barbecue report, part 2

during my voyage related to the TDPS, i sampled three more rib joints.

1) my dad grilled some "riblets" he found at the store. they were good, but not smokey, and i was really, really hungry so my judgment may have been off. the sauce was pretty good.

2) i had some ribs from these jokers during a visit to the Date Festival. these idjits bathed the entire fairgrounds with thick clouds of smoke but somehow managed to get none of it on their ribs or their "pulled pork". both were smothered in respectable but uncomplicated sauce. both were outrageously overpriced, and the bread was stale with the pulled pork sandwich. the texture was of grilled ribs. i'd be less harsh on these ribs if they weren't so overpriced (well, i was at the fair, duh) and they weren't so smoke-less in spite of their producer's smoking out the entire fair.

3) mo's in pismo beach. i've been to mo's many, many times but i don't know if i've had their ribs. the restaurant is peppered with awards for their ribs, enough consecutive years to make one wonder if anyone else was competing in these competitions. the ribs are supposedly smoked, although if you read the descriptions more carefully it seems that they're only promising that hickory is involved in the preparation of the ribs, not necessarily for smoke. one of their sauces definitely has hickory liquid smoke. the ribs were not smokey. i got their sampler rack, with all 4 of their different sauces/rubs. some were good, some were less good, but ultimately it matters not: if i go back to mo's i'm not wasting my money on their ribs. they were competently warmed, had a decent texture, but were grilled (which is appropriate for their "memphis ribs", not so much for their others, which really seemed to just be their memphis ribs with a different sauce) and disappointing. mo traveled to over 180 barbecue joints throughout the south, and the best he could come up with were four sauces to put on memphis ribs? what?

we had to stop at mo's because the grapevine was closed.

anyhow, i can't hardly eat ribs anymore anywhere but at my place.