Dreamland Big Daddy's Rib Shack

Non-Quest BBQ No 38 – Dreamland Big Daddy’s Rib Shack

Regions Field, Birmingham, Alabama

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 ... 

Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd; buy me some peanuts and BBQ … BBQ? Of course, BBQ – we are in the South here, and Hot Dogs and Burgers are so Cooperstown (which is located in the beautiful State of New York, of course). So when the Birmingham Barons built their new wonderful downtown stadium, one of the concessions was claimed by Dreamland Bar-B-Que. Yes, that Dreamland, from Tuscaloosa, where at game day the Tide fans pack the restaurant tightly, to eat some fine ribs before they watch Bama roll over another hapless opponent. I tried to get in there once on a Saturday morning – no freakin’ chance in hell. But it is on my to-do-list, just not on a game day.

So then, Regions Field was finished just in time before the season started, and I was at the inaugural game there, which was kind of a transcendent experience. The architecture, the crowd, the atmosphere, the view of the lighted up downtown Birmingham – magical. Alas, no Dreamland. In early April, there was just the framework of the building where the BBQ place once should reside. So I ate a hot dog. Frustrating.

But then in early September, after a glorious season, the Birmingham Barons got into the playoffs of the Southern League – and I went to Regions Field again. In the meantime, Dreamland Big Daddy’s Rib Shack was fully operational, and so I gave it a spin.

First off, I have to say that nothing in the world beats the atmosphere of a Baseball stadium on a play-off day in late summer. And to eat BBQ there is equivalent to celebrating a religious service in a gothic cathedral. It does not get any better than this. Period.

Too bad then that the Q was not really that special. I ordered the pulled pork plate, which essentially was a BBQ sandwich with some potato salad. The pork came already drenched in sauce, on a standard bun. There was also a tiny cup of cole slaw hidden underneath the bun.

I struggled to find a non-sauced piece of pork, and eventually succeeded, only to find out that I had not need to bother – it was kind of neutral tasting, no real flavor in it. But the sauce, the Dreamland sauce, would certainly save the day. Ain’t so. The Dreamland sauce they serve in their location in Huntsville is a spicy, very flavorful concoction. The sauce on the pork here was your standard super-market-variety-sauce. Disappointing. The slaw was a letdown, too, it had also no distinguishable aroma.

The potato salad on the other hand was nothing short of spectacular. It came in a creamy dressing, with peppers and dill in it. The taste was more to the sour side, but the dill balanced it out marvelously.

But quite frankly, I did not come to the ballpark to have superb potato salad, I was expecting superb BBQ. And here there is definitely much room for improvement. And the price was also not to my liking - $11.25 for a BBQ sandwich and a sweet tea is kind of steep. Well, next year, I will go to Regions Field again, pack some money and maybe try some ribs. After all, it is probably called “Rib Shack” for a reason. We’ll see. In the meantime – Go Barons!

Full Moon Bar-B-Que

Non-Quest BBQ No 18 – Full Moon Bar-B-Que
Birmingham, Alabama

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 from the Barons vs Stars game at Regions Park in Hoover to Vulcan Park in Birmingham, I had to eat something. At the ballpark, they had only those disgusting cheese nachos and other similar things, so by the time the Barons had finished their rally and beat the Stars 4-2, I was really hungry.

There are numerous BBQ places in Birmingham, but I thought, well, Full Moon is something you might expect a chop suey place named after, but not necessarily a southern chopped pork one, so I was anxious to check this out.

Full Moon Bar-B-Que is a franchise with eight locations in and around Birmingham. The business started in 1996 with the original place in Downtown Birmingham, but I went to one of the satellite stations at Valley Avenue, near Vulcan Park.

Well, the short story is, it is a family restaurant/sports bar that serves BBQ. Big screen TV’s all over the place, sports memorabilia, like a signed game shirt of Joe Namath on the walls, general layout and furniture like every other place with like an apple or a red pepper in its logo - the atmosphere of a streamlined eating culture.

But I was there to sample their food, although a nicer atmosphere would not have hurt my feelings.

They have a specialty there which is called “chow-chow”. Yes, like the furry dog with the blue tongue. It is a pickled cabbage dish that, according to Wikipedia “… found its way to the Southern United States during the expulsion of the Acadian people from Nova Scotia and their settlement in Louisiana.” So it is Canadian by origin, has a Chinese name and is served in Birmingham with BBQ.

How does it taste? Sour and spicy, with a nice crunch to it. I made the mistake of ordering it as a side dish, because I wanted to try it and the guy who took my order did not mention that it was included anyways. So, I ended up having a lot of chow-chow on my plate, plus baked beans, a freshly baked biscuit and the pulled pork. With a fountain drink, it came to just under thirteen bucks.

The pulled pork came with sauce on top, which I still find borderline criminal. Just let me choose what I want to put on my meat – I am a big boy and don’t need to have my plate fixed like a five year old. So I picked some sauce-free strands of the meat from the pile to get a taste of the flavor. Not bad, tender and moist, but also a bit on the fatty side. A hint of smoke flavor, not really a strong underlying meat aroma, though. Middle of the road pork, at best. The sauce on the other hand was just a one-dimensional thick red conglomerate, with spiciness as its main characteristic.

Better to take the chow-chow as sauce, which was also spicy but had a very distinctive hint of sourness, and some nice mustard aroma to it, as well. It was kind of like having a vinegar-pepper sauce mixed with a vinegar based slaw, plus some mustard.

The baked beans had quite a funky taste, which reminded me of onions. Never had that aroma in baked beans, and don’t need that ever again.

So, again the common wisdom that – generally, there are a few exceptions - you can’t get really good BBQ in franchise/chain places was confirmed. All you might get is okay BBQ with Canadian pickled cabbage.

 

Stokin' the Fire BBQ Festival

Non-Quest BBQ No 5 – Stokin’ the Fire BBQ Festival
Birmingham, AL, Sloss Furnace

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 ... 

Competition BBqing is a world of its own. The teams have colorful names that nobody in their right mind would dare to slap on the street sign for a regular BBQ joint – “Two Fat Boys and a Grill”, "Motley Qüe", "Smell my Butts", "Chainsmokers", "Smart Ash Smokers", to name just a few of those that were at the Stokin’ the Fire BBQ Festival at the historical Sloss Furnace in Birmingham today.

Some teams wear rather outlandish costumes, some at least matching T-Shirts and some don’t care at all about fashion.

The BBQ rigs you see there range from the ubiquitous black drum to machines that require a Ph.D. to operate. All recipes are of course of the cosmic secret variety and espionage is punishable by banishment to New York, where they think that BBQ is just some meat you put on a grill.

For the seventh year now, the good folks at the Sloss Furnace have put together this Festival, and last year the grand prize winner actually came from Madison. Not that this is the least bit surprising – this here is, after all, the BBQ Nirvarna.

But some other folks, not from North Alabama, can cook real good BBQ, too. And at this festival, you can sample a lot of different styles.

The smell alone is worth the seventeen bucks they want from you at the entrance – after a few hours wandering around, sampling, chatting, and listening to the live music, your clothes will be soaked with the fragrance of smoked pork and burnt hickory.

As I write this, sitting here and still having the smell in my nose, although I showered and discarded my clothes hours ago, the results of the competition are not yet online. But I am sure that the winner is totally worthy of that honor – and it would be no surprise if they came from this neck of the woods, again.