woohoo! Brisket!!

Brisket is fine but PIG is where it's at!

[Does that answer the original question?]

HTSC

Houston would seem to be the BBQ fanatic place, considering the average waistline. Oh well, it keeps the healthcare industry busy!

There is already a great BBQ thread here already in DiningBuzz.
I'd recommend pressing this button to get there.
(Here's a brisket thread which also popped up... plus a pulled pork thread (isn't that BBQ?)... there are many discussions in this forum, if neither has what you need. All just a click away. )

There are lots of Texas threads here, even though they logically belong in the appropriate USA destination forum. Let your eyes and your appetite do the work.

Do yourself a favor and do a MR through the MEM airport. Lots of great BBQ options within the terminal. Corky's, Interstate, Blue Note Cafe - all make great sandwich's.

It's not the meat - it's the sauce!

There are parts of the country where you could get into serious trouble for preferring sweet over vinegar or vice versa.

Absolutely. Regional differences are huge, and advocates of the various "methods" can be downright fanatical. They're all good to me, though.

Some places ruin the meat by drowning it in sauce. I figure if they do such a damn good job of smoking the meat, it should need little or no sauce. Let the meat speak, not the vinegar or ketchup based sauce. I do pork ribs and brisket at home my special way and my guests rarely put any sauce on them because the meat is damn perfect by it's self.

Or find out if anyone is planning another MCI BBQ DO.

Kansas City BBQ is the best. Arthur Bryant's has the best ribs. Gates' for the sliced beef.

I make the trip at least twice a year and fill up a cooler.

Steph3n somehow forgets to mention the Carolinas, where they make ^ REAL barbecue. ^ (If it's spelled "BBQ" it ain't the real thing.)

Gimme some eastern NC red sauce or SC mustard sauce over a big mound of slow-cooked pulled pork, and I will be in tastebud heaven until the plate is licked clean.

Those in the vicinity of Albany or Saratoga MUST visit PJ's in Saratoga (in season). Best ribs in the business (and I love my BBQ).

http://www.pjsbarbq.com/#outback

My son and I drove 300+ miles and back to get their ribs to serve at his HS Graduation party! So, yes -- we take our BBQ SERIOUSLY!

When I travel in the South, I make sure I try local barbeque at least one meal. Unfortunately, Mrs BV is not a fan, so I am somewhat limited when she's with me. In terms of barbeque fanaticism, I'd rank them 1. Carolinas, 2. Texas and 3. Tennessee. In terms of what I like, I'd rank them 1. Tennessee, 2. Western NC & SC 3. Texas. Never cared for the Eastern NC barbeque or their slaw for that matter.

This thread has inspired me. There's a place in town only been open about 6 weeks that took over a spot I used to love. I will be eating pulled pork for lunch today!

In Texas we'd tell you that if the meat requires sauce, it's not cooked right. Of course, round here Cue means beef, usually brisket, prepared with dry rubs and cooked slowly with indirect heat and plenty of smoke from post oak or hickory. We incline our smokers in reverence toward Lockhart, the Mecca of Texas BBQ, where some of the better joints don't allow sauce and have only in recent years considered offering sides (other than slices of white bread, necessary to sop up the juices).

We're not averse to cooking the occasional pig, chicken, duck, lamb, or goat, and yeah, we would probably drown it with sauce to make it palatable. But anybody can do that. On Oprah yesterday (hey, I was home and I heard they were doing a food segment) they highlighted a restaurant in Ann Arbor that took a brisket, boiled it, then slow cooked it in an oven in red wine vinegar, ketchup, and brown sugar. Then they chopped it up and mixed in a ton of sauce. A travesty, nay, an abomination. Do they not get quality meat cuts up north? Or are they prohibited by some sissy environmental law from using flame and wood to cook?

In Texas, BBQ is about the meat. Becoming a first-rate BBQ pit master (they would reject the word chef, no matter how appropriate) takes years of practice at controlling temperature and smoke to create the perfect slab of meat - tender, smoky, rich, moist, and bursting with flavor. No sauce required.

For brisket, east Texas, particularly around Tyler, Palestine, Nacogdoches.. this area has the best brisket, hands down..

For pulled pork, gotta be Memphis area..

For sauce, gimme vinegar based any day. Nothing worse than throwing a molasses laden, sugar soaked gravy on top of fine barbecue..

there are some huge BBQ festivals aren't there ?

man i also feel like some bbq