I had a great time! Thanks for organizing this crawl. When's the next one?
It's interesting to hear everyone's take on food and to recognize again how different people experience tastes differently. This made me want to go back and eat a whole lot of a few of the dishes, that's for sure. I tried to taste each thing as served before adding sauce. Sauce by itself is a dangerous thing to rate because it's designed to go on something, so the flavor alone may not be balanced, but when it's on the meat, it may be fantastic.
Big Mista's.
It's hard to be first up in any competition...
The brisket was a revelation. I have not had it with that much rub before and it was fantastic. It did not need any sauce, bread, anything...
The rib was good. The one I had was a bit small and undercooked, maybe. I left considerable meat on the bone when I bit it. I thought it needed sauce and the sauce is excellent, so that was a necessary addition to the overall flavor package. It was sort of plain by itself.
Pulled pork. I didn't get a sample until the end and the finger-full I had was just tiny shreds. Tasty freakin' tiny shreads they were, though.
Chicken. Salty, slightly dry breast that balanced well when dipped in sauce. People that like dry-ish chicken would really like it -- my son and my wife, for example.
Sauce. Apparently this was not the Super Secret Competition sauce, but his "normal" one....really good. Not too thick or thin and sweet. It didn't overwhelm the food it was put on but complemented it. You wouldn't necessarily say great sauce, you would say great BBQ. (that's high praise, by the way)
Greens. Good but needed something porky for my taste.
Beans. Sweet. Lots of beany goodness.
Cole Slaw. Very sweet by itself so it would go great on a pulled pork sandwich, I bet.
Overall rating? Yum! I will hunt down the BigMista tent again.
Texas BBQ King.
Chicken. I had a thigh and it was excellent. It had nice smoky flavor and was soft and gushy with juice, just like I like them.
Rib. They either cook at a higher heat or crispy them up at the end. There were burnt bits all over. My wife would have been in heaven. I thought that they burned the sauce on them and burnt bits of garlic taste nasty to me. I wiped it off and a bite of the meat revealed a nice texture and taste.
Tri-Tip. The post-it sized piece I had was destroyed. Overcooked and not good.
Sauce. Garlicky. Bitter. Overwhelming aftertaste.
Greens. Definitely a mixture of greens. If you are prepared for collards and there is some mustard or turnip in it, it has a distinctly different flavor. I did not like these at all.
Mac and Cheese. Ugh. Disgusting. Chewy, undercooked mac and not enough cheese.
Overall rating? Great chicken, but I don't need to remember the address.
Phillips.
The rib. Fantastic. Lots of meat. Cooked just right. A bit of salt to the tongue and a hint of smoke and then the meat flavor takes over. I doubt they ever put sauce to meat so the texture was ...meaty instead of glazed and saucy.
Chicken. Nice smoky flavor. Not as amazing as the last place but very good.
Tri-Tip. Maybe I was hoping for Santa Maria style and this certainly wasn't it. Dry.
Sauce. They have regular and hot, which is really hot. They will serve it mixed as well. The regular is vinegary and not that much flavor and the hot is, well, a hotter version. I did not like it by itself but I thought that it definitely enhanced the rib's flavor. It hindered the beef and chicken, though, if you ask me.
Greens. Suffice it to say that I went back inside and bought a quart. The best greens I've had in a long time.
Beans. Not as beany as BigMista's. The beaniness was lost in the sauce.
Overall rating? Ribs and greens. Yum!
An additional tasting test, too. Bread. BigMista served us 2/3 of a loaf of bread from the store wrapper. It was the best of the three. Texas BBQ King had nasty dried out corn muffins and Phillips served one piece of white bread wrapped in plastic with a napkin and fork....
So BigMista's was outdoors on a rainy Saturday and he still had some business. Pretty good for the few weeks he's been there. We were in Texas BBQ King at lunchtime and there were few customers. Phillips had a line the whole time we were there. There's a reason that customers show up and places stay in business for a long time. They deliver what the customers want and don't screw it up very often.
I am a hard grader -- like my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Kreps. I would say that for everything as a whole that first would be BigMista, then Phillips, and Texas BBQ King a distant third.
Rib: Phillips, Texas BBQ King, BigMista
Chicken: Texas BBQ King, Phillips, BigMista
Beef: BigMista
Sauce: BigMista
Greens: Phillips, BigMista, Texas BBQ King
Beans: BigMista, Phillips, Texas BBQ King
Thanks again! March 28, maybe?
p.s. MrsMista, your butter pecan pound cake is fantastic!
