Thursday, September 4, 2008

Memphis In May


I love Memphis. From the blues clubs on Beale Street, to the hundreds of great barbecue restaurants, to baseball games at Autozone Park, to the Mississippi River Museum on Mud Island, it is an amazing city to visit. The National Civil Rights Museum, with its burned-out Freedom Rider bus and tour that concludes steps away from where Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, is one of the most poignant museums you will ever see. Hell, I even loved visiting Graceland, and I'm not an Elvis fan. (The first time I was in Memphis I only visited Graceland because my friend insisted on it, although in protest I played Chuck Berry music the whole drive there. High up on the list of things I will never understand, somewhere between calculus and women, is why Chuck Berry is not as famous as Elvis.)

So there was no question that as soon as I had the time and money I would be going to the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. It was an phenomenal trip. A friend and I drove out together from Los Angeles and met up with another friend who flew in. The first picture is obviously Beale Street, and the second picture is a Dyer's burger - a burger fried in grease that has not been changed since 1912. (When they changed locations to Beale Street a few years ago they hired an armored car and police escort to transport the grease. Have I mentioned how much I love Memphis?) It is a great burger. Definitely click on the above link when you have a few minutes to watch the video.

The third picture is a view of the festival from a distance. It's in a great location, right on the banks of the Mississippi. The fourth picture is a pulled pork sandwich from a Corky's BBQ stand at the festival. It was very good, although not as good as the sandwich I had at the restaurant a couple days later. It was a very hot day, unseasonably hot for the festival, and we had walked at least a couple miles to get to there. The ice cold can of Budweiser accompanying the sandwich has to rank as one of the most pleasurable beer drinking experiences I have ever had, as strange as that may sound.

The next three pictures are some of my favorite team names from among the 250+ teams competing. I stopped and looked at the smokers and setups of lots of teams. Several of the teams talked to me, and almost all said hi. Now, I admit the alcohol was flowing freely for every team, so perhaps they were all drunk, but it was still a very friendly atmosphere. The last picture is a sandwich I grabbed just as I was leaving the park. I don't remember what the name of the stand was, and I actually don't even remember how it tasted.

I can recommend the barbecue festival without hesitation. If you like barbecue, blues, beer, friendly people, and deep fried burgers, I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend than Memphis in May. Even check out Graceland, if you have never been. (The Peabody ducks, however, are one of the stupidest things you will ever see.)

2 comments:

SuperLarge said...

Have they really not changed their oil since 1912? Because that's just gross.

JustinM said...

That is certainly what they claim, although each burger adds its own oil to the fryer, and they skim it every night, so it certainly recycles itself.

I agree with you there is something gross about it... but when I'm eating a deep fried burger I've pretty much put my health concerns on hold for the moment.