BBQ Story Told

A couple of weeks ago, during DevConnections in Las Vegas many people approached me at the end of my sessions or in the lobby to ask on my feelings about BBQ. In the recent interview on DNR, Carl Franklin insisted on that point and I told the story again. It's a kind of cult, now. So I thought that the picture I agreed to take had to be posted and, by the way, thanks to Luigi Bianchi for the picture and for the great dinner. We had dinner together but not in THAT restaurant.

Anyway, here are some notes about me and BBQ. The whole story started back in 1995 when my wife and I came to the States--first time ever--for our honeymoon. We stayed in NYC for a few days and then moved to some cities in the North-East, including Philadelphia and Washington DC.

While we were around the White House in DC, I saw people voluptuously eating a sandwich with some red-ish content. At a distance, it looked like a gorgeous hot dog. And as most Italians in the US for the first time do, I couldn't resist to the temptation of getting some real junk food. My wife made a few attempts to discourage me from trying the unknown. But I wanted it to. And I had it.

I couldn't tell more than just "I want this" to the man at the booth and, due to my poor English, I had no chance to ask more articulated questions on the food. When I first had it in my hands, it didn't look very attractive honestly. But I had to give my wife a proof that I was a real man :) capable of eating just everything. And in the condition of honoring properly her cooking skills once back in Italy. I had the first bite to the red-ish thing. And it wasn't great at all. I couldn't let it go after only ONE attempt, though. No real man does that, I thought. So I had a second bite, and then a third.

There was no fourth bite and the sandwich was soon thrown away in the nearest trash can. My wife laughed at me for a while and that was all of it. A few days later, we flew back home and completely forgot what happened. And I still didn't know the name of that red-ish thing.

8 years later, in the spring of 2003, I went to Birmingham, Alabama to interview a potential customer. At the time Mark Dunn was running DNR with Carl Franklin. Mark was in the same city as me and decided to go out to dinner together. "I want you to try a specialty of this area, the popular southern BBQ", he said with sincere enthusiasm. To me, BBQ meant something like good meat grilled, or sort of. And I liked the idea. We went out, Mark made the order, and we sat waiting for the food. When the waiter came in with the food, with my greatest surprise I realized that I had in the plate the same red-ish content of the sandwich I threw away in DC 8 years before. Who knows me, knows very well that I do hate to throw any food away. For a moment, I thought of some sort of revenge of the destiny. You threw some food away once, but now 8 years later the same food is back, right in your plate. Feeling kind of guilty, I made a point of eating it all to clear with the past and to honor Mark. I also hoped in a failure of my memory. And I also hoped in just a fluke event--it looks LIKE that, but it's not LIKE that.

In the end, it was exactly LIKE that.

I scored a still unbeaten record--I had four bites of it. But couldn't last any longer. I tried to be polite to Mark and for approximately twenty minutes I looked like a regular customer enjoying his food. Then, I had to confess that I didn't know the name of that red-ish thing. But I did know the taste, and I didn't like it. At all.

It was too funny of a story and Mark and Carl couldn't resist to tell it in the interview we had the next day. Back in October 2007 when I gave a new interview to DNR, guess what, the first Carl's question was if I changed by mind about BBQ. Sorry Carl I had no more BBQ since that night in the spring of 2003. No matter what this picture--captured Nov 9 in Henderson, Las Vegas--may suggest.

PS: For the most curious of you, we had excellent seafood in a side restaurant :)
PS: Experts say that my problem with BBQ is not with BBQ itself but with the red-ish and sweet-ish sauce that accompanies it. Don't know. And don't care :)