Sunday, August 26, 2007

The Fourth Event


Well, I competed in the Whipple Dam Triathlon today. It was a grueling 0.4 mile swim, followed by a 19.5 mile bike ride and finished with a 4 mile trail run. While many of you have of course heard of the 19th hole in golf I was pleasantly surprised that at the end of the race, the nibbles were supplied by Clem's BBQ. It was as if the race planners knew the BBQB would be there competing. The food consisted of pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, and potato salad. It was absolutely fantastic. I personally am not always the biggest fan of pulled pork. Even in areas of the country like North Carolina (the Mecca of pulled pork) I dont always like it. Too often the pork has been so chopped up so much that it becomes a big mush. Many places down there even serve it in ice cream scoops. Too often the sandwich bread has the consitency and texture of wonder bread. Distgusting! Clem's was completely different. The used fresh hoagie rolls and the meat was chunky and delicious. They even had a vat of BBQ sauce that I could smother the whole sandwich in. The next time the BBQB is in central PA I will heading straight to Clem's.

In case you are wondering...I didn't win the race

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Posted by Barbecue Bachelor at 9:46 PM
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6 comments:

  1. Dude, Clem's definitely rocked...those rolls kicked butt.
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  2. No kidding! A lot of BBQ joints out there underestimate the benefit of a decent roll. Clem's definitely nailed it. I think I'll compete again next year just to eat more of it.
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  3. I'm impressed! No wonder you can deal with all this food - you're working it off! Man, I pat myself on the back just for walking a mile each morning with the dogs.
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  4. Thanks. I think the main reason I keep in shape is so that I grill more. The more I grill, the more I can eat. And the more I eat the more I can blog.
    I also just signed up for the Lehigh Valley Marathon on Sept 9th. It'll be brutal.
    Consistently walking a mile a day ain't bad either. I bet your dogs appreciate it as well.
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  5. There are places in the country where they would drag you behind a pickup truck just for calling this garbage BBQ.
    The signs say "Real BBQ"..which is blatant false advertisement.
    The truth is, the ribs are boiled in water and liquid smoke, then thrown on a GRILL(*) until it has char marks, then thrown in a vat of cheap tasteless sauce where it simmers FAR BEYOND the point of OVERCOOKED.
    Contrary to popular belief, rib meat is not supposed to FALL off the bone. The entire reason for slow smoking is to make the connective tissue of the meat transform into a succulent geletain. The meat should PULL from the bone with a slight resistance.
    Rib meat "falls off the bone" when that geletain is cooked out, due to improper temperature and cooking methods.
    You don't have to drown ribs in sauce if they are cooked properly. People drown ribs in sauce to hide the fact that they cannot cook ribs.
    I made the mistake of stopping there once. I paid about $10 for ribs, and what I got was a styrofoam container of bones and chunks of overcooked rib meat drowned in what appeared to be Cattleman's BBQ sauce. There was no smoke flavor because the ribs were NEVER SMOKED dispite the huge pile of firewood being wasted.
    I would have fed the whole mess to my dogs, but I happen to LIKE my dogs...and besides, my dogs are too smart to think this is "REAL BBQ." They've had real BBQ.
    You could only pass this off as BBQ in the North.
    These ribs are for people who don't like ribs, but absolutely LOVE the flavor of cheap discount club BBQ sauce. Why you'd want to waste the money on the ribs is beyond me, when you can just drink red sauce from the bottle and get the exact flavor, and nearly the same texture.
    It's a shame to see a man waste so much pork and firewood.

    (*)
    BBQ= slow indirect heat and smoke. Precise temperatures kept.
    GRILLING= placing meat directly over fire.
    Clems uses a GRILL pit..not a BBQ pit.
    BBQ implies the cooking method. Please stop calling this boiled/grilled/steamed junk BBQ!
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  6. Well, there you have it. Thanks for the honest review of Clem's. Sounds like its not your favorite place. I'll have to take your word for it about their ribs since I've never tried them before. However, I stand by what I said about their pulled pork. The meat was chunky and flavorful. In addition, it was served separate from their sauce which prevented them from influencing or masking the taste of the meat. That, plus the perfect roll made it one heck of an after race meal. Granted, to be fair, at that point I probably would have eaten woodchips soaked in BBQ sauce as well:)
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