Howdy folks,

I gotta object to this thread.

Bar-b-que is serious. But it's like Turkish, knowing one dialect may help you to recognize others, but you still can't speak the language. To paraphrase the supream court of the United States, it may be hard to define, but I know it when I see it.

My objection, plainly stated is simply that bar-b-que is defined according to local community standards.

To name but a few:

Slow roasted brisket, no sauce or seasoning in the cooking. Cooked 4-8 hours, over low heat, rotating it's own fat until fork tender. (A Texas style)

Pork spareribs, pit cooked with hot, sweet red sauce. (An Alabama Style)

Pork shoulder, pot braised, served with a firey orange vinager hot sauce. (Southern Illinois)

Kansas City, a sweet sauce clinging to pockets and crevaces of roasted pork.

Buffalo New York, birthplace of that most holy marriage joining Chicken wings into a trinity of butter and tabasco.

Thai, lemon grass and basil perfume the palate burning with chilies virtually unknown in the west.

Sweet red tomatoes, mustard seed, sugar and vinager, throw in a some tabasco or chilies and you've got red sauces with hues from burnt amber to bright orange all the way up to fire engine red and back again. Heat and sweet indexes that make diabetics blush and cowboys wimper, sometimes as separate as the conferderacy and a Nor'easter and sometimes joined in a June-December romance.

A rose by other names may smell as sweet. But the countless variaties of roses come nowhere near the infinity of that which we may humbly give the name bar-b-que to.

While it's well off the beaten track of most frequent flyers, (and here is my sole segue into something resembling a topic) should you ever find yourself in the Southern part of the State of Illinois, in the city of Murphysboro - the 17th street bar and grill makes their sauce with everything, but features a subtle but definite touch of apple. In the parlance of the younger generation - "It's da bomb". Pulled slow roasted pork, on a wonder bread bun, it's an amazing medley raised above others with the classic addition of the sweet fruit to the zippy sauce.

Wander a bit farther up the State of Illinois, into the town of Urbana and the Longhorn smokehouse has some seriously authentic Texas style bar-b-que (sauce clearly an add-on afterthought). This is meat slow roasted to perfection.

(And if you can find it, Pully's BBQ in Marion, IL (outhouse in the back, a few feet from the resturant) is an experience not to be missed) Classic southern Illinois, firey vinager orange sauce on roasted pork.

Now, can someone please tell me where to get some ribs in Charlotte, NC; New York City, and Albany, NY?

Thanks for indulging me - if ya got this far your braver than most.

Bon Appetite,

Pakse