Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Hoxie- Indian Country Cafe



Western Kansas is what fellow blogger Mike and I jokingly refer to as a “barbecue desert.” This is a fictitious term relating to an actual term “food desert.” The term technically means anyplace more than ten miles from a grocery store.

Cheese! More to come, I promise.
In the case of good barbecue, the desert is much larger in western Kansas. In fact the distance is probably closer to one hundred miles than it is to ten miles. One rare barbecue oasis can be found in the small town of Hoxie, Kansas on the high plains of Sheridan County.

My friends Clint and Jessica Milliman introduced me to the Indian Country Café and a pork lovers delight, the Porky Fries! Porky Fries are a dish not for the weak of heart – literally. I fear to think how many delicious calories are in this dish, in fact, I would suggest you bring a friend because this is a dish certainly big enough for two!

The best thing since sliced bread. 

Porky fries start out as a delicious bed of perfectly seasoned french fries. Next they add a layer of smoked pulled pork and then the whole thing is topped off with a generous amount of melted cheese. As if that isn’t enough, you get your choice of additional toppings including plenty of barbecue sauce, hot sauce and sour cream.

Finger lickin' good. 

The restaurant, which takes its name from the local high school mascot, is located in an old grocery store building, so seating is plentiful and hometown pride is evident. If you ever find yourself lost and wandering in the western Kansas barbecue desert, just point your taste buds towards the Indian Country Café. Your hunger will certainly be quenched with an order of Porky Fries!

Until next time- Swine and Dine!

Chris

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Kansas City- Johnny's BBQ


Johnny’s BBQ is one of those places in Kansas City I think is a bit underrated- to say the least. When a person asks the question “so where’s the best BBQ in KC?” usually the answers involve the old stand-bys of KC BBQ such as “Gates” or “Arthur Bryant’s”. Johnny’s usually doesn’t come up until further down the list, but that’s really not how it should as far I’m concerned!


Johnny’s is growing fast in popularity these days, somewhat thanks to being featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” on Food Network, but mostly because simple word of mouth carries a lot of weight.

Johnny’s is serving up some of the best BBQ in all of Kansas City, and has two locations to serve you. The original one is located at 5959 Broadmoor Street in Mission, KS (east on Johnson Drive from I-35) and the second, newer location is out in western Olathe at 1375 W Highway 56 (just west on old Hwy. 56 from KS Hwy 7).


On my most recent trip, I had a 2 meat sandwich with pork sausage and pulled pork with some of Johnny’s ever-popular seasoned fries. There is not much I can say about the quality of the meat in the sandwich, or the quality of their smoked meats in general, except that they rank among the best in all of Kansas City! The pulled pork has lots of “bark” in it, so you really get the smoke flavor, and the meat is as tender as it can be. The sausage is smoky, lean, and juicy, and the ribs are out-of-this-world tender too! The sides are 2nd to none, and the atmosphere and service are excellent too.

If you really want to experience the upper crust of KC BBQ and don’t want to fight the crowds at some of the bigger name places, but still want a nice, clean place to sit down and have some BBQ, then Johnny’s should be on your radar any time you are in or around the Johnson County area.

- Mike

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Kansas City- Arthur Bryant's BBQ


On a recent business trip to Kansas City, I found myself unable to pass up the opportunity to visit Arthur Bryant’s BBQ. After all, this place is one of the reasons that Kansas City is famous for barbeque. In fact, the Bryant family can trace their barbecue roots back to Henry Perry, the father of KC barbeque.  According to barbecue history, Arthur Bryant’s brother Charlie was an employee of Henry Perry. The family then opened their own restaurant which Arthur eventually took over.

Look for this sign.

The original headquarters is on the Missouri side of the border but there is a relatively new location on the Kansas side, at the Legends Outlets shopping area in Wyandotte County. I imagine the atmosphere is better at the original location, or at least more of what I would traditionally expect a barbeque restaurant to look like, however, I didn’t go for the atmosphere. I went for the famous food.

You might see this truck too.

At first I thought the price of my ham and pulled pork combo meal plus fries was a bit large, and then the server gave me my amazingly large portions of food and it was worth it. It was certainly more than enough for me, and I’m not little! The fries were plentiful and hot and the ham was acceptable. I’ve noticed a lot of bragging about their vinegar based sauce (sweet tomato based sauces are more the norm around here) so I’ll just be nice and say I must have had some out of a bad batch.  I prefer a sweet tomato sauce.

Get sauced.

For a good one, you might try Hillsdale Bank Barbecue’s “The Sauce”. That being said, Arthur Bryant’s also has sweet and spicy varieties that are more like what I would expect to find in Kansas City.

Eat and be merry.

Now, let’s talk about the pulled pork. If had to describe this stuff with one word, it would be “wow!”  This was some of the best pulled pork I have ever eaten. I shoveled it down as quickly as I could and then found myself wishing for more. Arthur Bryant’s is certainly one of Kansas City’s most famous eateries and their pulled pork has got to be one of the reasons why! I can’t wait to try the original location and their nearest rival, Gates Bar B-Q, on my next trip to Kansas City!

Until next time- Swine and Dine!

Chris

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Olathe- The Rub


After catching word of a new BBQ place called The Rub Bar-B-Que & Catering opening here in Olathe, the question was when, not if I would go try it. Last week I finally got that chance and I figured I should spread the word on the place now that I’ve been! “The Rub” began merely as a dream of a local competitive BBQ team. A dream they continually discussed, but never got around to following up on, until 2010 when they finally got some much needed backing from a few investors. They next found the perfect location to move into, and the rest is a tasty (and short to this point) history that based on the early returns, will be around for awhile.

If you see this place. You might want to stop.
The Rub” is located in northwestern Olathe, just south of the intersection of Ridgeview Rd. and KS Hwy. 10 on the west side of Ridgeview. It is a new twist on an old Kansas City specialty. The food is just as you would expect in a KC BBQ joint, but it is a trendier, more modern version that mimics some of the “assembly line” burrito eateries that are popular these days. You walk up and order, and watch through the glass as your order is put together right before your eyes. It’s a fast-food environment that serves up “slow food” for the masses. The location and clientele demand such a fast-paced environment however, as the surrounding area contains many large offices that send workers out looking for lunch under time constraints.

While on my first visit to “The Rub” I tried the “2 meats and 2 sides platter”, and I chose pulled pork and sausage as the meats. The pulled pork was very high quality. It had no large hunks of fat, and was not at all greasy. It was nothing but delicious, smoky pork shoulder. The sausage was a little different than anything I’d ever had at a BBQ place. It had undertones of spicy Italian sausage, as it had fennel and red pepper flakes in it, but it managed to not stray too far from what you’d normally find in served in a KC BBQ eatery. The sausage looks and tastes very much like something homemade (which is a good thing) and it hardly needs sauce with all those flavors it has going on. For my sides, I had onion straws and beans, which were both very good as well.

It's got really good stuff like this- fast. 
On the whole, I was really impressed with “The Rub Bar-B-Que & Catering” and it’s fast-paced style of serving up an old-school meal. The environment is not going to impress everyone I realize, but if you like the general type of food, you can’t go wrong with it. I can confidently say that it won’t rub you the wrong way if you just give a try!

-Mike

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Glenn Elder - Lakeside Convenience

Normally, when you think of convenience store food, old hotdogs on rollers and cheap low quality microwave burritos come to mind. Rarely do convenience stores and good barbeque go hand in hand. Except for when you're talking about Lakeside Convenience, overlooking Waconda Lake in Glenn Elder, Kansas- it's one of those rare treats.

This place looks like a typical gas station. In fact, nothing outside the building indicates the delicious food available inside. Had it not been for a tip from Kansas State University Extension Agent Sarah Molzahn, who covers this area of North Central Kansas, I would have never known about this hidden gem.

Don't let this disguise fool you- this is some good grub!

Lakeside Convenience carries a good selection of barbecue supplies including smoking woods and delicious Head County sauces. These are the same sauces served with their pulled pork sandwiches.The also sell Luther’s Smokehouse jerky, the same good stuff covered by fellow blogger Mike.

They have a limited barbecue menu that includes wonderful pulled pork sandwiches seasoned with a homemade blend of spices and served on a butter toasted bun.During my recent visit, I chose seasoned fries for a side and was not disappointed.

Trust me. It's good. 

If you're looking for something different or just something handy while out at the lake, you owe it to yourself to stop in. Just look for the fish out front.

Nice fish.

Until next time, swine and dine!
Chris

Kansas City - Woodyard Bar-B-Que

I feel like I’d be doing you a disservice if I talked about unique places to dine on barbecued pork and didn’t mention “Woodyard Bar-B-Que” in Kansas City, KS. Woodyard is the consummate KC BBQ place as far as I am concerned. Woodyard is located on Merriam Lane, which on the map is just north of the I-35 and Lamar Ave. interchange, so it’s pretty easy to get to, and well worth your time.

Welcome friends.


Woodyard happens to be inside an old house of all places, with large brick smokers outside (pretty much in what used to be the front yard) that do all the cooking. In my mind, it is bare bones BBQ at its finest. I find it’s best to go when the weather is nice, because the majority of the seating is outdoors, but there are a few places to sit inside if need be. They actually happen to be in the living/dining room of the old house!

Come on in and take a seat.

 The place has really grown in popularity lately, as it was featured in 2010 on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” hosted by Guy Fieti. From a humble beginning in the 1950s as nothing more than a place that sold smoking wood, Woodyard slowly turned into a place that also used the wood to smoke meat and sell it too over the years! These days, with the publicity the TV show brought, and a recent concerted effort to cater to the “happy hour” crowd, this unique family-run eatery has really had an upswing in business.


I wish I could include aroma in these pictures. 


On my last trip there, I had the #1 rib platter, with came with two pork ribs, some of the best smoked pork sausage I have ever eaten, a side, and a couple other meats that we won’t discuss right now! The ribs were very tender, and have an outstanding rub on them that is as unique as the restaurant itself is. The sausage, like I said, was some of the best I have ever had. It was lean, but not chewy, and had good moisture without being greasy.

The real deal.
At Woodyard you walk in and order, and they bring the food to you at the table when it is ready, but otherwise this place is all self serve regarding your drinks and sauce needs. There is a roll of paper towels on the table and that’s about it! Just about the way Kansas City Barbecue was meant to be served I would say! If you’re heading down I-35 in Kansas City and are in the mood for something a chain restaurant can’t even begin to offer, make your way to “Woodyard Bar-B-Que” and step back in time for a taste of Kansas City Barbecue’s glory days! 


-Mike

Morland - Mercantile Community Support Part II

If you didn’t make it out to the Morland Mercantile Benefit supper on Friday July 15th,
You missed the best barbeque ribs in northwest Kansas!

Ribs you missed!


The buffet line. There was more, but this is the important stuff.

The event was a fundraiser for the Morland Mercantile, a community kitchen and access to food facility housed in a historic downtown grocery store building. Equipment for the Morland Mercantile will be brought in early this fall and hopefully the doors will open for business soon after.
Looks so good, and they were!

The July 15th barbeque brought in approximately $1700 in donations for the thirty racks of ribs and five gallons of beans that were served.


Chris working hard!

The ribs were expertly prepared by KCBS bbq judge Chris Petty with assistance from community supporters Alice Petty and Alex Leslie. They were slow smoked on three smokers for approximately 8 hours using a combination of mulberry and hickory wood and were hand rubbed with Head Country Seasoning.


Until next time, swine and dine!
Chris


Thursday, July 14, 2011

Morland - Mercantile Community Support

Hey BBQ lovers, yours truly will be smoking up a heap of delicious Kansas City style pork ribs this Friday, July 15th! Come on down to the Prairie Junction in beautiful downtown Morland, Kansas at 5:30 P.M. for a free will offering supper to support the Morland Mercantile and enjoy the best ribs in northwest Kansas!
Tasty ribs you will enjoy! 

The Morland Mercantile is a community supported access to food facility and community kitchen that will be opening soon. Construction work is being done now on the historic grocery store building and equipment should be arriving this fall.

Morland Grocery

Tasty ribs can be enjoyed with traditional sides and even a nice cold one if you wish! Community supporters Alex Leslie and food blogger Christopher Petty will slowly hickory smoke 140 pounds of meaty and perfectly seasoned pork ribs all day until they are just right for your eating pleasure!

I wouldn't miss these if I were you...

Come on out and get a great meal and support a great cause at the same time… and remember pigs always smell better when they are barbecued!

Until next time, swine and dine!

Chris

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Williamsburg- Guy and Mae's Tavern

The Tavern

A while back I finally had the pleasure to stop at a place I’d heard a lot about over the years. It had almost become an urban legend in my mind. I was glad to see (and taste) that it actually existed, while managing to live up to the hype. The place is none other than Guy and Mae’s Tavern in Williamsburg, KS. It’s known far and wide for serving up delicious pork ribs in a no-frills fashion, and won’t disappoint the seeker of all things BBQ!
           
Williamsburg is located a mile or so south of I-35, out between BETO Junction and Ottawa (it’s about a 20 minute drive from either Ottawa or BETO Junction). You about have to be going there on purpose, or lost, to find the place, but it is well worth your time if you’re a rib fan! “Guy and Mae’s” is about the only thing going on in Williamsburg anymore, but it continues to pull people in from all over the region, wanting to get a taste of the famous ribs.
           
The Food
As you can see in the picture, the ribs are certainly served up in the most basic fashion. What the picture doesn’t show is how they look when they are served. It is a mess of foil that you open up, revealing 2 slices of white bread, with a beautiful slab of ribs under them, and a folded up newspaper under the ribs. It just seems like the way ribs were meant to be served! The ribs were excellent. They were very tender and were about as lean as ribs get. The meat came off the bones and pulled apart almost like you’d expect tender pot roast to do. An added bonus is that the ribs at Guy and Mae’s are trimmed to be “St. Louis Style”, meaning that the cartilage and sternum are cut off, making them fast and easy to eat. The dry rub provided all the flavor I needed, and it was a good thing. I was not fond of the house BBQ sauce; the only drawback to the entire experience.
           
If you’re not in the mood for ribs, you have some other choices, but not many! The menu is basic to say the least. Ribs are the main attraction, but you can get a few other types of smoked meat served in sandwich form. As for sides, you can get a bag of chips, baked beans, potato salad, or cole slaw. Go ahead and get some spicy pickles too, just make sure your drink is handy!

-Mike

P.S. For those last minute folks, make sure to sign up for Kansas Pork's grill giveaway today! The drawing will be tomorrow, July 15!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Salina- Hickory Hut

Yeah, they're serious.


It was time for another road trip a couple weeks ago, so I loaded up the family and headed toward Missouri. As we traveled, my wife and I found ourselves in Salina, around noon time. We decided to try the Hickory Hut for lunch. I had seen several favorable reviews on trip advisor and decided to try for myself. 

Can you smell it from here?

The very first thing I noticed was that the smell of barbeque hit my nose as soon as we opened up the door. I always consider the smell factor to be an important part of the entire barbeque experience and this place did not disappoint. 

The Sampler Platter

While I wouldn’t consider the Hickory Hut to be fancy, it is nicely decorated and I noticed that there was a constant line of customers from the cash register to the door. In the parking lot I found cars from all over Kansas and many from other states as well. This speaks volumes about the popularity of the place.  While I was standing in the order line, I overheard one customer describe the place to an out of state friend as “good mild barbeque.” This is a pretty good description, as nothing was overwhelming or far out of the ordinary for what could be considered to be Kansas City style barbecue. In fact, smoking with hickory wood is one of the definitive characteristics of Kansas City Style barbeque.

The spread.

My wife, son and I all shared the sampler platter which was plenty big enough for the three of us. I would certainly recommend the sausage and pulled pork. The beans, which contained ample amounts of meat, were above average as well. The French fries were good and the meal came with Texas toast instead of the cheap white bread many places serve. If your just passing through on Interstate 70 or if you live in central Kansas, you owe it to yourself to check out the Hickory Hut. 

As far as our giveaway, the Kansas Pork Association is still registering folks for the summer grill giveaway. If you're looking to win a Genesis e-320 Gas Grill, head on over to KPA's webpage and sign up to win. 

Until next time, swine and dine!

Chris

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Bonner Springs- Papa Bob's Bar-Be-Que

Adam Richman's nemesis. 

Lately, when a person thinks of western Wyandotte County, Cabela’s, Nebraska Furniture Mart, the Legends shopping center, and the Kansas Speedway are the first things that come to mind, but if you slightly venture off the beaten path in that area, some very good barbeque awaits. In my latest quest for all things pork, I hit up a place I’ve visited a few times before, and was always impressed with. The place, “Papa Bob’s Bar-Be-Que”, is located on the eastern outskirts of Bonner Springs on KS Hwy 32. That's just east of the KS Hwy 7 interchange, or about 15 minutes southwest of the Legends shopping area. Papa Bob’s is a neat little place that’s home to some excellent Kansas City Style Barbeque, as well as a nearly impossible food challenge that has stumped even the great Adam Richman of Travel Channel’s show “Man vs. Food”.

Mmmm...


On my most recent stop at Papa Bob’s, I had the “Rib Platter”, which consisted of an assortment of both long end and short end pork ribs, and the choice of 2 sides. The ribs were delicious; end of story! They were lean, tender, juicy and of course, smoky. They were cooked to near perfection and had just a light coating of Papa Bob’s regular BBQ sauce on them, which tasted great. The beans were meaty and tasty, the onion rings were crispy and fresh, and the meal was certainly more than enough food for me!

Note the adult sunglasses and how small they look. 

If that doesn’t suit you though, they have an awesome food challenge for anyone brave enough to try it. It’s called “The Ultimate Destroyer” and it doesn’t appear on the menu. The Ultimate Destroyer is 4.5 lbs of meat on a 12 inch hoagie bun, served with 1.5 lbs of fries, and a pickle. It costs almost 50 bucks and you have 45 minutes to eat everything on the plate. Your prize for finishing it, besides basic pride, is that you get it free and you get to join all of about 4 people on the “wall of fame” that have actually finished it in as a solo act! If you fail, you get proudly displayed on the “wall of shame” instead! The day I stopped in to eat, I was lucky enough to see the sandwich with my own eyes. Unfortunately, it was a group of 3 adult men eating it, so the drama was limited. Nevertheless, the sandwich was a sight to see!

Overall I highly recommend this place for its pork perfection. There’s not much I like better than a place off the beaten path that truly looks the part of the classic KC BBQ joint, and then backs up the looks by actually serving authentic KC Style BBQ. Throw in a ridiculous food challenge and an old-school indoor atmosphere and you have a can’t-miss place to eat if you’re near the Legends region and are looking for something besides the usual suspects of the restaurant world!  

Next on the agenda is something that we've both been waiting on. Remember how we said we would work with the Kansas Pork Producers to provide you with a summer grill giveaway? It's here! Just give the picture below a click and get signed up between today and June 15 for your chance to win a Weber Genesis e-320 Gas Grill .  Oh, and by the way, make sure to tell a pork producer thank you the next time you see him!

Click here!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Lawrence- Bigg's BBQ

Location, location, location.
 
During a brief trip to Lawrence, I decided to stop and eat at “Bigg’s BBQ” , since it was voted by the KU students to be the best BBQ in Lawrence in 2010! It turns out that Bigg’s BBQ is very easy to find and get to in Lawrence, as it sits on the SW corner of the intersection of Iowa Street and 23rd Street, which means if you are heading through town on either K-10 Hwy., or on U.S. 59 Hwy. 59, you will pass right by it.

The atmosphere of Bigg’s is more like a typical sports bar, and it is located in a run-of-the-mill strip mall, so I wondered for a split second if it would be nothing but bar food with barbecue sauce on it. A short look at the menu proved otherwise, and I realized they had fully dedicated themselves to serving quality barbecue, while also making a concerted effort to have other basic “American” foods on the menu as well. I had come for the barbecue though, so I ordered the rib combo dinner, which paired 3 meaty pork rib bones with any one meat and two sides.

Definitely worth the visit.

 The ribs were pretty good, except they were a little dry for my taste. The dry rub was really good, they were not fatty, and there was a good amount of meat on each bone. I had pulled pork for my other meat, and found it to be very tender and smoky. It too was perhaps a little dry, but there was a lot of it on the plate, and with some sauce, I found it to be very good. Speaking of the sauce, they had three different “Kansas City Style” sauces to choose from (regular, hot, and sweet) that were all really good I thought. The beans were delicious, as there was meat in every bite of beans it seemed, and the fries were excellent too!

Considering the way most BBQ places cook and prepare their meats, I thought later that choosing a Wednesday at lunch was maybe not the best time of the week to get the greatest impression of Bigg’s BBQ. Knowing this, I plan to go back one of these days during a peak dining time to try it again, but in the meantime, I would wholeheartedly recommend it as a good place to stop and eat if you are in Lawrence and want some barbecue. When a place offers up appetizers such as “pulled pork nachos” and “pulled pork quesadillas” on top of their usual BBQ plates, I know there’s no way you’re leaving that place hungry! 

We're going to change things up a little bit this week and not have a giveaway, but we are going to give our readers something cool. Click here to sign up to receive a $1 off pork coupon by mail. By signing up you will also register for other special pork giveaways and coupons year round. The coupons can be used at any grocery store in the U.S. for things like chops, loins, tenderloins or ribs. Moreover, it's sure to provide a lot of pork love for you and your family.  

- Mike


Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Atchison- Iron Horse BBQ

Kansas Style Iron Horse BBQ
 
My family and I took a trip to northeast Kansas to visit my grandmother for her 90th birthday. While there, I thought I would check out the local barbeque scene. A quick Google search of the area led me to Iron Horse BBQ in Atchison,  (not to be confused with Iron horse BBQ in Arkansas or Georgia or a company that makes train shaped smokers.).  

Gotta love the train theme.


After visiting with the employees, I learned that Iron Horse BBQ has been open for a few years and is the only barbeque restaurant in town. It was located in a cool old downtown building close to the Missouri River.  I have to give this place extra credit for atmosphere because it is the only train themed barbeque joint I have ever seen in Kansas. 

Sweet and Smokey.
 
The smell of wood smoke wafted to nose as I walked through the front door, which I always consider to be a very good sign of what is to come. I would characterize Iron Horse as a Kansas City style barbeque restaurant due to the smoky flavor of the meat and the sweet homemade sauce choices. While I certainly prefer my barbeque to have much more flavor from a good quality rub, I would probably give this place a second chance. The prices are hard to beat. 

My kind of value menu.
 
For around $25 I picked up a family platter with ribs, sausage, fries and several smoked meats. This was a real feast, and a bargain at that!

The waitress also told me about amazing rib specials that can be had on the weekends and I will undoubtedly be there for a taste of their rib special the next time I am in the area. 

This weeks giveaway is very inspiring, we hope you find it inspiring also. To enter to win this porktastic plastic drink tumber/travel mug respond to the question below by Thursday, March 24 at 2 pm CST.  



Easter is right around the corner and we know you have a great ham recipe or two. What is your favorite Easter ham recipe? 

Until next time, swine and dine!

Chris

Friday, March 11, 2011

Mission- RJ's Bob-Be-Que Shack

The original RJ's Bob-Be-Que Shack
 
My latest quest for unique places and ways to eat pork around Kansas brought me full-circle, back to a place I’ve known before called “RJ’s Bob-Be-Que Shack” in Mission, KS. “RJ’s” sits at the intersection of Lamar Ave. and Johnson Dr., and actually happens to be one of the first non-chain BBQ places I ever ate at in Kansas City, so in a way, it can be blamed for my love of all things barbeque!

“RJ’s” owner Bob Palmgren, trained in French cuisine, has made it a point to think outside the barbeque box, while remembering to do the traditional barbeque foods their justice at the same time. The latest idea-turned-food to come from his kitchen (and the one that brought me back to RJ’s) is the “Jalapeño Sausage”.

Mmmm...


The sausage is such an interesting specimen that it ended up being featured in an episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” hosted by Guy Feiri on Food Network. The basis for the sausage recipe is ground pork that is mixed with chopped jalapeños and garlic, along with many other spices. If that’s not enough for you, it is then put into corn husks (like a tamale) before it is smoked to perfection like any good barbeque meat should be!

My kind of art.

I, like Guy Feiri, was blown away by the near perfect combination of texture and flavor the sausage had to offer. The jalapeño and garlic went very well with the general flavor that comes with smoked pork sausage. I tried it with, and without BBQ sauce, and found it equally good each way. Also, the fact that it is smoked in a corn husk gives it even more layers of greatness! The whole plate, as you can see in the picture, is really quite a work of art, and simply put, it tastes as good as it looks!
 
Whether you want to try the jalapeño sausage, or you simply want some ribs or a pulled pork sandwich and fries, RJ’s Bob-Be-Que Shack has it all. Conveniently, RJ’s is also fairly accessible, as there are two good ways to get to it from I-35. You can go south on Lamar Ave. from I-35, or go east on Johnson Dr. from I-35. They also have an amazing looking breakfast menu that they pull out for Saturday and Sunday only, so keep that in mind if you’re in town for a weekend.

I was also told that I need to try RJ’s smoked “Pork Butt Burger” that they serve on Mondays and Tuesdays only, so keep your eyes open for more details on that one in the future here on “Pigging Out and About!”

Since everyone really seamed to like last week's giveaway with the cutting board, we thought we'd give another away. Answer the question below before 10 a.m. on Tuesday,. March 15 for a chance to win a pork cutting board. See a pic of the cutting board here.

Question: Have you check out pork's new website www.porkbeinspired.com? What is your favorite pork picture or video?

-Mike


Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Hays- Coffee Rules

Just look for this place.

After a late season pheasant hunting trip, fellow blogger Mike and I decided to try and find a good western Kansas BBQ restaurant.  We found a coffee house instead. I know what you are probably thinking, (“a coffee house, have you gone crazy?”) But this wasn’t just any ol’ coffee house. This place ruled…just like the name says: Coffee Rules.

With this sign.

Located near the campus of Ft. Hays State University, Coffee Rules is no ordinary coffee house. Sure, you can get all the lattes and espressos you want…just like at any other coffee house, but you can also get wine, premium beers, and barbeque. That’s right, this place sells barbecue. Terry’s Backyard Barbeque, to be exact.

It's got food like this.

This stuff may not be exactly like your traditional Kansas City style barbeque but then again, Terry doesn’t claim that it is. In fact, the sign on the bright blue smoker claims that Terry serves his food “German Brewed and Barbequed.” German style barbeque is common in areas east of Austin, Texas where the Texan’s of German ancestry have specialized in sausage, rather than ribs. 

And really cool things like this. Note: Mike is completely overwhelmed with joy.
 
In my opinion, Terry Kinderknecht has got great barbequed sausage right here in Kansas, which I find to be somewhat of a rarity in most traditional Kansas City Style barbecue establishments. My hot links tasted kind of like a smoked polish sausage….only better. I would certain recommend a visit to Coffee Rules for some cowboy coffee or some German brew and barbeque!

As for the giveaway this week? Answer this question by Friday, February the 25th  at 10 a.m. to win this pork cutting board!



Question: What is your favorite soup that includes pork?

Until next time, Swine and Dine- 

Chris