Wäller BBQ

BBQ 118 - Wäller BBQ

Wahlrod, Germany

Well, well, whaddayaknow - Facebook can actually be useful for something other than spreading harebrained conspiracy theories after all. I have no idea how the algorithm found me, but a few days ago there was this message in my feed that basically said, hey, this Friday we are serving spare ribs glazed with BBQ sauce, taters and baked beans - come get cha some! I was e-l-e-c-t-r-i-f-i-e-d! Some kind of semi-original BBQ practically in my backyard? And I only learned about this only now? Holy Moses!

Turns out there is a very small outfit in the middle of the Westerwald (think Smoky Mountains, only a third as high, but basically with the same type of country folk living there) that mainly caters festivities, family gatherings, weddings and the like. But during this ongoing pandemic, there haven't been any of those for over a year now, so they turned the business into a delivery/pick-up service for BBQ. Each Friday, they have a different specialty - pulled pork, chicken, ribs, brisket ... the usual suspects. 

Their name - Wäller BBQ - is a pun on the local dialect, in which the word "Westerwälder", as a descriptive term of a person who lives in the Westerwald (think "Montaineer" for someone who lives in the mountains ...), is shortened and becomes just "Wäller". Whatever.

So today, I drove 40 Kilometers in a raging blizzard (actually, there were some flurries ...) from my house to their little shack in the woods (actually, it is a basement room in a somewhat unfinished looking residential building ...) and picked-up my first order there - a so called "BBQ kit" for about 14 Euro, with loin ribs glazed with BBQ sauce, a baked potato with a special creme, and baked beans with some bacon and onions. It all comes in aluminum containers that you just pop in the oven and let it heat at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. Easy enough.

So what can you expect? What did I expect? Not THAT, to be sure. I am more of a pork kind of guy, but I'll eat ribs if I have to. And those ribs I will gladly eat again. And again. And ... you get my drift. They are s-p-e-c-t-a-c-u-l-a-r! And I am not only saying this because I didn't have real BBQ for two years now (my yearly trip to Boogies in Nürnberg, as well as my yearly business trip to Georgia were both cancelled when that stupid virus decided to spread all over the world ...). I am genuinely enthusiastic, downright giddy with joy. 

At first, I was a bit skeptical - usually, when reheating stuff, the meat gets all dry and the taste is somewhat lacking. In this case, however, so my theory goes, it is that because the meat had time to absorb the sauce even more, it was actually a good thing that it was prepared a day or so ago and then heated up again. The slab of ribs came wrapped not only in aluminum foil, but inside there was a sheet of parchment paper that kept the moisture intact. Those guys are geniuses! So I did exactly as the instructions said, which was very simple indeed, and out came ... drumroll ... more drumroll ... a perfect slab of BBQ ribs.
Really. Perfect. The taste was exquisite - very smoky, with the sauce not overwhelming the meat, yet fruity and with just a hint of spice. No idea whether they are making their own sauce or whether they are using something commercial - but good choice, either way!
The meat was so tender, that it was impossible to carry it over from the aluminum to a tray without it just falling off the bones - literally. It had the perfect texture, with just a bit of fat to keep it juicy and trap the flavor, but not too much of it, so to avoid the dreaded gristle driven gag reflex.
Most delicious.
The kit also had a really big potato, which came in a tray together with the beans, which was popped in the oven as well. The tater was also very tasty, and it came with a seemingly self made kind of sour creme, too, that had some herbs, onions and stuff like that in it. The beans were a bit disappointing, though, but that is usually the case with them. Not only was it only maybe two spoonfuls of beans, but the taste was somewhat plain and nothing special. But it was acceptable as a side and didn't hurt the overall experience.

To sum it up, this was worth every cent. The portion was generous, the meat was top quality, the taste was utterly delicious and the overall experience very strongly reminded me of the trips back in Alabama, which I made every second Friday to some obscure BBQ place somewhere in the boondocks. And the best thing - come this May, the guys from Wäller BBQ will have a food truck that will serve BBQ all week long, not only on Fridays. I am so there when that starts ...

 

Boogie's BBQ

BBQ 117 – Boogie’s BBQ
Nürnberg, Germany

Boogie’s BBQ in Nürnberg is the only show in town. Not only in Nürnberg, but it literally is the only real show in the whole country. When I moved back from Alabama, I scoured the internet to find some, no, rather any, BBQ joints in my vicinity. The closest one I could detect is this one, which is about 200 miles away – and that makes a plate of pulled pork now and then a somewhat time consuming and expensive affair. I only have time to go there once or twice a year. So, I am living in BBQ diaspora now. Boohoo, cry me a river.

Although, the real problem here is not so much the distance that makes satisfying my instant cravings so damn near impossible, at least on a regular basis. No, the real problem is that Boogie’s BBQ ranks among the best I ever had – right there with my favorite joints in Alabama, Tennessee and Florida. Those guys in Nürnberg know how to smoke a hog. No wonder, the founder and owner of this place comes from Memphis and he brought all the knowledge with him to Germany. The pulled pork is tender, juicy and has an exquisite smoke flavor. The burnt ends are marvelous as well, and the brisket is just heavenly. They serve the meat with a quite solid bun of bread, not the American style soft variety. And that is a good thing, because with the solid bun you can put more sauce on it, without having to deal with a disintegrating, sloppy mess after five seconds. And sauce you will put on – they have four flavors, one hot, one fruity, one smoky, and one vinegar based. I always mix the hot one with the fruity one, but the other two are also very good. Of course, you don’t need to eat the bun at all and just devour the meat. But quite frankly, I prefer to soak the bun with the sauces, put the meat on it and eat like a pig, including the stains on my shirt and in my beard.

They serve the usual fixins as sides, and the potato salad is just great, and all other sides are good to very good. Meals are not really cheap compared to some BBQ restaurants in the States, because it is a novelty restaurant here in Germany, but I think the items are quite fairly priced for the quality and quantity you get.

Two more bonus points for this place are the very friendly and cheerful staff, and the basic layout of the restaurant. It has all kinds of US memorabilia on the walls, the tables have red and white checkered cloths, the background music is a mix of classic soul and blues songs, and you can even purchase T-shirts with their logo on them. If that place was suddenly beamed away to the BBQ in the southern US, it would fit right in.

So, for me it always is kind of a pilgrimage when I go to Boogie’s BBQ. I just hope and pray that it keeps on serving us poor sinners for a long time to come. 

Southern Style Bar-B-Q

Quest Log No 67 – Southern Style Bar-B-Q
Decatur, Morgan County

This was on my list for forever, but somehow I never got to go there – had I known how good their BBQ is, I hadn’t waited so long. Maybe it was my dislike of drive-through BBQ places that kept me away – I just hate to juggle a BBQ tray on my knees and spill sweet tea all over the seats. Well, Southern Style Bar-B-Q has some rough wooden benches to sit in front of a window for walk-up orders. But seriously, me sitting on a cool Alabama summer day in 100-degree weather outside, battling flies, heat, and the sun, I don’t think so. So I bit the bullet and ate my pork plate in the car – since it was a rental, I really did not care that much about spills and such.

The meat was very tender, lean and borderline mushy. The flavor was almost perfect, with a very pronounced but not overwhelming smoke aroma. There are huge piles of wood behind the building, so that is clearly where the flavor comes from. It is supported by a no frills basic vinegar-pepper sauce. As sides I had potato salad, which was a bit on the bland side, and baked beans, which were very reminiscent of the stuff you get out of supermarket cans. Nothing special here, but the meat was righteous BBQ pork if ever there was such a thing. All in all a typical southern BBQ place – like the name says.

Pig-N-Out BBQ

Quest Log No 65 – Pig-N-Out BBQ
Huntsville, Madison County

Well, well, a BBQ in a gas station. I have seen stranger things, but it is certainly not the usual setting for such place. I also noticed that they have “Korean BBQ” on the menu, which is kind of no surprise given the fact that the owner is a Lady from this nice country.

The restaurant is surprisingly nice inside – not exactly what you may expect to find in a gas station. The place is impeccably clean, and the little corner where the tables and booths are situated is lovingly decorated, bright and friendly.

The BBQ though, is more like you would expect it from a place like this. The meat of the pork plate I ordered was lean but somewhat chewy, with no particular smoke aroma. It came neither chopped nor pulled, but it looked like it had been put through a blender. There are three sauces, a white one that I did not touch, a basic vinegar-pepper sauce without much pepper in it, and a thick red vinegar-tomato-pepper sauce – and that had some real nice kick to it, and was very flavorful. I scooped the sauce up with the roll that came with the pork plate at the end. Very delicious.

The sides are really almost not worth mentioning – the potato salad was bland and the baked beans were your standard supermarket variety.

The portions were not that big, and actually I was still kind of hungry when I was finished. But for not even nine bucks, including a big 32 oz drink, that is an acceptable deal. But just to fill your tank with some food that is better than a burger from one of them chains. For a real culinary experience, this place would not be my choice. 

Stroud's Barbeque

Non-Quest BBQ No 46 – Stroud’s Barbeque

Franklin, Tennessee

During my occasional travels, I try to sample BBQ at those near and far away places outside the Quest area. I just really, really like that stuff ... 

On my way back from Nashville, where I watched some Triple-A Baseball, hunger overcame me and I asked my trusty GPS for a BBQ place nearby. That led me to Franklin, to Stroud’s Barbeque. Turns out that this is actually a small local chain with three restaurants in Middle Tennessee. They not only have the usual BBQ stuff on their menu, but also barbeque nachos and barbeque burritos. I resisted the urge to try one of those fairly exotic meals, and ordered a simple pork plate with potato salad and baked beans instead.

To say it right upfront, it was nothing special. The pork was not very tender, but actually a bit chewy. It was lean and the flavor was okay, and together with the vinegar and pepper sauce it was not bad. They also have a standard thick red sweet’n’sour sauce, which also was nothing to write home about. The potato salad reminded me very clearly of the standard supermarket stuff, as did the baked beans. The cornbread muffin that came with the plate was also very standard, although a bit too dry for my taste. But for not even seven bucks, excluding a drink (that was on the house, thank you very much), there is really nothing much to complain about.

The atmosphere of the place is also very middle of the road. There are no booths, only some tables along the wall and the row of windows on the other side. The decoration consists of some pictures with landscapes on them. But, and this is clearly the most interesting feature there, the counter is something else – it is the front end of a 1950s Chevy truck. Very nice touch, although I think it is utterly lonely there and in dire need of some vintage memorabilia around it.

Well, it was no feast for any of my senses, but at least I did not leave hungry and also got a nice picture of the Chevy-counter.