Big Apple BBQ: Pullin’ NYC’s Pork
This weekend was the 5th year for the Big Apple Barbecue, and the first time I have been able to attend. The event was Saturday and Sunday in Madison Square Park and takes on the task of educating New Yorkers about real Southern Barbecue (and also benefiting the Madison Square Park Conservancy).
I had heard of this event in years past as being more pain than pleasure to attend because of the mobs of hungry, hot New Yorkers waiting “on line” for their plates of Barbecue. I have to say that I think the event planners worked out their past problems this year. There were certainly still mobs of New Yorkers to deal with, but the lines were manageable, and you could easily get around and sample your barbecue of all varieties to your little arteries’ content. The weather was beautiful and mild to boot.
I regret that I did not get to sample as much barbecue as I would have liked and that I only stayed for an hour or so, but I was thoroughly impressed with the event. For either a barbecue lover or novice, there was a wide spectrum of American barbecue to see and sample, a chance that you rarely get in one place. The Pitmasters hailed from a wide range of the BBQ-belt (Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina) as well as from several of the real New York BBQ restaurants (Blue Smoke, Hill Country, Rack-n-Soul, Dinosaur) and each had a tent set up around Madison Square Park where each group prepared and sold one $8 plate of barbecue. For the most part, each plate consisted of one main item such as beef brisket, pulled pork, or ribs, and one side such as beans or coleslaw.
As for me, I sampled some pork, of course, and, believe it or not, not the ribs. I know. The pulled pork at Charleston, South Carolina’s Black Jack BBQ looked good to me. It didn’t hurt that the line was short, and I was hungry. As I went through the line, they had just taken out some pork shoulders and were picking them apart as I waited. They looked great, and the Blackjack pork-puller offered me the bone for my dog as it slid easily out of the shoulder. I don’t have a dog. I was served my sandwich and was happy to see an open spot at a picnic table right there in front of the tent. The sandwich was good, the pork was juicy and flavorful. Certainly it hit the spot. I sampled their mustard sauce, which was tart and spicy, and also good.
With my hunger sated, I walked around for a while and checked out the rest of the festival. I wanted to try it all, but alas, I did not have the stomach for it. I passed up some great looking tents, including the beef ribs from Hill Country (I figured there was no reason to sample one of the local joints) and the one that everyone wanted to see and sample, the whole hog from Mitchell’s BBQ of Wilson, NC. Certainly, it is always a sight to see whole hogs on the on their own custom smokers:
And how about them cracklins:
And this dude from Mitchell’s was possibly the most photogenic fellow at the festival:
I walked by the Blue Smoke tent and felt bad. Not a single person was in line for their apple brined and apple wood smoked chicken, which I am sure was delicious:
Now I love smoked chicken, and I appreciate that they were doing something besides beef and pork, but I bet they learned their lesson about chicken this year if it went like this all weekend.
Lastly, I tasted the Brisket and Sausage from Baker’s Ribs of Dallas, Texas. For the record, I thought the brisket was good, although not my favorite, and the BBQ sauce that they had was tangy and sweet, but kind of awful. Definitely not my favorite. I did like the sausage, though. It had a soft hotdog-like consistency with a wonderful maple and smoke flavor.
If you want more info and good pictures from this event, definitely check out this great blog, “Off The Broiler”, which has very good coverage of this event including two podcasts featuring interviews with many of the pitmasters and participants of the Big Apple Block Party.
Overall, it was a great event. Seems like the bugs have been worked out, and I can only imagine it will get better. Next year I will be there with more time and a Bubba Fast Pass!
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