My $0.02...

Kansas City BBQ: BBQ for people who don't actually like BBQ. Too sweet, too much catsup/tomato, too much sauce...complete crap that only a Northerner or someone from KC who doesn't know any better, would like.

Carolina BBQ: BBQ for people who don't actually like to taste the Meat. Drown it in some mustardy-vineargy mop sauce that takes away most/any meat flavor. Kudos for doing the whole hog, but then a big ole WTF for drowning it in a sauce that is all you taste.

Texas BBQ: BBQ for people who love the quality and the taste of the meat...esp, beef. No sauce...or if it's used, it's used very, very, very sparingly. Mostly slow cooked with wood to enhance the flavor.

And the champ:

Memphis BBQ: BBQ for people who like, no LOVE BBQ. Dry rubbed, mostly pork-based, crappy cuts of meat with high fat content that melt and fall apart in your mouth when slow cooked properly, enhanced with wood and maybe a light glaze or dip of sauce, only if needed.

UNC_Samurai: Google is absolutely correct. Eastern North Carolina is the BBQ capital of the world:

Parker's (new window)

No. I worked at Parker's all through high school. The things they made me do to pigs were shameful. The fried chicken and iced tea, OTOH, rank up there with the best I've ever had.

AntiNorm:
(Hey, Carolinians -- food coloring plus vinegar does NOT equal bbq sauce.)

Right you are...but vinegar+brown sugar+cayenne pepper+crushed red pepper = DELICIOUS!

ph0rk: I was about to complain that if it wasn't North Carolina, it was wrong.

Apparently, it isn't wrong.


/If you disagree, you are wrong.
//Eastern style!

Same here. NC knows barbecue. Lexington style or Eastern, don't matter that much. Both are damn tasty.

\Stameys FTW.

Coach_J: Carolina BBQ: BBQ for people who don't actually like to taste the Meat. Drown it in some mustardy-vineargy mop sauce that takes away most/any meat flavor. Kudos for doing the whole hog, but then a big ole WTF for drowning it in a sauce that is all you taste.

There are two carolinas, r-tard.

Eastern NC que is something yo obviously haven't tasted.

Memphis has the best BBQ in the world. Period. End of discussion.

Coach_J: My $0.02...

Carolina BBQ: BBQ for people who don't actually like to taste the Meat. Drown it in some mustardy-vineargy mop sauce that takes away most/any meat flavor. Kudos for doing the whole hog, but then a big ole WTF for drowning it in a sauce that is all you taste.

Fail. You're lumping Eastern NC with South Carolina and completely ignoring western NC style.

Di Atribe: Krayon: Come to Memphis and have Central's BBQ nachos, then shut the fark up about any of your Texas shiat.

I think it's possible to like more than one type of BBQ without trying to insult an entire state over it.

you'd think that but you'd be wrong :)

Dear Subby,

People from Texas already know where the good barbecue is here, we don't need to google it.

For instance, the Loco Coyote is sheer greatness. You can keep your whole in the wall joints, I'll take a shack in a field any day.

Retodd: Your ranking aside (I'm biased), this is spot on.

It really isn't.

calm like a bomb: Treygreen13: calm like a bomb: Mirrorz: To those not in Texas; Vinegar drenched pork is not BBQ.

It's a whole lot closer than anything involving beef.

Oh, so this is a "beef sucks" thing. Well, good. More for me. Nom nom nom.

Not at all. I love brisket. But it isn't BBQ.

I never understood beef BBQ either. BBQ is pork. Not beef, not chicken, not fish, PORK.

Treygreen13:
So, what about BBQ limits it to pork? Did your pappy tell you that when you were growing up?

Because I say so.

calm like a bomb: You should try some at a place that isn't Applebee's.

It was at some no-name bbq place in Ruckersville, VA (by Charlottesville) that apparently had been getting good reviews. Why that place got good reviews is beyond me, because the crap they were serving would not pass as bbq at all in the Midwest.

Texas isn't about BBQ as much as it is about Mexican and Tex-Mex.

Makes me hungry for some 12 Bones or Ed Boudreaux's.

/WNC BBQ LVR

Phil McKraken: Texas isn't about BBQ as much as it is about Mexican and Tex-Mex.

NTTIAWWT.

Retodd: North Carolina? Pfffft. Y'all are too fond of your sauce. The sauce is good, but as any Texans knows, you use sauce when the meat isn't good enough to stand on its own.

Perhaps you should try using a sauce that enhances the flavors of the meat rather than drowning them in tomato. May I recommend a mixture of apple cider vinegar, a little brown sugar (but don't go KC or memphis and make it into syrup), pepper, onion, garlic, perhaps some mustard seed...

Sauce is good if your sauce isn't crap that smothers everything else.

Di Atribe: runslothrun: Di Atribe: Krayon: Come to Memphis and have Central's BBQ nachos, then shut the fark up about any of your Texas shiat.

I think it's possible to like more than one type of BBQ without trying to insult an entire state over it.

you'd think that but you'd be wrong :)

I'm not. What kind of food you prefer is subjective and you know it.

dude - if you can't tell that people here are joking around you need to turn off your computer and go get some air.

No surprise. E-NC BBQ is greatest BBQ.

Treygreen13: Arkitekt4040: calm like a bomb: Treygreen13: calm like a bomb: Mirrorz: To those not in Texas; Vinegar drenched pork is not BBQ.

It's a whole lot closer than anything involving beef.

Oh, so this is a "beef sucks" thing. Well, good. More for me. Nom nom nom.

Not at all. I love brisket. But it isn't BBQ.

I never understood beef BBQ either. BBQ is pork. Not beef, not chicken, not fish, PORK.

Why? Saying that a type of cooking is a type of meat is like saying "Writing is Historical Fiction. End of story."

In the context of your analogy we would be talking about historical fiction, since BBQ is a very specific type of cooking.

/that involves pork.
//and wood smoke
///and dry rub

The Winner.

Mmmm... moist brisket

AntiNorm: calm like a bomb: You should try some at a place that isn't Applebee's.

It was at some no-name bbq place in Ruckersville, VA (by Charlottesville) that apparently had been getting good reviews. Why that place got good reviews is beyond me, because the crap they were serving would not pass as bbq at all in the Midwest.

I lived in Minneapolis for a while. I left with the impression that midwesterners thought BBQ was something you cooked burgers on.

cptjeff: Retodd: North Carolina? Pfffft. Y'all are too fond of your sauce. The sauce is good, but as any Texans knows, you use sauce when the meat isn't good enough to stand on its own.

Perhaps you should try using a sauce that enhances the flavors of the meat rather than drowning them in tomato. May I recommend a mixture of apple cider vinegar, a little brown sugar (but don't go KC or memphis and make it into syrup), pepper, onion, garlic, perhaps some mustard seed...

Sauce is good if your sauce isn't crap that smothers everything else.

Vinegar + Mustard Seed? Yea, there's some subtle flavor for your BBQ.

As I said...BBQ for people who don't like the taste of the meat.

Say what you want, no one beats swiss chalet.

Retodd: cptjeff: Retodd: North Carolina? Pfffft. Y'all are too fond of your sauce. The sauce is good, but as any Texans knows, you use sauce when the meat isn't good enough to stand on its own.

Perhaps you should try using a sauce that enhances the flavors of the meat rather than drowning them in tomato. May I recommend a mixture of apple cider vinegar, a little brown sugar (but don't go KC or memphis and make it into syrup), pepper, onion, garlic, perhaps some mustard seed...

Sauce is good if your sauce isn't crap that smothers everything else.

I prefer no sauce at all. BBQ is a about the meat. Making it about the sauce would be like ordering a burger because you heard the lettuce was good.

You live in Texass. Just becuase you've never had good Barbecue with a sauce that makes things taste better doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

But I do agree on one point- putting texass barbecue sauce on anything is a travesty.

Retodd: I prefer no sauce at all. BBQ is a about the meat. Making it about the sauce would be like ordering a burger because you heard the lettuce was good.

I think it depends on what the cook is going for. A good sauce (or rub) enhances the flavor of the meat rather than covering it. If you smoke it heavily, then sometimes it doesn't need anything else.

Treygreen13: Arkitekt4040: Treygreen13: Arkitekt4040: calm like a bomb: Treygreen13: calm like a bomb: Mirrorz: To those not in Texas; Vinegar drenched pork is not BBQ.

It's a whole lot closer than anything involving beef.

Oh, so this is a "beef sucks" thing. Well, good. More for me. Nom nom nom.

Not at all. I love brisket. But it isn't BBQ.

I never understood beef BBQ either. BBQ is pork. Not beef, not chicken, not fish, PORK.

Why? Saying that a type of cooking is a type of meat is like saying "Writing is Historical Fiction. End of story."

In the context of your analogy we would be talking about historical fiction, since BBQ is a very specific type of cooking.

/that involves pork.
//and wood smoke
///and dry rub

We'll have to agree to disagree. I'll eat my BBQ as beef sans-sauce and you can eat yours however you like it.

No worries, the fact you take it without sauce is good enough for me. I kinda feel obligated to go to bat for Memphis BBQ.

/beef brisket is farking amazing
//just not BBQ
///I'm sorry, I'll stop now.

Di Atribe: Killer Cars: Rapmaster2000: Except for some Memphis BBQ joint a client took me to in LA. They were like "you're from the South so you like BBQ right?" I don't take our China guys to PF Chang's when they come here.

Who the f*ck visiting LA would even want BBQ? California does a lot of good culinary things, and that's where they took you?

You know what? I can't wait to go to Kansas City and have seafood. Jesus.

WTF? I would've said, "I just came from there, why would I want to eat what I can have any time?" When I go to California, I want to eat seafood at a restaurant where I can see the ocean.

Or In n Out.


Why I like the MS/AL area. Awesome BBQ and awesome seafood.

I'll die of a coronary, but I'll have done it with the best.

Being from Chicago, I have to recommend Hecky's up in Evanston. Heaven on a plate.

The biggest way to get in a fight in the Carolinas is not religion, politics, race, or even basketball, it is to openly discuss who has the best bbq.


/Seem to remember there being like 7 different types of BBQ in the Carolinas
/Loves me some piggy park in columbia

As a voice of experience (currently live in Lexington, NC and grew up in Memphis, I gotta side on the whole hog thing here in nc. You don't have to drown it in sauce - most classic places let you diys - but they do put this obnoxious red cole slaw ('slaw') which leaks onto your hush puppies ('a litter of puppies")... but good bbq let's the wood/smoke do all the work...