Bar B Q Showdown: Texas vs KC vs Carolina

[ohiosmith]

[veteran_for_peace]

1. MEMPHIS BBQ

Home of Memphis in May. PORK RIBS!!! DRY RUBBED!!!!

[short bus president]

2. Carolina. And those are RIBS in the pic, not BBQ.

:P

[kick-ass-bob]

3. There are 2 distinct types in NC

western and eastern. One is tomato based, the other vinegar.

I like eastern.

[comsymp]

30. Thanks for pointing that out, KAB-

I loves me some Eastern - wouldn't touch that tomato-based shite on a bet.

[GOPisEvil]

4. Uh, Texas.

Kreuz Market in Lockhart to be specific.

[jandrok]

23. Good call. Lockhart is the place to be.

Any of the "Big Three" in Lockhart will do ya right. Chisolm Trail is also good. We don't call the town the "Barbecue Capital of Texas" for nothin'.

Kreuz Market
916 N. Colorado Street
Lockhart, TX 78644
512-398-2361

Black's Barbecue
215 N. Main Street
Lockhart, TX 78644
512-398-2712

Smitty's Market
208 S. Commerce Street
Lockhart, TX 78644
512-398-9344

[AngryAmish]

5. I voted Carolina, but like Memphis more

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

6. BBQ, NC wins....

Now RIBS... Chicago. SAUCE, not the dryrub...BLECH!!

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. KC!!

Great meat and sauce that rules.

[TheDebbieDee]

10. Amen!

We've got the best choices here in KC!

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. I have had Memphis and Texas BBQ

Not even close. They rub spices on the bbq in Memphis (vs slow cooking we do here in KC) and the sauce in Texas tasted like watered down ketchup.

So what's your favorite KC BBQ? I am a Gates fan. I also like that gas station that serves bbq at the corner of 47 and MIssion. I can never remember the name of that place.

[Shrek]

42. KC without a doubt

And I've had every kind there is.

This place is beyond compare.

[mike_c]

8. Carolina pulled pork is the ONE TRUE BARBECUE....

Must be vinegar based sauce. Everything else is just dead animal meat with sauce. In Texas they go so far as to barbecue dead cows. Horrors!

[short bus president]

13. yeah - and CHICKENS

You are absolutely right - if it didn't oink before it died, it ain't BBQ.

[Lex]

41. You are correct, Shortbus.

See post #40!

[Tyrone Slothrop]

28. Amen, Mike. n/t

[givemebackmycountry]

I live in KC and I am here to tell you...

The best barbecue I ever ate was in Texas.

The sauce would light you up like a firecracker.
Yes, I like KC barbecue, but the stuff I got in the little shacks in the hood outside of Dallas was truly the bomb.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Hey you!

What's your favorite KC bbq?

[johnnie]

9. I've had good BBQ in Memphis

I have eaten Texas BBQ..ehh.nothing to write home about. Of course, I think it is the person who is cooking it and not the region.
Surprisingly, there is some good BBQ up here in the north.

[tridim]

11. Other: MINE is the best

KC is a close second though. I like the real BBQ joint experience in KCMO, It's as authentic as it gets.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. THE BEST!

[CottonBear]

12. Hot Thomas BBQ, Oconee County, GA - one of my local BBQ joints

Chowhound's Articles & Special Reports
Smokin': Fifteen Barbecues in Georgia and the Carolinas
November, 1999


by Robert Sietsema

<snip>

Hot Thomas BBQ, Oconee County, GA (I like to have lunch here.)

Athens, Georgia is like Austin, Texas when it comes to barbecue, a city in the center of a fantastically rich region, but without any great places within the city limits. Accordingly, one learns to drive out of town a ways when one has a jones for cue. Just south of Athens is Watkinsville, a sleepy village of recent vintage that wouldn't be there if several state and county highways didn't cross right in the middle of it. Five miles south of town on Highway 16 is Hot Thomas' BBQ, a peach orchard that morphed into a barbecue joint 20 years ago. It's a white bunker standing next to a couple of farm maintenance buildings, the sign blazing in red paint at the top of the building. It's supposedly open seven days from eight in the morning, but when I arrived midmorning it was shut tight. I was really p.o.'d, since the cue enjoys a statewide reputation. In fact, it had been mentioned to me by a couple of New-York-dwelling Athenians.


Hot Thomas, Watkinsville, GA
I sat outside in my car for a few minutes dejectedly, but eventually a snowy headed man came to the door and turned the closed sign over. He stuck his head out and yelled that he and the missus had been shopping in town. It was 10:45, which is not too early to eat barbecue in my book. I traipsed into the building, which was a warm off-white inside and had pine paneling on the ceiling. Neat lines of Hot Thomas brand products lined two walls, including things made from peaches like jams and syrups, plus barbecue sauces in the denominations of mild, hot, and extra hot. There were also professional-looking sets of socket wrenches for sale, which made me scratch my head.

Pork barbecue is about the only thing on the menu, although he'll make you a hamburger if you like, or sell you the Brunswick stew by itself. The platter is $5.95 (a figure that pops up again and again--please note, antitrust authorities), and includes a large heap of pork cooked over hickory, good sweet-pickle cole slaw, a very oniony Brunswick stew with a pureed tomato based and little nuggets of ground pork, and a couple of pieces of white bread. The cue was especially delicious, chopped up fine but not too fine, with a couple of thick shreds of dark outer meat that tasted smokier than the rest.

The rhythm of the place became apparent at exactly 11, just as I was finishing up that last of my plate, and using the bread to wipe up the slightly oily, dark red, vinegary, chile-shot sauce, and berating myself for not requesting the extra hot. The door swung open every three minutes from that time on as, one by one, men wearing baseball caps and flannel shirts came in the front door. Each immediately turned like a sleepwalker, and extracted a can of Coke from the cooler, then approached the counter as tongue-tied supplicants and ordered the same meal I'd just finished. When I went outside I discovered that many had left their rigs running in the gravel lot out front, parked as if they couldn't wait to get inside to eat. Maybe this is tough on the trucks and that's why they need the socket wrenches.

more...

http://www.chowhound.com/writing/sietsema/sietsemabbq.html

[mike_c]

31. now that's barbecue....

I went to grad school in Athens, and used to know every barbecue joint within 50 miles, I think. Zebs was my favorite near Athens.

[CottonBear]

35. Hey there fellow Dawg!

We have a fabulous new BBQ place on the east side on Whitehall Road in the old Jot 'em Down country store. They have some of the best chopped BBQ I've ever laid my lips on. They have BBQ brisket and haomemade sausage bisquits too. The owners renovated the store and sell basic household needs (just like a country store) in addition to serving incredible food.

I used to live right down the road from Zeb's. Zeb's is a Madison County institution.

[mike_c]

36. ahhh, I'm in northern california now...

...and I miss real barbecue terribly. I only get it when I find the time to make my own. One of the nicest things about living in Georgia was that there was almost ALWAYS a great barbeque place somewhere nearby.

[CottonBear]

38. I have friends who live in Mendocino County near Westport.

I've visited there twice. Mendocino and Humboldt counties are so beautiful! I love the Botanical Garden and the incredible giant redwood groves.

Spring has sprung here in NE GA. Today is sunny and 75 with a bit of a breeze. The daffodils, maples, redbuds, forsythias, quinces and cherry trees are blooming. It is so wonderful to have warm days after a cold and wet winter.

That's too bad that there is no BBQ in Northern California. That means you'll have to make a trip to Athens to eat BBQ, drink beer at the Globe, and listen to music downtown!

[woofless]

16. Reasons Kansas City is better than most towns its size.

Barbecue,sculpture,barbecue,fountains,barbecue, Nelson-Adkins museum,barbecue, Ollie Gates, Arthur Bryant, Quicks BBQ (KCK),jazz, barbecue,Negro League Baseball museum, barbecue.........................Oh yeah, and the Chiefs.

Woof


edit: Jeez I forgot shuttlecocks. Bad Woof.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. yep, those shuttlecocks are pretty cool

[tridim]

20. I used to live a block away from the shuttlecocks

That entire area is really cool. I miss it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. What do you think of the new wing

they are putting on the Nelson?

[woofless]

24. I waved goodbye to KC in '01

as I drove through on my way to Idaho. Have not been back to MO since, though the memories are fond.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Sorry you had to leave

but I hear Idaho is really pretty.

They are buiding a new wing on the Nelson. On the east side. Some are upset that it won't fit, the architecture is too modern. Other have complained about the construction trailers.

[tridim]

26. Haven't seen it yet

It's been 7 years since I've lived in KC.

[William Bloode]

19. Carolina, hands down.

Rubbed in spices and hickory smoked in a pit(if it ain't in a pit it ain't right)for 18+hrs. There is NO sauce on Carolina style, the sauce is an after thought used on the side.

All REAL bbq sauces in the Carolinas are vinegar based, and only put on after as a condiment. Any tomato based sauce is a grillin' sauce not a bbq sauce.

Any meat can be Carolina style, pork is the most popular, but there is beef and chicken as well, and of course ribs. There are also two styles shredded and sliced.

[VelmaD]

22. Having experienced all three...

I can only say that each has good points to recommend it and all should be savored at every available opportunity. :)

[Mr.Green93]

34. Agreed

it's All Good!

[gyopsy]

27. Texas

Provided they don't use the propane.

[dubyaD40web]

29. K.C. !!! Hand down the best.

I can't stand that hot stuff down south. Meat is supposed to be enjoyable.

[Rowdyboy]

32. Memphis

[jswordy]

33. 1.) You left out the best Q: TN! 2.) The pic you posted is...

NOT Q...if it is RED, it is some abomination. REAL Q is cooked in the meat and needs nothing else but the meat juice over it. It is not slathered on from a bottle or a recipe that starts with ketchup! Nuff said.

3.) Virginia Q is second. NC Q is third, to make the Top 3. And really, any of the Top3 interchange as #1 depending on the individual restaurant. Everybody else is also-ran.

EXCEPTION: Texas and Tennessee tie for #1 in a specific category: BBQ GOAT.

[William Bloode]

43. I agree,

Carolina style should be term Mid Atlantic or eastern style. The BBq in Tenn, Va, and Caroline is very similar and share the same roots.All three are good, and whiuch one is the best depends on which place your eating at.

[DinahMoeHum]

37. My favorite barbecue? Whatever is on my plate at that moment.

as Ardie Davis (aka Remus Powers) would say.

(Ardie Davis / Remus Powers - originator of the Diddy-Wah-Diddy Sauce contest)

:9 :9 :9

[Walt Starr]

39. My backyard! n/t

[Lex]

40. Those are RIBS with bbq sauce on them. Barbeque is a noun

.
where I'm from and refers to chopped pork (pig slow-cooked over hot hardwood charcoal) and seasoned with hot pepper vinegar.

Looks like this:



Can be served with fried okra, stewed apples, crispy hushpuppies, slaw, and banana pudding.

Anything else is just meat with ketchup-y bbq sauce cooked on it, imho.

[short bus president]

44. yup, yer from down East alright.

tho if I'm not mistaken, that's pulled pork as opposed to chopped pork in yer pic. And as far as fixin's... yer dead on!

[chieftain]

45. Anyone who has had " Can I help you " yelled at them

at the thresh hold of Gates BBQ in Kansas City knows that the best ribs and brisket in the world are there at the confluence of the Kaw and the Missouri . Then when you toss in Bryants , Rosedale and Smokestack , the clear winner is Kaaaansas City .