the traveling cupcake: March 2013

Friday, March 01, 2013

Houston Rodeo - World's Championship Bar-B-Que

Over the weekend we celebrated our one year anniversary of moving to Houston. One year - can you believe it?? To celebrate (ok not really, it was just good timing) we went to the World's Championship Bar-B-Que at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. BBQ cook-off in Houston? SOLD!

Every year the barbecue cook-off kicks off the Houston Rodeo. For three days over 300 teams cook and compete to take home the honor of winning first place. These teams work their butts off smoking, cooking and BBQing for 72 hours. And the result is delicious. You have to have a ticket to eat at the tents, but general admission gets you a plate of BBQ at the food tent. We had tickets to the Dodge City Cookers tent, a team that usually does pretty well every year. This year they came in eighth place in the brisket competition and twenty-third place over all. Out of 300+ teams?! That's pretty dang good!

Brian and I were super excited to take part in an event that is basically the epitome of Texas culture. We put our western shirts and cowboy boots on and we fit right in. (Next year we are totally getting cowboy hats) If you hold a ticket to one of the tents it buys you as much food and drinks as you can handle. Our tent had a live band which gets the crowd into high gear and kept us entertained all night.

And the food? I bet you want to know how the food was? In a word - amazing. I went for the brisket, sausage, meatballs and ribs. No need to muddy the plate with beans or potato salad. Somehow I missed the BBQ sauce which might have made it out of the world, but none the less the food was delicious. And those meatballs? Best thing I ate all night. Want to know what they were made out of?

ARMADILLO!

WTF?!?!

I kind of gagged when I heard that but they were so stinkin' good that I just had to finish them. Definitely one of the most adventurous things I've ever eaten.