e., two huge meals, one after the other. After considering all the options (such as "sushi/pizza"), the two opt for Indian/diner. Ever since, the kid and I have been threatening to stage a bang bang much to the mother/wife's distress.
As a dining critic, I'm not unfamiliar with the practice of eating two dinners. When I'm revisiting restaurants to compile a dining guide list or when I'm writing a travel story from another town and want to try as much as possible, I'll go ahead and double up. But during these instances, I try to mete out the consumption, taking a few tastes at one spot and then a few at the next one, in essence making a progressive dinner.
The bang bang is a pig-out ritual, and that's what makes it enticing. It is one wash of flavor and popping endorphins, followed by a second, distinct episode. It has to be done with two kinds of food you want to inhale, and they have to be different enough from each other so the neuro-chemical release carries you through the caloric onslaught. Or so I assume. I've never actually done it.
By the way, we came up with a good solution for Asheville. Breakfast at Early Girl and lunch at Rhubarb. I enjoyed both meals but knew in my heart of hearts they would've made for a terrible bang bang.
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