Atomic Nerds

Chris Byrne waxes eloquent on a subject near and dear to my heart, and by far the most actively commented one on here in awhile. It’s All Things Barbecue!

For the record, Stingray agrees with Chris and is a brisket man- not necessarily as the Bestest Barbecue Ever, but as the best way to judge if a barbecue place knows what it’s doing or not. I’m ribs all the way; they’re easier to do well, but I just plain love ribs and have ever since I was very small, and I figure that even if they don’t know their asses from their elbows with the brisket, if the ribs are good then I’m happy anyway. And no, I don’t like them drowned in sauce- an offering of dry ribs is a necessity unless the sauce recipe was handed down straight from the God of Pork and is just that good.

There’s only one other tip I’d offer when it comes to quickly casing a barbecue joint, and that’s to look at the line and the customers around the table. A new place recently opened up in Santa Fe, and while I knew from offerings my in-laws had returned with that it was good, when I set foot in the place for the first time I would have known anyway: representatives of every ethnic group and economic bracket in the city were standing in line or occupying a table. From old, white, and bejeweled to melanin-enhanced and wearing the international uniform of the day laborer, people were coming to get the good stuff.

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