How do you like your BBQ?

[MetalBard]

I had to double-take on that one. Cole slaw on a sandwich?!?!? That's a new one on me. I guess every place is different, but I would think that some thing would universally make a person think "What the heck?"!!!

Kane

Ever had a Reuben or any of its derivatives? And that's a good sandwich... mmm...

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good BBQ joint in the Northern Virginia, DC, Maryland area. I especially like ribs.

Speaking of ribs, some of the best ribs I've ever had were at P.F. Chiang's. It was an appetizer called five-spice ribs or something like that. The second best rack of ribs I've ever had was at the Porthole Pub in Massachusetts (Lynn, I think). You can get good BBQ out that way, just not at any place that claims to be BBQ.

Oh, and I'm surprised some poor fool hasn't mentioned the McRib yet...

 

[FreeXenon]

I like my barbaque sweet, spicey, and hot. If I my nose is not running when I am through... put 'er back.

I will give and amen to the Smokey Bones restaurant. Their Howlling Hot Sauce is AWSOME!!!

Grilled shrimp rocks!!!
I love Chicken Alfredo... when I was in Prague I ate at an outdoor cafe with a friend of min and I tried a dish called Alla Lutsiana (fogive the spelling) Wow, it was better than any alfredo I had ever tasted.. creamy and wonderful....

I am not hot (pun intended) on the taste vinegar based sauces. If the vinegar is very light OK, but anything that can even be moderately described as having string vinegar taste I will not like.

 

[Greylock]

Who ever heard of putting cole-slaw on a barbecue sandwich?! That was the craziest thing I'd ever heard of.

All my northern friends always freaked over that. I don't get it. It's not so different from eating Polish sausage with sauer kraut. Try the slaw sometime, die_kluge. It'll be a pleasant suprise.

 

[Greylock]

All this talk about BBQ and catfish is making my salad look like crap...

Muahahahahaha, indeed. Think I'll mosey over to Topps BBQ for lunch today. Gee, I can taste it already...

 

[Torm]

So then she said, "well, it comes with fries. The cole-slaw comes on the sandwich. Do you not want the cole-slaw on the sandwich?"

I'm from Missouri, transplanted to South Carolina, and I had requested "no cole slaw" every time I got a BBQ sandwich around here. Up until one day when one of my uncles said he would bring lunch to us at the store I worked at. I asked for a BBQ sandwich, and of course, good sandlapper that he is, he brought it with slaw. Not wanting to offend, I ate it anyway, thinking I would have to force myself through it. It was very good - and since, I get the slaw every time.

I'm not sure what Henry is on about with having it on hot dogs, though - ketchup, mustard, and/or cheese, please, or maybe some left over Manwich or taco meat.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Same as I despise putting sugar in spaghetti sauce.

Actually, if you put just a small amount of sugar in spagetti sauce (1/2-1 teaspon or so), it cuts the acidity but you don't taste the sugar (you don't want to use it to affect the sauces flavor, just to cut the acid). I never would have believed it until I tried it (I used to think it was wrong, too), and it worked wonders for the heartburn my wife used to get everytime she had homemade spagetti sauce.

 

[Desdichado]

All my northern friends always freaked over that. I don't get it. It's not so different from eating Polish sausage with sauer kraut. Try the slaw sometime, die_kluge. It'll be a pleasant suprise.

I bet many of your southern friends would be too.

And it is vastly different from Polish sausage with saurkraut. For one thing, everyone knows you're supposed to eat German sausage with saurkraut. For another thing, sauerkraut is actually good while cole slaw is wretched.

 

[Torm]

For another thing, sauerkraut is actually good while cole slaw is wretched.

Depends on whether the cole slaw is made right - I like KFC cole slaw, for example - and whether the sauerkraut is made by a senile little old lady in the apartment directly below yours who leaves it on all day until it stinks up the entire complex. Like used to happen to me at least once a month back when I lived in Dwight, IL. I'm of German descent, and it was enough to make me a sour Kraut, I'll tell ya that. ::groucho::

 

[nakia]

I have to weigh in here.

I grew up in Northeastern South Carolina, fairly close to the NC state line. Pulled pork with a vinegar sauce is my bar-b-que standard, by which all others are measured. Radd Dew's Bar-B-Que (in Conway, South Carolina, my home town and about 15 miles from Mytle Beach) is the Platonic Form of Bar-B-Que joints. All you can eat buffet and it's only open Friday and Saturday nights. In the winter, they are open on Thursday nights as well, where they have chitterlings (chitlins) on the buffet.

This is not to say I am not appreciative of other forms of Que. Maurice Bessinger's restaurant's in Columbia, SC introduced me to the mustard-based sauce often associated with South Carolina. I like it, but it's not one I go out of my way to find. It's much better on chicken than pork or beef. That, and Mr. Bessinger and I disagree fundamentally on politics.

Then, I moved to Texas -- home of the grilled beef brisket and a slightly smoky tomato based sauce with a little heat to it. I was skeptical at first, but now love brisket, if cooked properly (a loooooong time on the grill with a dry rub, then adding the sauce after it's cut).

The best ribs I have ever had were from Fat Matt's Rib Shack, in Atlanta, Georgia. Good, good stuff. Pork ribs slow cooked with a bit of wet, tomato based sauce. Yum.

I have yet to find bar-b-que worth a damn in Virginia. In DC, however, there are two places I like. The first is Old Glory in Georgetown. They slow cook the meat with very light spices, then give you a variety of sauces on your table to pour over your pulled chicken, pork, or beef. This lets you try out a variety of sauces from different parts of the country - they have a vinegar sauce, a mustard sauce, a Kansas City smoky tomato sauce, a Texas sauce, etc. While the sauces are not the best in the world (especially compared to the sauce you would actually get in those places), they are all pretty good. DC also has Capital-Q, which ic on the edge of Chinatown near the MCI center. Very good brisket -- the owner/chef is a native Texan and knows what he's doing. The only wierd thing was the brisket is served over rice, which was a little odd -- maybe the Chinatown influence.

And while I love Outback, if the best bar-b-que you have ever had is from there, then I feel for you.

 

[Desdichado]

Actually, if you put just a small amount of sugar in spagetti sauce (1/2-1 teaspon or so), it cuts the acidity but you don't taste the sugar (you don't want to use it to affect the sauces flavor, just to cut the acid). I never would have believed it until I tried it (I used to think it was wrong, too), and it worked wonders for the heartburn my wife used to get everytime she had homemade spagetti sauce.

See, I can buy that. Although I like the acidic flavor of things that are acidic. I go out of my way to add acid to my food. I squeeze fresh limes on everything that I can. I add hot peppers, fresh or dried, or hot sauce, to most of what I eat.

So I still have no interest in sugar, or honey or anything else like that being added to my meat.