Smokin’ in the Square did not disappoint! Eight intrepid Krewe members braved the beautiful day to dine on ribs, pulled pork, some damn fine yard bird, and numerous and varied libations while participating in The Knights of Columbus Annual Smokin’ in the Square barbeque contest. Photo may seem blurry, but it’s not. Alcohol was involved. Have a couple of beers and the image should clear right up.
This years contest departed from the traditional Kansas City Barbeque Society format and operated to a whole new set of standards. Our krewe, being accustomed to KCBS standards, was caught a little off guard by the changes to the contes. However, by virtue of adequate applications of bourbon, wine, beer, and Queen we still managed to produce a tremendous entry. Through the determined efforts of the night krewe (Bill, Landi, Chad, Dawn), ribs were smoked at 225 for about 5 hours before being allowed to spend the night on ice.
In true Krewe of Blues fashion, the judges were given a shot of bourbon to cleanse their pallets before sampling our ribs. Alas, we did not know one shot of bourbon would not be enough to wash the sugary stain of KC Masterpiece barbeque sauce off the tongues and pallets of our intrepid judges. They were left taste blind and no amount of bourbon was going to help them.
Following the contest, the ‘People’s Choice’ event was held. The folks who came to the event mingled with all the contestants and sampled the pulled pork and our own ‘Get Sauced’ barbeque sauce.
The KOB team reserved the ribs for team members. Handing out hundreds of sample of pulled pork took our highly skilled team of Duane, Carla, David, Laurie, Chad, Dawn and Landi to new heights in terms of professionalism, cooperation, determination and alcohol consumption. It is fair to say everyone had a hell of a good time!
Perhaps the best thing about this event was the end. Usually, the end of a barbeque contest is just a sad tale of dashed hopes and damaged livers, but at this event it was an amazing ballet of eight people moving and loading and packing up all the stuff that makes up a barbeque competition. What used to be an hour ordeal of sweating, huffing and puffing became a ten-minute miracle as everyone broke down our site and loaded us out. At the next meeting, the pit master is buying the first round of drinks for this very fine BBQ Krewe.
Notes have been made as to the conduct and parameters of the competition so that next year we can win something!
