Barbecue Is A Noun…
Posted by Chuck on May 23rd, 2007
Last week I was in Memphis, Tennessee for four days at a regional meeting. The meeting was entertaining, but not as much as Thursday night when we went to the Memphis In May Festival. As the website says, it really is the “Super Bowl of Swine.” I’ve seen it before but only on The Food Network shows about the event. Never in person. There was some awesome barbecue all over that place. If you like it dry rubbed, wet, spicy, tangy, etc….they had it. There was St. Louis style, Memphis style, Alabama style….white sauce, vinegar based sauce, tomato based sauce….they had it all. There were barbecue teams from all around the country. And even Texas. Damn, I bet there wasn’t a Muslim or Jew within twenty miles of that pork filled place!
Before I get into more stuff about Memphis and the festival…and the crappy cell phone pictures I took…let me put something out there for your consideration. Why do some people in this country (Yankees and other folks not in the South, but possibly in Central and South Florida) call the act of cooking meat outside on a grill barbecue? Barbecue is a certain style of meat. You can have pork, chicken or beef barbecue. Hell, I once even had Mongolian barbecue. There is sauce involved and sometimes it’s served on a bun or with a bone through it. You don’t “barbecue” hamburgers, hotdogs, steaks, chicken, etc. There should not be a verb version of that word. When you have friends and family over and you fire up the charcoal or propane grill, you’re cooking out. Possibly you’re even grilling out, but you are never barbecuing! All true Southerners would agree.
Okay, now that we have that cleared up, how about some pictures from Memphis.
Here we have the Mighty Mississippi and the bridge and pyramid thing in downtown Memphis.
In this snapshot you can see a lovely sunset, the river and Arkansas at the top and Tennessee at the bottom. Can it get more exciting than that?
This is one of the tents we were invited to party in. You have to have an invitation to go into the tents (there were like 70 of them) and there was a doorkeeper at each tent who would check for the appropriate arm band. Inside each tent that particular “barbecue team” would be cooking up their famous meat and serving it, and all the beer you could want, for free….if you had an invitation/arm band. How about that hot chick on the right in the green top? Her name was Marla, by the way, and she likes men who know how to deliver their sauce….or at least that’s what she told me….I got to know her while waiting in line at the port-o-potty.
In this final picture you can see the drive-by version of Sun Records, where Elvis and many others got their starts. If you’d like to see a pic of the place without the blur you can click here. Can’t you just imagine his pink Cadillac parked out front?
Alright Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed this educational and entertaining trip to the barbecue festival and Memphis. I also hope you’d never call cooking out side on a grill barbecuing. If you do, just remember those of us in the Deep South might just laugh at you. But never to your face….only behind your back. We’re nice like that…
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:08 am
Sorry, but you southerners are saying it wrong and also the spelling is wrong. We here in the Midwest do Bar-B-Q our hamburger, hot dogs, etc. OUTSIDE on the barbeque, usually propane fired. Man is it fun when they catch on fire and the entire thing blows up. Would we want to miss that fun??!?!?
But happy you had a fun time in Memphis doing — whatever.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:30 am
I grew up in the midwest and we alway’s grilled our burgers and hot dogs outside. I have to agree .. the South knows Barbeque and boy do I miss it!!
May 23rd, 2007 at 8:02 am
We spend most weekends outside with the grill or smoker going. Paul is an excellent grill master. He even smoked a turkey this weekend that was to die for!
Great pics! I would love to go to Memphis!
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:08 am
Rosie - If you’re blowing up your grill then you’re grilling all wrong!
Bella - You got that right. There is some good shit down here.
Julie - Isn’t it great to grill? I love me some smoked meat too! Mmmm, mmmmm.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:02 am
Here….in my neck of the woods…..we call it BBQ….because we’re lazy. AND, we get our neighbours to BBQ……..because we’re lazy.
We loooove a good barby on a hazy warm night, covered in mossie spray, usually suffering from sunstroke or a hangover. Just love it!
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:55 am
Nice picture’s thanks for sharing. It’s been years since I went to Memphis. We grill alot here. Hope your having a great day. Sending you lot’s of Big Big Hug’s!!!!!!!!
May 24th, 2007 at 9:14 am
I do wish you had your good camera with ya, but the desciption made my mouth water! Enjoyed the read.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Great pics Chuckie.
Sounds like fun and I love me some BBQ.
I always say “Let’s grill out”. I never understood why people call grilling a hamburger “BBQing” either. Makes no sense.
May 24th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Pretty pics - thanks for sharing them. And thanks for clarifying the whole B-B-Q thing. We don’t “bar-b-que”, we EAT bar-b-que!
May 24th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Cherie - Yeah…does sound lazy. What the hell is mossie spray?
Sandy - BBH2U2!
Mushy - When you say “mouth watering” are you talking about the bbq or the girl in the pic? lol
Slick - You got that right my brotha!
NoOne - Amen sista!
May 24th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I totally agree with you… You would have to put BBQ sauce on something to make it a BBQ… It is cooking out!!
May 24th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
What the fuck are you talking about? When you cook outside it’s always called barbecuing.
May 25th, 2007 at 7:10 am
Naw it ain’t. It’s called “grilling”.
May 25th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Chuck,
I’m with you, Slick and NoOne on this one. It’s either “grilling out” or “cooking out” around here. I think the 4 of us should all get together and show the Yanks how it’s done. And done right!
May 25th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
dont step on my blue suede shoes.
May 25th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
The last time I checked, it was the boys with the blue coats that won the war. We barbecue meat up here, Chuck. Now, don’t make us come down there and swat your backsides agin, ya hear?
May 25th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
N - Glad to see you know it like it is…
Peg - Honey, you poor thing….I’d gotta be hard for you to be wrong. See, even Slick knows the truth….Right, Slick?
Good Dr - Sounds good to me!! Let’s do it! I’ll chip in on the beer.
Snag - I’ll remember that…
Long time - Do I know you? It’s a historical fact that the Yankees did win the War of Northern Aggression. But I doubt it could happen again. This whole misguided “barbecue as a verb” concept must be some way left freaky liberal plan to ruin grilling outdoors!
May 27th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Mossie spray kills mosquitos!!! Do I have to explain EVERYTHING to you??? You spray it on yourself and, hopefully, the little buggers leave you alone to enjoy your BBQ.
May 28th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Looks like great times. I’ oves me some BBQ, and the stuff at a cook off is the best. Nothin’ like the competition to bring out the good stuff.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:20 am
As a former Northerner, and NOW a resident of Central FL, I can only say that it makes me CRAZY when I hear people say, “let’s barbeque!” and cook f’n hot dogs 7 hamburgers!
My ex-MIL uswed to say that ALL THE TIME! What’s worse? She’s a southerner! Born & bred in Louisianna!
Dogs & burgers cooked outside is called a cookout. Or Grilling.
Now, you put a big ‘ol slab of ribs or a nice skirt steak, or perhaps a brisket (or 2) …. THEN it’s a barbeque!
May 31st, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Party at the Doctor’s office?? Woohoo!
May 31st, 2007 at 1:32 pm
I had to laugh at your “Arkansas on the top, Tennessee on the bottom” comment……
June 9th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Looks like great fun
June 10th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Hey Chuck, I too enjoy staring at random hot chicks at events such as this, but the way you use “bar-b-que” in front of the meat, i.e. bar-b-que chicken, beef, etc, is not a noun but an adjective, describing the noun!
June 11th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Yeah, it’s grilling out, not BBQing.
Barbeque is a noun that describes pig slow cooked on a flame. PERIOD.
June 12th, 2007 at 10:38 am
just checkin in….
hope you are doing well, hon
**hugs and sloppy kisses**
June 17th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
MIssing you! I wish you’d get your butt back here and blog!
June 22nd, 2007 at 11:36 am
Well, my parents always called it barbecueing, so I always call it barbecueing. But lately I have been reading about grilling and that it is really what my folks called barbecue. So I guess that thing you put the coal into and cook the food on isn’t called a barbecue?
Dang.
I came here via your comment at Slick’s place, just in case you were curious.