BBQ SAUCE OF THE WEEK: RedRum Golden BBQ Sauce

And now for something completely different.

At first glance, this might look like just another barbecue sauce (albeit a South Carolina-style one, with its yellowish orange color). But the story here is an especially interesting one.

Ed Rome, better known as ChileHeadEd in the hot sauce community, is a trained chef who began making hot sauces for friends and family. He grows a variety of hot peppers in his own garden, smokes them himself, and uses the resulting mash to make several different hot sauces.

Starting with his 2006 batch of peppers, Ed began selling his sauces commercially under the name RedRum. Since he is using only his own crop of peppers, there is a limited amount of sauce made every year, and when it's gone, it's gone. In keeping with the "hot sauce / barbecue sauce as wine" allegory (of which I am a big fan), RedRum sauces list the vintage year on the label.

The RedRum line also includes three barbecue sauces - Sweet, Spicy, and Golden. For the Golden BBQ sauce, Ed took his recipe for mustard-based Carolina-style barbecue sauce and mixed it with his Orange Habanero hot sauce. Any time you see the word "Habanero" in the ingredients, you'd better be ready for some heat, and this sauce has it in spades.

This is by far the spiciest sauce that I have tasted in this series of reviews - "mild" and "medium" are definitely just dots in the rearview mirror. But the heat is nicely complemented by a complex variety of flavors, including sweet notes of fruit and honey, a touch of ginger, as well as fresh garlic and onions. The texture is that of a rough puree, with a bounty of chunks left in. The sauce has an essence that is very earthy and natural, but make no mistake - it will light you up.

Grade: A

More about the production process here.

WIN a FREE BOTTLE of the BBQ SAUCE OF THE WEEK!

We have a bottle of RedRum Sweet BBQ Sauce to give away to one of our readers. All you have to do is visit the website and post a comment here. One winner will be randomly selected on the following Tuesday night and sent a free bottle of sauce. Just leave an email address so that we can contact the winner.

BBQ Sauce Giveaway

Congrats to Milner for wining the BBQ Sauce of the week. I will be sending you a complimentary bottle of J.Dogg Phair's "Thought-U-Knew!" Bar-B-Q Sauce.

Here We Go Again, Bacon

The Bacone

Brought to you from your friends at ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com, it's the Bacone: a bacon cone that is filled with scrambled eggs and country gravy, topped with a buttermilk biscuit.

BBQ SAUCE OF THE WEEK: Thought-U-Knew!

Despite its txtspk-esque name, J.Dogg Phair's "Thought-U-Knew!" Bar-B-Q Sauce is a classic man's man sauce if ever there was one. First of all, this sauce is thick. And it's got lots of chunks swimming around in it. And I mean big chunks. Big chunks of chipotle peppers, big chunks of onion, and big chunks of bacon. Yes, that's right. And this time there's no mistakin' the bacon. It's very prominent in the flavor, adding depth to the rich ketchup base, and setting up the moderate burn of the peppers. This sauce has quite a bit of bite to it, actually, so heat-seekers should enjoy it.

Grade: B

WIN a FREE BOTTLE of the BBQ SAUCE OF THE WEEK!

We have a bottle of J.Dogg Phair's Thought-U-Knew! Bar-B-Q Sauce to give away to one of our readers. All you have to do is visit the website and post a comment here. One winner will be randomly selected on the following Tuesday night and sent a free bottle of sauce. Just leave an email address so that we can contact the winner.

BBQ Sauce Giveaway

Congrats to Crackerjen for wining the BBQ Sauce of the week. I will be sending you a complimentary bottle of Byron Bay Chilli Company's Fiery Coconut Chilli Sauce with Curry and Ginger.

NASHVILLE BBQ: Part 12 - La Vergne & Smyrna

In this report, we'll cover the barbecue restaurants in the rest of Rutherford County. I'll confess that other than occasional trips to the air show and the Omni Hut, I have not spent much time in Smyrna or La Vergne. But with both of these towns booming the way they are, perhaps there will be more reasons to visit.

My first stop was La Vergne's Lazy Pig B-B-Q. Upon arriving at the Lazy Pig, one can't help but notice the impressive set of cookers parked out front.

Yes, that second one appears to be drivable.

While it is always a thrill to see ramshackle old cookers and big stacks of wood in front of (or behind) a barbecue joint, one thing that I've learned in doing this series of reports is that cooking barbecue the "old school way" does not guarantee a great product. That's not to say that cooking on more modern equipment does either. But when it comes to barbecue restaurants, I've traditionally clung to the belief that places cooking with real wood on an old offset smoker are inherently "better." And what I'm learning is: that's not always true.

The Lazy Pig's sandwich was not bad, but not especially good, either. The pulled pork was a little on the dry side and was exceedingly bland. The overall taste of the sandwich was helped considerably by the tasty mild sauce that was generously applied. Overall, not a memorable sandwich.

The ribs were spares and held quite a bit of meat. They were cooked to a good tenderness, but flavor-wise, were not much better than the sandwich. Beyond their considerable smokiness, there was not much flavor present at all.

I had heard very favorable reviews of The Lazy Pig, so maybe I just caught them on the wrong day?

Moving on into Smyrna, the next stop was Bob's Barbecue. That's it, hidden behind the bush there. It's a spartan building that contains a dining room and a drive-thru. The barbecue that they turn out turned out to be rather spartan as well.

These ribs missed the mark completely. In fact, they were approaching the realm of 'inedible,' simply because they were so tough. I literally could not pull two ribs apart from each other, even with the leverage of a full inch of bone on the last rib. Flavor-wise, from what I could gather, the ribs had received little to no seasoning of any kind. Very, very poor.

The sandwich was thankfully more tender, but definitely from the Whitt's school, in terms of construction - dressed with mayonnaise, slaw, and pickles. The vinegar-based barbecue sauce that came on the side was also reminiscent of Whitt's. All in all, I had no idea that there were so many barbecue restaurants in this area working off of that formula. But it makes sense if you think about it - Whitt's has obviously been successful, what with their 22 locations and 20+ years of reader's choice awards for best barbecue. But I digress. The pork on Bob's sandwich was tender and juicy, but not very smoky.

So is there any good barbecue to be found in the La Vergne-Smyrna corridor? Yes. As you leave the Smyrna city limits headed toward Murfreesboro, CBQ is a roadside shack on the right hand side. It's carryout only, although they do have a couple of picnic tables outside. If the building looks familiar to you, it's because CBQ used to be Smokin' Ed's. Apparently, Ed has retired and the new operators have changed the name. I'm happy to report that the barbecue is just as good as it ever was.

It's another giant old cooker!

The barbecue sandwich at CBQ is a true delight. The buns are grilled on a flat top, the pulled pork is just about perfect - tender, smoky, flavorful - and the slaw and hot barbecue sauce play wonderfully off each other. It's a sloppy mess, but it's delicious.

Would you believe that these are baby back ribs? I don't believe I've ever come across a rack of baby backs with as much meat as these had. As you can see, they came unsauced, which I've kind of come to disdain, just because so many of the ribs that come that way seem to wind up being so blah. But not these. They were nicely seasoned, allowing the taste of the pork to shine through. If there was one complaint, it was that these ribs were cooked well past fall-off-the bone to the point where it was impossible to pick them up. They were very enjoyable anyway.

Highlights: CBQ pork sandwich (Real Good), CBQ ribs (Good)

Disclaimer: Please note that these reports are based on particular servings of barbecue at a particular day and time. Barbecue can be prone to fluctuation. Your experiences may vary.

More reports in this series:
Part 1 - The Legends
Part 2 - The Chain Gang
Part 3 - Local Chains
Part 4 - Jefferson Street
Part 5 - Clarksville Highway
Part 6 - East Nashville
Part 7 - The West Side
Part 8 - Memphis Imports
Part 9 - T for Texas
Part 10 - Williamson County
Part 11 - Murfreesboro
Part 12 - La Vergne & Smyrna
Part 13 - Wilson County
Part 14 - Catching Up in Nashville
Part 15 - Hendersonville & White House
Part 16 - Portland & Gallatin
Part 17 - Robertson County
Part 18 - Dickson County
Part 19 - "Barbecue by any other name..."
Part 20 - Places We Missed
Part 21 - More Places We Missed

Mmmm. Chocolate.

Free Chocolate Fridays

HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. – Americans could use some relief and are looking for reasons to smile. To help, Mars Snackfood US announced today the creation of the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act™, a nationwide effort to bring sweet smiles to millions of Americans via free, full-sized samples of Mars real chocolate, product discounts and coupons along with the proclamation of Free Chocolate Fridays™. Now through September, Mars will give away as many as seven million full-size packages of its M&M’S®, SNICKERS®, MILKY WAY®, TWIX®, DOVE®, and 3 MUSKETEERS® brand chocolate in the United States. TGIFCF!

> Read the full press release here.

Each Friday from now until the end of September, from 9:00am CST to 12:00pm CST, visit the Mars Chocolate Relief website to get your free chocolate. The first 250,000 people to sign up each day will be sent a coupon good for one free, full-sized Mars candy bar of their choice. One per email address and four per household per Friday.

I will pick peanut butter or peanut M&Ms.

Friday Night Slice, Part 12

Manny's House of Pizza



Nashville's first shopping center was born in 1902, constructed in an alley located between Fourth and Fifth Avenue downtown. Modeled after the "arcade" Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy, it is one of the few standing examples in the United States built in this covered archway style with Italian Palladian facades flanking both entrances. The architecture has helped make the Nashville Arcade a mysterious sort of time capsule...you can even find a few of the original tenants still keeping shop inside, including the famous Nashville Nut Peanut Shop and Tony's Shoe Shine. (I love that one. I hardly know any men who shine their shoes at all anymore, let alone visit an outside establishment to have a special shining.)



But since 1984, one of the Arcade's most popular tenants has been Manny Macca. Brooklyn raised and Brooklyn pizza trained, Manny moved to Nashville and opened Manny's House of Pizza to bring the real deal New York-style pies to the Southland. You may also know his little brother, Joey, who set up shop in Brentwood and Spring Hill.



We've been to Joey's, now let's talk Manny's. Of course, I ordered a large, triangular slice of New York-style pepperoni and cheese pizza.



The crust is outstanding. It doesn't have any dazzling, exotic flavors: it knows its role and plays it beautifully with perfect texture and crunch. The base is paper thin with a light dusting of flour while the edges are soft inside and very crisp on the outside. A lesser crust couldn't hold Manny's sauce as it is thick, chunky and all over the place. I mean it - get at least five napkins. I usually don't like sauces applied this heavily, but this sauce was pretty tasty. There was a small hint of sweetness amidst the thickset tomatoes with a little bit of heat left behind. The pepperoni had a pleasantly surprising kick of heat as well in its big, juicy rounds...but the cheese is the highlight of the pie. This cheese is just out of control. It's a parmesan and mozzarella blend that is gooey, creamy, juicy and delicious with some of the highest pull away I've encountered. Mmmmm. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but the top was gently sprinkled (take note, Joey) with an Oregano-heavy Italian spice blend that was a welcome finish. At the end of the day, this was one outstanding slice of pizza (and just $4.35 with a large fountain drink).

Maybe if I lived in New York and could get pizza like this around every corner I'd quit my gushing already - but this is Nashville, and Manny's serves it like it's New York. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

the dining experience:

When you walk in the front door at House of Pizza, you're already in line. You can order your slice to eat in or take out with seating available inside the surprisingly large dining room area with a few outdoor chairs and table in the arcade alleyway. Good luck getting one of those at lunchtime downtown. We arrived after the lunch rush however, so we had our choice of the "outdoor" arcade seating where we could dine alongside a few pigeons, a few crazy people, the custodial crew and some cops.

And when you're carrying a huge New York slice in one hand and a 25-pound 11-month-old in the other, having someone come get the door for you and help you to your seat outside is awfully nice. Thank you, Manny.



Manny's House of Pizza
15 Arcade Building, Nashville, TN 37219 (map)
Mon-Fri: 10am-6pm, Sat: 11am-5pm, Sun: Closed
Dine In, Carry Out, Delivery and Catering

* * * * *

Cold Pizza:
Friday Night Slice, Part 1: MAFIAoZA's and Joey's House of Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 2: Pizza Perfect and Pizza Perfect Kebobs
Friday Night Slice, Part 3: Rudino's Pizza and Grinders
Friday Night Slice, Part 4: Chicago Style Italian Beef
Friday Night Slice, Part 5: Pie In The Sky
Friday Night Slice, Part 6: Castrillo's Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 7: California Pizza Kitchen
Friday Night Slice, Part 8: Ahart's Pizza Garden (Murfreesboro)
Friday Night Slice, Part 9: New York Pizza Depot (Clarksville)
Friday Night Slice, Part 10: Matteo's Pizzeria
Friday Night Slice, Part 11: Angelo's Picnic Pizza

Got any suggestions for places that I should cover? Let me know!

Music Thursday: Govinda

Sticking with the India theme this week, I bring you some Kula Shaker. Just like the Byron Bay Chilli Company's Fiery Coconut Chilli Sauce with Curry and Ginger, it is not authentic Indian, but a homage to the flavor and spices.

BBQ Sauce err..."Chilli" Sauce of the Week

This week we bring you something a little bit different. We are reviewing Byron Bay Chilli Company's Fiery Coconut Chilli Sauce with Curry and Ginger, third place finisher in the Barbecue Sauce - World Beat category of the 2009 Scovie Awards. Now to call this sauce a barbecue sauce, you would have to be referring to the grilled version of the word. This sauce hails from the land down under, but like most things Australian, you won't find this sauce at your local Outback.

The name of this sauce pretty much says it all: it's a fiery coconut sauce with curry and ginger flavors. With the first taste, you immediately pick up on the coconut and ginger flavors, then it takes a jump to the curry flavor - one of the most distinguishable flavors in the world. After the curry, the burn hits you. The "fiery" side rings in load and clear with the ample use of chili peppers. I have been known to love the spicy stuff and this sauce really delivers. This is not a sauce I'd recommend for milder fans.

Wondering what to put the chilli sauce on? Byron bay has a whole recipe page full of ideas for you.

Overall, I would say that this sauce is like none that I have ever had. Of course, my frame of reference is limited in the curry coconut chili sauce genre. I was never a big curry fan at all up until a few months ago. In my day job, I work with a couple of people from India and I have had the opportunity to taste very authentic Indian dishes. Some of my favorites have been eggplant, tomato or egg curry. These dishes just pack so much flavor and traditional American food is very bland comparatively. If you like the spicy flavor of curry (and you like a little heat), you will definitely enjoy this sauce.

Grade: B+

WIN a FREE BOTTLE of the BBQ SAUCE OF THE WEEK!

We have a bottle of Fiery Coconut Chilli Sauce to giveaway to one of our readers. All you have to do is visit the website and post a comment here. One winner will be randomly selected on the following Tuesday night and sent a free bottle of sauce. Just leave an email address so that we can contact the winner.

BBQ for Steeplechase

I have bbq trays (bbq on bite size rolls) or bbq by the pound for Steeplechase. I also have award winning bbq sauce available by the pint. Please email me (ulikabbq at gmail.com) for ordering info.

BBQ Sauce Winner

Congrats to Longstick for wining the BBQ Sauce of the week. I will be sending you a complimentary bottle of Grendeddy Dave’s Hot BBQ Sauce.

That's Some Good Chicken Tetrazzini

Sausage Stuffed with Cheese and Wrapped in Bacon

It was not quite a bacon explosion, but it was really good.

Who's Your Favorite Swine?

These swines ain't so bad.

Friday Night Slice, Part 11

Angelo's Picnic Pizza

The story of Angelo's begins with two brothers - Sal and Angelo - living in Brooklyn, New York. In the early 1990s, Sal took a nice long road trip from New York to Florida, sneaking west a little to drive through Tennessee. While heading up I-24, his car broke down around the Hickory Hollow mall exit just outside of Nashville.

Circa 1993, there are many things that one might notice should they stumble upon L.A. (you know it, lower Antioch). Spenser's Gifts sure does think Beavis and Butthead is funny. That would be true. There are more car dealerships here than people. It seems that way. Yes! They have Crystal Pepsi in the food court. That's the subject of another post, another day. Nice bangs, Misty. You too, Shane.

But when Sal stopped in, his first thought was pizza...or lack thereof. He immediately called his brother, Angelo, and decided that they needed to set up shop and bring Brooklyn-style pizza to Antioch.

Sixteen years later, Nick LaMattina (Sal's nephew and Angelo's son) and his wife, Marcella, moved down from Brooklyn to take over the transplanted family business that now operates out of two locations - Antioch and Murfreesboro. The family tradition is maintained with slow-cooked tomato sauce, hand-tossed dough and fresh toppings sliced daily. The restaurants offer pastas, calzones, subs and salads as well, but the pizza is what we're here for and certainly what they're best known for. I first learned of Picnic Pizza from an enthusiastic recommendation on the A Man's Gotta Eat blog last year.

Angelo's Picnic Pizza offers the truest-to-form “New York style” pizza slice that I've found thus far in my searching. The hand-rolled dough is pressed out into a very thin, but still flexible form, then cut in large, wide triangular slices. Its crunchy on the bottom and edges with a slightly gooey, gummy base that just screams New York. The flavor in the crust is minimal - good without trying to be jazzy - which is echoed in the sauce. Its clear that fresh ingredients are used, but they stick to the basics, laying the foundation with simple flavors. The soft mozzarella cheese is bubbly and delicious with a medium-high pull away factor. The pepperoni is, well, just decent. It has great texture, but only a hint of spice. (For my comparative reviews, I'm still rolling with the pepperoni and cheese - but next I'll be trying that double-crust, stuffed pizza.)

All said, Angelo's serves a pretty great slice of pizza. Its very authentic to its declared style and puts up a pretty serious fight against Joey's House of Pizza. The service isn't nearly as "entertaining" at Angelo's, but skipping that last unnecessary dousing of oregano* that Joey's all-too-often abuses might just edge them ahead.



*Note: For the record, my husband, wrong as I feel he is, thinks that the reckless and haphazard sprinkling of oregano at Joey's is perfect. He has witnessed it being placed on the pizza and swears that it is applied with special care and attention.

Angelo's Picnic Pizza
Murfreesboro Road (Antioch) and S. Church Street (Murfreesboro)
M-Th 10:30am - 9:30pm; Fr-Sat 10:30am - 10:30pm; Sun 4:30pm - 8:30pm
Dine In and Carry Out

* * * * *

Cold Pizza:
Friday Night Slice, Part 1: MAFIAoZA's and Joey's House of Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 2: Pizza Perfect and Pizza Perfect Kebobs
Friday Night Slice, Part 3: Rudino's Pizza and Grinders
Friday Night Slice, Part 4: Chicago Style Italian Beef
Friday Night Slice, Part 5: Pie In The Sky
Friday Night Slice, Part 6: Castrillo's Pizza
Friday Night Slice, Part 7: California Pizza Kitchen
Friday Night Slice, Part 8: Ahart's Pizza Garden (Murfreesboro)
Friday Night Slice, Part 9: New York Pizza Depot (Clarksville)
Friday Night Slice, Part 10: Matteo's Pizzeria

Got any suggestions for places that I should cover? Let me know!