Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Mm-mm, good!

I just stopped by Locally Grown Gardens to pick up a pumpkin pie and a honey crisp apple pie for a friend's Thanksgiving festivities.

They are now, by the way, serving pulled-pork BBQ every day. From age 10 to age 40, I lived in Georgia and Tennessee. I know what good barbecue is supposed to taste like (...and don't none of you Texans start up with that beef brisket blasphemy; that ain't barbecue. BBQ don't come from no cows; it comes from pigs.) This is some of the best I have ever eaten. I guarantee it.

25 comments:

Joe Allen said...

I'm sorry. I'm from Kansas City. Watching Texans and Tennesseans argue barbecue is like watching the French and Italians argue military strategy!

Joe

alan said...

I lived in North Carolina as a kid, and developed an appreciation for pulled pork and hush puppies.

Then I moved to Texas and discovered the joys of a good brisket and ribs.

As far as I'm concerned it's ALL good.

Garm said...

Heh. Just finished some BBQ at Sprayberry's (Lewis Grizzard would be proud) which isn't my favorite, but it's pretty daggum good for a spur of the moment weeknight meal.

(word verification: "bilaph" I think I had that removed when I was 12.)

Unknown said...

Once in North Houston, I enjoyed a fine brisket dinner on the patio of an upscale suburban tavern ... it was wonderful.

In a 'BBQ conversation' with the chef, I was informed that there was no such thing as "baby back ribs".
The poor soul had no concept of pork barbecue.

Neither could I convince any of the cowboys that my home state of Florida raised more beef cattle than Texas.
(psst: Texas isn't even close!)

The brisket was tasty but, umm, good baby ribs are the win!

tom said...

As a Texan, I resent that comment. We use both and one of the feller's I pick guitar with on occasion is from Charleston.

He does the peeg, I do the beef brisket. We both do the chickens and dove and quail and ducks and catfish. And everybody eats happy, drinks beer, tells lies, and forgets about the missing turkey.

Have a Good Thanksgiving.

We're gonna shoot flintlocks in honor of our ancestors tomorrow.

atlharp said...

That's good that up in Indy there is a some good BBQ. I live In NC, and I must say to make even decent BBQ is a feat in and of itself. I lived in Florida for a number of years and there wasn't one person down there that got even close to make any type of decent pulled pork.

IMHO- There is no other BBQ, but NC BBQ. All the others are just pretenders! ;-)

Joe Allen said...

Okay. I admit it.

Alan said it best in his closing sentence: "It's all good."

If this gets out, I'll never see another after hours party at the Mutual Musicians Foundation, but truth is I've had good "BBQ" in just about every state in this nation.

For example, just a few months ago I had an arrogant smirk wiped off of my face - or at least obscured by sauce - at Calhoun's in Nashville. They may or may not be "the best ribs in America", but I'm not willing to swear under oath that I've had better ribs at Arthur Bryant's.

As sappy as it sounds, if it's prepared with care and love - it's going to be a good meal. Mustard, tomato - wet, dry - it really is all good.

Oh, and I confess to a preference for the swine too.

Joe

Magic safe word: "ingishil"

AKA, third spearcarrier from the left in "The Return of the Son of the Revenge of the Lord of the Silmarillion Rings." "Part IV"

Divemedic said...

Beef (ribs, brisket, steak, pulled beef), pork (pulled, and ribs), chicken, it is all BBQ and all good. I have had BBQ in the southern states, in Texas, Louisiana (I separate LA because it has a distinct flavor from other southern states) , and in KC.

Kansas city BBQ is bland and spiceless, as is much of the food from the midwest (although it was rather sweet). Texas did more smoking, while the south did more grilling.

Anonymous said...

I'm in NY and there is no good BBQ up here, unless I make it. In my smoker. Out back. With a dry rub and slow smoked with apple wood for 6 hours at anywhere between 180 to 200 degrees. Pig ribs. Full size. None of that baby-back shit that won't even fill me up but costs three times as much. Give me a rib I can sink my face into. Dammit, now I'm hungry. I swear, I was born in the wrong country and living on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Anonymous said...

Pork plays its part in BBQ. There's enough love to go around allowing the pig an honored place in the Pit Pantheon.

It's not like we're arguing chili. Once and for all... THERE AIN'T NO BEANS IN CHILI! That’s a fight worth having.

George said...

Even though Dante's off topic at the end of his post, I have to agree with him on the chili thing. We used to roast a half cow on The Labour Day weekend at the marina. Then, an ex-pat Texan would make chili from the remaining bits. No beans! Along about the following Wednesday, the taste buds would be back working ... but it was good!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Great White North.

Arcadia Iris said...

Brisket is considered barbeque by some folks? Honestly, I've been a Texan all my life and never heard such a thing. If somebody says, "We're havin' barbeque," I understand they're having ribs, maybe some barbeque chicken with it. If they were having brisket, they would have said, "We're havin' brisket." Those are two different foods.

And my chili has beans, but doesn't count as real Texas chili, anyway. I had to adapt it so my Yankee could eat it because anything spicier than ketchup makes smoke pour out of his ears and his tongue catch fire.

Anonymous said...

NC BBQ? Simple, boil a hunk of pig till it falls apart, spoon some of the mush on a bun. Pour some vinegar on it, top with slaw and serve. ;-D

Tam said...

"Once and for all... THERE AIN'T NO BEANS IN CHILI! That’s a fight worth having."

Word up.

Anybody who would put beans in chili shouldn't be left alone around the livestock, that's all I'm sayin'...

Anonymous said...

That’s a fight worth having."

Yup, start with your english teacher.

Anonymous said...

Memphis BBQ FTW!!

Brass

Matt G said...

I just yesterday paid $6 for a large brisket sammich from an award-winning barbecue chef. He's won BBQ tourneys in brisket, ribs, pulled pork, and others.

I'm a Texan, and I LOVE good barbecue. Ribs are to be full-sized, and pork. Pork shoulder and butt roast and tenderloin, smoked until tender are wonderful. Smoked chicken is wonderful. I also will barbecue venison, and have barbecued a feral emu that I shot once. (Seriously.)

The secret is long-term exposure to indirect heat and smoke from native nut trees like pecan, oak, or hickory. (I save mesquite for fowl only.) This cures the meat without overcooking it, while breaking down the connective tissues, and makes it tender.

I'm confused as to why smoked brisket might not be considered "barbecue." I am especially befuddled when the same people who insist that beef be excluded will allow any manifestation of pig, and will allow that chicken (CHICKEN, ferChrist'ssake!) could be barbecue.

Look: can't we all just agree that it ain't barbecue if you just bake it in the oven with barbecue sauce on it? That may be tasty, but it is An Abomination and an insult to the practitioners of the art to call that lameness "barbecue." I don't care how good your sauce may be, it's not Midas-- it can't turn meat into gold by its mere touch.

El Capitan said...

Y'know, truth be told, if you want authentic Texican barbacoa, you really need a goat. Preferably a young one.

If you want to be REALLY authentic, you wrap the goat carcass in burlap, bury him in a pit with burning coals, cover with dirt, and let it slow cook for hours.

tom said...

From a Texas hunter's perspective:

In the final reckoning:

When preparing barbecue, pigs and goats are way more fun to shoot than cows and chickens.

As to what constitutes "Texas barbecue":

I can probably write you a list of ten or twelve distinct regional variations on Texas barbecue. Hell, North Carolina has five different regional variations I've been able to discern and they are a little state.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

As Rush Limbaugh poignantly put it, "If you don't like barbecue, you're not one of us."

He didn't specify what kind of barbecue, and I'll chime in with the "it's all good" crowd.

And I'll also add my support for the "there ain't no beans in chili" contingent.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Anonymous said...

Being a science-minded pedant, my definition of barbecue is "meat with a lot of connective tissue cooked at low dry heat over a long period of time so that the collagen dissolves and makes the meat Tasty".

So there.

Chuck Pergiel said...

Honey crisp apple pie?!?! Honey crisp are very sweet, good eatin' apples, but do they make a good pie? I always heard that good eatin' apples didn't make good pie, they got too mushy when baked. You needed grumpy, sour apples to make a good pie. Tell us when you've et some.

Tam said...

By comparison to this pie, crack might be moderately habit-forming.

Anonymous said...

"Barbecue" has to with how you cook the meat, not which meat is chosen. Goat, beef, pig, deer, javelina, whatever. Ya do it right, it tastes good.

Art

Anonymous said...

I went to Japan for 3 months of work in the factory of a business partner. The local engineers loved to take me out to eat Japanese food - trying to get me to be disgusted at first with live-bait sushi and chicken hearts in custards - and loved taking me out even more once they saw I really, really liked their native food. Barbecued eel anyone? YUM YUM! And as grilling is a close cousin of BBQ, then yakitori is grilling's Japanese buddy. Again, YUM!

I have my parents to thank for my social eating success in Japan, as my Pittsburgh mother and my Charlotte father fed me grits for breakfast and halupki (Slovak cabbage rolls) for dinner. Fried chicken livers or stuffed pepppers, calve's liver and onions of boiled greens and pot roast - I grew up knowing what Alan wrote above. It is all good.

The only problem I had was never knowing which pronunciation of "Pecan" was right.

As for NC BBQ, give me vinegar and pepper sauce. It keeps the grease from congealing on the way down.