Tag: Pulled Pork

AlbuquerqueBarbecueBreakfast BurritosNew MexicoRating: Very Good

J’s Var-B-Q – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Step into J’s Var-B-Q and the first thing you’re inevitably going to notice is the aroma of smoked meats wafting toward you.  The bouquet of sweet and succulent smoke envelops you like a warm blanket on a cold night.   It’s a comforting smoke sure to elicit involuntary salivation.  It’s a siren’s song luring you to the counter where you place your order from a tempting menu of meats, sandwiches, sides, specialties and desserts.   If the doors to J’s Var-B-Q were to literally stay open, the rapturous redolence of smoked meats would escape onto Montgomery and traffic would be snarled with motorists (maybe even a vegetarian or six) making their way to this bodacious barbecue restaurant. The second thing you’re likely to notice is a large mural on the wall depicting a grizzled gentleman with engorged pythons for arms.  He’s got his hands steepled in prayer and his eyes closed in reverence.  Undoubtedly he’s giving thanks for the bounty laid out before him: a plate of ribs and hot links with sides of mac-and-cheese and baked beans.  The prayerful man on the mural is Julian Vargas, a born-and-bred New Mexican and patriarch of the Vargas family.  If you haven’t…

BarbecueDog FriendlyRating: ExcellentUnited StatesUtah

Blu Pig BBQ & Blues – Moab, Utah

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

For many of us barbecue is a noun as in “a social gathering at which barbecued food is eaten.”   For others it’s a verb (to roast or smoke food over wood using smoke at low temperatures over a long cooking time).  For the most passionate and devoted, barbecue is a way of life…even a religion.  That religion is practiced by large and small congregations in both outdoor and indoor temples throughout a portion of U.S. Highway 61.  The hymns wailed and warbled by choruses of angelic voices are the reason that portion of U.S. Highway 61 is known as the “Blues Highway.”  Rivaling Route 66 as the most famous road in American music lore, the portion of U.S. Highway 61 known as the legendary “Blues Highway” runs north from Vicksburg, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee.  So common is the paring of barbecue and blues along this stretch that U.S. Highway 61 could rightfully be called the “Barbecue and Blues Highway.”  Visit the iconic Beale Street in the heart of Memphis and you’ll understand why Bon Appetit declared “Blues and barbecue, smoke and sauce. In Memphis, they all meld beautifully. Just like heaven.” We didn’t wear blue suede shoes during our visit…

2020 James Beard Foundation - "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistBarbecueBurgersDog FriendlyJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersNew MexicoNew Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2009New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: 2011Rating: Outstanding

Sparky’s Burgers, Barbecue & Espresso – Hatch, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:08 PM

New Mexico’s Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail not only celebrates one of the Land of Enchantment’s most iconic foods, it showcases the restaurants, drive-ins, diners, dives, joints, cafes, roadside stands and bowling alleys which prepare our ubiquitous, incomparable green chile cheeseburger.  To New Mexicans, there is nothing as thoroughly soul-satisfying and utterly delicious! What elevates a burger from the ordinary to the extraordinary is taste bud awakening, tongue tingling, olfactory arousing green chile, New Mexico’s official state vegetable (even though it’s technically a fruit).  In the continually evolving mosaic that describes New Mexico’s cultural intermingling, one constant is green chile, an essential ingredient in many of our recipes and THE centerpiece of any outstanding green chile cheeseburger.  Even such corporate megaliths as McDonald’s and Sonic try their hand at the green chile cheeseburger. It stands to reason that one of, if not THE very best green chile cheeseburger in the Land of Enchantment would be served in Hatch, the undisputed epicenter of New Mexico’s chile production.  Widely regarded as the “chile capital of the world,” the village’s population of around 1,200 citizens increases by twenty times as people from all over the world converge for its annual chile festival.  It’s a…

2026 James beard Foundation: "Best Chef - Southwest" SemifinalistArizonaBarbecueDog FriendlyJames Beard Foundation (JBF) Award Nominees & WinnersRating: N/R (Not Rated)United States

Little Miss BBQ – Phoenix, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

If you grew up in New Mexico, you’ve likely heard some variation of that tired old epigram “The reason New Mexico is so windy is because it’s bordered by Arizona which sucks and Texas which blows.”   If any truth whatsoever can be ascribed to that witticism, New Mexico should have fabulous barbecue because it’s bordered by Arizona which has great barbecue and Texas which has the best barbecue in the universe.  Alas, virtually every barbecue aficionado I know agrees that the Land of Enchantment’s barbecue has a lot to be desired.  It’s “good” most will agree, “better than it used to be,” others will tell you.  Still many of them will tell you the only barbecue restaurant in New Mexico worth a lengthy  pilgrimage is Mad Jack’s Mountaintop Barbecue which has its genesis in Lockhart, Texas, the barbecue capital of the world.  For better than good barbecue, savvy barbecue fanatics make a run for the border–either to Arizona or to Texas. Mastering the precise science and culinary art of the low-and-slow process of smoking of meats is not for the faint of heart or for couch potatoes like me.  It requires the patience of Job, the persistence of Hercules and…

AlbuquerqueBarbecueClosed in 2022Gone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Black Mesa BBQ – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

“Barbecue may be our nation’s most democratic food. (Think small d-democratic, as in of the people, by the people, for the people.) That’s part of the problem: Egalitarian foods with elemental appeal oftentimes get short shrift.” ~John T. Edge for Gourmet Magazine When we first heard about a restaurant in Albuquerque’s South Valley offering “Texas style barbecue in the Land of Enchantment,” three questions came to mind.  First, of course, was “could this really be Texas style barbecue?”  “Texas is like a whole other country” in which there is no one style of barbecue.  Instead, barbecue varies from one region to another across the Lone Star State.  Pundits who refer to “Texas style barbecue” are usually talking about Central Texas barbecue hailing from the hill country region around Austin.  My second question was “why would an Albuquerque restaurant call itself “Black Mesa.”  New Mexico’s most famous Black Mesa is the sacred mountain within the confines of the San Ildelfonso Pueblo just north of Española.  It’s about 80 miles from the Duke City. My third question and maybe the easiest to answer was “why would someone open a barbecue restaurant here.”  “Here” is Coors Blvd. just about as far south as…

AlbuquerqueBarbecueNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)

S-A Barbecue – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno9:21 AM

London-based restaurant critic Jay Rayner makes barbecue sound a bit like a scientific process: “the long, virtuous interplay of fire, smoke and time on cow and pig muscle fibre; who sees only joyous caramelisation and the deep flavours gifted by the Maillard reaction, when heat says hello to amino acids and natural sugars and they all get along famously.”  He’s actually quite right, but most of us got enough chemistry formulas in high school.   We recognize that at its most basic, the formula for barbecue is expressed much more simply: meat plus smoke plus time plus (or minus) sauce equals delicious bliss. Okay, my formula only sounds simple.  Mastering the art and science of “low and slow” actually takes a long time and extensive practice, often fraught with trial and error at the expense of ruined meats.  Speaking from personal experience, not all of us have the patience or aptitude to smoke meats people actually want to eat much less to become pit masters.  It’s a true trial by fire that shouldn’t be undertaken by the faint of heart or devoid of talent.  Survey the Duke City barbecue scene and you might conclude that baptisms by fire and smoke…