Memphis World Championship BBQ Cooking Contest

[Richie111]

Hi all.

My girlfriend and I are scheduled to fly down to Memphis this Wednesday night and spend all day Thursday and Friday at this event. We love BBQ and have never been to Memphis and thought this would great to check out.

Not ever having been to something like this, I'm not exactly sure what to expect. I suspect there will be all types of BBQ everything available at the tents of the contestants. Our plan is to sample as much as we can in the two day period!

Any suggestions on what we should try? We were going to see about trying a lot of the food from last year's winners (EMC, L&L, Hogwizer), but we are adventerous and up for just about anything.

If we get tired of the fairgrounds, we will definitely try out some of the restaurants mentioned in this forum. Basically, all we have is a plane ticket, reservations at the Wyndham downtown, and big appetites!

Thanks in advance,

Richie

[Richie111]

Follow up to our Memphis trip.

We had a great time. It was a lot different than I had imagined. I guess I thought that all the participants would be selling samples of their goods to the general public. But each tent (and there were some really extravagant setups - some were three stories tall!) was basically intended for friends and family of the BBQ team.

One cool thing was Lawry's People's Choice awards testing. This is the first year they did it, I'm told. Basically, you pay three dollars and you get to sample 5 different team's BBQ. You vote on your favorite. It was really good. I believe there were 40 teams competing for this award, and you can get back in line and be a judge (paying $3 each time) as many times as you want. So you can try a lot of different styles.

There were also vendors who weren't participating in the competiton, selling BBQ ribs and other goodies. We tried several different trucks: Corky's, Lil Red, and and one without a sign. We liked Lil Red's the best.

Also, while we were in Memphis we ate ribs at Charlie-Vergos Rendezvous which was recommended by several locals. They served a great slab of dry ribs that were some of the best had ever eaten.

Needless to say, we accomplished our mission of stuffing our tummies with as much pork as possible in a 48 hour period, and thoroughly enjoyed our first trip to Memphis. We look forward to going back!

[Chris Cognac]

OK, I have been looking forward to a report, so where are the photos!...How was the weather, I know that it has rained in the past...Man I bet the air smelled great at the shoreline park, all that smoke!

[Richie111]

I will post photos as soon as I get them uploaded! They didn't allow cameras, but we were taking pictures during the first day when people were just getting there.

As far as the weather. It was overcast and rainy during our entire trip. We didn't get caught in any downpours while we were on the fairgrounds, but some spots were very muddy. Also, you could buy rain panchos right outside the entrance.

The air really did smell great! You could smell the wood chips all the way up Beale Street!

[Chris Cognac]

I just bought 2 briskets and some babybacks...gonna fire up the smoker on Sunday!

[Richie111]

Well here are the photos I promised.

Unfortunately, I do not have any pics of the food we ate. They weren't letting cameras onto the fairgrounds, but it's not really a big deal because we've all seen ribs before and there was nothing special about their appearance. At the vendors' trucks, the ribs were served in styrophoam or else in between two hamburger buns and wrapped in foil.

Also, as a side note, I have read in this forum some not-so-great reviews of the restaurant we ate at, Rendezvous. I am sure they are all true, but our experience wasn't so bad. We went there late on a weeknight and didn't have to wait for a table and weren't rushed at all. Also, coming from New York, we thought the ribs were quite good and the prices quite reasonable ($40 for dinner for 2 with tip).

The following pics are of various contestant tents on the fairground. SO much work was put into these, it's really incredible!

The "tent" on the left was a three story structure!

The elephant shoots running water out of its trunk!

This is the entrance to Rendezvous (it's in an alley).