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

Holy cannoli, the Irvine Global Village festival is upon us again. TOMORROW. I completely forgot until I looked at my calendar.

It’s a day when all of Irvine’s diverse ethnic communities share their proud food traditions with their neighbors in a spirit of peace, generosity, and humanity. Then afterward, we leave the parking lot and break out the ethnic slurs about Asian / Mexican / Persian / whatever drivers.

Fellow blogger Chubbypanda wrote up this report on last year’s event. Did I? Nooo. But I did go, and pass on these tidbits o’ wisdom. Some of the restaurants ran out of food, so go early. Parking at Bill Barber Park is extremely limited, so plan on using one of the remote lots and using the free shuttle to get to the festival.

Bill Barber Park
4 Civic Center Plaza
Irvine, CA 92606
Hours: 10am - 5pm

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First place beef brisket. Photo by the BBQ Junkie

My barbecue competition team mates on Four Q BBQ took first place in the beef brisket category last weekend. Brisket cook Neil “Big Mista” Strawder took a well deserved, first win in his category after a string of top placings. Congratulations, Neil, on your number one slot, and another cow trophy for your collection. Your brisket always rocks (shameless plug for Big Mista’s catering)!

Congratulations also to overall winners Tropical Heat (woohoo Bill and Dan!) and BBQ by Dan (way to go, Dan & Barbara). My teammate BBQ Junkie has a detailed breakdown of winners in each category, if you’re interested.

It’s great to have four cooks on our team whose kung fu is strong. I missed this contest, and they stepped right up and took fifth place in the pork rib category: the meat that I usually cook. As with past contests we did with one cook missing, Three-Fourths Q is still a wrecking crew. Where was I? Cooking a charity event with the California BBQ Association to benefit the Wishland Foundation. Post to follow.

Beer can chicken. Photo by the BBQ Junkie

For more photos from the 2007 Moorpark Fall Fest and BBQ Cookoff, see my teammates’ archives:
Bigmista’s Pics

BBQ Junkie’s Pics

Sylvie’s Pics

So you may be one of my readers who’s SO OVER reading about the stupid barbecue contests that I compete in. “Big deal, who cares, I’ll never cook at these things anyway,” you say.

Well, if you love barbecue and don’t want to deal with the expense and stress of competing, why not participate in contests as a certified BBQ judge?

The California BBQ Association is hosting a judging class this Saturday August 25 in Burbank from 9am to 3pm. You will learn the rules of judging a Kansas City Barbecue Society contest, and as a CBJ (certified barbecue judge), you can participate in the many KCBS sanctioned contests across the country.

This class needs to have at least 20 people signed up to move forward. There are only 16 people paid up at this time, so if you’re interested, please don’t wait. Signup is quick and easy to do online. The class costs $30 if you’re already a KCBS member, or $65 to become one.

Please click through to the California BBQ Association site for details.