enrevanche: Smokin' the good stuff

17 November 2008

Smokin' the good stuff

Calvin Trillin eats the Best Barbecue in Texas (per Texas Monthly) - at a place called Snow's, open only on Saturdays ("from eight until the meat runs out"), owned and operated by a former rodeo clown and an experienced, elderly female pitmaster, both of whom have (so far) held on to their day jobs:

...Snow’s BBQ turned out to have the sort of layout found in a place like Kreuz Market, except in miniature. It’s a small dark-red building that has room for a counter and six tables—with a few more tables outside, near the cast-iron smokers that in Texas are referred to as pits, even if they’re not in the ground. A sign listed what meats were available, all for $8.45 a pound: sausage, brisket, pork, pork ribs, and chicken. The sides offered were “Mrs. Patschke’s homemade coleslaw and potato salad,” plus free beans. There were only a couple of people ahead of us in line.

Burka stepped up to the counter to order.

“Are there five of you?” the young woman slicing the meat asked, as Burka tried to figure out how many pounds we needed.

“Well,” Burka said, glancing at Evan Smith. “Four, really. One is . . . he has a big meal coming up.”

“You’re ashamed of your friend,” I whispered to Burka. “You’ve abandoned him.”

“I just couldn’t say the V-word,” Burka said. He looked sheepish—not, I would guess, a normal look for him.