Grillin' On The Bay

No Sleep Till Brooklyn!

We were unsure whether to travel down to Brooklyn Friday night so we wouldn’t have to get up at 3:30 AM to get to Grilling On The Bay Saturday. We decided not to spend $150 on a room and just get up early. Probably the right decision. One of the few right decisions of the contest.

We did pretty well at the event, got one call for 5th place fish, and took 7th overall out of 24 teams, including several very good ones. Not a bad showing, especially since grilling has been our Achilles heel in what has been a pretty successful run since Q Haven first competed last May.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

It was just Sheila and I heading down to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn for the 2nd annual Grilling on the Bay. We were hoping Cristiaan would be joining us, but he couldn’t get out of work.

I was very excited to be cooking this contest. I was born in Manhattan, and lived either in New York City or the Westchester suburbs until I was 25 and moved to Connecticut, with the exception of my time in Alabama at college. I worked in Manhattan for more than four years, and have a real love of NYC. Also, an impressive slate of 24 teams made this an event not to be missed.

Since we weren’t going to stay overnight in Brooklyn, we had to get up at 3:30 AM in order to drive the nearly three hours to be on the site before seven AM. The only problem is that we were up until nearly 11 PM prepping for the contest, so we didn’t get a whole lot of sleep.

We got to the St Mark’s school at around 6:45, and it was great to see nice weather for the second straight week. We were sited next to the Anchormen, who we knew from other NEBS events, and Richie’s Rib Shack, who is an accomplished chili cook, but was trying competing in grilling for the first time.

I had a whirlwind two weeks leading up to this event. I was up in Vermont for a few days before Snowshoe, competed in that event, then was out a few nights leading up to Brooklyn celebrating, as my birthday was Tuesday. I made the decision of what to cook kind of last minute. While I feel our food was pretty good, we would have scored a lot better if I had stopped and thought a little harder when deciding what to cook.

The first category was chicken breast. I decided to do two barbecued whole chickens, then detach the breasts and slice them across the grain, turning in the juiciest middle slices. It ended up pretty good, and we took 6th in the category, just missing the call.

Next was fish. Last week at Snowshoe, I took 5th place by doing grilled swordfish, lightly rubbed with lemon pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and a little Old Bay, then topped with a garlic butter sauce with fresh parsley. I did the exact same thing in Brooklyn, with the exact same result, 5th place.

It was nice to walk again....

Next time, if the fish must be submitted in six pieces I will make sure they are more uniform.

Next was pork. I decided to do pork tenderloin with a maple glaze. However, since I had four tenderloins, I decided to throw a couple in the smoker and see how they came out. I liked the flavor, and decided to go with the smoked ones instead of the grilled. However, when I hit them with the maple glaze, it didn’t seem quite right. I had no choice but to turn them in, and it didn’t score too badly. Tenth place.

Finally, the last category was chef’s choice. I decided to do shrimp, and we themed the box with an Asian motif. Sheila came up with some great ideas, with a bed of Japanese rice noodles and little bundles of carrot, red pepper and baby corn tied together with scallions. The shrimp were grilled with a soy ginger glaze.

The judges loved the presentation (999887), but killed us on tenderness. The shrimp scored 18th.

I should have thought about this a little more. The first three categories were chicken, pork and fish. Hey dummy, what’s the natural fourth category? Beef!

Two of the top five finishers cooked steaks, and the winner made mini hamburgers. Bet those were some damn good burgers.

Also, the pork category allowed for ribs. That’s what I should have cooked. It was ribs that got me into competitive BBQ in the first place. A few of the top teams in pork cooked ribs, including category winner Lost Nation and fourth place Smoke In Da Eye, and probably a few others. I feel we would have given them a run for their money.

In any case, I always second-guess decisions made when they don’t lead to success. But I feel the seventh place finish is real progress. While barbecue is largely patience and practice, these grilling events require more culinary skill. It’s making me want to learn more about cooking, real cooking, which in turn will make the BBQ better too.

I’ll stop rambling. Big thanks to Robert Fernandez (White Trash BBQ) and Matt (Hampton Smoker), the organizers of the event. Also, congrats to Ray Depot and Bob, the Anchormen, who cooked some great food and were grand champions. I tried their pork, which was tenderloin with a mango stuffing, and it was excellent.

This was a great experience, and I will be sure to attend the 3rd annual Grillin’ On The Bay next year!

Snowshoe

There were a few firsts at the Snowshoe grilling challenge in Abington, Mass. For one, it was the first time I ever competed in an event completely by myself. Also, it was the first time that the weather was nice for the entire event.

Overall, the event was great. The Q Haven solo project got one call for 5th place fish, and finished 7th overall out of 16 teams.

I knew for a few weeks that I was going to have to cook by myself. Sheila had to go to Florida for work, and my brother could not get out of work. So, it was going to be just me. To offset this, I made sure to keep things simple, scaled back my setup and did all the prep work at home Friday. Look closely at the picture above, and you can see how bare bones I was.

It was great to arrive at a contest site with bright sunshine. Every event we cooked last year, it rained, usually like a monsoon, or there were high winds that caused other problems. The weather was no factor on this weekend. People told me that at last year's Snowshoe, temperatures were freezing, so we clearly lucked out.

The four grilling categories were fish, sausage, beef and vegetable. For the fish, I cooked a swordfish steak and a sea bass. I turned in the swordfish, as the sea bass didn't seem right to me. It did well, taking 5th place.

Next was sausage. I got the sausage from a place on Franklin Avenue in Hartford that makes all kinds of great Italian food. Used sweet Italian sausage. Didn't do well here, took 15th out of 16. Scores were mostly 7's and 8's, with a few 6's too. The other teams must have scored really high.

For beef, I cooked NY Strip steaks, and made sauce bernaise. The sauce came out great, but I wasn't completely happy with the meat. Took 8th in this category.

The final category was vegetable. I did grilled portobellos with melted cheese. They were really good, but only took 7th place.

I forgot my camera, so have no pictures of any of the turn ins. I will be sure to remember it next week at Grillin' on the Bay in Brooklyn, NY.

Overall, the event was fun and a good experience. It was great to see Mike and Kris from the Lakeside Smokers, along with the folks from I Smell Smoke! and Chris from iQue. Gary and Michelle Taft from Lunchmeat ran a great event! And the beer was really inexpensive at the VFW hall bar. Can't forget the Big Boned BBQ crew, who were sited next to me and are always fun to be around.

I Smell Smoke won the event, taking first place in three of four categories. Tried their beef rib after it was all over, was delicious. Been thinking about cooking beef rib since the trip to Holy Smokes last month, gotta try it!

Holy Smokes!

Went skiing up at Stratton in Vermont this past weekend. Had a great time, slopes were super crowded in the morning but conditions were great, especially once most of the people left after lunch. On the way home, we stopped in Hatfield, Massachusetts and met my friend Av Harris at Holy Smokes, a BBQ place in a former church.

Having read about Holy Smokes on Gary Goldblatt's BBQ site Pigtrip.net, I was really excited to try their beef rib. I was definately not disappointed.

We didn't go to Holy Smokes to review it, we were really just hungry and wanted to unwind for a while. It was also good to see Av, who may be known to some of you as a reporter for NPR on Conecticut and Massachusetts stations. But I will post some thoughts.

While this was not something that is a big deal, I feel it is worth mentioning, moreso as a former restaurant manager than anything else. We entered the restaurant and told them we needed a table for 6. Someone quickly set the table, and the woman at the desk said to me "do you want to have a seat?" I said yes, and went over with my brother's girlfriend to sit at the table.

After a minute, the woman came over and said that we coulnd't sit at the table until our entire party was there! So she made me and my brother's girlfriend Kim get up from our table and sit on the bench in the front of the restaurant! It was very embarrasing to us. The place was half empty at that moment, so there was no reason to treat us like that. We certainly would have ordered drinks and probably appetizers as we waited for Av to arrive. Instead, exhausted, we had to drag ourselves up front and wait for Av to get there. It was really pointless.

Once I identified myself as a fellow BBQer to pit boss/owner Louis Ekus, aka Papalou, we were treated very well. Papalou was really friendly and more than willing to talkabout his joint, his cooking processes and philosophies about Q. We really enjoyed him. He also bought us an order of wings. They were smoked, and had a great spicy honey glaze. Definatey try the wings if you visit.

Av, Cristiaan and myself all had the beef short rib. We each got a single rib, which was more than enough meat. It had a great smoked flavor, and was perfectly cooked. I got mine with sauce on the side, but Papalou recommends that you get it with sauce, as they finish it in the wood fired oven and it becomes like a candy crust. Will try it that way next time for sure.

Kim had the two meat platter. I tried the pork, which was sauced so I couldn't get a great read on the meat flavor. But it was good.

Av's two kids each had the kids rib platter. I got to take a bite of one of their ribs. They do St. Louis cut spares. I took one bite, and I found the rib meaty with a nice smoke flavor. The sides were good too, Cristiaan really enjoyed the roaster califlower. I had fries,which were just the way I like them, dark and flavorful.

They serve three different locally brewed beers, all of which were good. I also had some sweet tea, which was excellent.

Despite the rough start, we had a really nice time at Holy Smokes. Since it is so close to Interstate-91, we will definately visit again when returning from Vermont.

SouthernQue, Meriden CT

Just off East Main Street in Meriden, Connecticut, there’s a little slice of the south.

Don Washington has a trailer in the front yard of his home at 70 Pomeroy Street in Meriden, and operates his BBQ business called SouthernQue from there. I read about the place two years ago, and have been stopping by whenever I am in the area since. It is located very close to Interstate-91 and Route 15, ez-off, ez-on as they like to say.

The BBQ served by SouthernQue is a lot more of what you would expect from a trailer along a state road between Tuscaloosa and Huntsville, not a side road in Yankee-land. But if you’re looking for something different from most of the other northern retail BBQ offerings, you should make this one of your stops.

After years working for jet engine maker Pratt and Whitney, Don Washington fulfilled a dream and opened his BBQ trailer in his driveway. His home is zoned commercially, which allows him to run the business there. However, he was shut down for a few months last year when the city deemed that he needed a zoning variance. He got it, and is now going strong.

Don Washington

Washington has a serious Q setup. He has a Southern Yankee trailer, equipped with a full commercial kitchen and a major league smoker. The rig can cook more than 75 racks of ribs, around 500 pounds of shoulder or two whole hogs at once. It’s a rotisserie smoker, fueled completely with hickory logs.

The Trailer

The first few times I visited, I only got ribs. The ribs are definitely the star of the show at SouthernQue. They are nicely spiced, and have an extremely strong smoky flavor, as they are smoked for more than six hours. They only do spares, which are cooked untrimmed then cut down after cooking. The sauce can be served on the ribs or on the side. It’s an excellent tangy tomato vinegar sauce. I got mine on the side this time so I could really taste the meat.

My visit this past Saturday, I got a half rack of ribs, and a half pound each of pulled pork and brisket. The brisket is a relatively new menu addition.



Every time I have visited SouthernQue, the ribs have been consistently good. This time was no exception. The smoky meat and sweet tang of the sauce are a perfect compliment. These are true southern ribs. They normally come with sauce, I asked for it on the side.

The Ribs

The pulled pork is another place where Washington excels. The meat has a great smoky taste, and the sauce again is a fine compliment. I’ve had the pulled pork sandwiches here in the past, and they’re outstanding.

Pulled Pork

I tried the brisket for the first time. It was good, but some of the pieces were a little tough. I know this is the hardest of the meats to get right. There were only a few tough pieces, the rest was pretty tender and had a nice flavor.

Brisket

SouthernQue also has sides, including potato salad, coleslaw and collard greens. They’re only open Thursday through Saturday, with the occasional Sunday, from 11AM to 7PM. It’s mostly take out, but there are a couple of picnic tables if you want to eat on site.

Overall, I really enjoy visiting the trailer in Meriden. Now that I have moved to the eastern part of Connecticut, I don’t have as many opportunities to visit. But every time I do stop by, I see that the lines are getting longer, the number of regulars are on the rise, and the business is starting to take off. It’s always great to see someone succeed in the business of BBQ. I tried to talk Don into competing on the circuit sometime. He would do well.

If you’re on the road, make an effort to stop by and try some of this unique BBQ. You will not find anything quite like it in the Northeast.

Daisy May's BBQ

***Note: I wrote this back in December but forgot to post it***

Last Friday, we made our annual trip to New York City for the holiday season. Every year, we make the pilgrimage into Manhattan, go fight the obnoxious crowds at the Rockefeller Center to see the tree, and usually sample one of the fine restaurants the greatest city in the world has to offer. Rather than visit Les Halles, Gramercy Tavern or Union Square Café, we decided to visit the establishment of a fellow BBQ competitor.

We have wanted to visit Daisy May’s BBQ for some time now. I first read about Adam Perry Lang in Food and Wine magazine a while back, and finally had the chance to meet him when he kicked our butts at the Hudson Valley Ribfest in New Paltz in August. I only spoke to him briefly then, and met him again at the Jack.

Adam Perry Lang

Adam is not your regular BBQ competition cook. Most of them are a lot like me: fat guys who cooked so many racks of ribs that they got it down to a science, then realized we could gather with other fat guys, cook, eat, drink, camp, eat some more, cook some more, then collect small checks and cheap plastic trophies for our efforts. (Apologies to the in shape BBQ cooks.) Adam is a real chef, CIA grad, French trained, having cooked at arguably some of the best restaurants in NYC, including Restaurant Daniel under Chef Daniel Boulud, LeCirque and Chantrelle.

Adam is not a cook. He’s a chef. A very good one.

That being said, I really wanted to try his BBQ. I made sure not to eat a lot, so I could really feast when we got to Daisy May’s, which is his joint in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.

Talk about cross promotion!

Being it was a Friday night, I expected the place to be busy. It was surprisingly quiet, which I believe had a lot to do with the location at 11th Avenue and 46th Street. The restaurant is located in an industrial area, largely surrounded by car dealerships. I remarked to Sheila that if his place was three blocks east and had a bar, it would probably be mobbed 24/7. They probably do a pretty brisk lunch take out business though.

We missed Adam, as we arrived at 6:30 and the guy at the counter said he had left for the day.

The Counter

The layout is cafeteria style, you order in a line, then pick up your food either to go or to sit in the picnic tables located in the new dining area. The area was empty, but it appeared that they had a group coming in a little later because there were reserved signs placed on the tables while we were eating.

The Dining Area

We ordered the Kansas City sweet and sticky ribs, a brisket sandwich, chili, creamed corn and mashed potatoes.

The Ribs

Everything we had was delicious. The ribs were spares, meaty and smoky with just enough sauce. The meat was chopped on the brisket sandwich, and it was also very good. I was really blown away by the sides. The corn was the best I have ever had, and the chili was outstanding.

I wish I had tried the beef rib. I’ve read on a few other sites that it’s really good. We ate most of our food, brought some home, talked to some of the workers for a while, bought a few t-shirts and headed out.

I’m glad we made the trip. Adam's food lived up to our expectations, and then some. I highly recommend that if you're in the city, stop by and give his Q a try. You won't regret it. He also has two carts that he sends out into Midtown, 7th Avenue and 50th Street, and to 40 Wall Street in the financial district.

For more information visit www.daisymaysbbq.com

1st Annual Winter Sizzler, Lincoln, NH

When the plans were announced for the 1st annual Winter Sizzler in Lincoln, New Hampshire in mid January, I wasn’t sure whether or not I would participate.

Now, I’m really glad I did.

And not just because we did well.

It’s because we had such a great time, hanging out with the other teams that braved the cold and the snow to participate. And also because of the organizers, especially Eric Pyra of InnSeason Resorts, who went the extra mile to make sure the teams were comfortable.

Eric Pyra, Inn Season Resorts

He’s also our good luck charm, as every time he has been at an event we have done well.

The trip to Lincoln was a long one. We departed from Norwich, Connecticut at around 10:30 AM Saturday, and didn’t arrive on site until around three in the afternoon. It was just myself and my brother Cristiaan, as the girls sat this one out. Sheila was supposed to come up Sunday, but got really sick and stayed home.

The contest area was pretty well filled up when we got there. The back of our team site was a snow bank; in reality our site was around 12 feet by 25 feet of usable space. It was plenty for us in this event, as we scaled back our equipment, as we usually bring way too much crap we don’t need. We still had too much, but it wasn’t as bad. This is our camp site below.

The good part was that we were located next to Mike Boisvert’s team Lakeside Smokers. Mike is one of our favorite people on the circuit, and it was great to spend time with him, Kris, Shawn and Lisa.

Mike Boisvert, the "Lakeside Smoker"

The first part of the event was the wing competition. After much deliberation, we decided to do Buffalo wings, and to fry them. We had to turn in at least three pounds. We turned in ten pounds, and the camp stove we got at Wal-Mart worked really well, at least for this part of the competition. More on that later. We used a metal hotel pan to fry the wings, which were floured, then doused with Cristiaan’s sauce, which was great.

As it turned out, we were the only team to turn in Buffalo wings. The other teams were a lot more creative than us, and apparently that’s what the judges were looking for. No big deal, this was a comparative judging system, and the 12 judges could only vote for their favorite one. We got zero votes, but I still think they were damn good, regardless of the voting.

Once the butt and brisket was on, we decided to spend Saturday night visiting with the other teams and having a good time. At some of the previous competitions, especially the Jack, we took the event way too seriously and didn’t enjoy the company of some of the great people on other teams.

We hung around at the I Smell Smoke!!! Camp for a while. They had a big outdoor fireplace and it kept everyone warm. We had a lot of laughs with Steve, Charlie, Doug, Carlotta and Patrick, and pounded a few Jello shots. Cristiaan ate the worm in one of them; no ill effects too! They really have a great team, are a lot of fun, and win a lot. At first we were intimidated by them because of their success, but now that we know them, I consider them friends and am very happy for their success. It is well deserved.

Steve Farrin, Charile Pini and Doug Pini from I Smell Smoke!!!

We also shared beers with the wild bunch Q Ball, including Sean McCabe, who usually cooks as Bourbon and Beale, and Michelle from Lunchmeat. Nobody seemed fazed by the cold temperatures. It was a great night of camaraderie, and made the trip worthwhile alone.

Sleeping, that was another issue. I didn’t want to book a room at the resort, so we roughed it. We tried to use sleeping bags under our pop-up tent, and Cristiaan was able to get a few hours of sleep. My inflatable mattress sprung a leak, and within a half hour I was on the freezing ground because of the deflated mattress. I was so cold that I moved into the truck, cranked the heat and slept in the driver seat.

I probably slept two hours in 12 minute intervals.

Backing up, Sheila called during Saturday evening with bad news. She was planning on coming up early Sunday morning, bringing breakfast and garnish, but she had become very sick and wasn’t coming. She ended up going to the hospital, and fortunately it was just a viral infection instead of something more serious. But it was a little scary going straight from the competition to the hospital.

So in the morning, we had no coffee, no breakfast, and no garnish. Fortunately, there is a supermarket within walking distance of the competition site. Cristiaan walked over and got some green leaf and some curly parsley; they had no flat parsley. But it was better than nothing. Found coffee in the resort shops and we were ready to cook. It snowed all morning, which created some nice ambiance.

The chicken; I have been struggling with the skin since we started competing. Our first event last year in Rhode Island, we took 6th in chicken, and have gone downhill since. I went back to that exact preparation, smoked, then finished indirect on a hot grill, and it came out really well. Also, we turned in some drums for the first time. We took second place chicken, our first real call since New Hampshire in May.

The box comes through pretty sloppy in this picture. In fact, all of our boxes this weekend looked pretty sloppy to me. But we did clean this chicken box up a little after the picture, and the appearance scores were two 9’s, two 8’s and two 7’s.

Next was ribs, and they didn’t come out that great. They were average at best. I tried a new homemade rub and it didn’t work well. Took 9th out of 15, our worst score of the day.

The pork. This is a great story. I used a great injection on the butt we brought up for the event. However, the organizers also supplied a butt to us for the people’s choice pork competition they were having. However, somehow they got mixed up on the grill, and we ended up turning in the injected butt for the people’s choice instead of the Q competition as I had planned. We turned in the donated butt, which I just rubbed and threw onto the smoker.

We didn’t make the top 3 in people’s choice. However, we took 2nd place in the BBQ event. Go figure! Maybe the injection wasn’t as good as I thought.

The brisket was a problem from the start. I asked my butcher for a large brisket, 13 to 15 pounds. He came through with an 11 pounder. It was done very early, I pulled it at around 9AM at 195 degrees, wrapped in foil and a towel and held. It had great flavor but was pretty dry. The two judges that got the driest pieces didn’t appreciate it, and two gave us 5’s in tenderness. That cost us, and we finished 6th in brisket, .5 away from a call.

The last category of the day was chili. I practiced chili three times leading up to the event, and came up with a recipe I was really happy with. The cook went along fine, until the end. An hour before turn in, it was done, and I took it off the heat to hold. As turn in approached, I turned the camp stove back on, what I thought was low, and put the corner of the chili pot over the flame.

I went outside to talk to another team, and came in a few minutes later to find smoke billowing from the pot. I grabbed the pot and yanked it off the heat (burning my finger in the process) but the damage was done. A little of the burned flavor made it in. I sent a sample over to I Smell Smoke to see if they would notice, as I trust their opinions and know they wouldn’t sugarcoat it. They noticed, and that confirmed that I was screwed.

You can see the burn was small, but the damage was done.

I was stunned that the chili finished 6th, even with the burning. Some of the other teams must have turned in some pretty bad chili.

In the end, we got two calls and were reserve grand champions. That made the long drive home a lot easier. Cristiaan and I worked really well together, and had a lot of fun. It was a great way to start the year.

And it didn’t rain.

Back From Lincoln

We're back from Lincoln, NH, where Q Haven did well in the Winter Sizzler BBQ competition. We took home reserve grand champions, taking 2nd place in both pork and chicken. We had a great time at this unique and challenging event. I'll post a long winded, detailed account of our trip tonight or tomorrow.

Q Haven Team Site, Lincoln, NH

2007 Schedule

I have posted the planned Q Haven team schedule for 2007. We may add an event or two, based on whether or not we can all attend. Here's the tentative schedule.

- January 13-14: First Annual Winter Sizzler, Lincoln NH
- March 10th: Snoeshoe Grilling Challenge, Abington, MA
- March 31st: Grilling on the Bay, Brooklyn, NY
- May 19-20: Rhode Island State BBQ Championship, Warwick, RI
- May 26-28: Connecticut State Championship, Lime Rock, CT
- June 23-24: TBA
- July 6-8: Guitarbeque, Asbury Park, NJ
- July 28-29: Harpoon BBQ Championship of New England (hopefully)
- August 18-19: Hudson Valley Ribfest, New Paltz, NY
- September 8-9: Rib and Brews Festival, Lowell, MA

The TBA in June is because there are two New England events that are apparently scheduled for the same weekend. One is the New Hampshire Rock-n-Ribfest, where we won grand champions in 2006. The other is scheduled to be held in East Hartford, Connecticut, which is a half-hour from our house. If the contest schedule remains the same, we will have to make a difficult decision. I am leaning towards the CT event, just based on logistics.

I hope to add one or two more events during the summer, we'll have to see if we can make it work.

Going to Lincoln

Well it's official, the check and application is in the mail, we're going to Lincoln for the Winter Sizzler BBQ Competition.

I'm starting to get excited. The month of December is flying by, the holidays will fly by, next thing we know it will be MLK weekend and time to get back to it. I really expected that after the Jack, there would be at least five months of relative inactivity before the grilling competitions in March and the New England season opener in Rhode Island in May. Now we have something much closer to look forward to.

Q Haven started off so well in our rookie season. Third place in Rhode Island, grand champions at New Hampshire, then we hit the wall. Three more competitions including the Jack, and only one call. That was for dessert at the Jack, and they gave us the wrong ribbon. They took it away and told us they would send us a new one, and now I can't get anyone to answer e-mails about it.

Adding insult to injury, we recently got amended scores from the Jack, and apparently they forgot to add the international teams when they tallied the scores, and now they're saying we were 12th in dessert, not 10th. We probably should have kept that 5th place sauce ribbon, as I highly doubt we will be getting the one we were called to the stage for. The whole scoring thing was a complete mess, they need to work that out.

I went off on a Jack tangent there, but the real point is that I am not really happy with the way things went in those last three events. The first two events, I relied on my research and practice and it paid off. After that, everyone wanted to be more involved, with the added pressure of additional family and friends coming to events and being interested in what was going on. While that is great when people are interested, it can be a distraction and cause me to lose focus.

Hopefully we will be able to get the ship going straight again in 2007. I've already done a few practice cooks over the last month, and will keep practicing until the busy season comes in the spring.

In the meantime, I'm going to get a little "spying" in this week. Sheila and I are going into New York City on Friday to do the whole Christmas thing, and are planning to stop by Adam Perry Lang's restaurant Daisy May's BBQ in Manhattan. I hear good things, and am looking forward to sampling his Q.

The Q Mobile

The days of renting cargo vans to get to and from BBQ competitions are now over.

I have traded in my beloved 2005 Ford Mustang for a Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer. It's a whole lot of truck, with a big V8 for hauling stuff and all the bells and whistles to keep my wife happy.

This is something I have been considering for some time as part of our competition plan for 2007. It just gets way too expensive to compete when in addition to meat, entry fees and all the other associated costs, you have to pay $200 to $250 for a cargo van and the fuel for a vehicle that gets 8 miles to the gallon.

Having our own truck will make a huge difference this year. With a Mustang and a VW Jetta, we certainly couldn't get it done with our own vehicles. It also removed the biggest financial constraint to competing for us, the van rentals. It will allow us to hit so many more events.

It was so difficult to get rid of the Mustang. I loved that car. It was two years ago today that I bought it. I was one of the first people to get it with the new body style, and it was so much fun to drive. I kept it in immaculate condition, and had a great Sirius install. While I will miss driving the Stang, I do not regret the decision. We are committed to BBQ competitions for the long haul, and now we have the wheels to guide us on our journey.

The Stang

Now, I can turn my sights to what I want to pull with the truck. Right now I'm somewhat torn between a pop-up camper or a cargo trailer. I despise sleeping in tents, and am very intrigued by the pop up camper idea. We could fit it right in our site at most competitions, and be able to sleep comfortably. Also, if it is nice enough, maybe it will reduce the amount we spend on hotels!

BBQ in the Snow?

Are these the right conditions for a BBQ competition?

That's the question I am asking myself tonight.

An innocent comment from Steve Farrin of I Smell Smoke! on the New England BBQ Society message boards about wanting a winter competition quickly escalated, and now there is a full event scheduled for Martin Luther King Day weekend in January in the mountains of New Hampshire.

No, that's not a typo, it says New Hampshire.

The event is to be held at the Inn Season resort in Lincoln, New Hampshire. The hotel looks nice, and the event would take place in a plowed parking lot at the hotel. If the temperatures are not too cold and there is no snow, the event could be fine. However, too many things could go wrong.

For example, what happens if there is a blizzard the day of the event, or the day before, or if for some reason the weather makes the contest impossible. I would be out hundreds of dollars in costs for entry fees, hotel rooms meat, etc. Also, if it is below zero, will I be able to maintain temperatures warm enough to cook? Will I freeze to death? The AVERAGE low is 5 degrees for January in Lincoln, NH. The average high is 25 degrees.

I'm still on the fence on this one. It seems that most of the big New England teams are planning to cook at the event, and I do want to be involved. However, I'm not sure what to do. Hopefully a few people will read this blog and post their thoughts.

The Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational BBQ

The planning for “The Jack” began in the minutes that followed learning that we had won the New Hampshire draw and were invited. The weeks of planning culminated Tuesday morning, October 24th, when I picked up the cargo van from Enterprise and we began packing the massive pile of equipment, coolers and other assorted items for the trip. At around 1PM, we were on our way to arguably the most prestigious BBQ competition in the world.

First, here is some background for those of you who have not been following the Q Haven blog this year. I decided to try my hand at competition BBQ this past May. We came out of the box with a lot of success, taking 3rd place overall in our first event in Rhode Island in May, then a few weeks later we amazingly won grand champion of the New Hampshire Rock-n-Ribfest. We competed twice more over the summer, and “The Jack” was our fifth ever competition.

While I think my Q is pretty good, I feel we were extremely lucky to have this opportunity. There are many teams in New England, and certainly nationwide that were much more deserving than us to be attending this event. But we were in, and I wanted to make sure we didn’t embarrass ourselves too much and that we would represent New England well. I hope we did. Here is my story of the week, the good, the bad and the ugly.

I covered the trip down to Lynchburg in previous blog posts. I was hoping to make it down to Lynchburg Thursday morning, but instead we arrived at around 3PM because of heavy traffic in Knoxville and getting a slow start in the morning. When we arrived, the volunteers were very helpful and showed us to our site.

The site was huge, at least 50 feet by 50 feet, with a water and power hook-up in the back. The site was in a high traffic area, and was bordered in the rear by a creek. We also had a port-o-potty in the rear of the site, which I cannot recommend enough. It was so great to have our own facilities, we will definitely do this at future competitions whenever possible.

We were situated right across a gully from cancersuckschicago.com. Their RV had its back to us so we didn't see them much. Turns out their pit boss Scotty's father died Friday, but he was somehow able to carry on and he won the grand championship. I have never met Scotty, but all accounts are that he is a great man and has lived through a tremendous amount of adversity. My thoughts go out to him, and I give him tremendous credit for being able to do what he did.

It was dark and overcast throughout Thursday afternoon, but the rain held off until we got our basic site setup complete. Sheila and I stayed in a hotel Thursday night, but Cristiaan, Kim, Kathleen and John wanted to camp out. They certainly regretted it, as it poured most of the night.

Unfortunately, it poured most of Friday too. This dampened our spirits, and our well-organized site quickly became a mess because everything had to be brought inside. We had to put up the walls to our pop up tents and basically lock up inside to stay out of the rain and cold, stiff winds. Fortunately, we had a drainage ditch next to our site, so it did not flood at all. I used most of the day to trim, season, inject and marinate our competition meats.

We were entered in the “Happiest Home in the Hollow” competition, which was an event where teams decorated their sites to reflect their home state spirit. We decorated the best we could, despite the bad weather. We all wore Connecticut or UConn shirts and hats, hung a lot of Jack Daniel’s signs and banners. Also, the plan was to give away slices of Mystic Pizza and cups of New England clam chowder. The crowds were thin because of the weather, and we never did see any judges. Buttrub.com won the event. I guess the judges made it to their site.

Late Friday afternoon, the weather cleared for a while, and that was perfect timing for the parade. It was really cool; every team lined up and paraded into the town square. There were hundreds of people lining the streets, waving to the crowds. For a few minutes, we felt like rock stars.

After the parade, we went to the reception at the pavilion at the Jack Daniel’s distillery. I hope that nobody thinks that I am being negative about the event, but this was a disappointment. We ended up waiting forever for the school bus to bring us up there. We then ended up waiting forever on line for food, which only consisted of bowls of chili, cornbread, nacho chips and apples with Jack Daniel’s sauce. Once we had food, we couldn’t find seats and the team had to scatter to sit down and eat all over the place. The positive was the open bars serving Jack & Cokes and Lynchburg Lemonades. If we ever go back I will skip the banquet.

The rain returned Friday night, and after getting the butts and briskets on, Cristiaan tended to the fires and I got a few hours of sleep in the tent.

We were one of the few teams to be “roughing it” by sleeping in tents. It seemed that most of the teams had these massive RV’s with all the luxury of a Manhattan townhouse. I have to get me one of those…..

I got up around 5AM and basically worked non-stop until we finished loading the van and pulled out of town Saturday night.

This being our rookie season and obviously our first Jack, I wanted us to experience everything. We entered all seven categories, were selling rub and t-shirts, and agreed to give away samples to the public. We had a lot of help from family and others to work the various stations, but it still was crazy. There were so many people, and I tried to accommodate all of them when the asked questions about the cookers, the team, etc.

Too many people to mention came by and said “Connecticut? They have barbeque in Connecticut?” It was really funny, and all good-natured. Our site was mobbed all day long, between people buying rub, or seeing the chaffing dishes and looking for samples, or just stopping by to say hi.

Somebody who was a friend of Andy King of the Bastey Boys came by, I believe his name was Johnny. He was a really nice guy. We also had special guests, Chuck and Lisa Edman, a couple we met earlier this month in Jamaica. They happen to live in Shelbyville, and we were happy they were able to make it to see us.

The rub sales went well, we sold all 75 bottles I made by around 3PM. We probably could have sold another 25, wish I had made more. Unfortunately, we didn’t sell any t-shirts, probably because I overpriced them at $15.

Turn-in’s began at 12:00 with sauce. I made an apple “Jack” sauce, but I wasn’t blown away with the flavor. I had Cristiaan work on it and he spruced it up a bit, and the sauce finished 24th, not bad.

Next was cook’s choice, which I delegated the preparation to Cristiaan so I could focus on the BBQ that needed to be tended to in the smokers. We made flank steak. It was flash grilled, rolled with a crabmeat mixture and then smoked for a while. It was finished with béarnaise, which is my father’s specialty, and he pitched in on the preparation. The judges seemed to like it, as it came in 13th place out of the 35 U.S. teams that participated.

Next was chicken. For the first time in our short history, we were required to cook both white and dark meat. I cooked thighs for the dark meat, and then smoked two whole chickens for the white meat. I detached the breasts and sliced them, placing the best one in the bottom of the box with six thighs. I didn’t like the way the box looked overall, and it came in 35th place.

Looking at the picture, I can't believe that one of the judges actually gave us a 9 for chicken appearance.

Next were ribs. I probably should have cooked spares, and judges in the south are probably more used to them. However, I always cook loin backs, and I wasn’t going to try something new. I thought they had great flavor, probably not our best but still pretty good. Again, I was unhappy with the box, but because of time constraints I went ahead and turned them in. Ribs placed 36th out of 65.

Next was pork, and I really felt this was our best category of the day. The meat and bark had great flavor, and I thought the presentation was our best ever for pork. It scored 20th, which was our best Q score of the day.

Next was brisket. I really thought it came out great. I thought the tenderness was right on and it had nice flavor. The judges disagreed. Brisket finished 44th place, not last but towards the bottom.

Finally, the last category was dessert. I delegated this category to Sheila and gave her total control over what to make. She did tons of research, and decided to make a chocolate trifle. After several test cooks, I knew it was great. The judges agreed, and we got our only call and ribbon for 10th place dessert.

I am so proud of Sheila, and because of her we were able to bring home something for our trophy case.

Well, we were supposed to take it home.

Once the excitement subsided, I looked at the ribbon and it was not for dessert, it said “5th place sauce.” The envelope for the check also said “5th place sauce.” Sheila brought them up to the woman at the side of the stage and alerted her to the problem. They took away the ribbon and the check, and told her they couldn’t deal with it now. She had to walk away empty handed. Afterwards, they told us that they would mail the correct ribbon and check to us at a later date. At least we got the walk.

Meanwhile, as we completed our turn-ins, all of the leftover meat was given away to the public. I cooked extra meat so we would have a lot to give away. We made around 25 thighs, two whole chickens which were pulled and sauced, 10 racks of ribs, three butts, two 14 pound packer briskets and an additional brisket flat.

As soon as we opened our sampling buffet, our site was completely mobbed. One by one, each of our trays of meat was devoured by the public. This helped us sell rub, which was the marketing plan, although I know free food was the main motivation.

We had a great time serving the people who attended the event. All of us on the team either have worked or currently work in restaurants, and we embraced the chance to serve the Q fans. However, if we ever are lucky enough to go back to the Jack, we probably will not do it the same way, but it was awesome to get so much attention from people at the event, and they seemed to really enjoy our food and hospitality.

We met some great people, and I had the chance to meet some of the best Q’ers in the world. Being able to meet Ray Lampe AKA Dr. BBQ was a big thrill too. Also was able to spend a little bit of time with some of the other people I look up to on the competition circuit, including Steve Farrin and the Pinis of “I Smell Smoke,” Chris Hart and company from iQue, and the family from Dirty Dick’s Legless Wonders.

The “Dirty Dicks” were next to us at our very first competition back in May. That seems like a lifetime ago. They helped saved our tent and were so great to us that day in so many ways. I’m glad we were able to repay the favor a little bit by lending Richard a vegetable peeler for the “I Know Jack” event.

Sorry this has been such a long post. I have so much more to say, and so many other stories to tell. As a competition rookie to go to what I consider the Super Bowl of BBQ is a huge accomplishment, and we feel honored to have had this chance. Who knows when the next one will come, or if we will ever go again. I hope all of our fellow competitors get the same opportunity.

For a lot more pictures visit our web site at www.qhavenbbq.com

What A Day

What an exciting, exhilarating day today was. I will fill in the blanks in the coming days, as I am currently in a hotel around two hours away from Lynchburg and don't recall ever feeling quite so tired.

Here's the short of it. We had two goals coming to Lynchburg, not to finish last and to hopefully get a call in a category. Both things happened.

We finished 40th overall out of 65 teams (24th sauce, 17th cook's choice, 35th chicken, 36th ribs, 20th pork, 44th brisket. We got a call for 10th place dessert, which my wife Sheila gets 100 percent credit for. My only credit is that I tasted her dessert entry numerous times during the last few weeks as she prepared. But to hear our name called in that venue is something I will not soon forget.

The weather was perfect today, a far cry from yesterday, when it poured most of the day and was freezing at night.

We met many great Q'ers during our 3 days in Lynchburg. We also met so many great people who wandered over to our site to say hello or to watch us at work.

We gave away samples, and that attracted a few people.

We got to see some fellow New Englanders have huge success, including iQue winning both the "I know Jack about grilling" event and the cook's choice category. Also, Dirty Dick's Legless Wonders took first place chicken and 4th overall.

There is so much I want to say but I am completely exhausted. More to come....

Lynchburg

After a loooong drive from Elizabethton to Lynchburg (including getting lost twice) we finally rolled in to Lynchburg at around 3PM. Everyone was friendly and they led us right to our site. Fred at Jack Daniel's told me he would hook us up with a great site and he certainly did not disappoint.

Here is what our site looked like upon arrival. Will post what it looked like once decorating is complete.


Our site is around 50 feet by 50 feet, located in a high traffic area, right in front of the main entrance to the competition. Hopefully that will help us sell rub and t-shirts. We have water and power, so we will not need to use the generator we borrowed. A creek runs right behind our site. We spent around three hours setting up our site, and fortunately the rain didn't come until we were finished for the night.

We went to Crockett's in Tullahoma for dinner, and enjoyed several Lynchburg lemonades. I've decided that will be my libation of choice this weekend, with the exception of the occasional shot. I won't be drinking too much though, someone has to keep a slightly clear head.

Staying in the Hampton Inn in Tullahoma, nice place, not far from Lynchburg. I recommend the place to fellow Q'ers who are in the area. A little pricey at $140, but I'm sure everyone jacks up their prices this week.

Met Ray Lampe, aka Dr BBQ today. This was a big thrill for me, as I have read his books and have seen a lot of him on TV. He said that he knew of us and knew we were coming, with surprised me, this heavy hitter even knows that I exist.

Also saw the boys from iQue and the Dirty Dicks, was nice to reconnect with fellow New Englanders. Everyone seems to be the same as us, really just happy to be there and soaking it all in. I know this could be a once in a lifetime thing, so I'm making sure we take time to smell the roses (and the sour mash).

To our friends at Lunchmeat: If there is a team out there that deserves to be here, it is you. Lunchmeat epitomizes what I feel competitive BBQ is all about, and I really hope you get the chance to come here and experience this.

I hope we're here again with you.