Up For (P)review: Memphis In May's World Championship BBQ Festival
As we continue down this road of blogging, there will be times when I need to preview events so that you as the reader can go take advantage of it! I don't want you always on the outside looking back on something wishing you could've been there. Here's one of those times where I'm firing off the flare to signal to you to schedule in some time to make it to Memphis in May's World Championship BBQ Festival this week (if you're in the area).
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If you know anything about Memphis, there are 3 things it is known for: Music (blues, in particular), it's wonderful heritage, and BBQ. This week in Memphis, it is all about the slow smokers down at Tom Lee Park. Last year over 16 Tons of pork was smoked during the 3 day event. For the first time ever, the festival has been expanded into four days instead of three.
MIM BBQ Fest served host to 26 teams in 1978 for it's inaugural festival and has now grown to over 250 teams from all over the country and draws in ~100K people from just as far. The teams are lobbying for prizes ranging from $300 to $15,000. The recognition in victory is worth more than anything as the budgets are typically average somewhere between $10K - $15K.
When considering BBQ there are 4 major players in the US: Carolina, Kansas City, Memphis and Texas. They are all unique in their flavor and each of their respective fan-bases will argue their point that theirs is the best. In my opinion, there is only one right answer and it's Memphis. People have often asked me "What makes Memphis' so special?" I usually just explain its how the Memphians have demanded it to be top shelf.
There are two factions within the Memphis BBQ Family and each side is pretty hostile towards the other. It all comes down to one question: "How would you like your ribs?" To an outsider, this may seem like a harmless question. To a person who prefers dry ribs, seeing someone slather their perfectly cooked meat in BBQ sauce is culinary blasphemy. Here's an analogy if you don't quite get the picture: Imagine going to the finest steak restaurant you know of, sitting down, ordering that steak you love so much. Now imagine if someone came over and poured A1 all over it. That queasy feeling you have right now is synonymous with those dry rib folks when witnessing wet rib fans. I can't hate on the wet rib people though they will argue their point just as well. (I can't, but they can.)
Back to the event itself, there are three official categories: whole hog, rib, and shoulder. Only wood and charcoal is allowed at the event (one reason is for safety, but the main reason is because gas and BBQ don't mix.) There are competitions for things other than pork such as a hot wing competition, sauce competition, and "Any other meats" competition. There's more than just cooking at the festival. Special events such as Ms. Piggie features teams dressed up as pigs singing and dancing on stage, best booth, best team T-Shirt design, and Cooker Caravans, which are guided tours of certain teams throughout the competition.
Do yourself a favor and head down to Tom Lee Park sometime this week, make some new friends, eat some good BBQ, and have a cold beer. Live it up, Memphis. This is your time to shine.
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