Barbecue is good for us.

Strangely creepy. I called the number, and there’s an actual answering machine for Jones’.

(Via GorillaMask)

Update: Check out the website here.

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Check out this 2 part short documentary film about Barry (Alex) and Carolyn Alexander who run the Brick Pig’s House in Oakland. Andrew and I visited this joint just a few days after it opened and didn’t think very much of it. More than two years later, though, it’s still around, and gets pretty glowing reviews on Yelp. I’m not one to put too much stock in Yelp, but then again the Brick Pig’s House is rated higher than a lot of other area places that we like, so we’ll have to give it another shot. And everyone notes the same thing that we did when we went in there: Alex and Carolyn are about the two nicest people you’ll ever meet.

Anyway, these 10 minutes cover some interesting ground, including a view of Oakland’s BBQ history:

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OMG, stop sending me links to articles about the Bacon Explosion. It’s not like it wasn’t covered in the NY Times, for peetsake.

Clearly, those BBQ addicts did a great job of coming up with a BBQ(-ish) dish that’s so over the top, no one could ignore it. But am I a fan of the Bacon Explosion? Am I drooling, just waiting for the chance to have people over so I can try it myself. No way. I’m not a fan. Not at all. Let me see if I can lay out why:

1. At first thought, the idea of combining foods that are individually good and then cooking them together seems brilliant. 1 + 1 = 2, right? Not in this case. All pork products are not created equal. Far from it. I love bacon. I love sausage. I’ll eat them both on the same plate with eggs and hash browns. But do I want a bacon wrapped sausage? Nope. These are two things that are best enjoyed separately. Turducken also seems like a fun, tasty idea from afar. Take three good things (or four, depending on your use of sausage), and shove them inside of each other. Yum? Nope. Have you ever tried a turducken? It sucks. It’s not good. It ruins all that’s right and good about a turkey or a duck or a chicken cooked right.
2. There’s an even bigger problem, though. Bacon is one of the world’s most perfect foods. Good bacon is a delicate balance of salty, smoky, porky flavors. The lean and the fat on a nice crisp strip of bacon make for the perfect textural balance. So, why would you want to take all that, wrap it around a hunk of sausage, and shove it back in the smoker for a few hours? Balance gone. Flavor gone. Texture gone. It’s wrong. WRONG.

Anyway. I can’t speak for Andrew, but for me, I’ve seen the Bacon Explosion, and I hope I never see it again.

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I don’t know what else to say.

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That’s right. It’s a tiara made of bacon. Make your own! Just what you’ve always wanted:

OMG, it’s a video how-to:

(via BoingBoing)

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A bluegrassy primer on southern BBQ, by a band of North Carolinians. Brilliant! Check it out:

Tip o’ the smokebox to BBQ aficionado and fellow North Carolinian Joseph!

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(Inspired by Cameron and Ayman)

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How have I gone this long without realizing that the editors at Salon are straight up geniuses?! This week is Pork Week at Salon, which is featuring a series of articles about the prince of meats. The first is about America’s Bacon Infatuation (ABI, for short), and the second is about the joy of curing bacon yourself. Go read.

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