Linkdown: 10/26/22 – The “Helen Turner, Lifetime Achievement Award Winner” Edition

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Monk: A few highlights from this past weekend’s Southern Foodways Alliance Fall Symposium where the focus was on barbecue: “questions about what barbecue is, who makes it, and how the craft is changing. From sliced beef brisket to pulled pork, from tacos to fire-roasted vegetables, barbecue speaks to the past, present, and future of the South and to the stories of pitmasters—the places they work, the smoke they conjure, and the sauces they stir.”

Texas Monthly Taco Editor Gustavo Arellano was a day one speaker and compared southern barbecue to Mexican barbacoa:

George and David Barber of Fresh Air Barbecue in Jackson, Georgia were named this year’s recipient of the Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award

Jiyeon Lee and Cody Taylor of Atlanta’s Heirloom Market Bar-B-Que treated folks to a Korean-inspired barbecue dinner Friday night

On day two, Texas Monthly Barbecue Editor Daniel Vaughn explained why Texas-style barbecue is becoming the predominant style, both across the US and abroad

Food critic Hanna Raskin on the intersection of barbecue and alcohol

Soul Food Scholar Adrian Miller emceed the weekend with stories of black pitmasters

Finally, Helen Turner of Helen’s Bar-B-Q in Brownsville, TN was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award

Native News

The Lexington Barbecue Festival made a triumphant return after taking the last two years off

The Shepard Barbecue episode of Diners, Drive-In’s, and Dives will air on Friday, November 4 at 9pm ET on Food Network

Dampf Good Barbecue has opened for regular hours at Phillis Farm of Cary; they will be serving their Texas-style barbecue Thursdays through Saturdays from 11am-6pm

Non-Native News

The Southern Smoke festival raised a whopping $1.6M this past weekend

The McRib Farewell Tour? Maybe not…

Linkdown: 10/12/22 – The “Noted North Carolinian, Texas Pete” Edition

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Monk: Fascinating story first brought to our attention by the excellent NC Rabbit Hole newsletter by Jeremy Markovich. And relevant because Texas Pete has a long history with NC barbecue: “[The history section on the Texas Pete website] goes on to say that basically, during the depression, the Garner family wanted some spicier sauce to serve at their barbecue stand. The sauce outlived the stand.”

Also fascinating: Jeremy first brought this to our attention (culling information from a publicly available lawsuit, but still) but has since been aggregated out of credit. He breaks it down in the following Twitter thread.

The story has since been picked up by The Huffington Post, USA Today, Business Insider/Food Insider, and the Nexstar-owned news stations like High Point’s Fox 8.

In any case, I urge you to support Jeremy and NC Rabbit Hole for not only this but lots of other fascinating, NC-focused stories.

Native News

The last bit on Texas Pete (for now), an Our State Magazine story on its history from 2017

Mac’s Speed Shop’s latest location in Concord will also feature live music

A short video on Cook Out from Food Insider

The Barbecue Festival is coming up on October 22

Non-Native News

John Mueller’s barbecue joint at the Granary didn’t come to fruition before he passed, but his friend Jeff Ancira is keeping his memory alive with BBQ at the Granary

Heirloom Market is still found on Eater Atlanta’s 38 Essential Restaurants lis

The Houston Chronicle Top 100 List features several barbecue restaurants, including Brett’s BBQ Shop

Voting Ends later today in this poll from City Limits Barbeque

Friday Find: “How Houston Pitmaster Quy Hoang Is Bringing Asian Flavors to Texas Barbecue”

Monk: If I’m ever in Houston anytime soon, Blood Bros is going to be at the top of my list. Pitmaster Quy Hoang shows Eater’s Smoke Point the ropes of their operation.

Description: At Houston-area barbecue joint Blood Bros, pitmaster Quy Hoang combines his love for Texas barbecue with Asian influences to make gochujang ribs, smoked char siu pork belly fried bao buns, brisket burnt end steam buns, Thai red curry and chili sausage, and more.

Friday Find: “Brisket Pho, a Viet Tex Story”

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Monk: One of the most recent exciting trends in barbecue is the fusion of other cultures with (primarily) Texas-style barbecue. The Gravy podcast producer Jess Eng visits Houston to explore the beginnings of this fusion with Khoi Barbecue before heading to San Antonio to meet with Curry Boys BBQ in this latest barbecue-focused entry into their podcast series. Bonus: Khruangbin on the backing track.