…  a great food country. Cooks from every other nation bring their proud food traditions, and submit them before the collective “eeeew, what’s that?” of a squeamish American public.

… a place where our most delicious native culinary tradition, slow smoked barbecue, is celebrated in backyards and contests from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon.

… a country where my rainbow coalition of a BBQ team was chosen to represent America’s other, other favorite national pastime (after baseball, and invading sovereign nations) for a short video documentary by the US State Department. Check it out here:

This was shot at the 2008 Stagecoach country music festival. If you didn’t know better, it looks like they held a  concert to play second fiddle to an enormous barbecue contest, instead of the other way around. Thanks to Big Country for joining forces with the Four Q team for this contest (hence “Four Q Country”), our friends Glen and Janette for their hard work at this event, Janine and Brian for a fantastic video production, and Thom Emery and Ben Lobenstein for their work to make this contest successful.

Happy Fourth of July, everybody!