Ribs on the Smoker

Another beautify day calls for another day on the smoker. This time I tried during some racks of Ribs. Not understanding what I was buying I purchased 4 racks of spare ribs thinking it was 2 so a pleasant surprise. Also got lucky as you will later see the 4 racks just fit on the smoker. 

Smoke BBQ ribs and Brisket nachos

Well went to Smoke last week and because of the time and effort in the cheesesteak tour I have been a bit slow to get this published. Sorry, loyal readers but I wanted to mix the content up a bit. Leave a comment if you like the cheesesteak tour or if you prefer I stick to the shorter review pieces.

Ribs at Back Alley BBQ

Was told that the Ribs at Back Alley BBQ were out of this world so I knew I needed to go out and give them a try. Well I was not disappointed. Maybe not the best in the world but they were good and huge. Just take a look!

Mission BBQ- Turkey and Ribs, oh yeah and the brisket sandwhich!

Going off the bbq trend to get back to some classics. Realized there where still a bit of items I am leaving off the reviews. One of those great items at BBQ places that can get over looked is the Turkey. Smoked Turkey can be delicious as I learned from my trip to Franklin BBQ. Time to apply that lesson and switch things up!

Whole Hog Cafe: Burnt ends Cheesesteak

So after trying the brisket cheesesteak at Seymors, I went down to Whole Hog to try the burnt ends cheesesteak that they serve. I was always interested in ordering it but never felt called to order it.

Seymor Watch my Smoke

Went to Seymor Watch my Smoke to try their famous brisket cheesesteak and boy oh boy it was delicious. The cheese was perfect. It had all the benefits of whiz but with the great taste of real cheese. Now I wasn't planning to try a new place out but I had some time and threw it into the google maps asking for the closest BBQ place and out popped Seymors. Now, the owner was working behind the counter and he was super nice and really interested in making sure I enjoyed my meal. It was great. One of my favorite thing about BBQ places is that people are always friendly. They go out of their way to make sure the guest have a good time.

Mission Bbq for some after Thanksgiving lunch

Went to Mission BBQ for some post Turkey day lunch. Here is the review. Starting with the Brisket. I got it moist, which is my preferred way to eat it. Little more fat and just adds extra flavor. Here, the brisket is well cooked, good flavor, bark is a bit lacking but the meat flavor is good. One of my favorite things about Mission BBQ is the different types of sauces they have. 6 on the table and a white sauce in the back if you ask. With the brisket I went with the Memphis belle and KC Classic. Normally I would give a description but the 6 table sauces cover the whole spread and the description on the bottle holders do a great job. There is a sauce for everyone here.

Heart of BBQ: Austin Texas

Now I am starting with a disclaimer I am going to start with the bad parts of the trip and work to the good. Why you ask? Well because when I consider what I am going to blog about or post on social media I think of a chapter from "The Defining Decade" by Meg Jay on how putting all these great pictures up causes isolation by the people who see it, she does a much better job explaining it so give her book a read. That's the exact opposite of what my goal is so I'll start with the less than great parts and than hit you with the great pictures of food.

Back to Whole Hog for some Burnt Ends

Went back to the Whole Hog to try the burnt ends. There are two ways that I have found the burnt ends served. Either diced up and carmalized or a larger chunks. Both are good but at the Whole Hog they buck a chunk. I got the platter though with some Ribs.

As you can see from above there was a solid coating on the burnt end but it didn't add as much flavor as on the brisket they serve here. With the brisket you can taste the brown sugar, it was lacking on the burnt ends. The burnt ends do have a higher fat content and they were quite tender. It is a solid burnt end but it is not something to go out of the way to order there are better things on there menu. Though a buck a chunk is a pretty decent deal so I guess if you want to go wild on buck a chuck go for it.


My mom was also there and she got her favorite sandwich; the pulled chicken.

Her comments were simple. It had a good chicken flavor, tender and juicy. The coleslaw gave it a nice crunch and very enjoyable.

Overall the burnt ends get a 3.5 bones out of 5.

Smoke BBQ- Brisket review

Super excited about this write up. I had the opportunity to go check out what was claimed to be the best BBQ restaurants in the area; Smoke BBQ.  Located on West Merchant Street in Audubon NJ, this place is a good find. Go check out there website here https://smokebbqnj.com/. 

Walk in on a Wednesday for lunch and there were several people in there. The man working the counter was explaining the difference between moist and lean brisket to the person was ordering ahead of me and it seemed like a place where the people knew there stuff. 

I ordered the moist brisket and it was not a choice I regretted. 

The brisket had a solid bark to it as you can see in the pictures but what impressed me was the smell. There was the general smell of BBQ in the air when I walked in but as soon as they brought my tray out to me, I got hit by the delicious smell of smoked meats.

I was able to cut through the brisket like it was butter with my fork and no issue eating it without any sauce. Each bite had a strong flavor, a combination the bark, a good amount of fat and great overall flavor. This is one of the best briskets that I have had in New Jersey. It is right up there with all the brisket I had in Kansas City and worth the time if you can get over there, 

Now there are some downsides to this restaurant was the sauces. They are made in house and they go for interesting flavors. There was an expresso sauce and the house. Expresso had a taste of coffee which I am not that big of a fan so that one did not go over well. The house sauce was also nothing to write home about. It didn't really have any punch but I think that was the point to it. The great think was the brisket was so good that you could eat it dry and have need for sauce. 

I would have liked it if the portion size was a bit bigger but it was really good so I will not hold portion size against them. Plus there were sandwich meals that may have been a better deal. 

Overall the Brisket gets 4.5 out of 5 stars. 

I am looking forward to the opportunity to head back over and try the other options on the menu including the bread pudding. Unfortunately, I had to go back to work when I went so I couldn't give the bread pudding a taste without worrying about taking a nap at work. 

BBQ Review- Whole Hog Cafe- Cherry Hill

Went out to the Cherry Hill location to try some Whole Hog Cafe. Now the interesting thing about this restaurant is that the building is really plain, it is just gray cement and does not look like it should be a resturant but once you step inside it is exactly what you would expect a BBQ restaurant to look like.  It is counter service, order at the counter and take your seat and the cashier will bring out your food to you. The owner is the winner of world championship for the whole hog in 2002, hence the name and has several runner ups for the ribs.

I walked in and was prepared to order the Hog platter, which is 2 meats and 3 ribs, but noticed that they had added burnt ends to the menu from last time I was there and if you read my KC blog post you will know how much I enjoyed burnt ends. Well I stuck with the big three of brisket, pulled pork and the ribs, but will definitely be going back to try the burnt ends so keep an eye out for the update when that happens. 

As you can see above I got the mac and cheese and cheesy corn as my sides to go along with the ribs, brisket and pulled pork. Starting with the pulled pork which I matched with the number 5 sauce which is there sweet sauce, don't worry I'll give you the breakdown later. The pulled pork has a nice bark to it and the meat has a good flavor to it even without the sauce.  The pulled pork is served with no sauce on it so it is a completely blank palette to showcase the sauces that they offer. Now, the only issue that I have with the pulled pork here is that it runs on the dry side so the sauce is basically a necessity to enjoy the full course of pork. This would be a major problem when you get the pulled pork sandwich. Fortunately, there are enough sauces that you can sufficiently wet the pork to make it tolerable. If you do not sauce on your meat I recommend another item on the menu. 

The second meat was brisket. Alright so this is not to the level of some of the KC brisket but it still pretty solid. This brisket has a brown sugar rub on it which you can taste it when you eat the brisket dry. The nice thing about the brisket is that you can eat it without the sauce and you get blast of flavor. The meat is not dry but it is not nearly as tender as the KC brisket that you can eat with only a fork. Here you have to pick a knife as well to cut off a piece.  There is a good amount of fat on each piece that gives it a great amount of flavor. 

I dipped my brisket in the number 1 sauce which is there mild sauce, or basically the average BBQ sauce that most restaurants have. I think it compliments the sweetness of the brown sugar rub that is used on the brisket. Overall the brisket is a solid choice and when I stop in for lunch during the work week I get the brisket sandwich, which the issue with the sandwiches is the bun is a bit to big for the amount of meat that they put on the sandwich. It still is a good choice when you can't risk getting sauce on your shirt. 

Now for the main attraction at whole hog; the ribs. 

 The ribs here are babyback still instead of St. Louis Spare Ribs. That means it is a bit less meat per bone but the meat is normally tender and falls off bone, where the St. Louis Ribs it is more common to find a drier rib. Here at whole hog the rib pulls apart almost with no effort at all, just a slight pull.

The sauce on this one I think is the number 1 sauce as well but I am not entirely sure. It doesn't taste or look like the other ones so by process of elimination I think it is the 1 sauce. The ribs also have a brown sugar rub on them which gives them a sweet touch but it is not overpowering. It is easy to tell why this place was able to do so well in competition, enough though there is always a drop in quality from competition to commercial production, these ribs are excellent. Every so often they have a special with the rib meat where they put it on a sandwich and on those days I recommend that and toss the bun. (The sandwich meals are a pretty good deal, drink sandwich, coleslaw and a side for around $12) 

Now the sauces:

 I am going to be honest I don't like mustard based sauces so I did not try the #6 sauce. None of the sauces here are going to rock your world and it is unlikely that you are going to walk out buying one of the sauce but they get the job down and there is something that works for all ranges of people. My personal favorite is #5 but I have a major sweet tooth. 

Quick note about the sweet tea, it is not that sweet here, it's not that it is bad it is just that for the taste I rather stick to the plain old regular tea. It's not bad just not super sweet. 

Whole Hog Cafe is a nice BBQ restaurant that has excellent ribs. It's a place where you can stop in and grab a BBQ sandwich for a quick lunch or a quality dinner if you have some more time. If the urge to have some ribs hits you this is one of the places to go. 

I really look forward to going back to try the burnt ends. 

Overall Ratings

Ribs: 4.5 

Brisket 4

Pulled Pork 3

Sides 2.5 

Kansas City BBQ or as much as I could eat in 2 days

The inspiration for this blog actually is partially from the book The Circle where either you get completely involved in social media or they kill you off and I saw the writing on the wall I did not want to be killed off by the social media overlords so as I was in Kansas City visiting a friend I thought it be a great idea to start a blog about my current interest and say no no no social media overlords I am not a completely anti social person, I have a blog that no one reads. Well no one reads multiple times. Now during my trip I had some great food and really wanted share the experience with a bunch of strangers that I will never talk to again.

Well the trip started because I went to a local BBQ place and instead of ordering the pork I order brisket and after taking a few bites I thought they could better. I went home google best brisket and Franklin BBQ in Austin Texas popped up, but I didn't feel like going to Texas for my first trip, fortunately there was also a bunch of results for KC and in KC I would have a friend to stay with. Boom so KC to have some brisket and burnt ends.

Land in KC and grab an Uber an off to Gates BBQ, I head. Gates is interesting because it is counter service and the people in there are really loud with their can I help you even when you are standing a few feet from them. Walking in I am hit with the smell of smoked meats and I can feel my stomach start to rumble with anticipation with the meal I am about to feed it. Looking over the menu I see a steal of a sandwich, the Nooner. Burnt ends on top of brisket and a side of fries for 5.99.

Alright, I'll admit I could use some practice on the taking pictures but this is a process for all of us. Now I was surprised by the sauce. It had a spicy kick to it that I was not expecting. I thought the KC style of sauce was a sweeter taste that focused on molasses and tomatoes, well the tomatoes was there the sweet was not. Don'y get me wrong it was good and after the first few bites of the burnt ends and brisket I knew I was in the right spot. When you hear burnt there is a worry that the meat will be dry and often the issue with brisket I have found is that it can be dried out. That was  not the case at all with the Gates BBQ Nooner. The first bite was juicy and had a strong beef flavor. Need lunch in KC definitely pick up a nooner from Gates BBQ.

The next stop on the BBQ was Q39. This was more of an upscale restaurant, compared to Gates and KC Joes. Now unfortunately I had not committed to taking a picture of all my food just yet mainly because as I said this blogging thing is new to me and I did not have the resolve for it yet, so your just have to take my word for what I ordered. It started with an order of the pork belly appetizer. The pork bellies had a fatty goodness and flavor that would be well appreciated by any bacon fan out there. For my main course I had the brisket and burnt ends combo platter and added three ribs to my meal. Again the brisket and the burnt ends were perfectly cooked. The lean cut they were moist and delicious. The sauce that it was served with was significantly sweeter than the one from Gates.  The Ribs though I felt were completely average. They were cooked to the right temperature and were easy to eat right off the bone but there was nothing that set them apart from the normal rib you can get at your average BBQ joint that I have experienced. They also had a cheesy corn as a side and this was yummy. For desert I had an apple crisp, one of my personal favorites. It had a good tartness to the apple that contrasted well with the scope of ice cream and the sauce that was used for the meats. Again an excellent experience. 

The next day the BBQ experience started at KC Joes, formerly known as Oklahoma Joes aka the gas station BBq joint. 

Above KC Joes, you can't see the gas pumps but don't worry they are there. The second picture is right inside as the line wraps around outside it also wraps around inside. Here I got the famous z-man sandwich and an order of the burnt end lunch special. Okay, i thought I took pictures but I can't find them so it probably was a accidental video that I would have deleted in the great purge I had before writing this post. Oh well, next time you will get better pictures, I promise.

Let's talk about the Z-man for a minute. The Z-man is a brisket sandwich with cheese, seems simple enough right, well nope because the brisket is cooked to perfection. The beef touching my tongue was taste bud heaven. The whole atmosphere of the place is building to this first bite and it did not disappoint. The burnt ends that I got as well were also delicious. Legend has it that KC Joes invented the burnt end and well I'll believe because he sure does it right. Well worth the wait.


The next stop was Brobeuks which was done the street from where I was staying. I felt like a mid day snack so around three I walked over to get some burnt ends by themselves. I ordered a half pound and sat down to enjoy.

Now here my plate after eating a couple and remembering I have to serve my people and share my experience that they may never have. The interesting thing about this place is they serve the meat without sauce because they believe the meat speaks on it's own. That is philosophy that I agree with. It is possible to get a lot of flavor out of brisket without needing to throw more sauce on. The meat was juicy and tender and easy to eat. The knife went through like it was butter and it was real easy to chew. Overall this was one of my favorite stops just the meat and no thrills. Well all the places were great but this was was right there with the legendary KC places.

3 hours later it was time for dinner and off to Jack Stacks. Jacks is like fine dining BBQ and it was delicious well the burnt ends were. I order the burnt ends and pulled pork with fries and cheesy corn.

Again the pork was not as good as the beef. I think it is true Kansas city is just better at Beef than they are at pork. The pulled pork was a bit drier than I would have liked, making a bit harder to chew and was not exciting on the flavor. The burnt ends though, again came through. It was really amazing how good all the burnt ends were. The cheesy corn was good and to be honest I don't think I have ever had bad cheesy corn in my life. For desert I had the apple bread pudding.

Now it had the apple taste and the caramel sauce that was on it was delicious but this was not one of the better bread pudding I have ever had. First it was more cake like as it was rather solid and did not have the spongy texture that good bread pudding has when it is done right. This might just be me but I am also a firm believer that bread pudding should be served with a scoop of ice cream. Overall it was a great experience at Jack Stacks. Shout out to our waitress Bri, she did a great job and laughed along and magically was able to keep my ice tea glass from running out. She did a great job, thank you. 

Overall all the places I went to eat in KC were great. I think KC Joes was my favorite but it was close and that might be because there was an electric atmosphere while waiting and I had two of their best instead of getting the pork like at the other restaurants.It was a fun trip and I look forward to trying these places again and maybe trying a few new ones next time I head out there.  

Where better to start than the beginning

Hi, world.

I guess the best first post, or at least the way I am going about is to explain what this blog is going to be about and provide some of my motivation for starting to write a blog. Well, the main reason I decided to start this little pet project is that I am a bit bored and wanted to share some of my thoughts with no one in particular. I don't expect many people to read this since I don't plan on advertising that I have been writing till I have a couple months of content. (It would be interesting to see if people go back and read the old articles plus I want to fool around with the formatting and seeing what works and doesn't work) Sorry to those that end up here in the early part of the blog. Come back in about 3 months to see if I figured things out. 

I see there really being three main topics that I am going to write about; Movies, sports and Food (mainly BBQ). The movies are going to be reviews of the movies I see in theater so mainly newer ones, but there might be some of older movies that watch on TV as well as trends I see in movies and a general this is what I like about movies and this is what I think does not work. That might touch on narrative structure, example I enjoy the non-linear story, think pulp fiction but that doesn't work in  ever movie, or what makes a great modern day villain. 

Sports wise I see this touching on any subject that is interesting to me at the time. There is going to be some personal moves, roster construction, strategy, recaps of games, random Sixers rumors, and maybe some of how my golf game is going this week. When the summer comes around I'll start doing some preseason fantasy football rankings and maybe some strategy and how I see roster construction

Que wise is for BBQ, but it will cover other food options as well. It is going to explore the South Jersey BBQ scene as well as other areas that I travel too. I just got back form a trip to Kansas City which is where I came up with the idea so there will be a post about that trip. 

I might do some other fun posts like random power rankings or short stories that I feel inspired to  write. Possible interviews of grill masters or just people that enjoy eating. 

Well that covers the topics and on some philosophical points this blog is mainly for my enjoyment and I hope my readers enjoy but that means I will not be going off on politics even as relates to sports. This is supposed to be a fun escape from life and I hope it can be for others as well. 

Well I believe that introduction are best short, sweet and to the point, hopefully people enjoy this a tenth as much as I enjoy writing it.