Sooooo-Weeeeeee

HOLY SMOKES!!!! Literally. Today I went with Fernando and his friend...lets call him The Groz to the most amazing wonderful festival that has ever been held in New York City. The BIG APPLE BARBEQUE. For those of you who know me well, this can only be described as a little slice of heaven on earth. We arrived mid day and parked a few blocks away. The smell of all the barbeque had wafted all the way over to Park Avenue from the west side. My stomach rumbled as soon as that savory breeze hit my nose.

It was like a carnival for carnivores. We approached the "fair" and found tent after tent of barbeque-ers peddling their wares. Spare ribs, baby back ribs, chicken, and more. It was a sweltering hot day and the heat from the pits just added to the intensity...but it didn't matter. Let there be smoke!!!!

We quickly found the beer tents (after all, it was SOOO hot we needed some kind of refreshment. Its not like they had "soda" or "water" tents!). There was fittingly a nice hee-haw band playing. A guy in a union suit with a washboard and a harmonica was on stage with the rest of his band.. The rest of them were mostly looking like a normal band, minus the fiddler - who they boasted was the Tallest fiddler in New York City. Quite the accomplishmnet apparently. I think I should try for the tallest female accoridon player in New York. I think I could possibly be THE ONE. You never know though, there might be an Inga or Helga out there that could give me the smack down on some tall fancy accordion playing. Speaking of SMACK DOWNS... I have an upcoming post you are gonna love for my most recent smack down experience. Coming soon (like 3 posts away).

We had a few beers then went to find our cornucopia of barbeque to consume. But, the lines for the BBQ on the street were ridiculously long. To stand outside a bunch of tents with fires ablaze to cook the food on top of the sweltering heat for an extended period of time was pretty much unthinkable. So we did what any normal New Yorkers would do... we said screw it and went to Blue Smoke (a bbq restaurant) down the block and ate in comfort at a nice table with air conditioning. You see, New Yorkers are troopers when they HAVE to be, but not really at other times. This is definitely a different culture than any other people in the US that I have been around.... Upcoming post about that too (look for the one on Grand Junction where people endure 100 degree weather - like 4 posts away).


Below: Fernando and The Groz excited like little boys on Christmas morning trying to decide where to go first with the Barbeque Map