If you showed up at a barbecue contest, you might expect that you can eat some of the barbecue being submitted for judging. At many contests in California, that’s simply not the case, because vendors that sell to the public must pass Health Department inspection, and clear hurdles that most non-professional teams aren’t prepared to muster. The public disappointment in the lack of contest quality samples contributes to the demise of otherwise terrific events like the highly hyped BBQ’n at the Autry, which won’t return in 2008.

The organizers of the inaugural Blues, Brews and BBQ contest in the desert resort city of La Quinta, California chose to structure their event so the public can sample contest grade barbecue. Against a small assembly of our friends and fellow competitors, we scrapped our way to a second place overall (called the Reserve Grand Champion in BBQ contest jargon). During the vending session, Four Q also earned the coveted People’s Choice Award. Perhaps they liked the friendly trash-talking show between our team and our neighbors. Perhaps they liked our generous sample portions. Or maybe they just liked our meat and sauces.

We aim for consistently high placing in each of four meat categories, and this time, we actually managed to pull it off. It’s nice to take a first place in any one category, but it’s better to take a top five in all of them and place higher on the overall ranking.

Congratulations to the organizers of this first time event, which exceeded this competitor’s expectations for organizational skill, media coverage, and public attendance. With any luck, La Quinta will have us back next year.  And next time, we’ll be prepared to cook more food for Four Q’s fans.

Results 2007 Blues, Brews and BBQ - La Quinta, CA
Overall
1 Kyle Emery, Kyles Bubba Q
2 Neil Strawder, Four Q
3 Bill Emery, Brother Bills BBQ
4 Dan Powers, BBQ2DI4
5 Steph Franklin, Simply Marvelous
6 Mike Reimann, AZ Barbeque/Whiskey Ranch
7 Brian Kriesler, Blast Off BBQ
8 James Emery,  J and L Smokin BBQ
9 John Scott, Papas Smokhouse
10 Dale Ginos, When Pigs Fly

Brisket
1 Kyles Bubba Q
2 AZ Barbeque/Whiskey Ranch
3 Four Q
4 Brother Bills BBQ
5 Simply Marvelous
6 J and L Smokin BBQ
7 When Pigs Fly
8 Blast Off
9 Papas Smkehouse
10 BBQ 2DI4

Chicken
1 BBQ2DI4
2 J and L Smokin
3 Kyles Bubba Q
4 Blast Off
5  FourQ BBQ
6 Papa Smokhouse
7 Brother Bills
8 Simply Marvelous
9 AZ Barbeque/Whiskey Ranch
10 When Pigs Fly

Ribs
1 Kyles Bubba Q
2 Brother Bills BBQ
3 FourQ
4 Blast Off
5 BBQ 2DI4
6 Papa Smoke House
7 When Pigs
8 Simply marvelous
9 AZ Barbeque/Whiskey Ranch
10 J and L Smoking

Pork
1 Simply Marvelous
2 FourQ
3 AZ Barbeque/ Whiskey Ranch
4 When Pigs Fly
5 BBQ 2DI4
6 Kyles Bubba Q
7 Brother Bills
8 Papas Smokhouse
9 Blast Off
10 J and L Smokin

The third annual Smokin in the Park BBQ contest is a biggie (for California, anyway), with forty teams committed thus far. Big prize money always draws more teams, which makes my team’s aim of winning the overall that much harder. One never knows, though. We took first place in brisket at the last contest, and first place in ribs the time before that. If you happen to be in the San Diego area, come out and root for Four Q!

The contest will be held in the Viejas Outlet Center. Teams start cooking on the night of Friday October 19, 2007 and judging begins at noon on Saturday.

Viejas Outlet Center
5005 Willows Road, Alpine, CA 91901

Tracy, California is a formerly sleepy agroindustrial town that’s slowly turning into an exurb for Silicon Valley train commuters. This growing community seems to update the tired, run down hole in the wall restaurants in its older neighborhoods with crappy chains in the newly developed areas. On the surface, Tracy’s food scene appeared bleak.

But then I drove past a storefront that caught my eye. “Lake of Fire,” the sign said, baffling me from the back of a strip mall.

“What the hell is a Lake of Fire,” I wondered? A brimstone burning evangelical church in a strip mall? In fact, it’s an Italian inspired restaurant where I ate twice during a recent weekend in Tracy. It’s been open since November 2006 under chef Kevin Conway, who adds depth and layers of flavors to his straightforward pizza and pasta dishes by roasting the vegetables in his sauces. Roasting intensifies the vegetables’ natural sweetness, and this simple rustic kitchen trick makes all the difference in the final dish.

Roasted pepper puree, for example, flavors one of their Tuscan Flat Breads, a house specialty. There are several iterations of this salad-on-a-pizza-crust, but the chicken version comes with with a salad of baby spinach, roasted red peppers, mozzarella, garlic puree and dressed with a citrus vinaigrette. The pizza crust combines surprisingly well with the salad on top, although it cracks into pieces if you try to fold it like a pita bread. You’ll have to figure out your own way to eat this lovely carb-rich salad.

Roasted tomatos enhance the robust bolognese sauce in the Rigatoni, served with chunks of fennel sausage, sauteed fresh mushooms, parmesan and mozzarella. All the big flavors melded into a rich pasta dish that was one of our table’s favorites.

The spaghetti with meatballs, however, was not well received. The noodles were inexplicably cut into shorter pieces, and the meatball congnoscenti in our group gave them a major thumbs down.

But the pizzas here are the standout. They serve a crisp, thin crusted version that would lead you think there’s a wood fired oven in the kitchen, but there isn’t: only a gas fired oven and a chef who runs it at blast furnace temperatures. The crust has a cracker like bottom layer, with just enough breadiness to absorb the juices of the strongly flavored ingredients on top. The Margherita pizza has a restrained and proper balance of crust, sauce, and topping, meaning it’s not excessively overloaded with goopy cheese. Cheese is a seasoning here, not a choking hazard.

We tried two pizzas: the classic tricolored Margherita with tomato sauce, fresh basil and cow’s milk mozzarella. The Neapolitan pizza police will get their knickers twisted because they’re not using bufala mozzarella, but after all, this ain’t Napoli, it’s Tracy. It’s not damn good DOC (Denominazione di Orgine Controllata) pizza, it’s damn good BFT (Bum F*@k Tracy) pizza. It’s the closest to authentic Italian pizza you’ll get this side of San Francisco, and a welcome change from the same old, American doughwad pizza.

While the Margherita appealed to the minimalist in me, better still was the Carne Combo pizza, topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, fennel sausage, prosciutto, pancetta & sauteed fresh mushroom. Somehow, they manage to put all that meat on this thin crisp crust, and not overwhelm it with a sodden heaviness. Must be that blast furnace in the back that crisps the bottom of the pizza dough regardless of what’s sitting on top.

The most expensive item on the dinner menu is $12.95, and most are less than $10. Accessibly ambitious in a town overrun with mediocre chains, Lake of Fire elevates relatively humble ingredients to greatness, and that’s a measure of the cook’s skill in any rustic cuisine. The restaurant has plans to start growing its own herbs hydroponically in a converted salad bar fixture, but hasn’t had the time or money to proceed with the project. Let’s hope Tracy’s continued growth encourages brave independent restaurants like this one, which deserve the support.

Lake of Fire
2503 N. Tracy Blvd. (>1 mile south of the Tracy Blvd exit on I-205)
Tracy, CA 95376
209-839-9600
Open 7 days a week

My barbecue team, Four Q BBQ, spent the weekend with twenty others competing at the Go For the Gold Route 66 BBQ Championships in the high desert town of Victorville, California. At KCBS sanctioned contests, teams competing for the overall Grand Champion title submit entries in chicken, pork rib, pulled pork, and beef brisket categories. Our first place in ribs and a solid fifth place in beef brisket netted us an eighth place overall.

Congratulations to Grand Champion All Hogs Go to Heaven, and to Reserve Grand Champion Otis and the Bird, both consistent performers on the Southwest barbecue contest circuit. Our team’s not quite at their level of repeatable success just yet, but we’re working on it!

First place trophy

The winning ribs. Photo by the BBQ Junkie

Auspicious street sign on the San Bernadino County Fairgrounds

Half Penny Kenny, one of our favorite BBQ buddies, brings us a bouquet of meat.