Has competing diminished your desire to eat BBQ?

I'm looking for the choice to strictly eat other people's. I like to judge for the same reasons you mentioned and that's why I also like to eat other competitor's Q. I don't want a meal, just some bites to get a feel for other flavor profiles and styles.

Yes, I'm pretty sick of eating it, yet my spare time revolves around cooking it.

Try vending all day.
Makes you want to eat a lot of fish!

I have a hard time eating it while I am cooking, but I like the leftovers. Weird, I guess...

I'd like to try some famous bbq places, but here in Ames, everyone raves over Hickory Park, but I wouldn't go near those boiled ribs with a ten foot pole. The only thing that makes that bbq is that they serve it with bbq sauce.

I love to eat BBQ anytime. Except on Sat after breakdown of the comp site. Then I don't want BB for a day or 2.

Competition is a different game for us! Game I mean game! I still like the camaraderie of the comp, Like seeing friends, having a good time, and trying to do my best that day! May the best box win.... It is a game with strategy like when to get there, what meat to buy, who to be next too, what garnish to use, and a billion other variables.

With home cooking for whatever there is still pre-planning but where sure were doing our best for our friends at whatever event. We dont do experimenting then we cook what we are comfortable cooking.


Experimenting is done off season or when ever I get a moment thats not filled with other stuff. I or my other pit masters will try before anyone else. We dont likey no one else sees or tastes except maybe the dog who is not pickey except vegtables.

I can go pretty long stretches without eating much of it anymore.

My first thought was "Not diminished -- ELIMINATED!"

Then I realized I'm still happy to eat at QN4U BBQ House in Clovis.

I judge BBQ 3+- times each year, compete BBQ 4+- times each year, and strangely
compete in chili cookoffs 5+- times each year.

On the BBQ side, more than anything else, I'm spoiled. It's RARE that I'll even
consider eating at a BBQ restaurant. Thinking, I cannot remember the last time.

However, eating BBQ, mine or other competitors, I still enjoy it. I can get overloaded
with it, and usually for 2 or 3 weeks afterwards I dont want to see BBQ, no matter
what.

Chili, kinda the same. I really enjoy a good 2 beer chili, whether mine or someone
else's who knows how to make a good 2 beer chili (beers measured by how many it
takes to eat a bowl of chili; ala. medium hot chili).

I grew up eating crappy BBQ smothered in sauce. In essence, we were *programmed* to judge BBQ by the flavor of the sauce and how well it masked the
bland/tastless crap being presented with it. Only in judging did I come to understand
that the meat stands alone, and really top notch BBQ still makes my eyes roll.

Mind you, I'm from Georgia, and BBQ here is P I G. I only recently did my first
briskets. I used the tons of advice here and made 2 briskets; one injected, the
other not. One time before I'd had the opportunity to judge brisket. I can tell
you that my worst brisket would've placed in the top five of that cookoff, and the
other one was absolutely to die for. My wife and good friend wouldnt shut up;
kept stuff brisket in their face and saying "OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD". To me, still,
great BBQ still brings that out in me.

Been doing all of this (above) since summer of 2005.

Only eat mine* w/ asterisk

I have to say that I have lost the taste for it due to competition.....except brisket. I feel like a dog competing over the one lone food bowl when brisket is done for turn in. I cut it I know the pieces I want. If its good I'll make myself sick and if the burnt endz were right I am done for. But ask me to do more then taste the pork and I will balk. I don't eat ribs at all anymore, well my ribs usually suck anyway. :lol: Our chicken is good but I trust another member of the team to taste it.

Only time I'll enter a BBQ joint is to support a brethren. :biggrin:

musicmanryann said:

I have a hard time eating it while I am cooking, but I like the leftovers. Weird, I guess...

I'd like to try some famous bbq places, but here in Ames, everyone raves over Hickory Park, but I wouldn't go near those boiled ribs with a ten foot pole. The only thing that makes that bbq is that they serve it with bbq sauce.

Click to expand...

Ryan,
I hear you. Before I started really cooking BBQ, I loved the place and would make a point to either eat it there or get an order to go. Now, even when I do make it up to Ames, I don't even think about eating there. I'd much rather go to Great Plains (pizza for those who aren't familiar) or some other place that isn't a chain restaurant.

I only go to one BBQ place in town and it is pretty good, I even throw some ideas their way, they just started to compete this year. Other than that i am a bbq snob. A couple months ago I was dragged kicking and screaming to Famous daves after a competition for Fathers Day. Needless to say I got a burger while everyone else raved over FD's bbq. Now after eating mine they would rather stay at home and eat.

I wonder if the NASCAR guys ask each other similar questions like, "Has racing diminished your desire to take a Sunday drive?" :shock: :-D

John

I only go to restaurants where I know they compete. Like Smokin Guns in KC, Smokey D's in Iowa. The BBQ is more along what I prefer if I have to eat someone else's. And when I do go to those places I try to get stuff other than brisket, pork or ribs.

I am firmly in the first poll category. I've officially named this phenomenon "Nun". As in, "Don't have nun, don't want nun." :-D

John

PatioDaddio said:

I wonder if the NASCAR guys ask each other similar questions like, "Has racing diminished your desire to take a Sunday drive?" :shock: :-D

John

Click to expand...

I'm sure their answer would be, "absolutely not", as on the proverbial Sunday drive they get to take the occasional right turn.:biggrin:

I answered "No Change."

We don't have that many places for Que in WNY. I really enjoy Desperado's Barbecue in Angola, and Kentucky Gregg's in Cheektowaga and O.P. When in Syracuse or Rochester, its got to be Dinosaur. Haven't been to Kansas yet, but looking forward to experiencing some of the Legends in a few weeks.

During a competition weekend, we usually have hot dogs or pizza for dinner afterwards. Even Pennsylvania Pizza is good after a long cook. :wink:

I find I have a desire for only so much BBQ. After smoking for two or three weeks in a row, plus leftovers. I do get the burn out, but a couple weeks off and I’ll hit a restaurant again. But I think I’m like that with any food, Love pizza but a few days in a row and I have to eat something different.

But I’m one of the weird ones … I don’t mind steamed ribs. Hack away!

It all depends, I still enjoy going out for BBQ, but, I am a little more picky about where I go. Last week I went to R.U.B in Las Vegas and enjoyed it, but, will I go to just anyplace to eat BBQ, no......destination BBQ, in a heartbeat