This latest piece of controversial barbecue list content from one “chefspencil.com” has been rightly getting roasted online since the weekend, but perhaps that was the intent all along? I mean, who had even heard of “chefspencil.com,” an Austrialian website, before this list?
New Orlean’s at number 1? Red flag. No Texas cities on the list? Red flag. As for Charlotte’s rank of 3 on the list? I say this as a Charlotte resident, but red flag. I’m not the only Charlottean who feels this way. Enter Kathleen Purvis:
Let’s declare a moratorium on any further discussion or outrage on anything “chefspencil.com” related, particularly when it comes to barbecue.
Native News
Fighting words from the Hear to Say podcast host Tressie McMillan Cottom
We had @KosherSoul & @soulfoodscholar on @HearToSlay this week. We talk about race and culture and food and how Black people were erased from the food we perfected. But I started with this question to BBQ master, Adrian, because I’m true to this: pic.twitter.com/k1Y5dlQ4Yl
— Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd) May 18, 2021
An oldie but a goodie from Our State Magazine for National Barbecue Day this past Sunday
No matter where you stand on the great sauce debate, we can all agree that North Carolina barbecue is legendary. In honor of #NationalBarbecueDay, here are 26 essential NC barbecue joints. Which one will you visit next?https://t.co/eVfcMzRUGV
1. Jack's Old South 2. Hometown BBQ 3. Yazoo Delta's Q 4. Smoke Masters Championship BBQ Team 5. The Beached Pig 6. Pickin N Grillin 7. Dirty Old Basters 8. 3 Taxi Guys 9. Boars Night Out 10. Ubons BBQ
This #spicerub collection tells a story of culinary traditions that span from #WestAfrica to the American West. Includes an all-purpose rub inspired by the late John Frank Garth, one of my beloved church fathers, a #tsire rub, some #jerk seasoning, and a shout out to East Texas! pic.twitter.com/ME2UDouCwx
High on the Hog premieres on Netflix in one week on 5/26
Although it took five years to turn what is essentially the first half of her book “High on the Hog” into a documentary, Jessica B. Harris said the timing of its release is perfect. https://t.co/rgisl9z6Bu
In one of the latest signs of a return to normalcy, 60 teams participated in last weekend’s 40th Annual BBQ on the Neuse Festival, the world’s largest whole hog competition. Attendance was larger than expected, with upwards of 15,000 attendees (vs an expected 5,000) coming to downtown Kinston to enjoy barbecue, music, and a little rainy weather (at least on Friday night).
For David Gordon, this is his third year cooking at the festival and he said he woke up at 6 a.m. on Friday to prepare for this. https://t.co/ngQNuNBwNk
Indy Week reviews the Raleigh location of Sam Jones BBQ, which doesn’t even have a freezer on site
You can find hot new takes on southern-style cooking all over the downtown Raleigh food scene, but sometimes you just want to go back to the basics. Enter Same Jones BBQ. https://t.co/HxGXWryHNS
Daniel Vaughn spent a little over a week in NC and ended his tour at Jon G’s Barbecue this past Saturday where I was fortunate enough to meet up with him
A fitting end for this Texan on a barbecue tour in North Carolina. Fantastic brisket, ribs, sausage and a whole lot more at @jongsbbq. pic.twitter.com/0W3iCAIF8d
But of course Texas has a state high school barbecue championship
"Team coaches and mentors are not allowed to enter the cooking station. They must stand behind a perimeter of caution tape and offer guidance from the sidelines."
What a day at Texas's state high school BBQ championship looks like: https://t.co/qkaI03oCpz
Monk: This holiday while we’re all stuck at home bunkering down until the COVID-19 vaccine is widely distributed, why not watch some barbecue-focused TV shows to take your mind off things?
This will be our last post of the year, so we will see you in 2021!
The American BBQ Showdown is more “Great British Bakeoff” than “Chopped” or “Top Chef,” with 8 amateur or competition barbecue pitmaster competing against each other in different meat competitions. Filmed outside of Atlanta in pre-pandemic times, it provided a welcome distraction for barbecue fans this past fall.
Hollywood mega writer/director/producer/actor Jon Favreau and LA Food Truck godfather Roy Choi spend two episodes with Aaron Franklin at Franklin Barbecue, first learning about his approach to brisket (S1E7) before participating in Franklin’s inaugural Hot Luck Festival in 2017 (S1E8). Check out our AV Club recap here and here)
This barbecue and live-fire cooking edition of the Chef’s Table series profiles 4 pitmasters or live-fire cooking chefs, with the Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow’s Barbecue and Rodney Scott episodes being the highlight for American barbecue fans.
In this first episode of the miniseries on food, food author Michael Pollan goes in search of primordial cooking and finds it in eastern North Carolina and Ed Mitchell. The episode follows Ed and his son Ryan as they pick out a pig from the butcher shop, get the coals started, and then proceed to smoke a whole hog for a small gathering at the end of the episode. Michael and a couple of buddies even try to emulate it on their own in a small, backyard pit in California. Ed also tells a story of how he learned to cook pigs from his grandfather, a former slave. The barbecue section starts at approximately 26:00.
This episode of Queer Eye helped make the Jones Bar-B-Q sisters – Little and Shorty – international barbecue celebrities when it aired earlier in 2019, but they have been doing barbecue in Kansas City for decades. Their sauce with the redesigned label courtesy of the Queer Eye crew is now a huge seller, with the website prominently displaying a banner reading “Please allow a 7-10 day delay in shipping as we have been overwhelmed at the response and will send your order as soon as we can.” From the looks of the episode, it appears that the newly found fame is well-deserved.
In the Philippines lechon, or whole roasted pig, is the preferred form of barbecue in this nation of over 7,000 islands. In this food custom, a smaller suckling pig is tied around a pole and rotated over a live fire for hours. This episode covers lechon in addition to a few other food customs from the city of Cebu in southern Philippines.
The Taco Chronicles is a Spanish-language food series where each episode focuses on a different type of taco. The “Barbacoa” episode focuses on the lamb/goat form of barbecue primarily located in Mexico and the southern border of Texas, which I’ve never tasted myself but is described on the episode as being “softer than the tortilla it is served on.”
In episode 5 of season one of Chef David Chang’s Netflix series, he covered barbecue as well as other live fire customs across the world. Check out our AV club recap here.
Across two four-episode seasons of the travel show co-produced by the Texas Beef Council, host and native Texan Kelsey Pribilski criss-crosses Texas to meet with some of the best pitmasters in the state. She’s in search of the state’s best barbecue as well as secret barbecue menu items. The first season gets the large cities (Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth) out of the way, while season two is able to tackle more remote locales. Texas Monthly Barbecue Editor Daniel Vaughn even makes an appearance as Kelsey’s guide for the Big Bend episode (S2E1).
Official Description: “Food for the belly, and food for the soul. A delightful, tasty and charming look at a small town, rural Florida, African American “Church built on BBQ”
Official Description: “Renowed woodworker, Marc Spagnuolo uses his knowledge of wood to help him explore the world of barbecue and grilling. Spoiler, that knowledge doesn’t help at all”
Sweet Lew’s Barbeque has started doing whole hog on Sundays as of this past Sunday, making it the only whole hog available in Charlotte smoked the old way.
The recently shuttered Bill Spoon’s cooked the whole hog but switched to gas smokers some years back. Here’s hoping whole hog Sundays catches on with Charlotte customers and Lewis Donald can continue to smoke whole hogs weekly (and maybe more frequently if its popular enough).
The price is $16/lb or $13 for a plate with two sides. This puts it just above Midwood Smokehouse ($13) and Jon G’s ($14) but below Noble Smoke ($18). Not bad, considering those are smoked pork shoulders compared with whole hog.
It certainly looks like Sweet Lew’s has been running through some wood, so hopefully I can pick up some whole hog next week for football.
The Charlotte Observer’s Theoden James has the full story, and notes that the closing wasn’t because of the pandemic. Steve Spoon, Jr.: “There is no other source of income for mom-and-pop places. There’s no financial backing, there’s no partners, there’s no corporate money to be funded in when you are short. The customers are their only source of revenue, so if they don’t come, (they) have no safety net. You have to support ’em.”
Bargarita is not looking too promising
Bargarita in Noda. Although the interior admirably attempts to mimic an authentic Mexican restaurant, the tacos and burritos are mushy and flavorless. I nearly cracked a tooth on a 1” bone found in my burrito, and then found ANOTHER bone in my taco. pic.twitter.com/EwZQlggmej
Barbecue historian Jim Auchmutey was a consultant on Netflix’s “American Barbecue Showdown,” which filmed outside of Atlanta last year but was just released on Netflix
Jim Auchmutey writes a nice article on the @netflix American BBQ Showdown…worth the read if you aren't up to speed on this show. https://t.co/FVI2cP2wau
Rasheed Philips of Philips Barbeque Co appeared on “American Barbecue Showdown” and now has his own podcast
Robert Moss has updated his website ahead of the re-release of “Barbecue: The History of An American Institution, Revised and Expanded”
Finally got the newly-rebranded and restyled website up and live this week. Still shaking out a few CSS kinks, but I'm pretty happy with how it's shaping up. pic.twitter.com/0YAbXsL7qO
In LA and looking for barbecue? Kevin’s BBQ Joints has you covered
UPDATED: There are over 2 dozen BBQ spots in and around Los Angeles hungry(I know) for your business this week. To support them and get your BBQ fix check back often as I have been updating this weekly list since the world changed earlier this year.https://t.co/tgW6CkDiUp
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