Ribs contender #2

Luckily, we didn't go to the restaurants this time around, because we would have waited for quite some time if we had. When I arrived to pickup four slabs of Smoque BBQ - two of Contender #2, St. Louis-style ribs, and two of Contender #4, Baby back ribs - the line wound out the door and to the street in the Old Irving Park neighborhood. As a call-in order, I got to go to the front of the line, where the ribs and sides of mac-n-cheese were piping hot. A dinner of one full-slab of St. Louis ribs, along with slaw and two sides, cost $19.95.

Expectations were set high for Smoque, especially since this was the only restaurant contender that has been featured on TV, such as Food Network's D3: Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. These ribs were cut in a rectangle, just as St. Louis-style should be. While the meat seemed a bit more blackened than we would have liked - adding more than just a smoky flavor - there was plenty of juicy meat attached to each and every bone.

Doused in the barbecue sauce, the ribs tasted both a bit sweet and smoky, but not overwhelmingly so (at least for most people). There was a slight peppery taste to the meat and sauce, which added a depth that the other ribs didn't necessarily have.

Smoque BBQ

3800 N Pulaski Rd
Chicago, IL 60641-3197

Ph.: (773) 545-7427

Contender #1

Contender #3

Contender #4

Results

Ribs contender #1

Located in Elmwood Park, Russell's has been serving hungry Chicagoans since 1930, and like the other contenders, the menu fare here is all about the barbecue. If you're not in the mood for ribs (gasp!), they also offer pork, chicken, fish, and assortment of various sides. A full-slab rib dinner typically come with a bread roll, french fries, and coleslaw for a mere $13.99.

As for the ribs, they were of the spareribs variety. While juicy and thick, the meat didn't fall off the bone. There was more than enough of the sweet barbecue sauce, considering the restaurant tossed in a huge handful of spare packets so everyone could toss on their desired amount. (And even then, there was still plenty sauce packets leftover, which one of my friends gladly took home).

Most people liked the sauce but others thought there was too much sweetness from the cinnamon and nutmeg flavors. Some even thought the sauce flavor overwhelmed the delicious meat too much. Overall, the ribs were delicious, even if there wasn't enough meat on the bone, and most said they'd have them again.

Russell's

1621 N Thatcher Ave.
Elmwood Park, IL 60707

Ph.: (708) 625-3313

Contender #2

Contender #3

Contender #4

Results

Ribs recap

Tender, juicy, fall-off-the-bone, saucy, finger-licking good; those are just some of the things my friends and I were looking for when we chowed down on ribs at my Lakeview apartment this past Saturday.

This food fight was, by far, the messiest of them all. The barbecue sauce dripped, the meat occasionally fell off the bone, and we all argued over which rib and barbecue sauce was best.

This time there were three contenders. I picked up the ribs from the two restaurants in the city, just off 90/94, while some friends grabbed another set on their way into town. We kept the ribs as hot as we could, and once everyone had gathered around the dining room, things got messy.

We ate more than just meat. All of the rib dishes came with sides that complemented the smoky and spicy flavors, but voting was not supposed to take into consideration how awesome (or not) the sides were. As usual, the food fight was all about the meat.

I attempted to hide which ribs were from what restaurant with another numbering system, but in the hullabaloo of the eating (and a paper bag naming the first restaurant), everyone quickly got wind and nothing was secret... including our opinions. We argued over taste, flavor of the sauce, and even the quality of the meat - which made the voting categories perfect:
* Overall taste/flavor (10pts max)
* Quality of product/meat/sauce (5pts)
* Quantity of meat (5pts)
* Finger-licking good (5pts)

So, which restaurants battled in the Chicago ribs food fight? Which ribs had us going back for more? And which ones didn't please our palates? To find out, click below.

Contender #1

Contender #2

Contender #3

Contender #4

RESULTS

Food fight preview: ribs

Barbecuing may be considered a warm-weather activity, but plenty of Chicago restaurants know how make tender and juicy pork or beef the whole year round. Tonight's food fight will be all about ribs.

While Chicago may not be known as the BBQ capital of the U.S., there are still plenty of places that know how to make ribs the right way. Some Chicago restaurants also create their own barbecue sauces in an attempt to differentiate their ribs from the pack.

The best ribs typically result from a slow-cooking process on a grill or in a smoker. This means that the succulent meat is cooked at low temp for a long period of time over indirect heat. The flavors come from the meat juices and fat, the rub, and the smoke from the grill/smoker. The process for making the ribs might be the same, but that doesn't mean there isn't variety, which mostly comes from the rub and sauce that is used.

Here's a rundown of the kinds of pork ribs available around not only the country, but across Chicagoland as well.

- Spareribs: The most basic of the ribs, this is what you'll typically find when ordering ribs at a restaurant in Chicago. The name comes from how the ribs used to be cooked - on a spit or a spear - as well as to where the meat is removed from the pig - a long cut on the belly-side of the pig from the breastbone to the bottom portion of the pig's ribs.

- St. Louis Ribs: These ribs are a version of spareribs, because they're also cut from belly, providing meat on both the top and bottom of the rib. The cut typically looks rectangular, since the meat is trimmed to leave only the center bone. The distinctive flavor of of St. Louis-style ribs comes from slathering the meat in a St. Louis-style barbecue sauce throughout the 'low and slow' cooking process.

- Baby-back ribs (or Canadian ribs): These ribs are taken from the vertebrae section of the pig and the meat is often lean and tender. Contrary to some myths, these ribs do not come from baby pigs; rather "baby" means that the ribs have been taken from market size hogs instead of sows. Additionally, "baby" also refers to the smaller size of the meat and length of the ribs.

When you have a hankering for ribs, what restaurant do you go to? Do you prefer spareribs or baby-back? What's your favorite barbecue sauce?

Bacon cookoff preview!

Baconfest takes place this Saturday, October 24th at Publican restaurant. While I wish I could claim credit for creating this latest and most amazing event, I'm more than happy to be one of the lucky 60 or so people who RSVPed earlier enough to attend this VIP Pro cook-off and taste all the results. As if this wasn't good enough, the 10 bacon samples - each prepared by a different chef - will be paired with beer selected by Publican owner, Paul Kahan. This cookoff will be the ultimate bacon food fight.

Saturday's event is just a prelude to an even larger event for bacon aficionados, Baconfest. With the main event taking place April 10, 2010, the organizers plan to turn to Chicago into a bacon wonderland.

Who thought of and organized these amazing events? People who love bacon, of course. More specifically, Baconfest was started by Seth Zurer, Michael Griggs, and Andre Vonbaconvitch, who share their bacon manifesto and bios here.

Saturday's event treats bacon like the star that it is; to these chefs - and to those attending - bacon is more than just a piece of pork (which isn't always fried, mind you). The ten bacon chefs are, in alphabetical order:

Troy Graves – Eve
Rick Gresh – David Burke’s Primehouse
Gilbert Langlois - Chalkboard Restaurant
John Manion – Goose Island Clybourn Brewpub
Michael McDonald – one sixtyblue
Chris Pandel – The Bristol
Jason Paskewitz – Gemini Bistro
Nathan Sears – Vie
Patrick Sheerin – The Signature Room
Giuseppe Tentori – Boka

The Baconfest organizers have interviewed all of the chef contenders, and their BacoTV interviews - and thoughts on everything from bacon to Pulp Fiction - can be found at the organizer's blog.

To prepare for this glorious tribute to bacon, I've been eating healthy all week in a weak attempt to counteract the cholesterol intake, but, come Saturday, it'll be all about the bacon.

Deep dish winner!

All deep dish pizzas are not created equal. They may look alike, but hiding under the sauce and stuffed inside the crust are a variety of flavors and all sorts of different fillings. Even the sausage tastes different from one pizza to the next. Some offer a sausage patty, others offer crumbled. And the sauce, too, changes depending on what spices are added. Gino's proved lackluster and cheaply made, whereas both Uno and Lou Malnati's fought head to head, making this one of the closest food fights to date.

THE OFFICIAL RESULTS

Lou Malnati's wins!

Do you agree with these deep dish results? Or do you have another deep dish favorite that deserves to be a food fight contender?

Deep dish contender no. 3

In a sea of deep-dish pizzas that all look similar to one another, the pizza from Lou Malnati's stood out from the crowd with a sauce that looked like more than just a regular tomato sauce. The flavors oozed with spices, even though some claimed the sauce tasted too much of tomato and didn't have enough depth. The crust, too, was perfectly cooked, even though we didn't order the famed butter crust. The sausage didn't make much of an appearance, drowned out by the flavors from the strong sauce and cheese, but some liked it that way (while others didn't).

Contender #1

Contender #2

Results