World Class BBQ Cookoff

Today my accomplice and I went to the Smoke on the Water USA BBQ Championship in North Little Rock. You can visit their site at www.smokeonthewaterbbq.com.   My only goal was really to try and stalk the people who are on the TLC show BBQ Pitmasters.  I spotted one tent from the show, but alas the main star of that team had only sent some of his minions and was not to be found (trust me I looked).  But here is his tent.

There were lots and lots of competitors out today, braving the oncoming rain to compete for all the prize money.  I was amazed to see some of the setups up close and personal.  I have no doubts whatsoever that most of these fancy grills cost more than my car.

By far the cutest tent of the day went to Southern Gal Smokers form Ligon’s BBQ in Marvell, Arkansas.  It was adorable with all the little pink decorations.  I tried to eat some of their BBQ but sadly they were out by the time I made it over there.

There were several teams who brought elaborate trailers, smokers, trucks, and anything else that you could possibly ever need to smoke some meat.  And quite a few of these also brought some humor to the competition with these team names and logos.

We were finally able to get some pulled pork sandwiches at a tent that belonged to a team from New York of all places.

The meat was very juicy and had a decent flavor, but I personally think it was slightly lacking in the smoke department.   They also had a good sweet sauce to go with it, and overall I can’t say I was disappointed with it but I would be somewhat surprised if I were to find out they had won anything.

But it had a good family atmosphere with rides and games for the kids, and live bands all day for the adults.  We had a good time, ate some pretty decent BBQ and got to see all of the time, effort, and money these competitors put into their BBQ.  It really makes me want to venture to more of these events.  If only I can ever be a judge……………..