Texas Barbecue, the stuff of childhood memories

I received this e-mail letter from a satisified customer today. I have to say I was touched. I hope my kids remember me this fondly.

Smoking Turkey in the Rain

Robb-
I am not a Texan but I love BBQ. I live in the Pacific NW (Olympia, WA to be exact). It rains a shitload here, and today I smoked a turkey in the rain on my cheap little charcoal smoker. It took 7 hours and it was delicious.

I have spent a great deal of my life in TX. Although I grew up in Colorado, my old man lived in Houston back then so I had the pleasure of doing “divorced dad” trips to Houston every August for a great deal of my childhood. And as you can imagine, Houston in August pretty much made me hate Texas. But one thing I always, always looked forward to—getting good Texas BBQ. One time, my dad drove me up to the New Zion BBQ in Huntsville, which you know and have written about. I hurt myself I ate so much. The proprietress (I think it may have been the woman that started the joint–she looked ancient) looked at me after I had eaten and said to me, I quote, “Darlin’, if you slide under the table, I ain’t calling 911.”

Experiences like that (and there were many) helped me realize that TX is a special kind of place after all, especially when it comes to BBQ. Now my old man lives in Austin, and he is getting on being a truly old man these days. I have a sister there too, with a great husband and three beautiful kids. My mom left Colorado a few years back and moved to Georgetown to be near the grandkids. Me, I look forward to visiting every year for a lot of reasons now, but one big one is that I know my old man and I will always hop in his truck and head out to the country for the day and that day will always include a stop at a BBQ restaurant, whether its Blacks in Lockhart or Coopers on Llano, maybe one of those “shade tree” road side stands you write about. And I know I will always hurt myself again because it is always so good, and so uniquely Texas, wherever we go.

My old man gave me your Texas Legends BBQ book a few weeks back for my birthday and I just read it cover to cover over the weekend. I loved it. It inspired me to smoke my bird in the rain today. The only point of this message is to say thanks–thanks for taking me back to TX on a rainy and slate grey NW weekend, bringing back some special memories, and providing all the great recipes. The book is fabulous and I have found your web site now too. So, even though I am far from Texas, you do a fine job of bringing Texas to those of us who are far away, if only in body.

Regards,

Steve North
Olympia, WA