Hawg Heaven Weekend

What a weekend!

Northwest Arkansas has always been home of the Hogs. This weekend, it is also home of the Hawgs. Bikes Blues & Barbecue (BBB) is an annual event for Fayetteville.

There are an estimated 200,000 motorcyclists here. They look like an ant colony. Dixon Street is nuttin' but noise, noise, noise, noise. The ground shakes a mile away in any direction. The smells of leather and exhaust are outdone only by the smell of...


Q!

Oh yeah! As in BBQ.

There is a BBQ cookoff going on just south of Dixon. I drove thru the smokin' camp late last night (about 3 in the a.m.), when all the crowds were gone and all that was left was pure smokin' enthusiasts, busily changing out meats, checking on temps, adding a splash here and there, downing a splash here and there, and grinning the whole time. These are the true Q-ficionadoes. There were teams with big banners and giant stainless steel commercial smokers and single folks with nothing but a small bullet or horizontal or two with a firebox attached. And there was smoke. Lots of it. Glorious, delicious smoke. Some piping out thick, others perfectly thin and blue. They were great folks to talk to.

Unfortunately, I had missed the public handout portion of the event. These guys were cooking for real. This was competition time. And it was on.

Well, naturally, you can't be exposed to smoke like that and get a hankering for Q. Mrs. dePracticalist told me about this restaurant up in Bentonville that had a big smokehouse. It had smelled so good, she had been wanting to try it for about a month or so. So we loaded up the truck and moved to Smokin' Joe's. Ribhouse, that is.

I was in hawg heaven!

First thing, of course, is to test the sauce. "Don't get your spit all over it!" (That was Mrs. the Practicalist.) The house sauce was pretty good. Had little bits of onion in it. A little sweetness. Nice REDNESS. The country style, my fave, was a little sweeter, but a little lighter. KC style... if you have to add smoke flavor to the sauce... uh, oh. And finally, the Spicy... not really all that spicy, which is fine, as it shouldn't take focus off of or try to cover up the meat.

The kid's plates came out first. We had ordered them each a rib plate with corn on the cob. They got two GIANT spare ribs each and a full-sized ear of corn! What would ours look like? Mrs. the P and I shared a plate of ribs, brisket, pulled pork, and sausage, along with beans and onion rings. Huge! Although we only got one rib each, the whole platter was so big, we couldn't have eaten a second rib if we wanted to (which I did... want to... and I could have... eaten another one). The ribs tasted terribly - familiar! They tasted like mine! Only not quite as sweet. They were perfect! Great smoke flavor, perfect tenderness, not too mushy. In a word - AWESOME!
The kids couldn't stop talking about them, or eating them. They didn't want to share with their old man. Dang kids. Staying home next time. They can have MY leftovers.

Next, we moved on to the brisket. Nice color. Warm gray. Good bark. Small smoke ring. Good texture. Melting in the mouth. Tender. Ohhh, so tender. Ahhhhh... flavor, flavor, flavor! Perfect. Absolutely perfect!

The sausage was good. Nice sweetness.

Pulled pork? Well, it was alright. Tasted like brown sugar. Not enough smoke flavor. But not bad. Made me feel good about my own.

Onion rings. Another hit. Sweet batter, bitter onion (not vidalia, which was actually kind of a nice surprise).

I'll pass on the beans. It was obvious the focus was on the meat.

This is my new favorite restaurant. Service was awesome. We even caught the waitress helping the kids cut up their food!

The price was surprisingly affordable. Especially considering the amount of food. We'll be back.

Follow that up with a 51-10 beating on Texas, and it was a heavenly hawg weekend!

(OK, so it was actually a beating by Texas, but whose really paying attention?)