Mass State BBQ Championship

Applications are open for the Kansas City Barbeque Society BBQ Contest at the Harvard Fall Festival. The grilling contest will be on Saturday with the official, KCBS-rules contest on Sunday. It's the Mass championship (ie, the qualifier for the Jack).

More details on their site:
http://www.harvardfallfestival.com/BBQ_Contest.htm

Vote for the KCBS Board

If you're a member of the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS.us), don't forget to the vote for the board. Elections are currently open and the deadline to vote is January 16th. If you didn't get an email with a link to vote, contact Linda Mullane: lmullane@kcbs.us.

Blue Ribbon, Newton

I had a late-morning meeting in Waltham recently which I scheduled, in part, because I knew it would be a good excuse to get lunch at Blue Ribbon's West Newton location. I've been to the Blue Ribbon in Arlington a number of times and still consider it the best barbecue you can get at a restaurant (ie, not at a competition or at a friend's house) in the Boston area. I was excited to try their other location.

I got a pulled pork sandwich with greens and rice and beans at the sides, along with a half rack of ribs.

The collards were good, if unmemorable. The rice and beans were spicy and had decent flavor, but the rice was still crunchy.

Onto the important stuff: the ribs smelled amazing and I was excited to dive in. Opening them up, they had a nice smoke ring and looked great. Unfortunately, the meat didn't have a lot of smoke taste. I talked to the cashier who said they smoke everything a different site and then move the barbecue to their storefront. Reheating and keeping barbecue warm in a steam bath can draw a lot of the flavor out of it and I wonder if that's the issue in this case.

The texture was good, but also not great. Usually, barbecue places up north overdue it and you end up with meat that's mushy and completely detached from the bones. These had the opposite problem: they were still stringy and too chewy. Also, the ribs had a thick bark on them, which I often like, but (I would guess from sitting too long) it was too tough and chewy; almost like jerky. With the smaller ribs on the end, it made it a good workout to get through.

They provide a few different kinds of sauces, but I get the feeling that it's more due to customer demand than how they'd prefer you to enjoy it. The ribs didn't have any noticeably sauce on them and the pulled pork had a just the right amount of vinegar and red pepper flakes mixed in (Carolina-style).

Speaking of which: the sandwich was great. My favorite barbecue in the universe is Carolina-style chop pork. And this was not a bad rendition: the meat was tender, but not overly mushy and had good flavor.

I don't care about ambiance. I'm there for one thing: the barbecue. For those who do: the store is simple and open, though it feels a bit like a Disney version of a "Southern Barbecue Joint". This is exacerbated by the fact that's the store is in West Newton, overlooking the Mass Pike. But again; it's about the 'que and their setup works well for what it needs to do: feed HubQ when he's coming back on the Pike.


The Verdict: I will definitely try to schedule more late morning meetings west of Boston so can I have a Blue Ribbon pulled pork sandwich for lunch.

New TV Show, 'Pitmasters'

TLC is airing a new show about competition barbecue called Pitmasters. The first episode is this Thursday at 10 PM. Here's a clip:

Congratulations, I Que!

Congratulations to I Que, a team from Hopkinton who were crowned this year's Grand Champion at the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue. It's the highest honor a competition team can win. A big congrats to Chris Hart and his team.

In addition, the Lakeside Smokers from Methuen, came in 7th over all. Two top 10 finishers; quite a showing for the Bay State!