From NPR's revival of the "This I Believe" series started way back
when by Edward R. Murrow on CBS. Follow the link to see pics and hear
the essay read by the author

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4827993


There Is No Such Thing as Too Much Barbecue
by Jason Sheehan

All Things Considered, May 29, 2006 · After listening to the results
of this project for several weeks, I knew I could do three minutes,
too. Certainly not on world peace or the search for meaning in an
increasingly distracted world or anything as grave and serious as all
that, but on a belief just as true.

I believe in barbecue. As soul food and comfort food and health food,
as a cuisine of both solace and celebration. When I'm feeling good, I
want barbecue. And when I'm feeling bad, I just want barbecue more. I
believe in barbecue in all its regional derivations, in its ethnic
translations, in forms that range from white-tablecloth presentations
of cunningly sauced costillas, to Chinese take-out spareribs that
stain your fingers red, to the most authentic product of the tarpaper
rib shacks of the Deep South. I believe that like sunshine and great
sex, no day is bad that has barbecue in it.

I believe in the art of generations of pit men working in relative
obscurity to keep alive the craft of slow smoking as it's been
practiced for as long as there's been fire. A barbecue cook must have
an intimate understanding of his work: the physics of fire and
convection, the hard science of meat and heat and smoke -- and then
forget it all to achieve a sort of gut-level, Zen instinct for the
process.

I believe that barbecue drives culture, not the other way around. Some
of the first blows struck for equality and civil rights in the Deep
South were made not in the courtrooms or schools or on buses, but in
the barbecue shacks. There were dining rooms, backyards and roadhouse
juke joints in the South that were integrated long before any other
public places.

I believe that good barbecue requires no decor, and that the best
barbecue exists despite its trappings. Paper plates are okay in a
barbecue joint. And paper napkins. And plastic silverware. And I
believe that any place with a menu longer than can fit on a single
page -- or better yet, just a chalkboard -- is coming dangerously
close to putting on airs.

I believe that good barbecue needs sides the way good blues need
rhythm, and that there is only one rule: Serve whatever you like, but
whatever you serve, make it fresh. Have someone's mama in the back
doing the "taters" and hush puppies and sweet tea, because Mama will
know what she's doing -- or at least know better than some
assembly-line worker bagging up powdered mashed potatoes by the ton.

I believe that proper barbecue ought to come in significant portions.
Skinny people can eat barbecue, and do, but the kitchen should cook
for a fat man who hasn't eaten since breakfast. My leftovers should
last for days.

I believe that if you don't get sauce under your nails when you're
eating, you're doing it wrong. I believe that if you don't ruin your
shirt, you're not trying hard enough.

I believe -- I know -- there is no such thing as too much barbecue.
Good, bad or in-between, old-fashioned pit-smoked or high-tech and
modern; it doesn't matter. Existing without gimmickry, without the
infernal swindles and capering of so much of contemporary cuisine,
barbecue is truth; it is history and home, and the only thing I don't
believe is that I'll ever get enough.

-Chef Juke
"EVERYbody Eats When They Come To MY House!"
www.chefjuke.com

"Piedmont" > wrote in message
...
>
> Yes!
> --
> Regards,
>
> Piedmont

It's a beautiful thing.

Chef Juke wrote:

snip
> I believe -- I know -- there is no such thing as too much barbecue.
> Good, bad or in-between, old-fashioned pit-smoked or high-tech and
> modern; it doesn't matter. Existing without gimmickry, without the
> infernal swindles and capering of so much of contemporary cuisine,
> barbecue is truth; it is history and home, and the only thing I don't
> believe is that I'll ever get enough.
>
> -Chef Juke
> "EVERYbody Eats When They Come To MY House!"
> www.chefjuke.com

Yes!
--
Regards,

Piedmont

The Practical Bar-B-Q'r at: http://web.infoave.net/~amwil/Index.htm

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless,
whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism
or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Mahatma Gandhi, "Non-Violence in Peace and War"