95 replies to this topic

[Jason Perlow]

Yes, totally. You can walk down (26th Street? 27th?) the street adjoining Madison Square Park where they set up and there are very few on-lookers hanging around, just barbecue freaks like myself prodding the pitmasters for juicy info. Nobody will stop you from walking up and talking to these guys, in fact they encourage it. Just be nice and be patient, because they have to pay attention to the smoking process and the first hour or two of setup time is crucial. Hang out at like 9PM or 10PM or so and they will just be sitting around.

Edited by Jason Perlow, 06 June 2006 - 06:12 PM.

[hitmanoo]

Some people hang out at hotels or bars hoping to chat it up with rock stars or athletes.
Others try to sneak onto the lots in Hollywood to catch a glimpse of the stars.

For egulleters, it's late night at the BBQ pits....

[Mayhaw Man]

Of course, all of you can do what you want, eat what you want, and talk to and listen to whoever you want-BUT-what you should do is go to the seminar on Sunday afternoon with John T and Ricky Parker.

You will be able to watch the sort of/kind of world premier of my friend Joe York's (filmaker for the SFA and all around decent sort of guy) new short film, "Whole Hog" which features Ricky and some of his family, along with one of the most evil and clueless people on Earth (watch the film-you'll see). It's a great movie and was well recieved at the Pork Film Festival in Dubuque and at the Swine Life Festival, as well.

Ricky Parker is THE MAN. He is one of my personal lifestyle heroes and a man who can tell you more about whole hog than you might ever want to know.

Ricky gets his hogs from ONE GUY, who raises them with the utmost care. Most of these whole hog guys don't have a clue (Ed Mitchell is a giant exception) what kind of pigs they get or how they are raised. Ricky told me that he wants to be "the best there has ever been" and I'm telling you that, right now, easily, he probably is in the whole hog world. He is the Einstein of Whole Hog BBQ. He never sleeps, he only drinks Jack Daniels and Mountain Dew. He is, once again, one of my personal lifestyle heroes. Here are a few Ricky pics.

Ricky and one of his many friends.


Ricky explains the art of cooking whole hogs and gives a few lifestyle tips


Ricky and his 13 year old son Zack turn a hog. There were 17 going at one time on his three pits. It's a 24 hour a day job and YES they sell that much meat.


All of his Duroc swine is USDA inspected. This is actually a pretty big deal in terms of resale and safety and many places don't go to the trouble and just sneak them by the man as best they can. Not my man Ricky. He goes the extra mile.



And, well, I couldn't help myself. How often do you get to pose in a meat locker with Porky?


Also on the bill for the seminars is Lolis Eric Elie and his movie, Smokestack Lightning, which is also well worth your time. I love the thing. The film work is great, the narrator is very good (Lolis is nothing if not erudite), and the soundtrack is worth the price of admission.

Have fun. It looks like a good time. And, if you are ever driving from Memphis to Nashville, swing off of the highway in Jackson and head for B E Scott's Barbeque. You won't regret it. There's nowhere quite like it. The meat is served STRAIGHT FROM THE HOG-not chopped all to hell and ruined with some vinegar concoction. Want ham? Ask for it. Want shoulder? "You bet!" Can I have some of those rib bones (no meat on them) so I can just eat the marrow out of them? "You're our kind of guy!"

Really, go watch the guy. He's pretty much mesmerizing.

[donbert]

You had me until

he only drinks Jack Daniels and Mountain Dew

Though I probably will check out that seminar. The Good Pig one on Saturday also looks promising for those interested in the kind of pigs they get and how they're raised. Ever since I read Peter Kaminsky's book I've been dying to try some Ossabaw.

[Mayhaw Man]

You had me until

he only drinks Jack Daniels and Mountain Dew

When one's mission in life is to spend as much time as possible learning all that can be learned about whole hog there is an essential thing that has to be learned-how to stay awake as much as possible keeping an eye out for pit fires. There is a good bit about this subject in the film, Whole Hog, and the drink, really, makes perfect sense-lots of caffiene needs to be consumed to stay awake and, well, if you are going to be awake, you might as well be happy about it-which is where the Jack Daniel's comes into play.

[jrichman]

I was at this event last year and it was great, however I had a long wait in line for some unbelievable ribs - I don't think I am gonna do the Bubba Pass, will getting there early avoid the lines? What time? THanks

[juuceman]

if going without a pass, arrive one hour before the event, scout out what line you want to hit, and plant yourself there.. if you're not alone, and want more than one type of barbecue, put each person on a different line and arrange a place to meet up.. the lines are absolutely ridiculous, they'll easily be one hour plus if the last few years are any indication..

in years past all the food (except snouts??) were provided on-site for the vendors to cook.. has this changed??

i can't remember whether you needed the wristbands last year to get into the fast pass area.. they definitely mailed out the cards but had you pickup the accompanying swag at a tent in the morning, including the bracelets.. i seem to recall having three people behind the lines last year..

[robert40]

My wife surprised me with a pass today and being our first time, was wondering if anyone could recommend any must visit pits?

[Jason Perlow]

You need to visit all the pits. But definitely RUB's brisket and South Side Market's Elgin Sausage, and Mike Mills' baby back ribs and BBQ beans. Oh yeah, and Dinosaur. And Salt Lick.

Edited by Jason Perlow, 08 June 2006 - 01:25 PM.

[robert40]

You need to visit all the pits.

But definitely RUB's brisket and Elgin Sausage, and Mike Mills' baby back ribs.

Thanks Jason. Now were talking. My wife will be throwing Lipitor at me.

[sammy]

Still don't understand why there isn't any Kansas City representation. Seems to be a real void.

[Jason Perlow]

RUB technically is Kansas City representation, stylistically. Paul Kirk was based in KC before he opened his new restaurant in NYC.

[jrichman]

Just wondering if anyone has been to Madison Square Park today to see what is going on and how the setup is going? I plan to arrive tomorrow AM around 11. Do you think that is enough time to avod the lines?

[Jason Perlow]

11am is probably good.

[johnder]

You can actually get a pretty good view of the street setup from the ESB cam here.

[Rachel Perlow]

That's very cool. How did you get that angle?

[rooftop1000]

I See...........Barberque Pits



YAY

tracey

[Fat Guy]

Be part of our BABBP film crew: click

[johnder]

It is a movable/zoomable camera on top of the empire state building. A few minutes of tweaking got that view.

That's very cool. How did you get that angle?

[Jason Perlow]

In case anyone is interested, I've put together a rough "Pre-Game Show" podcast (click) featuring Ed Mitchell, Kenny Callaghan, Gary Roark and Otis Walker from my Friday night pitmaster inspection. There's a ton of background noise because we're right on the street and a lot of stuff is going on but I think you'll like it.



Otis Walker, Smoki O's.



Rib Tips prep at Smoki O's.



Cleaned and prepped rib tips, ready for smoking.



Ed Mitchell's whole hog smoking rigs.



Gary and Mrs. Roark, Ubon's BBQ.

Edited by Jason Perlow, 10 June 2006 - 07:10 AM.

[hitmanoo]

Taking a break after round 1.
The Bubba's Fast Passes did NOT provide the speedy service we anticipated. Unfortunately, the machines were so very slow in processing the cards that it took at least a full minute from the time the card was swiped until each order was processed. Multiply that by the # of people in line, and you have BIG PROBLEMS

It got so bad that a couple of places just stopped swiping cards and just gave out free food just to speed things along. That was nice, but it shouldn't have to be that way.

We went to Southside Market to start off with a fantastic combo of sausage and brisket. Would have preferred the sausage a little spicier, but other than that it was dead on! Nice vineger based slaw on the side.

The line for Big Bob Gibson was so long that we snuck in some Blue Smoke Ribs. The ribs were just ok, but were a nice filler until Gibson.

Gibson's pulled pork was exceptional. The red sauce was recommended and is fantastic. I may buy a bottle or two for myself.

Will head back for round 2 shortly...

[Jason Perlow]

Here we go.



Elgin Sausage and Brisket



Mike Mills / 17th Street / Memphis Championship Babyback Ribs and BBQ Beans



Amy Mills Tunnicliffe



Blue Smoke Pitmaster Kenny Callaghan



Pile 'o Blue Smoke St. Louis Cut (Kansas City style) ribs



Blue Smoke's grill is white hot



Blue Smoke Ribs



Salt Lick Sausage



Salt Lick Brisket



Uncut Brisket



Salt Lick Sausage



Salt Lick slicing up brisket



Salt Lick Pitmaster Micheal Rodriguez making the slaw



Plate 'o slaw.



Salt Lick Brisket and Sausage



Salt Lick's J&R smoking pit



Deep in the Heart of Texas. Salt Lick even brought its own wood fence and tumbleweeds.



Danny Meyer and Kids



Ubon's Pulled Pork



Danny teaching his children how to eat BBQ



Ubon's BBQ Pork Sandwich





Blue Smoke Blueberry Pie



Blue Smoke Key Lime Pie





Smoki O's Rib Tips



Otis Walker, presiding over the rib tips



Urban Picnic



Paul Kirk's "Bubba Stik"



Paul Kirk Slicing RUB Brisket



Paul Kirk



RUB Brisket



RUB Burnt Ends Closeup



RUB Brisket



Big Bob Gibson Pulled Pork



Ed Mitchell's Whole Hog (Organic, no Antibiotics)



Ed Mitchell's Whole Hog Sandwich

Edited by Jason Perlow, 11 June 2006 - 07:26 AM.

[hitmanoo]

Round 2

Many places were out of food by 4:30, but we hit one place and that was enough BBQ for one day.

The Beef Brisket and Sausage from Salt Lick. The best combo I tasted all day. The BBQ sauce seemed a nice mustardy vinegar which went great with the brisket. The sausage was nice and spicy, and I really enjoyed it.


What a beautiful (but windy) day, and a perfect day for barbecue!

[Fat Guy]

The barbecue was terrific today as always, but the event has grown so much that managing it has become a logistical near-impossibility. They oversold the Bubba FastPasses, so the FastPass lines were long to begin with. In addition, a lot of people had gamed the system and were ordering as many as 30 sandwiches (that I saw), causing some individual transactions to take 10 minutes. Towards the end some of the pits figured out that rationing (2 servings to a customer) was the only way to get through the day. And, indeed, the POS machines were very slow and there weren't enough of them, or enough people plating the food, or enough efficiency in the plating process.

I went to a pretty interesting seminar on "Good Pigs," about the trend -- well, it's barely a trend, since only one person is doing it -- towards using better hogs in barbecue. Ed Mitchell, the one guy who's trying to do this, got stuck in the elevator at ICE for about half an hour on his way to the seminar, so they started without him while the BABBP staff stood in the hallway calling Ed on his cell phone and searching for building maintenance staff to retrieve him. He arrived to great applause from the small audience -- by charging $20 for the seminars and locating them all the way over at ICE on 23rd between Fifth and Sixth (closer to Sixth) they created serious disincentives to attendance.

Anyway . . . the gist of the seminar was that pork today sucks compared to the way it used to be, primarily because it has less fat and the feed they use today is garbage, and the fact that pitmasters today are working with pork that tastes like tofu has led to the need for injecting, aggressive rubs, etc., to compensate for the pork's flavorlessness. Probably worth a separate topic, if anybody would like to pick up the conversation.

[hitmanoo]

From what I observed, the problems were not in plating the food, nor were they in particularly large orders. The problem was with the slow processing of the fast pass cards by the equipment. They had the food all plated and stacked onto trays for people to take away, but the hold up was in data processing. At one point, we gave our card, and they swiped it and it took at least a full minute to process the transaction. Multiply that by the 30-50 parties ahead of you online and you have trouble. If there were a couple of more registers dedicated to fast pass, or if they were able to speed along the few they had, things would have rolled along smoothly.

[johnder]

Last year the problem with the fast pass was that you had to purchase a ticket at one register and decide all the stalls you wanted to visit at that time. Then take your ticket to the stall to pick up the food. The obviously fixed specific problem this year by adding card swiping machines at each stall. The problem then became the time per transaction was so high. I think Danny and his crew do a great job pulling this off and given the scale of the logisitics involved have still find time to make improvements over last year.

The single biggest problem this year aside from the slow processing time was the problem Steve mentioned, 2 people with one bubba pass loading up a tray full of food. More than once I was directly behind someone doing this and it took them at least 8 minutes to fill their order of 25 elgin plates. While I agree that the rules of the fast pass don't prohibit this, if USHG does do this next year again, I am sure you will see a disclaimer saying each pass is only allowed 2-4 orders of food.

I really hope to see the BABBQ continue, but from Jason's podcast with Danny, he seems to think this event is growing out of control logistics wise.

I actually spoke to the micros guy outside their data trailer, as I was admiring their Micros 1.0 layout diagram that they had taped to the side of their trailer. He said that they underestimated the total number of simultainious transactions that would be occurring at one time, hence they delays. He was hoping they could get things processing faster today. I guess we will see.

john

[hitmanoo]

The single biggest problem this year aside from the slow processing time was the problem Steve mentioned, 2 people with one bubba pass loading up a tray full of food. More than once I was directly behind someone doing this and it took them at least 8 minutes to fill their order of 25 elgin plates.  While I agree that the rules of the fast pass don't prohibit this, if USHG does do this next year again, I am sure you will see a disclaimer saying each pass is only allowed 2-4 orders of food.

I can't say I agree with this, as everytime I saw people ordering large amounts of food, the food was always loaded up and ready to go before the transaction was processed.

Of course, the largest orders I saw were about 10 plates so I could be wrong.

I'm definitely feeling the effects of yesterday today. A return is questionable!

[scottie]

Though I probably will check out that seminar. The Good Pig one on Saturday also looks promising for those interested in the kind of pigs they get and how they're raised. Ever since I read Peter Kaminsky's book I've been dying to try some Ossabaw.

I'll post in the Southeast Forum next week about cooking one of these hogs at the Hillsborough Hog Day festival in Hillsborough, NC. There are a growing number of folks around here who are as committed as Ed Mitchell is to "Good Pigs."

I'm bummed to be missing the BABBQ- I'm moving to NYC in just 2 weeks!-but I'm thrilled to get in one last good old-fashioned pig pickin' before leaving NC.

[brooklyncook]

I hear you on bummed.

This is the second year in a row I've missed out on the Party; I work weekends and can't get out long enough to stand in line and get some 'cue.

So the pictures are a comfort of sorts. Great shots!

[Fat Guy]

Major improvements today with the payment processing -- they really moved the FastPass lines along at most of the pits, though a couple still couldn't plate the food quickly enough to keep up. All in all -- and I'd be interested to hear others' perceptions -- it seemed to me that Sunday went much better than Saturday.

Aside from Ed Mitchell's whole hog, which is always my personal favorite, I thought the best things were Paul Kirk's brisket, the sausage from Elgin and Mike Mills's ribs. I mean, all the barbecue I tried both days tasted very good to me, but those were the standouts.

We had a good panel discussion, I thought, on "The Future of Barbecue." It was moderated by Lolis Elie, and on the panel were John T. Edge, Jeffrey Steingarten, Paul Kirk, Chris Lilly and me. Danny Meyer, speaking from the audience, also participated a bit at the end. Maybe there was someone in the audience who can post about it more impartially than I. If not, I'll try to sum it up later.