Barbeque in the Deep South

Barbecue in the South, need I say more...

You didn't really think you where getting off that easy did you? This past weekend was the annual Smokin Blues and Barbecue competition held in the quaint and historical town of Hammond, Louisiana. Saturday morning as we laced up our running shoes to participate in the 5k run for charity that starts off the day ( more on this in another blog) the heady aroma of barbecue wafted around us enticingly. running parallel to the train tracks and through the center of town, tents, motor homes and giant trucks formed makeshift cook sites. Smokers and barbeque's, some equal in size to a mack truck and others as humble as a Weber, graced each competitors site. Giant professionally printed banners and hand written poster board signs hung side by side. Seasoned veteran competitors and first timers, alike filled their que's with aged hard wood and coals and created magic with fire and meat. Some cooked carefully seasoned chicken and others smoked beef and pork for long hours until perfect tenderness was achieved and than add homemade secret barbecue sauces that would send a grown man to his knees in grateful tears. All of these festivities where wrapped warmly in the sounds of live blues played on a center stage. for two days the town hosted an enormous delicious party that would make the most experienced hostess flush in envy, as every party goer left with a satisfied grin and a slightly larger waist line than when they arrived. All in all it was a raging success. which is no more than should be expected of an area of the country that takes small breaks in between celebrating, everything and anything, just long enough to rest up for the next event...

I'm just not sure I have the stamina to keep up with the laid back South!