Do You Like My Hat?

On Saturday, June 8^th, after a grueling day of intense competition, South Plainfield's very own competition barbeque team, The Memphis Barbeque Company, walked away from the 3^rd Annual Mt. Bethel Fire Department Barbeque Contest as Grand Champions, having won first place for barbequed ribs and barbequed chicken. The contest was organized and run by the Mt. Bethel Fire Department under a modified version of the Kansas City Barbeque Society rules. Though a relative new comer to the world of competition barbeque, the Mt. Bethel Fire Department Barbeque Contest is quickly gaining favor among competitors as one of the premier one day barbeque events in the state.

Mark “The Monster” Johnson and I worked with the focused intensity of a tag team locked in a Texas Chainsaw Caged Death match throughout the day. 

Early on things looked grim. The team struggled and suffered a catastrophic tent failure. A back up tent was procured, but this did not go unnoticed by several of the competitors who eyed the guys like vultures sensing weakness. However, the team soon recovered, and successfully prepared the ribs and chicken for the smoker. A second crisis confronted the team when they ran low on bourbon at about 11:30 in the morning.  Again the vultures eyed the team, but soon an additional source of bourbon was identifed and again the vultures sulked away.

Four hours later, having been careful to avoid dehydration and having let the magic of hickory smoke do it's thing, the ribs and chicken emerged transformed into culinary Nirvana.

A little known aspect of competitive barbeque is that the real key to winning is in the presentation.  At these contests, it's all good barbeque.  You won't have bad barbeque there.  These guys are all good and in many cases, the difference between winning and being 8th is presentation.  Our secret weapon is Landi.  The only thing she has not been able to dress up enough for us to win something in is brisket.  Most of my briskets have been about as chewy as a brick, and every bit as tastey.  Landi dressed our ribs and chicken for success.
As has been known to happen, the post event celebration was conducted at Garner Lake, and as usual, most of the team swam, or were pushed into the icy waters.  Were it not for the copious amounts of bourbon that had been consumed, the icy waters of the lake may have cause hyperthermia.  Most of the neighborhood was pleased when the celebration terminated at midnight.