BBQ has always been a thing in certain areas.
This includes the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri River valleys, the Carolinas and Georgia, and Texas, most often in rural areas. The rest of the USA, not so much.
BTW, I’m a KCBS certfied judge for 30 years now, and have been known to detour 80 miles out of my way to hit a certain pit. So I have done the research here.
Twenty years ago I used to have serious arguments with people when I said BBQ is not hamburgers and hot dogs on a grill but rather large pieces of meat slowly cooked over hardwood coals served with a savory sauce and fixings.
Today explanation seems redundant.
Back then, the only place in the NYC area that served BBQ was Virgils in Times Square.
Now there are numerous good places in NYC, like Fette Sau, not to mention in Jersey and pretty much everywhere else. I recently saw on a tv show there is a place in Southwark London that is importing briskets from the US. And you can get pulled pork on anything, anywhere, anytime.
That is a major change in American, if not international, foodways in just 20 years or so.
There are way more BBQ places than Howard Johnson’s left, whether in Maine or California.
Which restaurant explains this?
Or did it just not happen in Berkeley or Manhattan until later.
There’s my beef with BBQ and this book.
