Barbecue

I watched a program on The Travel Channel last night that was kinda interesting. I saw it in the listings and since I was having NC style barbecue for dinner, and the title of the program was Food Wars: Barbecue, I decided that it was a good fit for dinner time viewing.

The program pitted what they declared to be the 4 basic styles of barbecue against one another. Their choices for styles were Texas, Kansas City, Memphis, and North Carolina.

Despite living in North Carolina I immediately eliminated Texas and North Carolina in my mind since those just aren't types of barbecue that I like. Deciding between KC and Memphis is a lot harder and I'd have to actually have been in the taste test to decide.

Here's a 3 minute vid clip of the actual judging, if you're interested. It's hosted on Google Video.

The show did the normal song and dance by giving some history of barbecue itself as well as the regional differences across the US. Then the show went on location to some of the restaurants and rib joints the epitomized this style of "cuisine". It was pretty interesting and I especially enjoyed the KC section. The show is on several more times in April so give it a look if you're interested.

The judging was done by a group of people from a ranch in California and they found it a close match between Texas and Kansas City with those two areas scoring 30 and 27 respectively. NC, on the other hand, had a very poor showing garnering just 15 points. The hands down winner was Memphis with 45 points. A runaway win.

For people not familiar with NC barbecue, the sauce has a strong vinegar base--at least the Eastern type--and it's not for everyone. (Western NC BBQ is a lot more like the Memphis variety) I suspect that the judges in California might not have ever had BBQ that tasted like this and that might have been part of the reason for such a huge disparity in scoring. What type of BBQ do you like best?

Comments

Bobkat said…
Wow, BBQ seems to be a culinary art form in the US. We just cremate things over here!

Don't forget to pick up your award. Mind you if you do you have to nominate 5 others and it isn't easy! :-)
7:02 PM
kenju said…
Dave, I prefer tomato based barbecue, but since living in NC, I have gotten used to the vinegar-based type. I really hate the taste of vinegar though.
10:07 PM
Anonymous said…
I love watching those cooking battles, just the other day I saw one on Old West cooking!

As for your question: I have no idea. I haven't had barbeque in ages. A shame, I know.


Ari (Baking and Books)
10:11 AM
Anonymous said…
I'd never experienced BBQ in any form until we moved to Texas. (Well, I mean, what we called barbecue meant "a party in which we grill meat" - but it wasn't BARBECUE). The only kind I've experienced, therefore, is the Texas kind. Which I like.

Fuzzy hates it.
10:25 AM
Anonymous said…
I live for good barbecued steak...

*sob*

Winter still isn't done with us yet, so I must wait...
12:49 PM
Carli N. Wendell said…
cost of stamps going up:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=296185

picture of star wars stamps, costing $.41:
http://www.uspsjedimaster.com/main/vote/view_stamps.html?route=vote.s&source=SWUSPS07

Sorry to put in my $.2 worth, literally. :)
6:58 PM
srp said…
In Mississippi we were three hours from Memphis, but only one hour from Tuscaloosa, Alabama; home of Dreamland Bar-B-Que. This was said to be the best barbecue anywhere. Once a year the hospital would go over and arrange for ribs catered from the restaurant for the medical staff meeting. Doctors that never came showed up for that one. The web site even gives some of their recipes. I went by once on the way to Birmingham and it was just a little hole in the wall... but then all the really good down south home cookeries are.
2:38 AM
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