ABT's!

I had meant to cook these at the Snowshoe, but ended up making them when we got back. So good!

Snoeshoe

Cooked the Snowshoe Grilling Challenge last weekend in Abington, Massachusetts. I felt pretty good about the recipe plans going into the event, but it just didn't work out well. The team list was strong, but I feel we could have done much better with better execution.

We got on site at around 7:30 AM. That was plenty early, as the only thing we were cooking that would take any time is the sausage fatty. The rest of the categories, fish, beef and vegetable, were all short cook recipes.

Our setup was bare bones. Since it was sunny, we didn't even take the pop up tent out of the Ford Explorer. Two tables, two plastic bins of supplies, one cooler. We fit everything for the event in our SUV, and didn't even have to tie anything to the roof. We did all the prep at home Friday night, so all we really had to do was show up and cook.

The fish category, I had planned to play it safe and do a grilled swordfish. That's something I have cooked many times before, and gotten several calls for it. However, while I was on the way to buy fish, Sheila called and pitched a recipe for a pistashio encrusted salmon. We talked about it and decided to give it a try.

How did it taste? Well, we will never know. I only purchased one large Atlantic salmon filet, and we cooked it whole, and turned the whole thing in. It was finished with a teriyaki glaze, which I had planned to drizzle from a squirt bottle. However, a chunk of the dice in the sauce clogged the top of the squirt bottle, and when it came out it blasted a huge blob of sauce on the fish. I tried to salvage the appearance but it didn't look that great.

The fish took 9th place out of 17 teams. I could not find a judge to admit having eaten it. It appeared to be very moist. If any judge cares to admit having it please shoot me an e-mail to qhaven@comcast.net and give me some feedback.

Next was sausage fatty. In case you do not know what that is, it is sausage (usually breakfast) either stuffed or mixed with cheese and other ingredients, then hit with some BBQ rub and smoked. I used my usual fatty recipe,and it just missed the mark, taking 6th place.

Next was beef of any kind. This was our worst category of the day. I cook steaks all the time, both at home and in grilling contests. However, with the strong team list, I decided to cook a tenderloin. I seared it, then roasted it with a gorganzola panko crust. Finished with a red wine reduction. I didn't have enough usable pieces so I had to half them, and the box did not look good. 12th place.

The final category was vegetables. We decided to make vegetable quesadillas, with Sheila's famous salsa, jalapenos, a blend of cheddar and jack cheeses, finished with a dallop of limed sour cream. We could have assembled these hours earlier. However, we didn't. We barely made the steak turn in time, and were scrambling to get these finished and in the box. Still, took 6th place.

So overall we got no calls and finished 9th place of the 17 teams. Could have been better. You can't make key mistakes like I did and expect to finish among the top teams that were at the event. While I was unhappy and a little embarrased by the showing, it's not the end of the world. We learned a lot and will be ready for the next one, whenever that is.

Sunday Night Dinner

A little bummed about the pedestrian showing at the Snowshoe yesterday, I decided to do some cooking today. Guess I needed to show myself that I could still cook.


With Sheila gone for the day on business, I decided to cook a rack of lamb that I've had in the freezer for a while. Sheila doesn't eat lamb, so this was a good opportunity.

Rubbed the rack of lamb with coarse ground mustard, then fresh chopped rosemary, fresh ground pepper and kosher salt. Pan seared, then 14 minutes at 450 in the oven. Nice medium rare.

Served over roasted garlic mashed potatoes, finished with a port wine demi. Great blend of flavors. Would have been in the top 5....

Back From The Snowshoe

There was no snow but it was pretty cold yesterday at the Snowshoe grilling challenge in Abington, Massachusetts. Just missed calls with 6th place in the sausage fatty and vegetable categories, and we came away empty handed for the event. We finished 9th overall out of 17 teams. But it was a lot of fun seeing people, and we had a really good time. It was around 35 degrees and windy, but the sun stayed out all day.

As always, we learned some stuff for next time. Needed a chicken wing category! More later....

There Must Be A Competition Coming Up

Had a dream last night that I forgot to cook or turn in chicken at a BBQ contest. Everything else was turned in at the wrong time, and we got a score of zero. That's how I know a competition is coming up. It takes over the mind.

We go to the Snoeshoe Grilling Challenge on Saturday. It will be an extremely competitive event. I can't wait to get there.

Route 7 Grill, Great Barrington, MA

Last weekend, we started our trip to upstate New York with a little detour. Rather than taking the highways, we drove Route-44 from Hartford into Litchfield County, then up into Great Barrington, MA for dinner at Route-7 Grill, before continuing on to our stop near Binghamton, NY.

The place was easy enough to find, you guessed it, right on heavily traveled Route 7 in the quaint Berkshires town of Great Barrington. I had learned of the place last year, when the New England Barbeque Society held a road trip there. I was intrigued by the menu when I considered the trip, which struck me as a little more upscale than your regular BBQ joint. For some reason I couldn't go on the road trip.

My intrigue grew when I saw a review on PigTrip.net which featured a picture of a dinosaur beef rib that looked really good. But from where we live in Norwich, CT, it is a hike, so I didn't have a chance to get up there until now.

You are greeted by a great hearth fireplace as you enter the restaurant.

This picture and the one at the top of the post were stolen from the Route 7 web site. There is also a neat bar area with a curved bar, and a large, open dining room. That's where we sat.

As I looked over the menu, I saw several things that were trying to talk me out of what I had planned to order here for weeks: the dinosaur beef rib. They offered a chef's BBQ tasting menu, what could possibly be better than that? They also had a few sampling platters that sounded great. They offer all the BBQ staples, spare and baby back ribs, brisket, pork, chicken.

An interesting note is that the owners have decided to use all locally grown products. Nice touch.

There are also all kinds of other things to eat in addition to BBQ, including locally raised steaks, meatloaf and pasta dishes.

We started with the house smoked chicken wings with BBQ sauce. Several apps caught my eye, including the scallops wrapped in bacon (one of my favorites) and the spiced shrimp. But the wings were great, nice smoke flavor, big, moist, flavorful. Good choice.

I stuck to my guns and got the beef rib. What arrived was one huge rib, with lots of meat and great marbling. It certainly lived up to my expectations. It came with sauce on it, which I probably do without next time. It's nothing against the sauce really, but more of a personal preference these days for me. Especially in a case like this, where the meat is so flavorful that it stands on its own. Had fries and onion strings as sides, both were great.

Sheila being pregnant, she has not really had a taste for BBQ lately. She ordered the Cobb salad with maple bacon vinaigrette, and liked it a lot. She says everything was super fresh, and she particularly liked the large pieces of cheddar cheese that came in the salad.


She also had a side of macaroni and cheese, which she described as some of the best she has ever had. And Sheila is a connoisseur of good mac and cheese.

We had such a fine meal that I was in a good enough mood to allow the waitress to talk me into a piece of house baked velvet chocolate cake that was really good. It was huge, and I was only able to finish half of it.

Overall, we had a great meal and an enjoyable stop at Route 7 Grill. This place was right up my alley. Great food and service, a good vibe in the place (not to mention clean bathrooms!). If I lived anywhere near Great Barrington we would eat here. A lot.

In fact, we are going to Albany, NY for my niece's 4th birthday party today, and I have already began lobbying to take a long cut home and visit again on the ride home.

What A Bummer

Another competition goes by the wayside.

It was revealed this week what I had expected, that the BBQ contest Memorial Day weekend at Lime Rock park here in Connecticut has officially been cancelled. That followed news that the East Hartford contest would not be happening this year, and there will be no state championship in Maine and Rhode Island either.

That means that out of the six New England states, only Vermont and Massachusetts are certain to have qualifying contests for 2008. New Hampshire may have one too, but ongoing venue problems and a weak prize pool have made it possible that the June event in Merrimack may not be able to attract the minimum of 25 teams it needs to be a qualifier.

Fortunately, some outstanding events have developed in nearby New York. The I Love BBQ Festival in Lake Placid, the Hudson Valley Ribfest in New Paltz and the Battle of the BBQ Brethren were all huge successes in 2007 and are returning in 2008.

But what can we do to get Jack Daniel's qualifiers in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine? I wish I had the answers, but I don't. But it is a shame that those states have no qualifier, as I would love to see more New England teams have a chance to go to the Jack. Unfortunately, there will probably only be three or four New England teams heading to the 2008 Jack. That's a shame.

I personally pledge to do whatever I can to get an '09 qualifier in Connecticut. Even if it means holding a contest in a vacant lot.

St. Patrick's Day

It's not BBQ but.....

With my wife's maiden name being Keenan, I again took a shot at St. Patrick's Day corned beef and cabbage. Not my best effort but not my worst either. Mixed 2 tablespoons honey with 2 tablespoons coarse ground mustard, roasted on a rack 2 and a half hours at 350. Boiled the potatoes and steamed the cabbage.

Brisket was only a little tougher than my competition brisket lately...

Danny's Little Taste Of Texas

Met up with BBQ reviewer extraordinaire Gary Goldblatt of Pigtrip.net Thursday night for a little BBQ at Danny's Little Taste of Texas in South Windsor, CT. Was a good time, and we had some pretty good Q for the most part.

The place was empty when we arrived at around 6:00 PM. It seems to me that they probably do a lot of takeout there, and are probably busier for lunch than for dinner. We took a booth in a more isolated area. The country music was pretty loud, and the decor featured all kinds of pictures, plates and other assorted trinkets with a Texas theme.

We started out with the smoked BBQ wings and a deep fried buffalo burger. The wings were ok, pretty dry but they tasted good. Half were sauced, the other half not.

I didn't like the deep fried burger at all. It was well done, and as a medium rare guy it just didn't taste right. I'm sure a lot of people would have really liked it, but it just wasn't my thing.

We got buffalo chili as the side order with the burger. I liked the chili's flavor, but it was loaded with large tomato pieces and beans, with very little meat. But don't get me wrong, it tasted good, and I ate most of it.


Sidebar: I'm sitting in a coffee shop called Phoenix Coffee in Canandigua, NY writing this. I came here because the place has a big Wi-Fi sign outside designed to lure people like me in. The owner of the place just came over and told me and a guy at the table next to us that in order to plug in our laptops, we have to pay a one-dollar "electric use fee." People never cease to amaze me. The place is also blaring some kind of religious chamber music. I know it is Palm Sunday but come on...

Back on topic: For the main courses, we ordered a special of a half rack of ribs and fries for $10, along with a combo of pulled brisket and pulled pork. The ribs were baby backs, and were clearly the best thing I had all night. They had a strong smoke flavor, were very tender and meaty. There was sauce, but just enough to compliment the rest of the flavors.


The beef and pork combo, the meat tasted ok. However, I honestly could not figure out which one was the beef and which one was the pork. Gary says the beef is the one in the cup, but I still believe they could have been interchanged and nobody would have noticed. But overall, they didn't taste bad. But I doubt the beef was brisket, was probably some other cut of beef, pulled.

Towards the end of the meal, owner Dan Ford came over and said hello. Nice guy, still hasn't lost his Texas accent, despite living in the middle of Yankeeland. Waiter must have tipped him off to the guys in the back booth taking pictures of the food.

Another sidebar: They just turned the chamber music off. Thank god (no pun intended).

Overall, the food was ok. They clearly make an effort to cook BBQ they way it is supposed to be done. They missed the mark in some places,and I personally feel the menu is way too big. I would scale it back a little and focus on their BBQ core. But I understand why they offer so much. They probably feel that in the CT suburbs, you have to appeal to the masses. They have been open for some time, so it is a formula that seems to be working.

I had a nice time with Gary talking about Q and competing. He is considering taking the leap into the competition scene, and I think he should do it. He has eaten enough Q to know the difference between good and bad. I think he will do well.

On The Road

It's 11:40 PM and I'm sitting in a hotel room in Oneonta, NY. I came along for the ride with Sheila, who has to do presentations for her job Saturday and Sunday. We hit Route 7 Grill in Great Barrington on the way up. I'll be writing about that tomorrow, along with a trip to a CT BBQ joint that I took with Gary Goldblatt of Pigtrip.net on Thursday.

Freeze Your Butt Off Competition, Maynard, MA

After a venue change, the Freeze Your Butt Off BBQ competition took place as scheduled this past weekend in Maynard, Massachusetts. It was supposed to be at Jiminy Peak Ski Area, but was moved a week before to the Maynard Rod and Gun Club.


I went into this event looking at it as a great place to try out the new Backwoods smoker in a contest setting. I knew the team list was tough, and the chances of winning were slim, but since this was not a KCBS sanctioned event it was the perfect place for a trial smoker run.

The stress level was high well before we even packed up and left for the event. The forecast called for anywhere between four inches and a foot of snow through the entire region. Based on this, I was unsure whether or not to bring the camper. However, almost all of our competition stuff was packed into the camper, and going up without it would have been a real mess.

The good news was that where I live in Norwich, CT, we mostly just got rain. While there was more snow up near the contest site, I was confident that I could bring the camper. I was right. The roads were fine all the way there, and we arrived without incident.

Once we were unpacked, the camper again proved its value. The furnace worked great, and the thing is so well insulated that it was extremely warm and comfortable all weekend. Sheila was not at this contest, as she was stuck going to Reno for the weekend on business. My brother Cristiaan and his girlfriend Kim rounded out the team for the weekend.

We arrived in Maynard at around 1:30 p.m., and most of the other teams were already there. We got a nice spot in the middle of the lot, with iQue on one side of us, I Smell Smoke on the other and Transformer BBQ right behind us. Great neighbors all around. A total of 13 teams competed in the contest.

The people's choice wings contest was cancelled because of the venue change, so we had a potluck dinner made by members of the assorted teams, along with some who were not competing and just came down to hang out. It was great to see so many people from the competition scene after months of inactivity. Saturday night was great, just a lot of people hanging out, enjoying adult beverages and having a good time.

Once the party was over, we all passed out. Unfortunately, a miscommunication between Cristiaan and myself caused neixther of us to check the smoker holding our pork and brisket for several hours. By the time I realized it at four a.m., the smoker temperature had dropped to 170. Not good. Fortunately, I was able to get the temperature back up quickly. The lesson here is to make sure that charcoal pan is packed full before going to bed, whether I think someone is going to be watching the pit or not.

Anyway, the snafu basicly meant that I didn't get very much sleep. I normally like to sleep from 1a.m. until around 5:45 a.m. on turn in day, which usually keeps me feeling good throughout the day Sunday. Instead, I felt like crap all day.

Overall though, the cooking went well. My chicken recipe is getting better and is coming together well. I've been grilling chicken instead of smoking it, and it has finally started to bear fruit. We got called for 4th place chicken.

Ribs, I knew were going to be a problem once I started cutting into the racks. We pulled the ugliest of the four racks I cooked off a little early to sample them. They were great, and the tenderness was right on. Unfortunately, we ate the best ribs I had cooked. The other three racks were a little tougher, and it showed in the scores. Ribs were 7th place, our worst score of the day.

Next was pork. I really haven't changed our pork recipe from last year. it has been doing pretty well, so I decided not to mess with it. Another fourth place finish.

By now you're probably saying "wait a minute, where are the pictures?" Well, after discussions with some of the other teams, I have decided not to post the BBQ turn in box pictures any more. I will post grilling and chef's choice pictures, but not BBQ. Sorry!

Anyway, brisket was next. This was a relatively new recipe I was trying, complete with a new injection. The flavor was great, but again I just have not been able to get the tenderness I have been looking for lately. Scored OK though, 5th place.

Finally, the last category was an "Iron Chef" type deal. However, despite the rules calling for teams receiving a "mystery meat" to cook, we received a jar of spaghetti sauce, a head of garlic and a package of spaghetti. Ugh.

Since there was no cash prize for this category, and only a trophy for first place, I decided not to go out to the store and spend money on a meat. I had prepared for the category based on the expectation of receiving a "mystery meat." I brought stocks and spices, not something to make pasta.

So I decided not to sauce several pieces of chicken we had cooked for the BBQ contest, then pull the chicken. We roasted the head of garlic, and sauteed the chicken with some of the tomato sauce and a little red wine. We boiled the spaghetti, placed a bed in the turn in box, topped it with the chicken concoction, then shredded a little cheese for garnish. Somehow took 4th place, go figure.

So, in the end, it was a pretty good weekend scoring wise. We finished 5th overall, and got three more medals for the collection and learned a lot about the Backwoods in competition. Am I happy that we finished 5th? Not really. But I see this as a building block for the future. Hopefully we will be able to get a few more contests in before Sheila has the baby in July.

Back From The FYBO

Got back last night from the Freeze Your Butt Off BBQ contest at the Maynard Rod and Gun Club in Maynard, Massachusetts. We did pretty well, getting calls for 4th place chicken, 4th place pork and 5th place brisket, finishing 5th overall with almost all the best teams in New England in attendance. Was a difficult contest, but overall I am pretty happy with the results.

Sorry I didn't get much written about this contest last week leading up to the event, but I'll get a full post up recapping the weekend in the next few days.

Jiminy Peak Contest Moved

The BBQ competition scheduled for this coming weekend at the Jiminy Peak Ski Area has been Moved to the Maynard Rod and Gun Club in Maynard, MA.

The explanation we have been given is that since they are having such a good ski season, they don't want to sacrifice parking space and other resources for the weekend.

We apologize to all our family in the Albany area who had planned to come, along with other family and friends who made plans to come that have now been forced to change with so little notice.

Anyway, I guess the good news is that the contest is still on. Logistically, it is actually a lot better for me with the new location, as the place the camper is stored is right along the way. Hopefully this will be the last change and the event will go off as planned.

Nothing's Cooking

On the smoker, that is.

But in three weeks, that should all be changing with the Freeze Your Butt Off BBQ contest that is being held March 1st and 2nd at the Jiminy Peak ski area in Western Massachusetts. It looks like the summer cooking season is going to be pretty much lost this year, with Sheila due July 22nd. So all I have to look forward to competition wise is a couple of early season events.

Hopefully the FYBO will happen. But there are only nine teams signed up so far, and they need at least 12. When the contest was first announced, tons of people on the message boards said "count me in!" Then, of course, they started dropping like flies, probably worried about the cold temperatures.

I'm sure all the hardcore New Englanders will be there. I Smell Smoke!!!!!, Lunchmeat, iQue, and Transformer BBQ will all be there. Q Ball is coming too. I hope a few other teams get off the fence and sign up. it would be a bummer to see this contest get cancelled.

I believe 16 teams came out last January for the Winter Sizzler in New Hampshire. It was cold, it snowed, and we all had a great time. I'm sure this one will be fun too. I hope it happens.

Giants Win!!!!

Unbelievable...the Giants did it, knocking off the undefeated and supposedly unbeatable Patriots.

To all my friends in Massachusetts...sorry about that!

Super Bowl Smoke

No better excuse than the Giants being in the Super Bowl to fire up the smoker. Also, I have a contest in less than a month, and I need to stay focused and practice.

Cooked up some ABT's and some wings. ABT's look a little burnt, but they just got his with too much smoke. Still learning that you don't need to use that much wood with the Backwoods!

Made these with pulled pork. I really do prefer ABT's with Italian sausage. But they were still pretty good.

Also smoked up some wings, marinated, hit with some Plowboy's Yardbird Rub, smoked around three hours, then hit em with a little sauce. Came out great!

Go Giants!!!

Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday has arrived! I will be watching the game with Sheila at home. As a Giant fan, I want to see the game with no distractions. I'll also be firing up the smoker, but for an easy cook. I will be making smoked BBQ wings and ABT's with pulled pork for the pre-game feast. If anything comes out looking good I will post pictures.

Go Giants!

2008 Competition Season

Now that January is almost over, it's time to start looking ahead to the competition season.

Entries have been submitted for Q Haven to compete in two contests:

The first is the "Freeze Your Butt Off 2008" at Jiminy Peak Ski Resort in Western Massachusetts. This will take place the first weekend of March. The Saturday part of the contest is just a People's Choice Wings contest. Sunday will be a KCBS style BBQ cookoff, with some kind of "Iron Chef" fifth category. This contest is not KCBS sanctioned, but it is sanctioned by the New England Barbeque Society, which means it will count towards the 2008 Team of the Year.

The next is the Snowshoe Grilling Challenge in Abingdon, Massachusetts on Saturday, March 29th. This is a one day grilling contest, with the categories of fish steak, sausage fatty, beef of any kind and grilled vegetable. I attended this contest last year and it was a lot of fun. Gary and Michele Taft of the "Lunchmeat" team do a great job putting this event on. This was where Q Haven got its first ever call for grilling, a 5th place for fish. It was also the only time I have ever done a competition completely solo. It was challenging, but fun nontheless.

After Snowshoe, it gets tricky.

Memorial Day weekend brings two area contests. One is Grillin' On the Bay, which will be on the shore in Brooklyn, NY. The other is at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, CT. We will be at one of these.

I will not be competing at the New Hampshire Rock-n-Ribfest in June this year. This is for a few reasons. One is that I have a fundamental problem with an event that charges $5 a person for admission, draws around 20-thousand people over a three day event, then only gives two-thousand-dollars in TOTAL prize money for both grilling and BBQ. Sure, I understand and support the concept of raising money for charity, but that is a joke. But they would not have an event at all without the competition teams, and feel they treat us as an afterthought.

Also, they have decided to go ahead without NEBS sanctioning because they don't want to pay a $50 sanctioning fee. It's silly and petty.

We also will not be cooking at Lake Placid this year either. This one I'm really bummed about. I love the town, and the event has been a blast each of the last two years. But Sheila will be more than eight-months pregnant by then, and it's a six-hour drive for us. We just can't do it.

Hopefully we will be able to do Peter's Pond in mid-June. But, again, Sheila will be very pregnant by then, so this one will have to be a last minute decision.

Since Sheila is due July 22nd, that will likely mean that Harpoon and New Paltz will be out too. I hate to miss Harpoon, especially since it is so hard to get into the contest in the first place. But really there is no other option.

Hopefully we will be able to do one of the September contests, maybe Lowell or Harvard. Since we have the camper with AC and a furnace, we could easily bring the baby. It's best to get them started on the circuit young!

Pork Pics

I promised pictures from last weekend's pork cook, so here they are.


Sauce on the side!

It was my first long cook on the Backwoods, and I learned a lot. I am still learning about the air flow and the amounts of charcoal to use, but I'm pretty confident that I will be ready to use it as my main competition cooker this year.

Black Eyed Sally's

Went to the Hartford Wolf Pack vs. Worcester Sharks AHL hockey game tonight with my friend Fred. We bartend together at the New Haven Country Club, and he's a great dude and a BBQ fan.

Fred and Ted

We decided to go to Black Eyed Sally's, which is located about a block from the Hartford Civic Center (now called the XL Center). For those who have not been to Hartford in a while, the civic center is no longer located in a mall as it used to be. They knocked the mall down and built a slick luxury apartment tower. But I digress. I'm stalling because I am about to hammer the food we had at Black Eyed Sallys.

I had eaten at Black Eyed Sally's once before, and had a very dry pulled pork sandwich. I work in Hartford, and have heard people around town say their BBQ was pretty good, so I went in with an open mind. It's a cool joint to visit for drinks, and I have been many times for happy hour with co-workers, but had never ordered dinner before.

I was excited to see "our famous, fall off the bone Memphis style ribs" on the menu. I have not had ribs in Memphis yet, but I can't imagine they are like this.

I ordered the pork ribs, beef burnt ends and chicken, $16.95. Fred had the ribs and crispy catfish combo, also $16.95. The ribs were from the short end of a rack of spares, maybe three bones, definitely not "fall off the bone" tenderness. The only smoke flavor was from the liquid smoke in the sauce. What meat there was tasted old and dry. There was no smoke ring. Fred agreed that these ribs were subpar.

The chicken part of my dish was a small drumstick and part of a thigh. It tasted more boiled than smoked. Very little meat. It was pretty moist though, but utterly flavorless.

The burnt ends were very hard chunks of beef, four of them. Average.

I was extremely disappointed to find the only place that sells BBQ in downtown Hartford represented so poorly. I would be stunned to find a smoker anywhere in the kitchen. Their sign on the door touts "BBQ and Blues." I hope the blues are better than the BBQ.

Sunday Cook

It's gameday, as the New York football Giants are taking on the hated Dallas Cowboys in NFL playoff action this afternoon. To honor this occasion, I have two pork butts going in the Backwoods. I'm working on a new pork recipe for the upcoming competition season, and this is the first real test.

I also have a pot of chili going. That will be ready during the game, the pork won't be until afterwards, because I wasn't able to drag myself out of bed until 7AM to start the fire.

I'll try to throw some pictures up when everything is done.

Go Giants!

"Freeze Your Butt Off 2008"

I'm not sure if that is the actual contest name, but a competition has been announced for the first weekend in March at Jiminy Peak in Western Massachusetts. We already know that Sheila will be away on business in Reno that weekend, but I am planning to cook this one anyway.

With a baby on the way, the number of contests I will be able to do this year will be limited. I need to do as many early season events as I can. It feels great to have an event coming up. Time to do some serious practicing!

NEBS Annual Meeting

Attended the New England BBQ Society annual meeting Monday night in Maynard, Massachusetts. This was the first NEBS meeting that I have been to since joining the group in April of 2006.

There were around 30 people at the meeting. The meeting was run professionally by NEBS President Steve Farrin. Not sure what they do at their regular meetings, but this was a very open session. It was clear that everyone there could have their voice heard if they had something to say. I wasn't there to opine on any issues really, just to observe.

Like any organization, there are going to be disagreements. The "elephant in the room" on this day involved a dispute over whether contest organizers should pay a listing fee to have their contest placed on the events list on the NEBS web site. I'm not going to interject myself into the debate on this one. I will say that I voted with the majority to support the requirement that organizers pay the fee in a non-binding vote that was held to gauge member support.


Otherwise, there weren't any other major or controversial issues addressed. Steve Farrin was reelected board president, and Gary Taft of Lunchmeat will become vice president.


It was also good to see some of the people from the competition circuit. Two friends from the circuit were joining the board at this meeting, Mike Boisvert of Lakeside Smokers and Brendan Burek of Transformer BBQ. Congrats fellas!

Connecticut BBQ Crawl

This past Sunday, I accompanied Gary Goldblatt of Pigtrip.net and Mike Boisvert pitmaster of the competition team Lakeside Smokers on a Connecticut BBQ crawl.

"What is that?" you ask.

It's when a bunch of guys hit the road and try some of a region's BBQ offerings. Like a pub crawl with excessive eating instead of excessive drinking. Sometimes excessive drinking too I'm sure.

Since Gary is a veteran of these trips, we deferred to him to select the restaurants. Gary made it really easy for me, as he picked Big Bubba's BBQ at Mohegan Sun Casino, Chester's BBQ in New London and finally, Bank Street Roadhouse, also in New London. I live minutes from Mohegan Sun, so the choices were perfect for me. Mike and Gary carpooled down from Massachusetts and met me at our condo in Norwich.

Gary Goldblatt is clearly the preeminent BBQ reviewer in the Northeast. He gets all over New England and New York, and has a very organized and well written BBQ site. Gary is very passionate about BBQ, much the way Mike and I are about being BBQ competitors. He's very knowledgeable and also judges BBQ competitions. I'm sure he would be a great competitor if he decided to go that route. We had been trying to go out for BBQ for around a year, and I was glad to finally get the chance to go.

Mike Boisvert and I have become friends since we met on the circuit. We both started competing at around the same time. He's one of my favorite people to talk Q with, and has become a great friend. There he is below.

I got us started with some ABT's and a beer before we hit the road for our first stop, Mohegan Sun. We got to Bubba's and we got a table immediately.

We decided to start with slow smoked chicken wings and a quartered Big Bubba Burger. The wings were probably the best thing I ate all day. They were nicely marinated, rubbed and smoked. The sauce was somewhere between buffalo and BBQ. They were complete wings with the tips still on. I really enjoyed these wings. Don't let the $9.99 price scare you away here, there were seven huge wings in the order.

The bayou burger was served with a slice of ham and cheddar cheese, and seemed tasteless after the wings.
We finished up with the main course, the Big BubbaQue ($24.95). This grand order includes BBQ ribs, chicken, brisket, pork and hon link sausage, two sides and cornbread. Sometimes my wife and I come and order this to share, and always end up bringing home leftovers.

We convinced our friendly and accommodating waitress to substitute the link for extra ribs, and she also agreed to have both spares and baby back ribs included.

The massive platter provides a really good sampling of all of the restaurant's fare. I've reviewed Bubbas twice before (8/24/06 and 9/19/07), and really covered most of the meats there. But being so close to home we have been to Bubba's many times, so I was curious to see how Mike and Gary felt about the food.

I thought it was interesting that Mike preferred their baby backs to the spares, because he is someone that usually likes spares better. He later noted how much he liked the jalapeno cornbread, which is always one of my favorite things at Bubba's.

We all agreed that the pork was rather forgettable on this day. Mushy. The brisket was good, maybe a little dry. The baby back ribs are my favorite too. They're served without any sauce, and that is how they are best. Spares were good too.

We barely touched the chicken, or the onion rings we added for good measure. Just too much food.

I definitely learned that on a BBQ crawl, you really need to pace yourself. But despite the feast, we pressed on, driving around 10 minutes to Chester's BBQ in New London. That part of the trip I already reviewed the other day, see it HERE.

The final leg of our journey brought us to Bank Street Roadhouse in the Bank Street bar district in downtown New London. This place had previously offered a few BBQ items, but had recently removed all of them from the menu. That was actually good news, because we were all pretty much stuffed.

Fortunately, it was only a short ride back home for me, where I was passed out on the couch minutes after arriving. I feel for Gary and Mike, who must have been zonked for the drive back to Massachusetts. Sorry guys! But thanks for a great day!

Chester's BBQ, New London CT

As part of our Connecticut BBQ crawl on Sunday, Gary Goldblatt of Pigtrip.net, Mike Boisvert of Lakeside Smokers and I visited Chester's BBQ in New London. The restaurant is located on Bank Street in New London, several blocks away from the Bank Street bar district, in a commercial/industrial area near the shoreline.

The place is tiny, a true BBQ "joint." There are only three tables in the small customer area. Fortunately, only one of the tables was occupied, and we were able to get the biggest of the three tables.

We went to Chester's after having visited Big Bubba's BBQ at the Mohegan Sun Casino. We ate pretty heavily at Bubbas, but we did save some room for a wide sampling at Chester's. The person at the counter wasn't the owner Chester, but was one of his employees named Shawn. He was very cooperative and when we explained that our goal was to sample a wide range of items, he provided us with three individual cups of each dish.

We started with the brisket chili. This was my favorite item of the Chester's meal. It was very flavorful, not overly spicy, and was loaded with large chunks of brisket. The chili was loaded with beans. I prefer my chili meat only, but the beans were very good. The chili is a winner.

The second item in our initial wave of food was a hot link, which I thought tasted like a very spicy hot dog. I don't eat hot dogs so this isn't something for me, so I'm probably not the person to pass judgment on this item.

The first wave also came with the brisket. Chester's brisket served by itself was very moist and tender, but it really lacked flavor. I didn't taste a whole lot of seasoning in the bark, and it didn't have much smoke flavor.

The brisket sandwich, however, I liked a lot better. It came with the second wave of food, along with the spare ribs and cornbread. The little bit of sauce on the sandwich added to the meat, along with the serving on untoasted, thick cut white bread, really made this dish. I recommend this to anyone who visits Chester's.

The spare ribs puzzled me a little bit. They have two smokers at Chesters, both are Cookshacks and both are electric. While it's clear the ribs were cooked in the smoker, there was very little smoke flavor and no smoke ring at all. They were pretty good though, and like the brisket did not have a whole lot of flavor on their own. I did not try them with any sauce. I bet a little splash of sauce would bring these from my personal rating of fair/good to a good/excellent. I will visit again, and I will try the ribs with some sauce.

I only took one bite of the cornbread. Seemed moist, good flavor.

They have a bunch of other smoked meats on the menu that we didn't try this time, including baby back ribs, chicken, pulled pork, wings and turkey. We didn't have any of the sides except the cornbread.

Overall, I enjoyed our visit to Chester's. The food on the whole is good, and the prices are among the best values I have seen in a Q restaurant.

My main thought is that the BBQ probably would be top notch if it was cooked over charcoal and/or wood. To me, it has to be the electric smokers that take away some of the real BBQ flavor I crave and try so hard to create myself. I do understand that it is not easy to cook with wood and charcoal in a storefront restaurant, and there may be zoning restrictions that make it impossible. But to me that is what will keep Chester's from being great instead of good.