2nd annual BBQ smackdown

summers in houston mean unbearable heat to most people, but for houston chowhounds it also signals that the annual BBQ smackdown is near.

usually scheduled the saturday before july 4th, pearl bar was chosen again as the venue because the 1st annual bbq smackdown was so successful there. however, this year had an attendance of 60 hungry houchies (twice as many attendees as last year) as the group has grown to over 400 members in just 1 year.

the premise was simple. brisket and ribs were brought in from 6 local bbq joints and were blind judged by the attendees. our top three winners (pierson & co, burns, and luling city market) from last year's competition were up against three new competitors. this year our farthest competitor was vincek's in east bernard who was picked because they were listed in texas monthly's top 50 bbq joints last year.

the winners for brisket were:

1st. pierson & co.

2nd. virgie's

3rd. vincek's

the winner for ribs were:

1st. virgie's

2nd. pierson & co.

3rd. vincek's

several chowhounds were shocked that burns didn't place again this year. others were shocked that thelma's placed dead last in each category. it should be mentioned that thelma was sick that day but since we had pre-ordered and prepaid for the food, our order was ready for us that morning, however her restaurant was closed.

here are 2 wonderful write-ups of the event. one by the houston press and the other by great food houston.

fried chicken throwdown

the michelada throwdown at anvil last weekend spawned an even bigger, more ambitious event. the challenge this time is everyone's favorite comfort food: FRIED CHICKEN.

the fried chicken throwdown (FCTD) will take place at beaver's on mon, 6/8 and i've posted the complete event details, throwdown guidelines, and judging criteria to the houston chowhounds website.

the line-up of contestants is SICK. this is the current list:

- Jonathan Jones, chef/owner of Beaver's (event host)
- Dusty Sagasser, smokemaster at Beaver's
- Plinio Sandalio, pastry chef at Textile & Gravitas
- Robert Heugel, master mixologist/owner of Anvil Bar & Refuge
- Frank Butera, chef/owner of Frank's Chop House
- Randy Evans, chef/owner of Haven (opening this fall)
- Chris Shepherd, chef/owner of Catalan
- Justin Basye, chef de cuisine at VOICE
- Randy Rucker, executive chef at Rainbow Lodge
- Dax McAnear, chef de cuisine at Textile
- Michael O'Connor, restaurant chef at Houston Country Club
- Jamie Zelko, chef/owner of Zelko Bistro (opening soon)

these contestants will be competing in one of two categories: classic or creative. the most creative entry so far sounds like plinio's chicken ice cream w/ chicken cracklings. bobby from anvil bar is calling his entry "gin chicken." will it be served in a glass or on a plate?

tickets went on sale on the Houston Chowhounds discussion board early friday morning and sold out within a few hours.

there aren't any tickets left but there's still a wild card spot on the judging panel. the wild card judge will be chosen by whoever submits the best response to the question, “Why should I be a FCTD judge?” anyone may enter by sending his/her answer in 100 words or less to imneverfull@gmail.com by mon, 6/1 at 5 pm.

you may have missed out on this event, but it's not too late to attend the Houston Chowhound 2nd annual BBQ smackdown! the date has been set for sat, 6/27 @ noon. the location will be announced soon. so if you aren't a member, seriously. what are you waiting for? join here.

photo courtesy of roboppy

thanks alison!

thank you alison cook for your recent mention of the houston chowhounds on your houston chronicle food blog. almost makes up for not responding to the invitation i sent you for the miracle berry party last friday.

(i think you're awesome which is why i'm a little upset.)

Chowhound BBQ Smackdown

this weekend marked some ridiculous amounts of chowing making me true to my moniker "never full".

saturday around noon, 30 houston chowhounds including the bloggers of she eats, i've got the munchies, eating our words, and food in houston met for our 1st annual bbq smackdown. this month's texas monthly featured their picks for top 50 bbq joints in texas. alas, only 2 joints made it from houston, but this prompted many visions and daydreaming about smoky meats and a fun planned event to blind taste and judge those 2 against some local bbq darlings.

this was definitely the most strategically planned chowhound event we've had to date. we had an advisory team which included me, dorothy and brucesw to discuss judging criteria, organization of the event, and contestants (which involved some heated debate), but ultimately, i got to choose the 6 super secret locations. i lined up the bbq orders with specific instructions (no logos on packaging, sauce on the side, center rack ribs, etc.) and had a chowhound volunteer pick up each of those orders right before we all met at pearl bar for beers and some crazy amounts of bbq chow.

barbeque was queued for pick up at burns, virgie's (both tx monthly top 50), luling city market, pierson & co, kozy kitchen and swinging door in richmond. thelma's was considered but she accosted me when i was setting up the order in person (which turned a lot of heads in the restaurant) and wanted me to pay for all the food more than a week in advance. she was just too scary and hard to deal with. on the day of the event, less than an hour before the smackdown was to commence, i got a call from a frazzled katharine telling me that virgie's was closed. a last minute order was placed with goode company bbq and the order was ready for k by the time she arrived.

when the bbq arrived onsite, i quickly labeled containers with a number and updated my master list with the corresponding number. we had 30 paper boats labeled with each number ready to go. this is what our serving station looked like:

we served 2 versions of bbq at a time. chowhounds were given 1 boat from each place containing half a piece of brisket and 1 pork rib with sauce on the side.

after getting 2 boats, chowhounds went to their tables, tasted the brisket and ribs and rated each on smoke, tenderness, flavor, moistness, and seasoning. then we repeated the process two more times until the 'cue from all 6 places were served. members then rated brisket and ribs in order from their favorite to least favorite and turned in their rating sheets.


we also had lots of yummy sides including coleslaw from houston's, jambalaya from goode co., sausage from burns and pierson, beans also from pierson, a homemade couscous salad from dorothy, corn on the cob by andi, and avocado cilantro potato salad by suzanne. yes, a chowhound feast!


photos of the aftermath...

after everyone was finished scoring, rating sheets were turned into dorothy who calculated our winners in warp speed. also, i reviewed rating sheets to see who matched up or guessed the most number of bbq joints correctly. 3 chowhounds tied for guessing 3 correctly: katy p., nell s., and anonymouseater. after a random drawing, anonymouseater won the prize which was a $30 gift certificate to sur la table.

dorothy announced our results. for brisket, pierson & co (a newcomer to the houston 'cue scene) won 1st place followed by burn's for second and luling city market in at third. for ribs, luling city market took first place, followed by pierson and burns at 2nd and 3rd. swinging door came in at 4th place in both categories. kozy kitchen and goode company came in close to last place in both categories. read more on the event and judging results in the houstonist's write-up.

after clean up and a lot of pawning of leftovers, i dropped a few things off at home and then ran over to volcano's for the houstonist's crawfish boil. couldn't pass this event up b/c for $5, you could eat all the crawfish you wanted. they had 500 lbs on-site to boil up for houston mudbug enthusiasts. 3 hours and 3 lbs later, my stomach cried "uncle" so i battled montrose gay pride parade traffic and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with chris and sarah and co. oh my liver!